The Contemporary Landscape of Teaching and Learning History in Australian Higher Education

Abstract

This paper will primarily discuss a national study, Historical Thinking in Higher Education, undertaken in 2008 and 2009 (Nye et al, 2011). In addition it will reveal the impact of that research and the projects that have grown from it, as well as other undertakings within the history education community. The Australian History SOTL research community is collegial, dynamic and productive. It has been energized by a growth in interest in the scholarship of teaching and learning and by the development of national teaching and learning standards. The Historical Thinking in Higher Education study encompassed twelve Australian universities seeking out students and staff perceptions of teaching and learning in history. As a scoping study it drew upon a participatory action model of research and aimed to create a community disciplinary dialogue about the teaching of history. The student participation rate was unprecedented with 1455 students agreeing to fill in a questionnaire and less than 10 declining. The staff participants numbered fifty academics across 6 states and territories. The questions put to students included: What is historical thinking? What are the skills and benefits of historical thinking? The research with academic staff involved extended qualitative interviews. The findings of this study represent a snap shot of perceptions on teaching and learning within the discipline that can now contribute to the contentious discussions about benchmarking and national standards, professional development, transitional learning in tertiary education and academic identity. Analysis of the data from the students' questionnaires led to a rethinking in two areas: the use of primary and secondary evidence and student interaction with teachers. The data indicated that students had a clear preference for secondary evidence over primary evidence, which is in contrast to much of the disciplinary dialogue. This prompted further research on student expectations and access and analysis of evidence.