Historical Thinking Skills among Pre-Service Teachers in Indonesia and Malaysia

Abstract

This comparative study examined student thinking skills and their attitudes towards learning History. Respondents were pre-service teachers who enrolled in the History Education Program from two education universities in Malaysia and Indonesia. The historical thinking skills (HTS) and their attitudes examined in this study are: chronological skills, facts exploration skills, imagination skills, interpretation skills and rationalization skills. A set of questionnaire was used to gain data. Data analyses involved descriptive and inferential analysis. A Cronbach Alpha score obtained from a pilot indicated that all constructs were at a high reliability level (between 0.73 and 0.89). Data collection was carried out in Malaysia and Indonesia involving 260 respondents. The results of this study demonstrated that there was a high level of Historical Thinking Skills (HTS) among teacher trainees from both countries. Detailed result indicated that Malaysian teachers have a higher level of the following historical thinking skills: facts exploration, interpretation skills and rationalization. However, results show that that none of these historical skills have statistically differences. This means that historical skills among teachers in both countries are similar. Overall, the current study suggests intensive training to promote historical thinking skills among teacher trainees from both countries. Implication towards teaching practices is discussed.