Assessment methods in Finnish general upper secondary school’s history teaching

Lukion historian opetuksen arviointikulttuuri

Authors

• Matti Rautiainen Jyväskylän yliopisto, Opettajankoulutuslaitos
• Eija Räikkönen Jyväskylän yliopisto 
• Anna Veijola Jyväskylän normaalikoulu
• Simo Mikkonen Jyväskylän yliopisto 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.33350/ka.87411

Keywords:

assessment, general upper secondary school, history teaching

Abstract

The objectives of history teaching in the general upper secondary school curriculum are wide, concentrating on the learning of contents, skills and democratic citizenship. In this article, we examine what kind of assessment methods history teachers use in general upper secondary schools. In addition, we study how history teachers’ use of assessment methods is connected to their views on the objectives of history teaching. The study is based on data collected by an online questionnaire completed by general uppers secondary history teachers (n = 151) in 2016. In the questionnaire, we asked the teachers their views on the objectives of history teaching. We also asked what kind of teaching methods and assessment methods history teachers use in their work. According to our results, teachers emphasise learning and assessment of contents irrespectively of the objectives that they consider the most important in teaching. However, the results also show differences, especially in relation to the construction of historical knowledge. At the end of the article, we present concrete activities for developing the relationship between the objectives and assessment of history teaching.