37. [ALTs Only] Please share this with your JTE if they would also like to provide feedback.
Author Biography
Farrah Hasnain is a 4th-year ALT with the JET Program at Hamamatsu Higashi Senior High School. She is from Washington, DC, USA. Her research interests include English education in Japanese high schools and ethnography of immigrant and minority communities in Japan and the US.
The 2017 PanSIG Journal 67
Critical Thinking Through the Study of History
Caroline Hutchinson Juntendo University, Faculty of International Liberal Arts carolineshutchinson@gmail.com This article describes the theoretical framework of an elective content and language integrated learning (CLIL) course in modern Japanese history. The course focuses on cross-cultural exchange between Japan and the world during the period 1868-1926. After describing the course structure and lesson organization, the article considers key elements of critical thinking and historical analysis, organizing them into three strands: description (using evidence to understand what took place); analysis (the how and why of historical change); and evaluation (connecting what they have learned to their own lives). It then describes selected activities that are used to support learner development of those skills. The article concludes with the finding that, with appropriate teacher scaffolding and feedback and discussion mechanisms, CLIL history can be highly motivating for both learners and instructors.
本稿は、1868 年から 1926 年の間に日本が世界と行った異文化交流を扱う近代日本史（選 択科目）の授業を、内容言語統合型学習（CLIL）にて行う理論的枠組みについて説明した ものである。学習構成と授業の進め方について説明をしたうえで、批判的思考と歴史的分 析の重要な要素を検討し、それらを「説明」（証拠の活用による過去の事象理解）、「分 析」（歴史的変化の経緯と理由）、「評価」（学んだ内容の実生活への応用）の三部分へ と整理していく。次に、これら説明・分析・評価のスキルを学習者が伸ばしていけるよう サポートするべく選り抜かれた諸活動について述べる。教師が然るべき足場を提供し、適 切なフィードバックと議論の仕方に沿って授業を進めることで、CLIL による歴史の授業 は学習者と講師双方の関心を強く引きつけて内容に集中させ、意欲を高めることができる と結論付けている。
CLIL (content language-integrated learning) is an umbrella term for a variety of pedagogical approaches that combine content and language learning. Rather than seeing language development as an end, however, "CLIL is about using languages to learn" (Marsh, Marsland, & Stenberg, as cited in Ball, n.d.). Coyle’s 4Cs curriculum proposes four essential components of effective CLIL practice: content, communication, cognition, and culture. In this model, learning of content (subject matter) takes place when students personalize their learning by thinking on many levels (cognition) and interacting with others (communication).
The final component is culture, which encompasses cross- cultural awareness and exploring self and “otherness” in relation to what is learned (Coyle, Hood, & Marsh, 2010).
The CLIL history course described here, “Japan and the World: Through Travellers’ Eyes,” focuses on the experiences of “travellers” between Japan and other countries between 1868 and 1926. The focus of assessment is student analysis of course content (cognition) and exploration of how course content interacts with culture, in particular how what they have learned connects to their own lives. Content is not directly assessed (there is no test of historical facts, for example), and language is only assessed insofar as it affects student ability to communicate their ideas. This assessment structure is intended to emphasize critical thinking skills and to move away from the idea that history is a list of objective facts to be rote-learned for examinations.
The 2017 PanSIG Journal 68 Writers such as Momoki (2016) have criticized the
lack of focus on thinking skills in Japanese history education and its tendency to artificially separate Japanese history from the history of the world. When discussing their history learning experiences, course participants often echo these sentiments and report feeling ashamed at their limited grasp of their country’s history. Another way of approaching history, I believe, is to see it as a rich source of stories about
“what man has done and thus what man is,” in the words of philosopher of history R. G. Collingwood (1946). In other words, by using historical sources to describe and understand what happened in the past and interpreting how and why it happened, students can learn to make connections between past and present and so use history as a resource to understand human actions in the present.
This paper will describe the conceptual framework of the course “Japan and the World: Through Traveller’s Eyes,” and outline selected activities that I use to encourage critical thinking and reflection. As this is a pedagogical paper, not a research paper, all references to student comments are anecdotal.
Basic Course Outline and Lesson Procedure
The course focuses on the Meiji and Taisho periods in Japan (1868-1926), a time of tumultuous change. The Meiji Restoration of 1868 saw the overthrow of the military shogunate that had ruled Japan for centuries. The feudal class system was abolished, and limited parliamentary democracy introduced. Citizens were free to choose their professions, and Japan was opened to foreign trade and ideas after centuries of relative isolation. Debates raged about how best to achieve “Civilization and Enlightenment” (文明開化), with some thinkers proposing the abandonment of the Japanese language, while others, especially later on, argued that Japan was losing its own identity in its haste to adopt Western fashions.
“Japan and the World” is an elective course for 3rd- and 4th-year English majors, who must have a minimum ITP TOEFL score of 480. To date, all participants have been educated in Japan; thus, despite low levels of self-confidence
in their historical knowledge, their familiarity with key personalities and terms aids their comprehension of content.
I also encourage them to do background research in their L1 to support their learning. To lower the cognitive demand, student readings focus primarily on individuals (the travellers of the course title), and I provide context through short lectures. Readings also focus on concrete events or opinions whose objective details can be understood fairly readily by students, but which lend themselves to deeper analysis.
Classes are divided into input classes, review classes, and classes for preparation or delivery of presentations. The basic structure of input lessons follows a “test-teach-test” structure in that students first complete a comprehension task without input from the teacher for homework (British Council, n.d.).
Students read a background text describing the life of someone who travelled to or from Japan (a traveller), paired with a short authentic text (2-3 paragraphs) written by that person. Before reading, students are guided to research and record necessary vocabulary. After reading, they answer three sets of questions:
1. Chronological questions, aimed at understanding the story;
2. Comprehension questions, aimed at understanding the authentic text. Where there is no authentic text, students summarize the background text; and 3. Discussion questions, aimed at provoking thought
on relevant issues.
In class, students have 20 minutes to compare and summarize their ideas in small groups. I elicit possible answers from students, clarify understanding where necessary, and add ideas to a shared class Google document. I then give a short lecture (15-20 minutes) focussing in greater depth on the issues in the homework questions. Finally, students spend 20 minutes writing a reflection, which will be described in greater detail below.
Students are assessed based on their understanding and analysis of the course content; language is only assessed when it influences their ability to express their ideas. They have time to prepare for all assignments and are never tested on dates or facts. The assessment breakdown is as follows:
The 2017 PanSIG Journal 69
12 x comprehension questions and reflections: 40%
Group presentation: 20%
Individual presentation and small-group discussion:
20%
Reflective interview with teacher: 20%
Framework for Critical Thinking Through History The course was structured around an amalgamation of historical skills and critical thinking skills. For critical thinking skills, I referred to Facione’s (2011) summary of the Delphi Report on Critical Thinking, which defines the subskills of critical thinking based on the opinions of 46 experts. Historical skills were drawn from two main sources: The Historical Thinking Project (n.d.) and Historical Association (Disciplinary concepts)
(https://www.history.org.uk/secondary/categories/pp- disciplinary-concepts).
I divided the target skills for the course into three strands: description, historical analysis, and evaluation. These concepts are discussed further in the section on self-regulation, below. Briefly, they are drawn from the “DIE” model used in intercultural studies, and are aimed at moving from objective description, through inference and analysis, to subjective evaluation and personal identification with the themes under consideration.
I will first outline the framework that I used to build the course, before describing sample activities that have proved engaging and effective in developing students’ skills. I hope that this framework will act as a useful starting point for teachers hoping to stimulate critical thinking and historical enquiry among students.
Strand 1: Description
Students use primary sources (created during the time being studied) and background information to understand events in the context of the times. They
consider differing perspectives on the same events and the credibility of different accounts.
1a) Using evidence. Students learn how to interpret and analyze primary sources.
1b) Contextualizing and evaluating credibility.
Students infer connections between the historical context and the information in the source. They try to see events from the perspective of the writer. Using context, knowledge of the writer, and alternative sources, they evaluate the credibility of the source.
1c) Understanding multiple perspectives. Students infer and evaluate the positions of multiple participants.
Strand 2: Interpretation
Students identify key events and trends and the interrelations between them. They consider how comparisons across time and space can add to our understanding of history and the present.
2a) Establish significance. Students interpret available information and identify the significant aspects of the past.
2b) Cause and consequence. Students consider the evidence and infer causal links that can explain subsequent events. They consider “long-term ideologies, institutions, and conditions, and short-term motivations, actions and events”
(The Historical Thinking Project, n.d.)
2c) Comparison. Students infer similarities and differences between societies at different points in time or space and consider how events were experienced differently by different individuals and social groups. They use this knowledge to explain behaviour or outcomes.
Strand 3: Evaluation
Students “consider [their] own relationship to [the content]
and how we personally fit into the context of the issue”
(Brookfield, pp.7-9). They try to empathise with the people they study and evaluate their actions. They reflect on what lessons history can have for the modern world and how their
The 2017 PanSIG Journal 70 thinking has changed in light of lesson content. They
consider what they have learned about the study of history and its impact on our world.
3a) Empathy. Students evaluate the available information and attempt to take the perspective of a person living at that time. They try to understand “the social, cultural, intellectual, and emotional settings that shaped people’s lives and actions in the past” (The Historical Thinking Project, n.d.).
3b) Ethics. While empathy involves understanding events from the perspective of participants, ethics involves stepping back and evaluating individual actions and the consequences of their decisions.
3c) Self-regulation. Students monitor their own learning and apply critical thinking skills to their own opinions, “with a view toward questioning, confirming, validating, or correcting [one’s] reasoning” (Facione, 2011). They come to a greater understanding of what is subjective judgement and what can be stated objectively given available evidence.
3d) Meta-history. Through exposure to issues such as credibility, multiple perspectives, and differing historical explanations for events, students gain insight into history as a discipline and the “uses and abuses” of history in the modern world.
Sample Activities for a Japanese History Course Strand 1: Description
1a) Using evidence. For homework before input sessions, students read a short authentic text written by the focus individual. It is crucial that students understand this evidence, as it forms the basis for all the other skills described above, and to this end texts chosen describe concrete events rather than abstract concepts. For example, in spite of its flowery English, students are able to use a text from 1910 to grasp what five young men from Choshu province (the Choshu Five) had to do to stow away illegally on a ship bound for England (Griffis, 1910). They are aided in this by their existing schemata; knowing the context—that their actions are illegal—helps students guess the meaning of words such as
“evading.” Students are encouraged to research in their L1 to
fill gaps in their understanding, and where possible I use visual texts to supplement verbal explanation (in this case, the 2006 movie of the event; Igarashi, 2006).
Activities using visual evidence allow students to communicate while applying their cognitive skills to make sense of content, without the additional burden of having to comprehend a written text in their L2. According to Levstik
& Barton (2005, p. 88), images also generate interest and “tap into a much wider range of background knowledge than printed text or oral discussions.” One excellent activity from the MIT Visualizing Cultures website (https://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/yokohama/cur _teacher/yb_cur_01.html) asks students to examine Japanese woodblock prints depicting Yokohama shortly after it opened to foreign residents. Using a series of guiding questions, students search for evidence of the interactions between Japanese and non-Japanese residents. In past courses, students have identified people of different origins using gestures to communicate, for example, or the imbalance in status between white westerners at leisure and the Japanese (usually women) who serve them. This leads into the discussion of how much we can rely on these sometimes fantastical images and the purpose of the artists in making them.
1b, 1c) Credibility and context. English writer and explorer Isabella Bird travelled to Japan in 1878, making an unusual decision to travel north to Hokkaido. She subsequently published her letters home to her sister.
Students read selected excerpts from these letters (Bird, 1881), which focus on concrete aspects of daily life—such as the lives of rickshaw pullers or the new steam trains. For homework, students categorise Bird’s impressions into positive and negative. After sharing their impressions with other students, they are given an image depicting the same theme, either a Western tourist photograph or a Japanese woodblock print.
The teacher gives a brief orientation to the limitations of photography at the time and a set of guiding questions. Students work to compare the image and the text then present to other students. Considering two sources simulates the work of the historian in seeking corroboration
The 2017 PanSIG Journal 71 and reconciling differences in evidence and encourages
students to understand that all texts, even photographs, can be subjective.
1d) Multiple perspectives. Students read a text describing the Namamugi Incident, in which a British merchant was killed by samurai in 1862 (Satow, 1921). The text, written by a British diplomat, presents the incident as a vicious and unprovoked attack. Based on background research, and their understanding of Japanese society at the time, students retell the incident from the Japanese perspective. They can make changes at the global level (explaining why it was considered disrespectful to walk in front of a daimyo’s retinue), or identify words that demonstrate the writer’s bias (“a barbarous murder,” for example).
This activity is followed by the visual text activity described in 1a, above, which gives students more background on contemporary relations between Japanese and non-Japanese in Yokohama, near where the Namamugi Incident occurred. Students are also asked to decide who is at fault for the incident, which provokes lively debate and leads to examining the terms of the Anglo-Japanese Friendship Treaty signed in 1854, which exempted British nationals from Japanese law. This lesson clearly has an impact on students, as a majority of them choose to discuss it in their final reflective interviews.
Strand 2: Analysis
In the initial design of this course, I included several activities in which students were to carry out historical analysis in small groups. Perhaps because students lacked confidence in their history knowledge, or in their ability to make inferences, these had limited success. Revising the course, I decided to use the test-teach-test setup “to identify the specific needs of learners” (British Council, n.d.); I would give students a chance to generate ideas in response to homework questions (test) and use my lecture to cover points that I felt they had missed (teach).
Let us consider the example of the Choshu Five, introduced above in section 1a.
2b) Cause and consequence. The Choshu Five risked their lives stowing away and travelling to England when it was still illegal to do so. Why? Students usually respond that the five men disagreed with Japan’s national isolation and wanted to learn skills that could modernize Japan. In fact, all five young men did just that, learning skills (and English) that were invaluable in leading the new government formed in 1868, so this is one answer that is supported by evidence.
Having tested student understanding, I used my lecture to teach aspects they may not have considered; in this case, over the centuries of its existence, the feudal class system had become warped by the growing wealth of the merchant class (technically near the bottom of society) and the impoverishment of low-ranking samurai (technically near the top of society). As the Choshu Five were all low- ranking samurai, they may have been pushed to take extreme measures in order to influence society. While it was not compulsory to consider interpretations introduced in my lecture in lesson reflections (the second test), many students chose to do so.
Strand 3: Evaluation
3a, 3b) Empathy and ethics. According to Endacott and Brooks (2013), historical empathy takes place when students place events in context, take perspectives on those events, and make an affective connection with the historical figures. I have discussed some ways in which the first two elements might be promoted. In terms of affective connection, I believe that this course’s focus on the experiences and decisions of individuals allows students to get to know them and empathise with their motivations. In addition, classroom discussion of empathy-related questions gives students “a larger pool of affective responses to draw from in their attempts to empathize” (Endacott & Brooks, 2013, p. 50), and students frequently reported that their classmates had introduced them to new perspectives.
In the course we also consider ethical issues, and I attempt to offer alternative perspectives to the accepted interpretation of history. For example, I ask students to consider whether Ito Hirobumi was (a) a hero who risked his