„What is My Part in It?“ – The Importance of Constructivism for Historical-Political Learning in School (in German)

Abstract

The article at hand assumes that deprecating utterances of students with regard to history and politics classes could be a sign of a deficit of legitimization. Furthermore the writer hypothesizes that students are willing to deal with historical and political matters if they are able to derive an "active shaping of a sustainable path of life" (see Jung 2001, 17). In this context the importance of history as a historical social science is reflected. If we manage to enlarge the range of primary experiences of present with the secondary experiences of history it will be possible to construct "a tradition of acting". Consequently, changes can be perceived and ascribed to the acting of people in periods. According to this background, a more intensive cooperation between the social reference sciences history and politics seems to be preferable and essential. The cognitive model of constructivism composes the theoretical reference frame of the considerations at hand.