How a History Teacher Helped Students to Think Historically by Challenging and Transforming His Own Conceptions about Teaching
Maria Mamoura, Iva Nako

Abstract
In this study, we examined how a history teacher transformed his conceptions about teaching history and his role in helping students to think historically through reflection. After having a reflective discussion with the teacher on our previous teaching intervention, we designed together a teaching intervention based on the concepts of cause/consequence and continuity/change. We observed the six-hour intervention and after its completion we had a final interview with the teacher.We found that through the reflective discussion the teacher was able to identify and challenge his theoretical assumptions which lied behind his teaching choices. His close involvement in designing and implementing the teaching intervention along with his reflection gave him the opportunity to put into practice his new enriched ideas and improve somewhat his teaching. Thus, he used various strategies to help students make sense of the concepts studied, such as appropriate assignments, targeted questions, domain specific vocabulary, etc.

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