Abstract
D.Phil.
History at school and tertiary level is on the defence the world over. This ahistorical spirit of the times may be ascribed to many factors, particularly to the fact that history has, to a great extent, lost its relevance for the technical industrial community. The Schools Council in England held the view that history could be made more relevant by turning away from the traditional approach which emphasized memorizing facts, to an approach which places greater emphasis on the use of sources and the development of skills. Despite the high hopes which were entertained for the 'new' history, it could not arrest the waning interest in history. At present, new initiatives are in progress in England to further 'professionalize' the school subject. Although the entire philosophy of the project never gained acceptance in South Africa, traces of it may be perceived in the didactic and evaluation practices of most departments of education. As a consequence, more emphasis is now being placed on skills peculiar to the subject and the use of historical and archival material. In the history class, however, the primary purpose of the learning encounter ought to be understanding the past and not the development
of skills. As skills are merely actions which demonstrate understanding they cannot be artificially separated from the learning content. Any accountable didactic practice will contribute to the development or historical skills, since that enables pupils to understand. history better. Moreover, pupils ought to be introduced to the historical method. To assume that they are able to deal with sources in the .sane way as historians, would, however, be pretentious. Evaluation should reflect this approach to the school subject. In the process the pupil's level of development should be taken into
account. Although a pupil's full potential is actualized when he is faced by challenges, there are limits to his ability. Research findings indicate that most pupils only master the formal level of thinking in history at approximately sixteen years of age. Justice will be done to the school subject if a variety of evaluation instruments were to be used during examinations. The variety should, however, be functional and purposeful, directed at the evaluation of the total learning effect. Particular attention should be paid to the formulation of examination questions. They should be unambiguous and
simple so that pupils would know exactly what they are expected to do. After all, the skill of setting a question lies in formulating the question in such a way that pupils know exactly what is required, but are at the same time forced to respond to the question in a
specific cognitive manner. After an examination paper has been set and the memorandum written, an analysis ought to be made by means of a specification table in
order to determine to what extent the aims peculiar to the subject have been evaluated.