Hector Research Institute of Education Sciences and Psychology
"KLUG" Research Projects and Studies
Improving history education through evidence-based approaches
Strong historical thinking skills are especially important in a time when young people encounter countless sources of orientation on social media, in schoolyards, and within their families. Many of these are incompatible with the ideals of an open, democratic society.
At the Hector Institute, we have therefore been examining the effectiveness of development programs for teachers for several years through a series of randomized field studies aimed at strengthening students’ historical competencies. These studies are grounded in close interdisciplinary collaboration and are only possible thanks to partnerships with several state institutes for teacher education. They were made possible through funding from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ), and the Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship.
The challenges that history teachers currently face are immense. Good history instruction should provide students with a historical orientation while also taking competence-based learning, digitalization, and inclusion into account. Teachers are offered various forms of support, such as digital teaching and learning materials, as well as professional development opportunities.
As part of the BMBF-funded collaborative project KLUG – InKLUsiv Geschichte lehren conducted by the Universities of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Tübingen, and Oldenburg, the effectiveness of such offerings was examined using a control-group design.
Results of the KLUG Study
The effectiveness of the KLUG concept was demonstrated through a randomized controlled intervention study:
Students taught by teachers who received the training showed significantly greater gains in their historical competencies than students in the wait-control group.
After the professional development, students rated their teachers as significantly more enthusiastic about history compared to the wait-control group.
Students reported better support (particularly more feedback), than those in the wait-control group.
