Research, Facts, and Stats
A Qualitative Assessment of National History Day
Below is a sampling of some research and studies about the National History Day program.
A 1992 study by Marilyn Page at the University of Massachusetts presented to the New England Educational Research Organization found:
- National History Day provides a method of teaching and learning
history that is superior to traditional teaching methods
- By participating in the National History Day program, students:
- learn content, develop-in-depth comprehension and awareness of issues,
and gain transferable, lifelong skills
- gain self confidence and self esteem
- gain mastery critical learning skills and feeling of confidence
- learn a sense of who they are in relation to others
- learn the importance of group and team work and develop cooperative skills
Marilyn Page and Bruce A. Marlowe discuss this study and the value of the National History Day program in the book “Creating and Sustaining the Constructivist Classroom,” republished in 2005 by Corwin Press.
In 2000 the Belin-Blank Center at the University of Iowa did a case study on gifted and talented education in rural Iowa. The study found that National History Day is an excellent motivator for students and provides them with the kinds of training and education that employers are looking for.
A 2000 case analysis done by Education and History Methods
Professor Nancy S. Hass at Arizona State University found that many of the
college seniors training to be social studies teachers, “do not have
a strong background in accessing information, writing annotated bibliography,
analyzing historical data, citing and differentiating primary and secondary
sources, etc. and makes training [in the National History Day method] very
important.” The
study found that “teaching the techniques suggested by National History
Day are excellent vehicles for teaching to the standards. National History
Day promotes teaching in-depth versus just skimming the surface of the subject. Again,
teachers benefit from participating in National History Day during their preservice
education so that they have the tools to guide their own student in meaningful
learning.”
The Youth History Initiative is a three year program (2000-2003) designed by the Minnesota Historical society and funded by Cargill.
The program introduced the National History Day program to four Minneapolis Pubic Schools in underserved communities with large ethnic populations.
A total of 1,185 students and 20 teachers from the four Enrichment Schools participated in the Youth History Initiative.
An evaluation found that “Not only did [The Youth History Initiative] programs sharpen
student’s high-level thinking skills, they also gave students ‘an increased understanding of the study and terminology of history.’
”Teachers were asked to report on which of the activities associated with History Day were the most beneficial to students and to teachers. Their responses indicated their belief that students benefited most from gaining new research skills (utilizing the Internet and various libraries), learning how to find and use primary sources, preparing written reports of their work, and working with other adults and peers. Regarding which activities they believed were most beneficial to themselves as teachers, they pointed to the use of libraries and the Internet in doing research, learning about where to find primary sources, and the additional support provided by Minnesota Historical Society staff visiting our classroom.” The teachers said they would continue to use National History Day as part of their curriculum with one stating: “History Day is an excellent opportunity to examine higher thinking levels in students. It also introduces students to the researching process, which is a skill students will need in their future educational experiences.”[6]
The study found that 77% of the students agreed that they would be able to apply the skills they learned from National History Day to their other schoolwork.
Based on teachers’ reports, both they and their students participated in many activities related to National
History Day. Teachers especially believed that students benefited from gaining new research skills. As to which activities they believed were most beneficial to themselves as teachers, they pointed to the use of libraries and the Internet in doing research, learning about where to find primary sources, and the “additional support provided by Minnesota Historical Society staff visiting our classroom.”
The Initiative programs also helped teachers meet their general instructional goals and their goals in social studies. While they have some work ahead of them in incorporating the Minnesota Graduation Standards into their History Day curriculum, all reported planning to do so next year.
In the 2002 Harvard
Project Zero Study, “Between Reproducing and Organizing the Past: Students beliefs about the standards of acceptability of historical knowledge,” Veronica
Boix Mansilla found National History Day to be an exceptional method to
teach history and the historical research process, and an understanding
of the
role that narratives play in lending meaning to particular sources, events,
and actions. In the study Ms. Mansilla did an in-depth analysis of the scientific and historical knowledge held by 16 high school students.
“My study provides preliminary evidence to support the hypothesis that high school students are able to understand the structural role that narrative reasoningplays in our understanding of the past. Students can understand that narrative structures operate as interpretive frameworks to guide historians in their selection and interpretation of sources and events. Through extensive exposure to research in history, these students came to understand that historians do not begin with facts and work inductively to build stories. Rather historians hold initially tenable narratives about the periods that they study. They enrich and transform such narratives through selective examination of remnants of the past. In other words, students with extensive historical research experience moved towards a constructivist view of the discipline.”
“In a time of rapid knowledge production, to deny youngsters an education in those methods not only impedes their access to understanding the past but also excludes them from full participation in the cultural landscape of the future.”
In 2001 the Wisconsin Historical Society performed an independent survey evaluation of the NHD programs in Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, and South Carolina Department.
Here are some of the results from the survey:
From your observations, why is NHD advantageous to your state’s teachers?
“It really appeals to teachers; they want students to show their education.
They like the flexibility of the projects, alone or in groups. They can show their work, either through performance or documentation. Teachers like the program because it has a built-in motivator; students get to choose their project and they choose something they want to study.”
“A lot of teachers see this as a chance to learn proper research methods and it helps them professionally.”
From your observations, why
is NHD advantageous to your state’s history students?
“Nothing else motivates students to excel in history like NHD. They do their best work. They keep advancing. It
makes them excited. The topics make them love the past. It teaches life skills, research, and how to find information in depth.
They analyze information and draw conclusions. They present the information creatively, and have to defend their presentation.”
“When they encounter an historical event happening, like the recent election, they can better analyze these events and they listen better. They can sift through the information a little better and they don’t
have to think what others tell them to think. They become more independent thinkers.”
“Teaches students history beyond the facts. It teaches them to look, analyze and understand the significance of historical events, how to do research, how to make presentations, better writing skills.”
“They learn all of these skills, building blocks of a good citizen, analytical thinking, and independent and informed thinking, critical thinking. Kids get excited about the history; it gets them thinking about current issues and how history informs what kind of decisions we make today.”
“NHD makes kids realize that history is not just memorizing history. It encourages students to do a local topic;
history happens in their own community and their own family. It can be fun and not boring.”
[5]
Amy Bemis and Tara Romano, “Youth History Initiative,” Assessment
Study, Minnesota Historical Society, the Minneapolis Public School District,
and the Osseo Public School District, Minneapolis, MN, 2000, 19-23.
[11] Betsy Trane, “Survey of Historical Societies’ experience with National History Day,” State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison,
2001, 16-19.
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