Uppeldi og menntun - 01.01.2003, Side 106

HVERT ER SOGUÞEKKING SOTT?
ABSTRACT
During the mid-1990s an extensive comparative investigation was made into histori-
cal consciousness among European adolescents. Among the questions asked there
were a few which demanded knowledge of history and can be used to give some
indication of standards in the field. In the article the Icelandic participants are
compared with four groups: (1) Scandinavia; (2) the recent states of Finland, Estonia,
Lithuania and Poland; (3) Britain, France and the Netherlands; and (4) the average of
all participants. The knowledge proves to be astonishingly similar in all groups.
This is the more interesting as the Icelandic participants, being incidentally among
the youngest ones in the investigation, had learned very little modern European or
World history in the schools. They scored only marginally lower in this field than
other groups that had learned much more history in schools, and did no better
comparatively in ancient or medieval history where they had not received any less
history teaching than others. This indicates that Icelandic children and adolescents
get their knowledge of history mainly from other sources than the schools. From this
finding the author suggests two possible conclusions, either that there is no need
teaching history in the schools since people learn it elsewhere, or that the history
teaching must be improved.
Gunnar Karlsson er
prófessor í sagnfræði við Háskóla íslands
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