Diferentes explicaciones para un hecho histórico

La enseñanza a través de la lectura

Abstract

The present paper, framed in a didactic research, examines how the practice of reading operates within history lessons. We will explore experiences of shared reading relating to a field investigation that consisted in implementing, in four different schools, a teaching sequence regarding the sharp decline of the native population in America as from the conquest of America. The sequence applied includes the work of examining different texts that display dissimilar explanations of the demographic catastrophe. The present analysis is oriented towards understanding the reconstructions performed by students with regards to the explanations unfolded in the texts. It also aims at characterizing the connections between the reconstructions of contents and the circumstances of the reading context within the classroom, i.e., teacher interventions, interactions among students, individual work with the texts. The conclusions arising from this work seem to support the idea that causal thinking is closely linked to specific historical content knowledge.