Cognitive Changes in the Way of Explaining History by Fifth Grade Students

Abstract

Objective.
This paper answered how students transformed their historical explanatory model, from a learning
sequence based on complexity theory (in six class sessions).
Method.
Twenty-one fifth grade students were
chosen by convenience, to whom we taught emergent ontological properties to explain the multilevel
relationships of bipartisan party violence, and their differences with direct ontological properties. The presence
or absence of the emerging and direct ontological properties were codified in the written work of the students (
n
= 126). We analyzed qualitatively how the transformations in the acknowledgement and the use of ontological
attributes were generated in order to configure or not a conceptual change in the historical explanation.
Results.
The findings revealed that students used and articulated some ontological attributes from two different
explanatory models (direct and emergent), and we identified three ways to change the historical explanations.
Conclusion.
Despite students failing to identify all emergent properties as a coherent body of knowledge, they
articulated direct and emerging attributes to explain history, which generated biases in understanding the
historical phenomenon.