Published teaching materials assessed against the official objectives of the primary school history curriculum

Alakoulun historian opetussuunnitelma ja opettajanoppaat

Authors

• Jarmo Lyhty Jyväskylän yliopisto

DOI: https://doi.org/10.33350/ka.91153

Keywords:

historian opetus, opetussuunnitelma, arviointi, opettajanoppaat

Abstract

Our current understanding of the learning of history in schools recognizes the importance of historical thinking skills. In the Finnish National Core Curriculum, historical thinking skills are described as objectives for the learning of history. Those objectives should be the basis for assessing learning. Published teaching materials play an important role in teachers’ practices. However, in Finland, teaching materials are not inspected to ensure that the Curriculum is taken into consideration in their contents. The focus of this study is to examine how the official objectives are present in the teaching materials and in their assessing tools. Content analysis was used to analyze the teaching materials of primary school history teaching. The objectives of the Curriculum were mentioned in only one of the three published series. Ready-made exams for the book series were the main tool for assessment; several tasks were found which were not based on the objectives but measured only content knowledge.