New perspectives on conceptual change

Wolfgang Schnotz, Stella Vosniadou and Mario Carretero
Oxford, Pergamon, 1999

"New Perspectives on Conceptual Change" brings together the latest research on conceptual change from perspectives in developmental, cognitive and motivational psychology, instructional psychology and science education. The book addresses four main themes: the interplay between the learner's naive knowledge based on everyday experience and new knowledge conveyed by schooling and formal instruction; traditional cognitive views on knowledge acquisition and new socioconstructionist perspectives; constraints on knowledge acquisition and modification within specific learning domains; and instructional aspects of conceptual change and suggestions for the design of learning environments and teaching processes which promote conceptual change.

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Learning and reasoning in history

Mario Carretero and James F. Voss
London, Routledge, 2000

The second volume in this series is a major contribution to both history education and the developing cognitive psychology of specific disciplines. It consists entirely of the proceedings of an international conference held near Madrid in 1994 on cognition and instruction in history, and is guest edited by Jim Voss and Mario Carretero.Learning and Reasoning in History is divided into four sections: Historical narrative, Students' understanding and use of texts and sources in history, including the way in which such texts are used in facing historical controversies , Students' explanations in history, dealing with both causal and intentional explanatin, The teaching of history and students' understanding of some important substantive concepts. The range and quality of the contributions, many from eminent researchers in the field, and the importance of the issues they discuss, make this book an indispensable tool for anyone interested in history education or cognitive psychology.

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Constructing Patriotism

Teaching History and Memories in Global Worlds
Mario Carretero
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Information Age Publishing 2011

Memory construction and national identity are key issues in our societies, as well as it is patriotism. How can we nowadays believe and give sense to traditional narrations that explain the origins of nations and communities? How do these narrations function in a process of globalization? How should we remember the recent past? In the construction of collective memory, no doubt history taught at school plays a fundamental role, as childhood and adolescence are periods in which the identity seeds flourish vigorously. This book analyses how history is far more than pure historical contents given in a subject matter; it studies the situation of school history in different countries such as the former URSS, United States, Germany, Japan, Spain and Mexico, making sensible comparisons and achieving global conclusions. The empirical part is based on students interviews about school patriotic rituals, very close to the teaching of history, specifically carried out in Argentina but very similar to these rituals in other countries.

The author analizes in which ways that historical knowledge is understood by students and its influence on the construction of patriotism. This book--aside from making a major contribution to the cultural psychology field--should be of direct interest and relevance to all people interested in the ways education succeeds in its variable functions. As a matter of fact, it is related to other IAP books as Contemporary Public Debates Over History Education (Nakou & Barca, 2010) and What Shall We Tell the Children? International Perspectives on School History Textbooks (Foster & Crawford, 2006).

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