Stimulating situational interest and student questioning through three types of historical introductory texts

Abstract

This study investigates questions students ask related to an introductory text about a new topic in the history classroom. The effects of a narrative, problematizing, and expository introductory text on the situational interest of students and the number and type of studentgenerated questions, are compared. Participants are 174 students in higher secondary education (16 years old). Student-generated questions are categorized in higher -and lowerorder questions, in descriptive, explanative, comparative and evaluative questions, and in emotive and non-emotive questions. The type of introductory text had a significant effect on the level of situational interest and type of questions but not on the number of generated questions. Narrative and problematizing texts provoked more situational interest and more emotive questions than the expository text. We found a significant positive correlation between prior topic knowledge, interest in History, situational interest, and number of questions.

A domain-specific account of self-regulated learning: the cognitive and metacognitive activities involved in learning through historical inquiry

“…Research has shown that learners with high interest towards a historical topic are more likely to ask more questions while studying text (Logtenberg et al 2011). Little is known in regards to learners' ability to monitor and control their own emotions in this context and the resulting impact that emotional regulation may play in motivation when learners face challenging task conditions.…”

“…This finding suggests that more knowledgeable and interested students tend to formulate more questions in regards to an historical topic. Furthermore, students formulated a total of 729 questions (Logtenberg et al 2011). While 26 % of these questions were categorized as explanative (129), only 4 % were evaluative (28).…”

“…Van Drie and van Boxtel (2008) argue that these questions are critical to initiate historical reasoning and most importantly, why students perform inquiries into the causes of historical events. Logtenberg et al (2011) conducted a study that examined the amount and type of questions generated by students while reading three different types of historical texts (i.e., narrative, problematizing, and expository). A hundred and seventy-four high-school students (upper-secondary/pre-university) were assessed on their prior knowledge and interest.…”

The design of technology-rich learning environments as metacognitive tools in history education

“…Furthermore, examining probabilities in shifting from metacomprehension processes to control processes such as asking questions and generating explanations is critical in order to better understand how learners generate tentative explanations. Distinguishing between the types of questions asked (e.g., explanatory vs. evaluative questions; Logtenberg et al 2011) as well as the types of explanations that were generated (e.g., intentionalist vs. structuralist; Carretero et al 1997) represents a shift in the conceptualization of metacognition in terms of its domain-specific properties rather than its domain-general properties.…”

Relevance Of Training Profiles For High Schools In Relation To Student Motivation

“…Kuhlemeier, Van den Bergh & Teunisse (1990) showed that the questionnaire could also be used for other school subjects, such as English. Logtenberg, Van Boxtel & Van Hout-Wolters (2011) translated the original questionnaire to the school subject of History. A higher score on this questionnaire represents higher students' individual interest in the school subject of history.…”