Abstract

NAVARRO ROLDAN, Claudia Patricia. Learning History and Building Identity at School. Pensam. psicol. [online]. 2013, vol.11, n.2, pp.125-141. ISSN 1657-8961.

This theoretical paper discusses the reasons why students learn history in school. The question is addressed of whether they learn history to acquire knowledge and skills which are useful in context, and/or learn it to transform their behavior within the academic community. This discussion is underpinned by the theoretical debate on the incommensurability between cognitive learning theory and the socio-cultural perspective, which has given way to the debate on incommensurability which underlies the learning goals for history designed by Colombian public policy. Incommensurability is argued in three ways: what is learned in history (i.e. intellectual habits vs. cognitive skills); what changes during the learning of history (i.e. participation in work contexts vs. solving problems); and commensurability related to the construction of national identity as the goal of teaching history in schools. The proposal here is to deal exclusively with learning and identity as coextensive elements in participation, and re-define the notion of competency as a dimension of social practice as a way to seek commensurability in the conception of learning which underpins public policy. The resulting conclusion is that learning history involves changes in knowledge and cognitive skills, but is not limited to these; learning history transforms students' participation as citizens in their academic community.

Keywords : Identity; learning; history; competency; education.

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