The Lebanese Association for History, with the support of the Embassy of the Netherlands, launched a new project for educational development entitled “Developing the Capacity of History Teachers to Develop Historical Thinking.” LAH organized it in cooperation with the Center for Applied Research in Education at Notre Dame University and the Center for Lebanese Studies. The program, which extends throughout the academic year, provided intensive training to a group of history teachers on theories and methods of teaching history as a field of knowledge and enables them to apply them in the classroom and adapt them to suit the Lebanese situation.
The program introduced a new approach to history pedagogy in Lebanon by refocusing history education on historical thinking by organizing the content of the curriculum around the concepts of historical thinking, including causation, change and continuity, difference and similarity, and interpretation, and provided teachers with the opportunity to adopt and experiment with them in the classroom. Summer activities introduced research-based learning, the use of various documents, and structured and perceptive discussion processes about the meanings of the past, and enhanced learners’ abilities to be young historians. Emphasis is also placed on enhancing cooperation and peer support among the participating teachers, with the aim of building a learning community.
The project manager, Nayla Hamadeh, welcomed the attendees and introduced the project, which reflects LAH’s interest in advancing history education in Lebanon and dealing with it as a field of knowledge. The president of LAH,
Dr. Maha Shuayb said that the project focuses on enhancing the historical thinking of the learners so that they approach the topics with a historical scientific methodology and are open to the many points of view. She also explained that LAH is constantly seeking to put new strategies in the hands of teachers and help them develop history education in their classes.
In a speech delivered by Mr. Joshua Bosch, Counselor of the Dutch Embassy and Deputy Ambassador, he pointed to the importance of this project in building peace and democracy in Lebanon and commended the Lebanese Association for History, which seeks to achieve stability and mutual understanding by strengthening responsible attitudes towards the complex history of Lebanon, especially the stage of the civil war and its aftermath.
followed by. As for Dr. Basil Akar, Director of the Center for Applied Research in Education at Notre Dame University, he presented previous attempts to develop a curriculum for history and to issue a unified book in accordance with what was stipulated in the Taef Agreement and to the reality we are in today, which is that students in 2015 are still studying a curriculum that was developed in the forties of the century. Al-Madhi also indicated that the interest of Notre Dame University in the project comes within the framework of its keenness to develop educational methods in Lebanon and to build the responsible individual.