From the point of view of the methodological limitations of this study, it should be mentioned that, although the questionnaire includes open questions, the use of other research instruments, such as interviews or discussion groups, could have further enriched the results. Likewise, as it is a case study, the results must be understood in the context in which it has been developed; therefore, it cannot be generalized. However, they can be contrasted with other cases to find similarities and differences that contribute with knowledge to the area.

#### **3. Results**

This section presents the research results grouped into three subsections: (1) social representations of socio-environmental problems, (2) social representations of socioenvironmental education and Education for Global Citizenship, and (3) social representations of sustainability and Education for Sustainable Development. Some textual responses from the students were included in the results, being identified by an *A*, together with the number assigned by the MAXQDA program for each response.

#### *3.1. Social Representations about Socio-Environmental Problems*

To begin with, the students had to indicate if they had received training in socioenvironmental problems during their degree. A total of 60.5% indicated that they had not received training on this subject, while 39.5% indicated yes, fundamentally in the subjects of the area of Social Studies Teaching, as indicated by 72% of the students, and in those of Natural Sciences Teaching, as mentioned by 23% of the students.

Next, students were asked to define the concept of a socio-environmental problem. As Figure 1 shows, which includes the 100 most mentioned words, the term *sociedad* (society) was the most relevant, being mentioned by 26.5% of the students. To this we must add those who responded in Galician, indicating *sociedade*, representing 10%. The second most mentioned term was *afecta* (affects), as indicated by 24.5%, to which we must add other related terms, such as *afectan* (affect), *afectado* (affected), and *afectaciones* (affectations), which represent 4%. In third place, the term *medioambiente* (environment) appears, as mentioned by 17% of the students.

**Figure 1.** Word cloud of the definition of socio-environmental problems. Source: Own elaboration based on MAXQDA. Note: This figure includes terms mentioned in Spanish and Galician.

The word tree in Figure 2, centered on the most mentioned word, *sociedad* (society), shows two types of relationship that students establish between it and the *medioambiente* (environment). On the one hand, they indicate that both society and the environment are victims of socio-environmental problems since both suffer from its negative effects. It can clearly be seen in the figure how the word *afecta* (affects) unites both terms, being able to read "que afecta a la sociedad y al medioambiente" (that affects society and the environment). In this way, some definitions of socio-environmental problems were "a specific casuistry that affects both the environment and society, generating adverse effects for both" (A33) or "events that negatively affect the environment and, therefore, also have a negative effect on society" (A6). Likewise, the concern about the negative impact on health stands out, with the term *salud* (health) being mentioned by 11% of the students.

**Figure 2.** Word tree for the term society. Source: Own elaboration based on MAXQDA.

On the other hand, society is recognized by the students as the cause of these effects on the environment. Some statements in this regard are as follows: "difficulties in the environment caused to a greater or lesser extent by society" (A2), "problem generated by a society in its immediate environment" (A35), or "problems at the environmental level that are caused by the consumerist society in which we live" (A129). Likewise, Figure 1 shows recurring terms, such as *económico/s* (economic), *industrial* (industrial), *industria* (industry), or *desarrollo* (development) to refer to the factors causing socio-environmental problems. Some examples are the following definitions: "imbalances caused to the environment and/or the health of people that arise as a consequence of industrial or economic development" (A26), or "they are deficiencies or inconveniences to the environment produced by industrial and economic development" (A29).

It is striking that the students show their concern about the negative impact on society and the fact that it is society itself that causes it, but not about the fact that society is the only one that can solve these problems. In this sense, only one response was recorded: "it is a problem that affects our environment, and therefore our society, which must solve the problem" (A66). Likewise, there were eight students who were not able to define what a socio-environmental problem was, of which seven were second-year students at the University of Santiago de Compostela.

Figure 3 shows the most recurrent terms when the students proposed a socio-environmental problem to work on in a primary education classroom. As can be seen, *contaminación* (pollution) was the most mentioned, being proposed by 41.5% of the students, followed by *cambio climático* (climate change), as indicated by 32%. Other problems mentioned to a lesser extent were deforestation (11%), global warming (5%), and concern about water (5%) in regard to its contamination, as well as its consumption.

**Figure 3.** Cloud of words of socio-environmental problems to work on in the classroom. Source: Own elaboration based on MAXQDA. This figure includes terms mentioned in Spanish and Galician.

It should be noted that problems such as social inequalities or poverty had very little presence: 3.5% and 2%, respectively. Precisely, 36% of students disagreed with the fact that poverty is an environmental problem. Of these, 25% totally disagreed or quite disagreed. As can be seen in the graph in Figure 4, only 17% totally agreed that poverty is an environmental problem. Likewise, it can be seen how gender issues are not perceived as a socio-environmental problem by 42.5% of the students, with only 13.5% totally agreeing with it.

**Figure 4.** Social representations of poverty and gender issues. Source: Own elaboration based on MAXQDA.

#### *3.2. Social Representations on Education for Global Citizenship and Socio-Environmental Education*

There is a consensus among the students regarding the need to promote conflict resolution strategies to achieve social transformation. Thus, this idea is supported by 97% of the students, of which 75.5% totally agreed (Figure 5). However, 78.5% of future primary school teachers consider that it is inappropriate to work on political content in class. The remaining 22.5% disagreed; however, only 9% of them totally or quite disagreed. Likewise, 87.5% of the students consider that teachers should present the contents, while avoiding reflecting on their own ideology. Of the remaining students, 8% slightly disagreed, 2.5% quite disagreed, and 2% totally disagreed.

**Figure 5.** Social representations about the presence of politics, ideology, and conflict resolution in classes. Source: Own elaboration based on MAXQDA.

As can be seen in Figure 6, practically all the students, 98.5%, consider that the purpose of socio-environmental education is "Developing thinking and acting in students that is conducive to changing the world in the direction of making it more sustainable". Similarly, there is a consensus that it aims at "Facilitating the development of pro-environmental skills and habits such as separating garbage, respecting and caring for living beings, recycling paper, etc.". Nevertheless, 2.5% of students did not agree with the latter issue. In addition, socio-environmental education is also associated with "Getting to know Nature and learn to enjoy it, love it, and conserve it". However, 7.5% of the students disagreed with it, of which 3.5% quite disagreed, 2% slightly disagreed, and 2% totally disagreed.

**Figure 6.** Social representations about the purpose of socio-environmental education. Source: Own elaboration from MAXQDA.

#### *3.3. Social Representations about Sustainability and Education for Sustainable Development*

To explain the concept of sustainability, the most used terms were *future* (future) and *futuras generaciones* (future generations), as cited by 52% of the students. Next, the term *recursos* (resources) was mentioned by 25.5%, followed by the terms *necesidades* (needs), as used by 18%; *equilibrio* (balance) by 17%; and *presente* (present) by 12%. Figure 7 allows us to understand the link established by the students between these terms. Thus, they were able to write definitions of sustainability, such as the following: "meeting the needs of society without compromising the resources we have or the following generations" (A171), "meeting needs guaranteeing a future balance" (A54), or "that covers current needs without negatively affecting the future" (A67).

**Figure 7.** Word tree for the definition of sustainability. Source: Own elaboration based on MAXQDA.

The importance of protecting the environment, Nature, or natural resources was collected in 24% of the definitions. However, the need for a balance between economic and social aspects had very little representation. The social dimension was mentioned only by 3.5% of the students and economic issues by 2.5%. Of these, only 1% related the environmental, economic, and social dimensions. One defined it as follows: "satisfaction of needs trying to achieve an economic, social and environmental balance" (A88). Meanwhile, the other indicated the following: "economic and social model that does not exhaust the available resources but manages them as best as possible and with the least impact on the environment" (A35). However, these two definitions do not refer to the present and the future.

The opinions in relation to the strategies that teachers must implement to include the contents of ESD in primary education classes are shown in Figure 8. As can be seen, 97% of the students agreed, although to a different extent, in that the teacher must "Develop in the students complex thinking that entails social creativity and civil ethics", as well as "Helping to build critical ethical thinking based on the analysis of reality". A consensus was also seen in 97.5% of the future primary school teachers in the item "Ensuring the students always explain and contrast their ideas, so that they become aware of what they think and so that they mobilize their conceptions in the construction of new knowledge".

However, the other two questions asked did not have the same consensus as the previous ones. On the one hand, 89.5% of the students agreed, of which 28% totally agreed, with "Making many outings to the environment and recycling workshops". A total of 10.5% disagreed with this statement, of which 6.5% slightly disagreed, 3% quite disagreed, and 1% totally disagreed. On the other hand, the aspect of greatest disagreement was the fact that the teacher must "Try to persuade and convince the students that they have to respond to the current environmental crisis by supporting certain forms of action". A total of 78% of the students agreed, of which 21.5% totally agreed; meanwhile, 10% slightly disagreed, 6.5% quite disagreed, and 5.5% totally disagreed.

**Figure 8.** Social representations about strategies that teachers must implement to include the contents of ESD in primary education classes. Source: Own elaboration from MAXQDA.

#### *3.4. Inferential Analysis*

To find out if the university of origin, the grade, age, or gender influenced the students' responses and to what extent, the Pearson Chi-square test and the Contingency Coefficient C were used. The results indicate that age had no influence on any of the issues analyzed, while the university, grade, and gender did.

The variable "training in socio-environmental problems" depended on the university and the grade. A total of 65.7% of the students at the University of Santiago de Compostela indicated that they had not had training in socio-environmental problems; this contrasts with 48.3% at the University of A Coruña. However, this could be explained by the fact that all second-year students came from the University of Santiago de Compostela, 86% of whom indicated that they had not had training in socio-environmental problems, a percentage that is significantly different from the 41.4% of third-year students who indicated having had training. However, the significance values and the Contingency Coefficient C (Table 1) show that the grade exerts more influence (*p* = 0.0000, C = 0.418) than the university (*p* = 0.0318, C = 0.161). Therefore, the students' perception of having had training in socio-environmental problems depends more on the grade than on the center of origin.

**Table 1.** Pearson's Chi-square test for the variable "training in socio-environmental problems".

Source: Own elaboration from MAXQDA.

Table 2 shows that there were also two other grade dependent variables. This influenced the purpose of the socio-environmental education "Getting to know Nature and learn to enjoy it, love it, and conserve it" (*p* = 0.0338, C = 0.239). Thus, 41.4% of third-year students fully agreed with this statement, compared to 29.8% of second-year students, thus evidencing a traditional vision of socio-environmental education. Differences are also observed in those who indicated that they totally disagree, with 4.8% of the second-year students and none of the third-year students. When grouping the categories into agree and disagree, no significant differences are observed between the two grades, leaning, in both cases, mostly toward agreement (91.7% of second-year students and 93.1% of third-year students).

**Table 2.** Pearson's Chi-square test with other items dependents of the grade.

Source: Own elaboration from MAXQDA.

The grade was also related to the sustainability education strategy of "Making many outings to the environment and recycling workshops" (*p* = 0.0175, C = 0.253). In this case, the most significant difference is that 45.2% of second-year students quite agreed with it, compared to 23.3% of third-year students. As the significance values and the Contingency Coefficient C show, the dependency and the degree of correlation are stronger for this question than for the perception of the purpose of socio-environmental education "Getting to know Nature and learn to enjoy it, love it, and keep it".

Gender was related to the eight questions listed in Table 3, but there are two that stand out due to the intensity of this relationship. One of them is the purpose of socioenvironmental education: "Facilitating the development of pro-environmental skills and habits such as separating garbage, respecting and caring for living beings, recycling paper, etc." (*p* = 0.0000, C = 0.426). The category with the highest consensus was totally in agreement, as indicated by 57% of the students. In the case of women, this behavior was higher (67.2%) than for men (36.9%) and for non-binary people (50%).

**Table 3.** Results of the Pearson's Chi-square test for the gender variable.

Source: Own elaboration from MAXQDA.

The second issue of high dependency is the sustainability education strategy "Make many outings to the environment and recycling workshops" (*p* = 0.0000, C = 0.402). In this case, 89.5% of the students were in favor, with 28% totally agreeing, 32.5% quite agreeing, and 29% slighting agreeing. However, differences in terms of gender are observed in these categories. For example, the percentage of women who totally agreed (35.1%) and slightly agreed (36.6%) was above the global value. This behavior is similar to the previous variable, which is understandable, since they are two variables that are thematically related. Non-binary students were the ones who stood out the most in the category of quite agree (50%). While men exceeded the global value in the slightly disagree category (43.1%).

Another question investigated and which is related to the two previous ones is the purpose of socio-environmental education: "Getting to know Nature and learn to enjoy it, love it, and conserve it". It also shows that women's vision is too focused on knowing, caring for, and conserving Nature through school outings and recycling activities. However, women stood out in the rest of the questions focused on the development of critical thinking and social action. For example, 82.4% totally agreed with conflict resolution strategies for social transformation, when the global value was 75.5%. Likewise, 82.4% were totally in favor of the fact that the teacher should help build critical ethical thinking based on the analysis of reality; meanwhile, for the group, it was 74%.

#### **4. Discussion**

The discussion of the results is based on the complementation of the quantitative and qualitative results obtained from the questionnaire. In this way, open-ended questions allowed to deepen and confirm the results obtained in the metric questions. Moreover, the discussion is enriched by contrasting with previous research and the relevant literature related to the research issues.

One of the most surprising issues of the results is the fact that 60.5% indicated that they did not have training in socio-environmental problems; however, this result was largely influenced by second-year students. Even if the subjects in the areas of Social Sciences Teaching and Natural Sciences Teaching were the most mentioned by the students who indicated having had this training, this result could indicate that an interdisciplinary approach has not yet been consolidated in the primary education grades of the universities participating in this study. However, it should be noted that the contents included in the programs differ between grades and universities, because they are live programs that can change from one year to the next. It could even be the case of completely different programs within the same university. For example, the University of Santiago de Compostela has two faculties that teach a primary education degree, and each one has its own programs, depending on the coordinating professor and the area. This is an issue to which attention should be paid, since, as indicated by Massip et al. (2021), the construction of models that allow us to draw relationships between socio-environmental concepts is essential for the training of future teachers.

One finding that stands out regarding social representations on socio-environmental problems is that 96% of students were able to define what they are. However, as other authors have already found (Solís-Espallargas and Valderrama-Hernández 2015; Ortega-Sánchez et al. 2020; Massip et al. 2021), issues such as social inequalities, poverty, or gender issues are less appreciated as socio-environmental or environmental problems than climate change or environmental pollution, for example.

The results in relation to the treatment that the politics and ideology of teachers should have in the classes coincide with the works of Solís-Espallargas and Valderrama-Hernández (2015) and Ortega-Sánchez et al. (2020). In both cases, it can be seen how more than 43% of students strongly agree that politics should not be present in the content of the classes and that the content should avoid the teacher's ideology. In this study, values of 78.5% were obtained for the question of politics and 87.5% for ideology, but it should be noted that, in the scale used in this case, the central value was eliminated with which the students had to position themselves, and so they either agreed or disagreed with the issues raised.

These results are very worrying. On the one hand, the teachers' ideology is always present in the content they choose; it cannot be separated from it, so they must be aware of it and of the influence it has on their students (Solís-Espallargas and Valderrama-Hernández 2015). On the other hand, if you want to train critical citizens under a global citizenship education model, political education is an essential dimension (González-Monfort and Santisteban 2020). Indeed, González et al. (2020, p. 5) indicate that "Political Science allows students to understand the notions of power, systems of government and political organisation (both national and international)".

The development in the students of a way of thinking and action conducive to achieving a more sustainable world obtained the consensus of 98.5% of the students. However, when contrasted with other questions, shortcomings in knowledge are observed in this regard. The results show a vision of socio-environmental education focused on a teaching model based on care, respect, and love for Nature in a superficial way. For example, 97.5% of the students agreed, of which 57% totally agreed, that the purpose of socio-environmental education should focus on the development of pro-environmental skills and habits such as separating garbage, respecting and caring for living beings, recycling paper, etc. This vision is reaffirmed, markedly among women, in opposition to a teaching model that goes beyond this vision of citizenship on a personal or participatory basis to seek a citizenship that fights for justice (Westheimer and Kahne 2004). Again, a parallelism can be seen with the results of the works by Solís-Espallargas and Valderrama-Hernández (2015) and Ortega-Sánchez et al. (2020), in which more than 70% share this vision. This lack of a holistic vision of sustainability was evidenced in the definition issued by the students, in which the environmental dimension acquired a greater role to the detriment of other dimensions involved in the concept: social or economic (UN 1987).

These problems are also reflected in the strategies for working on Education for Sustainable Development in the classroom, where students do not manage to achieve total coherence in their answers. On the one hand, they agreed (more than 97%) on the need to develop critical thinking in students, starting from reality and leading to social creativity and civil ethics. Likewise, there is a general agreement (more than 97%) that students should be made explicit and contrast their ideas so that they become aware of what they think and manage to mobilize their conceptions for the construction of new knowledge. Women had a greater role in recognizing the importance of these issues. However, the fact that 78% agreed that the teacher must persuade and convince students to adopt certain forms of action, aligning with an educational model of imposition, is contradictory. Similar to the rest of the results, there are coincidences with the works of Solís-Espallargas and Valderrama-Hernández (2015) and Ortega-Sánchez et al. (2020), in which 50% or more of the students share this vision.

#### **5. Conclusions**

This research shows the relevance of the study of social representations in improving Social Science Teaching, in this case, in the training of future primary school teachers. The study allowed us to know the vision of the students on socio-environmental problems, sustainability, the purposes of socio-environmental education, and the strategies to train in Education for Global Citizenship and in Education for Sustainable Development.

Most of the students understand the concept of a socio-environmental problem and the double implication of society, as the affected party and as the cause. However, they do not refer to the role society has in resolving these socio-environmental conflicts. In addition, they focus on problems such as climate change or environmental pollution, leaving aside issues such as social inequalities, poverty, or gender issues. These results show the need for teachers to work with current problems from a holistic view, for example, based on the concept of sustainability. As verified in this study, the economic and social dimensions were practically absent when defining the term *sustainability*, thus focusing the attention on environmental aspects.

From an educational point of view, in general, future primary school teachers agree on the need to develop critical thinking that leads to social transformation. However, they have difficulty recognizing how it can be performed in practice, which is evidenced when they point out that political content should be excluded from the classroom, or, for example, by not being aware of the influence that teachers' ideology has on students. Likewise, they

manifest a vision of socio-environmental education that is superficial, imposing, and too focused on care and respect for the environment, which makes the development of a critical teaching–learning model impossible.

To reverse this situation, above all, more awareness is needed. Teachers must find formulas to teach, but also to motivate and raise awareness. In this sense, research and teaching practice should be oriented toward a transformative education that encourages students to reflect and act in pursuing social and environmental justice. For this, innovative teaching proposals must be based on debate about current society problems both in the near environment and globally, and the search of their solution. These activities de-signed in the classes can be put into practice by student teachers during the internship period they carry out in primary schools. In this way, they can become familiar with the challenges involved in addressing problems such as armed conflicts, fake news, and hate crimes, among others. In addition, teachers can encourage students to orient their end-of-grade projects to these topics.

In summary, the results of this research provided valuable information to introduce improvements in the teaching–learning of socio-environmental problems and sustainability. In this way, future primary school teachers will be better trained in Education for Global Citizenship and Education for Sustainable Development, which will allow them to face the challenges imposed by the new primary education curriculum. In addition, this study opens the door to future research on Social Science Teaching that can contribute to the improvement of teaching practice in initial teacher training.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, methodology, investigation, formal analysis, writing original draft, and writing—review and editing, Y.P.-G., F.X.A.-Q. and X.C.M.-A. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research was funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union within the action KA2—Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices—Capacity Building in the field of Higher Education, grant number 609897-EPP-1-2019-1-ES-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** Not applicable.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Not applicable.

**Data Availability Statement:** Not applicable.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.

#### **References**

## *Article* **Challenges with Complex Situations in the Teaching and Learning of Social Sciences in Initial Teacher Education**

**Cristina Yáñez de Aldecoa 1,\* and Isabel María Gómez-Trigueros <sup>2</sup>**

**Abstract:** This article not only presents a paradigm shift as a methodological model for teaching heritage and social sciences (SSCC), but also offers a methodological foundation for the challenge-based learning (CBL) methodology. We present various educational innovations in social science teaching and cultural heritage education based on the use of CBL during initial teacher training at the University of Andorra. These methodological proposals take into account the TPACK model (Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge) based on the interrelation of three types of knowledge: pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), technological content knowledge (TCK), and technological pedagogical knowledge (TPK). This set of best practices requires students to respond to a complex social challenge by designing and creating specific educational proposals for tackling content and learning through gamification. Students work on the various dimensions of the SSCC, thereby developing spatial competency, teaching competency, and competency in democratic citizenship. ICTs are included throughout in order to develop students' digital competency. As a result, students feel empowered through having acquired the different competencies and developed an awareness of the value of cultural heritage as a cornerstone of democratic citizenship.

**Keywords:** higher education; initial teacher training; challenge-based learning (CBL); TPCAK (technological pedagogical content knowledge); relevant social problems; cultural heritage education; education for democratic citizenship

#### **1. Introduction**

Universities and higher education institutions, as providers of knowledge, are closely interconnected with societal challenges and are intimately linked to the commitment to help to develop sustainable societies (Leijon et al. 2021). It is essential to promote study plans and educational practices that enable students to face complex situations and become transforming agents. In this sense, the Educational 2030 Framework for Action (FFA) examines the learning outcomes to prepare students to become active citizens. Higher Education is the setting to deliver a fair and sustainable education and social development (Diez et al. 2021).

In the first half of the 20th century, Dewey (1995, 2002) defended teaching based on the real problems of society in the development of reflective thought and in the learning of democratic participation. Dewey defends the thesis that knowledge is built from experience, in a continuous interaction with the environment. Social Science pedagogy should train students to develop critical thinking based on social justice and democracy as pillars of democratic citizenship competence. In an increasingly diverse changing society, wherein concepts are continually questioned, the critical spirit of students must be taught and trained to nurture a critical understanding based on justice, and thus influence the formation of active and committed citizens (Dam and Volman 2004; Diez et al. 2021; Pagès and Santisteban 2011).

**Citation:** Yáñez de Aldecoa, Cristina, and Isabel María Gómez-Trigueros. 2022. Challenges with Complex Situations in the Teaching and Learning of Social Sciences in Initial Teacher Education. *Social Sciences* 11: 295. https://doi.org/10.3390/ socsci11070295

Academic Editor: Alvaro Morote

Received: 23 May 2022 Accepted: 4 July 2022 Published: 8 July 2022

**Publisher's Note:** MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

**Copyright:** © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

This paper presents a line-up of Social Sciences cases of good innovative education practices in Initial Teacher Education at the University of Andorra, conducted with students of the Bachelor of Science in Education through the challenge-based learning (CBL) methodology. Once the challenge is launched, it is worth highlighting the creativity and innovation of the final results as well as the different interconnections established with other subjects, such as mathematics or language.

The main objective is to promote the use and application of technological resources and digital materials, resulting from the integration of applied technologies and cultural heritage, to bring cultural heritage closer to the classroom (Yáñez 2017; Larraz et al. 2014). Students, based on their previous research work, documentation, and analysis of educational materials on the web, design various proposals in order to meet the requirements of the challenge. These proposals usually have a high technological component, and therefore, it is an activity that helps to develop the Teachers' Digital Competence (TDC). These didactic proposals, focused on primary school students, have as a goal bringing cultural heritage into the classroom to not only make it more accessible, but also to learn and acquire knowledge from a new perspective. This type of task requires that the teacher monitors and accompanies the student throughout the whole process to ensure that corrections can be introduced as the task is being designed and developed. It is part of the Learning by Doing methodology that enhances the development of skills to respond to a complex situation and consequently learn from experience (Schank 2002; Yánez and Gómez-Trigueros 2022). The results show how, from an interdisciplinary approach and a methodology focused on challenge-based learning (CBL), specific and transversal competences can be worked and achieved during initial teacher training.

#### *1.1. Competencies in Higher Education*

Globalization has created an increasingly diverse and hyperconnected world. In order to confront the new challenges, individuals must acquire new competencies (understood as skills, attitudes, and values) in order to achieve individual goals and autonomous development, together with collective goals involving the necessary interaction with society (Yáñez and Gómez-Trigueros 2021). In today's information and communication society (ICS), there is a need for education to be reoriented towards innovation, the driving force behind change, and for teachers to act as agents of change.

Various European and international organizations, such as the European Commission (2022) and the OECD (2005), have reflected on the social, economic, and cultural transformations of the twenty-first century and have stressed the need to anticipate new demands given the everchanging context, the impact of globalization, and the complex socio-cultural and economic relations that result from it. The traditional teaching model is being replaced by the learning environment model, based on real contexts, the use of new tools, and negotiation amongst peers around the meaning of knowledge (Basque et al. 2000).

#### *1.2. Bachelor's Degree in Teaching and Learning (BCE) at the University of Andorra (UdA): A Competency-Based University Education Model*

The English term 'dual' and the French term 'en alternance' both refer to a model of training that enables the student to combine academic and professional activity, with knowledge acquired in both the academic and professional fields. University tutors and school mentors are jointly responsible for the training and assessment of the activities carried out by the student in shared tutorials (Latorre et al. 2020; Pla 2015).

Dual training was implemented in the Bachelor's degree in Teaching and Learning (BCE) between 2014–2015 and 2018–2019. The teaching–learning (T-L) approach includes students attending theoretical classes at the university three days a week and undertaking work experience in primary schools two days a week. This T-L model enables students to learn about the theory of different subjects and to complement it with teaching practice. Students are thus better able to integrate theoretical and practical knowledge and develop competencies in a professional environment (Monné 2017).

In 2018, in response to a changing, competency-based society, the University of Andorra (UdA), the only public university in the Principality of Andorra, decided to launch a new educational model focused on competency-based learning and assessment, with competency being defined as 'an action or intervention in which a set of content (facts and concepts, procedures, attitudes and values) is incorporated and employed by the student in order to successfully respond to professional challenges' (Larraz et al. 2020, p. 2; Perrenoud 2004). The model is based on the development and assessment of both specific and cross-disciplinary competencies focused on multilingualism, democratic culture, and the values of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The current curriculum of the BCE complies with the new educational model of the University of Andorra, with a competency-based methodology that eliminates the boundaries between individual subjects. Each semester is divided into two modules, in which students must overcome a complex challenge by means of guided work, individual work, and seminars. Each challenge is associated with learning outcomes that are derived from the specific and cross-disciplinary competencies of the degree (Saz et al. 2020).

Competency-based work benefits from low student–teacher ratios, which makes it possible for students to be closely monitored. These educational innovations focus on the importance of heritage education and dissemination, a 360◦ experience in which educational and cultural institutions work to safeguard and conserve heritage.

#### **2. Theoretical Foundations**

#### *2.1. The New Learning Environments*

Pujolàs (2003) has argued that education is experiencing a paradigm shift with the advent of what has been called twenty-first-century education (Peñalba and Leiva 2019), the aim of which is to provide the resources and tools to share knowledge. It is therefore necessary to generate new learning contexts or spaces that encourage the traditional topdown system to evolve into one that enhances the application of knowledge and focuses on competency-based learning (Monné and Yáñez 2019).

Society is constantly changing, and the learning opportunities that arise must be seized. Schools must extend beyond the curriculum and leave the classroom to deliver more comprehensive, experiential learning, taking advantage of the opportunities offered by the immediate environment. It is therefore no longer only a question of teaching students, but of teaching them to develop reliable tools, to give them a compass to find their own way in an increasingly complex, volatile, and uncertain world (OECD 2019).

The aim of the so-called 360º education is to provide cross-disciplinary teaching beyond the school walls, taking advantage of the opportunities and possibilities offered by the environment and the territory as settings for different kinds of learning, understanding territory as the geographic element (physical and human), in which the human being is contextualized. It provides a broader view by expanding the time and spaces for learning. It views the territory, the community, and cooperation with different cultural agents as an educational ecosystem full of opportunities for learning, for connecting formal and non-formal, school and non-school learning. A holistic education with fluid boundaries between formal and non-formal learning should provide a better response to a complex, uncertain society characterized by various economic, social, cultural, and technological changes. These interconnected structures of knowledge require not only competency-based learning, but also interdisciplinary work.

Gangopadhyay (2014) has explained how museums, and cultural centers in general, can help to generate rapid innovations and changes in education and learning. The author focuses on new learning settings and experiences through the application of three central strategies, involving proactive, relevant, and innovative practices (Yáñez et al. 2015).

Camacho (2018, p. 22) suggests that educational innovation should be understood as 'a dynamic process of vision, change, and creation, which requires energy and passion in order to create and implement new ideas'. In line with this approach, the various teaching innovations we present are based on the following foundations:

#### *2.2. Challenge-Based Learning (CBL)*

CBL is a learning opportunity in which students, guided by the teacher, collaborate to solve real and relevant challenges, in a context outside the classroom. The exhaustive bibliographic review carried out by Leijon et al. (2021, p. 3) establishes that the challenge-based learning (CBL) methodology "connects to entrepreneurial learning as well as self-regulated learning, organisational double-loop learning, and authentic learning". To sum up, we can trace theories of learning stemming from cognitive, but also constructive and socio-cultural perspectives, wherein learning is active, relational, practical, and situated within both the individual and the organisation (Argyris and Schön 1978; Kolb 1984; Lave and Wenger 1991). It facilitates the acquisition of basic skills in the Social Sciences, allowing to work and connect with real-world scenarios and facilitates as well the development of entrepreneurship and critical thinking, forming active and committed citizens.

Teaching based on this strategy aims to focus on activities that pose problematic situations whose resolution requires analysing, discovering, developing hypotheses, confronting, reflecting, arguing and communicating ideas to achieve student learning.

"This didactic methodology reviews the T-L methods to determine the best practices to produce learning environments to develop and foster creativity. The results observed in the students are: critical and divergent thinking, new ideas and innovative solutions to problems".

#### (Olivares et al. 2018, p. 232, based on Fletcher 2011)

This approach encourages working in projects or integrated tasks (Edu Trends 2016; Gaskins et al. 2015; Pérez-Sánchez et al. 2020). This is a didactic guarantee for an effective contribution to the development of key competences, as well as to the meaningful learning of curricular content. This methodology involves different actions to be followed: analyse; diagnose; observe; investigate; devise; decide; design; analyse the feasibility, sustainability and impact on the environment; implement; and evaluate.

Hence, this process fosters the students' acquisition of Social Sciences' basic skills. They allow to work and connect with real-world scenarios and also facilitates the development of entrepreneurship and critical thinking, forming active and committed citizens. Through CBL, students develop the following competencies: ability to research, analyse, and manage information; decision making to solve a complex problem; critical thinking innovation and creativity; ability to argue and reason effectively; collaborative learning; teamwork; development of democratic attitudes and values; ability to transmit to communicate; and ICT integration.

#### *2.3. The TPACK Model*

One T-L model that focuses on the correct use of technologies in the classroom is the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) model. This model suggests that teachers need to acquire pedagogical knowledge (PK), content knowledge (CK), and technological knowledge (TK) (Mishra and Koehler 2006, 2007). Furthermore, it stresses the importance of the interaction of these three elements (CK, PK, and TK) in the T-L process. The resulting network of interrelations must be understood and mobilized by teachers in order to correctly integrate ICTs in their daily activity. According to this model, teachers do not use these areas of knowledge in isolation; rather, by working with them in an interrelated way, they develop new kinds of knowledge, namely:

The TPACK model takes on board the fact that technology is here to stay. Faced with this reality, teachers must be trained in the use of technologies and acquire the skills to adapt to the changes introduced by new software and hardware.

Moreover, the TPACK model provides a new perspective on incorporating ICTs in the classroom, focusing not only on instrumental competencies but also on their interrelation with the didactic component (Gómez-Trigueros and Yáñez 2021). Educational institutions must ensure that teachers are trained in the various competencies, including teacher digital competency (TDC). Such mastery and understanding should enable them to use technology correctly in their teaching (Gómez-Trigueros et al. 2019; Gómez-Trigueros and Yáñez 2021). Similarly, the TPACK model resolves issues in initial teacher training, helping trainee teachers to develop their methodology in the use of ICTs for teaching. The model encourages trainee teachers to make use of reflective practice: it prompts a reflection on their training; helps them to develop greater self-knowledge and improve their teaching practice; enables a better understanding of how to use technological tools in education (Gómez-Trigueros and Yáñez 2021); and encourages them to focus on enabling their students to learn in a meaningful way, and not on whether or not to use technological resources in the classroom.

#### *2.4. Cultural Heritage Education Is Essential for Democratic Citizenship and the Construction of Historical Memory*

Cultural heritage education enables individuals to learn about and relate to the past in order to understand the present, while also acquiring ideas about space and time that are essential for the construction of a critical spirit. It also helps students to develop empathy, solidarity, cooperation, and respect for other cultures (Estepa et al. 2005). In order to promote not only knowledge but also the active participation of individuals in the different cultural expressions in their environment, it is essential to develop strategies to encourage students to become interested in and develop respect for heritage. This should contribute to the development of more plural and democratic societies (Morote and Colomer 2021; Yánez and Gómez-Trigueros 2022).

One of the strategies for combatting the population's lack of interest in cultural heritage is to actively promote the teaching of heritage in schools, specifically in the field of citizenship education. Heritage should be studied not only as a resource, but also as conceptual, procedural, and attitudinal content (Yáñez 2017). As we can see on Figure 1, the objective is to raise awareness of the importance of preserving heritage for future generations and to encourage students to appreciate it and to become actively involved in its conservation and dissemination (Casanova et al. 2018; Cuenca and Martín 2014; Cuenca and Pérez 2021).

**Figure 1.** Steps to raise awareness about heritage. Own source.

#### **3. Objectives**

The main objective is to present a series of best practices, understood as educational resources designed to introduce primary school pupils to heritage, history, and, ultimately, the Social Sciences.

In response to the different challenges set, students had to acquire the knowledge and skills related to the different subjects and design educational resources that in some cases had an important digital component.

In addition to involving teaching and learning through formative and evaluative methodologies, the practices presented consider four dimensions of the Social Sciences: time, space, art/culture, and democratic citizenship. They also had to promote active learning with a strong creative component and encourage the use of technologies in the classroom.

This general objective was split into the following specific objectives:

#### **4. Methodology**

These teaching innovations were based on challenge-based learning (CBL), an approach that involves students playing an active role in their learning, in line with the constructivist model and principles defined by Savery (2015):

#### *4.1. Participants and Context*

These different CBL-based teaching innovations involved trainee teachers (of children aged 0–12 years) in their second and third year of the Bachelor's degree in Teaching and Learning at the University of Andorra. A total of 101 second-year students undertaking the course in 'Education in the Cultural Heritage of Andorra' and 92 third-year students taking 'Social Science Didactics' followed this curriculum during the study (Table 1).

Both courses followed the 2015 dual curriculum, which involved project-based work clearly designed to develop competencies. Given the experience acquired in CBL and the fact that the new T-L educational model was based on responding to challenges, the aim was to transfer the experience acquired through this set of experiences to the new educational model of the Bachelor's degree.

The content of the new model was delivered in two seminars (which had the same name as the courses), which formed part of the module on the basic principles and content of the Social Sciences. This module provided tools for social science teaching and encouraged social and critical thinking, along with democratic principles and culture. The main objective of SSCC teaching is to provide students with the knowledge, skills, and competencies necessary to become active and informed citizens, capable of thinking

critically, understanding and explaining the perspectives of others, making judgments, and communicating effectively.

**Table 1.** Total number of students participating in these educational experiences. Own source.

#### *4.2. Design of the Challenge*

The challenges were complex, real situations that may present more than one possible response. They should be close to reality, arouse the student's interest and motivation, and incorporate different disciplines. They should also encourage critical thinking so that students can make reasoned decisions, based on evidence and facts, and determine the necessary resources for the proposed response and the strategies to be used for assessment.

The challenges start with the formulation of a key question, with a distinction between the nature and the purpose of the challenge (Table 2).

**Table 2.** Approach to the formulation of key questions. Source adapted from Lattimer (2008).

Most of the T-L innovations we present focus on cultural heritage and the cultural landscape (the context of time and space), which have a powerful transformative capacity. Transformative heritage sites 'empower the visitor to transform their environment through educational activities that are designed to encourage permanent dialogue between action (doing), reflection (thinking), conversation (communicating), and emotion (feeling)' (CoP 2018, p. 5). This makes it necessary to ask the following questions:

In order to work on complex situations, a challenge must have the following characteristics.

CBL methodology can be broken down in order to establish the phases of the process, which are shown in the following Table 3 and in Figure 2.

**Table 3.** CBL methodology. Own Source.

#### *4.3. The Role of the Teacher*

The teacher uses questions to challenge students' knowledge and stimulate cognitive processes that promote critical thinking. By avoiding leading questions, the interaction takes place at a metacognitive level.

In his discussion of the tutorial process, as Barrows states from Savery and Duffy (1995, p. 11): 'The ability of the tutor to use enabling teaching skills during the small group learning

process is the major determinant of the quality and the success of any educational method aimed at (1) developing students' thinking or reasoning skills (problem solving, metacognition, critical thinking) as they learn, and (2) helping them to become independent, self-directed learners (learning to learn, learning management). Tutoring is a teaching skill central to problem-based, self-directed learning' (Barrows 1992, p. 12).

#### **5. Results**

Cognitive as well as emotional, cultural, and social aspects operate in this multidimensional process. This process has led to the replacement of the traditional way in solving mechanized problems, by a new methodology to solve real, interdisciplinary, professional problems that allow to find multiple solutions (Couso et al. 2008; Pérez and Chamizo 2011).

#### *5.1. Map of Educational Innovations*

The overall objective of the activities presented was to promote the knowledge of and respect for cultural heritage as well as to generate an emotional bond with heritage that would ensure that today's trainee teachers would be true agents of transformation as active teachers in the future.

The different teaching innovations were divided into a series of categories based on the type of activity (see Table 4).

**Table 4.** Categories of the group activities developed. Own source.

Similarly, the innovations are associated with different dimensions of the Social Sciences: history, geography, art, heritage, and democratic citizenship. History and geography are two fundamental pillars of the SSCC, since they enable learners to develop an understanding of space and time, while offering a broad vision of the world and of society.

The following table (see Table 5) shows the map of best practices in educational innovation, grouped according to category and associated with the different Social Science dimensions. They are all interrelated and encourage meaningful and relevant learning.

**Table 5.** Map of teaching innovation experiences in the area of cultural heritage and Social Sciences and dimensions. Own source.

The Social Science dimensions are fairly well distributed among all the activities. The focus is primarily on heritage, with 19 of the 27 activities (70.37%), followed by democratic citizenship, with 18 of the 27 activities (66.66%). A total of 55.55% worked on history, and 51.85% worked on geography and art.

Of the 27 activities, the following Table 6 shows the distribution of the activities referred to in Table 5 divided into categories. The first two, which include activities both in and outside the classroom, have the greatest weight.

**Table 6.** Distribution of activities by categories. Own source.

#### *5.2. Educational Innovations in the Social Sciences and Heritage Education and the TPACK Model*

The following table (see Table 7) associates best teaching practices with the categories in the KBT (Knowledge Base for Teachers) (Shulman 1986) and TPACK models (Mishra and Koehler 2006). The following elements are verified in the KBT model: (a) content knowledge (CK), which refers to the necessary (and acceptable) content on the subject to be taught in the classroom, along with the (scientific, philosophical, and historical) resources available in which to search for further knowledge, i.e., the teacher's awareness of the bibliography on the subject they are teaching; and (b) pedagogical knowledge (PK), which refers to the training in strategies, methodologies, and pedagogy that the teacher employs to make the subject (scientific content) understandable to their pupils. This can be described as the 'wisdom of practice' (Shulman 1986, p. 15). This foundation of the KBT relates to the good teaching practice developed by teachers in the classroom, which is learnt by experience and by observing other teachers. This 'source' is the perfect combination of teachers' knowledge and its application to enable pupils to acquire, understand, and learn such knowledge.

**Table 7.** Association of the activities to the model: KBT (Knowledge Base For Teachers); PCK (Pedagogical Content Knowledge); TCK (Technological Disciplinary Knowledge); and TPK (Technological Pedagogical Content).

#### **Table 7.** *Cont.*

As indicated in Section 2.3 of this article, the different dimensions of the TPACK model are all valued similarly.

Of the 27 teaching innovations, 18 (66.6%) corresponded to the KBT model (Shulman 1986) and the remaining 9 (33.3%) to the TPACK model (Mishra and Koehler 2006).

#### *5.3. Spatial, Digital, and Democratic Citizenship Competence in Some Experiences*

The following describes a content summary of some of the implemented teaching innovative experiences that gather all SSCC dimensions, as well as a high Knowledge Learning and Knowledge Technologies (LKT) and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) component (Table 8).

**Table 8.** Summary of some of the teaching innovative experiences. Own source.

#### **Table 8.** *Cont.*

https://bit.ly/3LN42aS (accessed on 1 May 2022)

#### *5.4. Assessment and Learning Outcomes*

All the teaching innovations presented employed formative assessment to determine students' level of understanding and competency in order to plan the T-L process. The objective of the formative assessment is to guide students to achieve their objectives, so all stages of the learning process have to be assessed. Continuous assessment provides the teacher with information on the state of the T-L and allows modifications to be made in order to adapt teaching strategies so that students achieve mastery of the desired competencies. 'Students gain clear insights into how they are learning and what they can do to improve performance' (Myers 2004, p. 292).

The main objective of the assessments is to foster students' desire to learn, emphasizing autonomy and development, as well as the fundamental role of the teacher in providing continuous feedback on the work throughout the assignment. Examples of formative assessments include rubrics, games, individual and group class dynamics, projects, and presentations.

All the activities involved adapting means of assessment to the project. In the experiences involving a final product, a series of categories were established that grouped indicators based on the learning outcomes and the levels of acquisition of the competencies assigned to each project. Below, we present the categories and indicators that should be taken into account when assessing the design of educational materials in the SSCC that require a technological component (Table 9).

**Table 9.** Proposal of categories and indicators for the evaluation of Social Science educational materials with a technological component. Own source.

#### **6. Discussion**

Regarding possible future lines of research that may arise from this study and the compendium of experiences, it is planned to continue this research on the competencies acquired through a CBL methodology, especially over the coming years, which will allow us to have a reading to analyze whether there is a change in the learning outcomes. Without neglecting knowledge, we think it is necessary to introduce active methodologies that allow the approaching, teaching, and learning of heritage, culture, and history in a playful and experiential way. The ideal scenario to internalize learning about heritage is field trips to see it and enjoy it in situ, but this is not always possible. That is why we must bring the heritage sites into the classroom and activate them and revive them in different possible ways through the possible multiple methodologies to create a true "heritage laboratory" in the classroom. Finally, and whenever possible, it should be with a gamification component to make it more attractive, but without losing sight of the rigor of the teaching and learning objectives. Teachers in training should experience heritage not only to know it, but to understand and experience it and become ambassadors of heritage.

This work showed, in a detailed and surgically analyzed step by step way, how to transfer the CBL and TPACK methodology to teaching activities that promote knowledge and respect for cultural heritage as well as generate an emotional bond with it in order to ensure that the trainee teacher becomes a true agent of transformation as an active teacher. The different methodologies that are hidden behind the activities, not only guarantee working the different dimensions of the SSCC, together with the bases of the TPACK model, but also this conjunction of pedagogy, knowledge, and pedagogical and technical knowledge of the methodology ensure the acquisition of KBT in future teachers.

Other works that have preceded ours confirm the need for this type of study and, above all, to be able to incorporate these methodologies in the classroom, for which it is essential that future teachers receive the best possible training (Cuenca 2013; Estepa et al. 2005; Fontal et al. 2012; Fontal and Ibáñez 2017; López-Fernández et al. 2021; Moreno-Vera et al. 2022; Morote and Colomer 2021; Yáñez et al. 2022; Yáñez and Gómez-Trigueros 2021, 2022). In this sense, it is essential to introduce an aspect that, despite not being the specific object of this article, is closely linked and is therefore undeniable. We refer to the need for all these types of activities to introduce the necessary tools to reduce the bias in the digital gender gap (Gómez-Trigueros and Yáñez 2021). There is still a pending issue in empowering women teachers in relation to technology, and we must work to make them role models for their students.

#### **7. Conclusions**

At the first International Forum on Education and Technology (FIET), possible future trends and challenges related to the role of technologies in connecting formal and nonformal learning were analysed. Some of the main discussions at the forum revolved around how to use digital technologies and how to enhance digital inclusion, digital culture, and the democratization of culture. The following recommendations emerged from the debate (Yáñez et al. 2015): (a) ensuring accessibility and connectivity worldwide; (b) promoting research on open content, data, and practices; (c) developing learning strategies to address formal and informal education, viewing the environment as an extraordinary and irreplaceable learning setting; and (d) accelerating the digitalization of culture in order to ensure access for a larger number of people.

Trainee teachers, therefore, need to develop their skills to design, assess, and present innovative T-L proposals that meet the demands of twenty-first-century schools (Monné and Yáñez 2019).

The proposals we present in this paper provide a response to these specific objectives. All of them promote awareness of heritage education by means of different strategies, and all of them are the final result of a product associated with a didactic unit. All the activities employ a process of inquiry and analysis of evidence offered by different sources, which encourages spatial competency and critical thinking. Emphasis is placed on the need for inquiry processes that allow the construction of evidence-based arguments, thus encouraging critical thinking and competency in democratic citizenship. Finally, all of them promote collaboration with different social agents, especially schools, where on many occasions it was possible to conduct a pilot during the work experience.

A large number of the activities have an important technological component. This type of educational practice initially generates a certain unease amongst students. The CBL and learning by doing methodology involves students starting from the same point, but each individual's process of inquiry, the decisions they take, and the strategies they adopt lead them to arrive at different final products, creative responses to the same challenge. The key is in the tutoring by the teacher, who must support the student at the different crossroads that arise. When students share their results in the classroom, they feel empowered and proud of their creations, especially when, as trainee teachers, they are able to carry them out in primary classrooms.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, C.Y.d.A. and I.M.G.-T.; Formal analysis, C.Y.d.A. and I.M.G.-T.; Methodology, C.Y.d.A. and I.M.G.-T.; Writing—original draft, C.Y.d.A. and I.M.G.-T.; Writing—review & editing, C.Y.d.A. and I.M.G.-T. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research was supported by the GRIE (Interdisciplinary Group on Education). University of Andorra. Plaça de la Germandat, 7. AD600 Sant Julià de Lòria. Andorra.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** Not applicable.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Not applicable.

**Data Availability Statement:** Not applicable.

**Acknowledgments:** Article written as part of the work performed by the GRIE University of Andorra, Principality of Andorra. This work is connected to the innovative project Redes-I3CE Programme for

research in university teaching of the Institute of Education Sciences of the University of Alicante (2021-2022 call). Ref.: 5506 "The digital teaching competence and the digital gap from the interdisciplinary and gender dimension in teacher training with TPACK" This work is led by Isabel María Gómez-Trigueros.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

#### **References**

Pla, Florenci. 2015. Nou bàtxelor en ciències de l'educació: modalitat dual. *Butlletí de la Universitat d'Andorra* 111: 4–6. Available online: https://bit.ly/3vTga4k (accessed on 11 April 2022).

Pujolàs, Pere. 2003. *Aprendre junts alumnes diferents*. Vic: Eumo.

## *Article* **Educating in History: Thinking Historically through Historical Reenactment**

**José-Manuel González-González \*, Jesús-Gerardo Franco-Calvo and Darío Español-Solana**

Argos Group, Department of Specific Didactics, Faculty of Education, Universidad de Zaragoza, Calle Pedro Cerbuna, 12, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain<EMAIL_ADDRESS>(J.-G.F.-C<EMAIL_ADDRESS>(D.E.-S.) **\*** Correspondence<EMAIL_ADDRESS>
**Abstract:** This paper aimed to identify trends in the scientific literature that relate the link between two concepts: historical thinking and historical reenactment. The definition of both concepts and their commonalities were examined. Convinced that History instruction and Heritage education could improve new methods and techniques, and aware of the benefits of reenactments in active learning and participation in and outside the classroom, we came to the obvious conclusion that merging both aspects is a must and should be disseminated. We also analyzed the presence of second-order concepts in reenactment practices and how they are addressed by actors and spectators. Reenactments foster the acquisition of critical thinking by citizens through education; their quality, however, must be improved through research and didactics—didactics based on reenactment that help us value the past and the traces still present in local areas. Local and global identity and heritage, emotions, reproduction of objects, the use of sources, relevance, empathy, multiperspectives, causation, communication, the relationship between past and present, and the sustainable economy proposed by the 2030 Agenda, are all aspects that should take center stage in turning this phenomenon into a living and lasting history as an experience.

**Keywords:** historical thinking; historical reenactment; reenactment thinking; history teaching; sustainability; heritage education

#### **1. Introduction: Historical Reenactment: Definition, Objectives, Characteristics, and Methods**

The most widespread definition of historical reenactment—or living history—is the practice of reconstructing uses, customs, material culture, and aspects of the past based on strictly scientific guidelines to achieve objectives related to cultural dissemination and education (Español-Solana 2019c). The adequacy of this tool to provide a historical approach—and, therefore, historiographical research—as a result of experimentation (Español-Solana 2021; d'Oro 2004; De Certau 1984; Stueber 2002) should also be added to the above description. Stueber's theses are based on the philosophical perspective of historical thinking, while D'Oro confronts the theoretical views on historical reenactment held by Davidson, Gadamer, and Collingwood (Retz 2018). Consequently, reconstructing the past to understand it is not only confined to its material culture (Samida 2019), but also to practices, aptitudes, and linguistic uses, among other areas, always with scientific and academic support (Español-Solana 2019b). With this practice, we aim to achieve several objectives:

Although history can neither be experienced, nor directly observed or replicated, there are alternatives to understand it and feel it as much as possible through live or computer

**Citation:** González-González, José-Manuel, Jesús-Gerardo Franco-Calvo, and Darío Español-Solana. 2022. Educating in History: Thinking Historically through Historical Reenactment. *Social Sciences* 11: 256. https:// doi.org/10.3390/socsci11060256

Academic Editor: Alvaro Morote

Received: 21 April 2022 Accepted: 6 June 2022 Published: 10 June 2022

**Publisher's Note:** MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

**Copyright:** © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

simulations that partially overcome the initial abstraction (Cardona Gómez and Feliu Torruella 2014; Kneebone and Woods 2014).

Historical reenactment, as a kind of reconstruction of History, aimed at researching or educating, implements a process linked to the historical method, and, in most cases, it adds another element as well: knowledge transfer or dissemination. This reenactment could be surrounded by a praxis linked to experimental archaeology (Meylan 2013), to which it is inherently related (Del Barco Díaz 2010). However, historical reenactment is characterized by a univocal inclination toward dissemination and didactics (Cózar Llistó 2013), which is captured in the documentation and reconstruction process of the material culture.

Arcega Morales (2018) underscores eagerness to learn about history, liking for performing arts, and cost issues as reasons that might explain why this phenomenon is becoming increasingly popular. Tourism, financial concerns, the need to know, the search for identity roots in the community (López Cruz and Cuenca López 2014; Corral Lafuente 2019), association involvement, or aims relating to enhancing heritage (Rojas Rabaneda 2019) are some of the goals that may arise when planning activities of this type; however, they should not be considered historical reenactments if the objectives of socializing knowledge or being a research tool are not met (Español-Solana 2019b).

In this respect, the concept of historical reenactment has deteriorated as two completely different models are termed the same way (Español-Solana 2019b; Aquillué Domínguez 2019; Rojas Rabaneda 2019; Español-Solana et al. 2020). On the one hand, there are historical festivals and, on the other, historical reenactments, in the strict sense. Although the difference between both models is known in most of Europe, in Spain, in line with a trend in southern Europe, the distinction has narrowed to the point where the former has adopted the name of the latter. As a result, activities that are actually historical festivals are labeled historical reenactments, possibly in an attempt to make the contents sound more rigorous (Balbás 2019; Rojas Rabaneda 2019). This conceptual inaccuracy involves debatable stances in the opinions seen in part of the literature on the subject. For instance, Jay Anderson analyzed living history museums from the 1890s onwards and identified three types of reenactors, based on their capacity for more or less immersion (Anderson 1984).

As has been mentioned, although historicist evocations such as festivals, markets, processions, or plays may contain heritage and historical elements, these are extremely stereotyped as they are not aimed at education or research and, therefore, they lack scientific methodologies ensuring they are considered as quality scientific or educational praxis. The reason is that they respond to commercial, tourism, or other types of objectives, and do not approach historical facts based on experience or historiography, nor do they construct accurate educational discourses. The disconnect between academia and museology in these historicist manifestations must be understood as a consequence of this disparity of objectives and, therefore, of results.

Nevertheless, the experiential factor can, and must, be subjected to an epistemological examination that, in the worst scenario, would invalidate its effectiveness for research and for thinking historically (Agnew 2004, 2007; Lévesque 2009; Van der Plaetsen 2014; Retz 2018). These folkloric manifestations may also be studied on the basis of the socializing or introductory function of historical knowledge, as well as local and regional identity.

This problem has led organizations to review their programming to try to differentiate themselves from others. In recent years, historical festivals and reenactments have changed from being viewed by specialists as representations of the past aimed at entertaining tourists to becoming models seeking to socialize knowledge on history and heritage sites (Sebares Valle 2017; Español-Solana et al. 2020). This is where we can find the second model that several authors propose (Brædder 2019; Español-Solana 2019a) related to academia, research.

Although collaborations between heritage assets and historical reenactments take place occasionally, all researchers agree that such a union should be essential, as it is one of the ways of enhancing heritage (Egberts 2014; Franco-Calvo et al. 2020; Felices de la Fuente and Hernández Salmerón 2019; Solé 2019). In fact, recent studies advocate the indissolubility between the latter and the reconstruction of the past, backing their arguments with audience studies (Español-Solana and Franco-Calvo 2021a). This enhancement allows the increase of cultural tourism, which optimizes heritage and natural resources, respects local identity and traditions, and generates socio-economic benefits in the community of origin.

For this article, we have followed the PRISMA model. For this state of the art we have used scientific databases and have found these results:

	- 724 articles for "reenactment", 115 from History and 25 from Art;
	- 22 texts for "historical reenactment";
	- 689 results for "historical thinking", 524 articles, 225 from the field of "educational research", 177 open access;
	- 5 results for "historical", "thinking" and "reenactment" keywords related to our field.
	- 176 results for "reenactment", 111 journal articles, 26 related to "History instruction";
	- 17 texts for "historical reenactment";
	- 435 results for "historical thinking", 325 journal articles, 150 from the last ten years;
	- 3 results for "historical", "thinking" and "reenactment" keywords.
	- 63 documents for "reenactment", 29 from Humanities, 11 from Art studies, and 10 from Social Sciences;
	- 115 for "recreación histórica", 56 from Humanities, 33 from Social Sciences, and 28 from Art. 14 documents for "historical reenactment".
	- 433 results for "pensamiento histórico", 282 journal articles, 121 from Education, and with full texts. 204 results for "historical thinking", 20 with full texts in English, 9 in Portuguese.
	- 56 results for "pensamiento" "histórico" and "recreación", 0 for "historical", "thinking" and "reenactment" keywords.

We finally have collected those more relevant to write this article.

#### **2. Discussion**

#### *2.1. Developing Historical Thinking through Historical Reenactment*

Thinking historically is one way to achieve quality education in history instruction, especially in secondary school. As a key competence in our subject, a priority objective is for pupils to develop critical, contextualized, source- and perspective-based, empathetic, and informed thinking. In essence, it means pupils approach history with a historian's mentality and techniques, not an easy task, even for adults; however, pupils are not expected to become historians, an aspect typical of the university stage. This leap in quality, if this type of reflective thinking is attained, results in in-depth and reasoned learning, in other words, founded on sound judgment.

Thinking historically helps young people attain comprehension, quality knowledge, and competencies (Domínguez Castillo 2015; Gómez and Chapman 2016). Knowing which events were relevant, what has changed and what has not, how the past is reflected in our surroundings, and how certain events influenced the present is crucial for this process. Interpretation and analytical skills are essential in psychosocial maturity.

There are many authors who have managed the study of historical thinking, such as Shemilt (1978; History 13–16, 1980); Lee (History Teaching and Philosophy of History, 1983; 2000; 2005); Seixas (Historical Understanding among Adolescents in a Multicultural Setting, 1993; 2006); Vilar (Pensar históricamente, reflexiones y recuerdos, 1997); Wineburg (Historical Thinking, 2001; Why Learn History, 2018); Barton (Historical Thinking in

the Elementary Years: A Review of Current Research, 2004; 2017); Lévesque (Thinking Historically, 2009); or Seixas and Morton (The Big Six, 2013).

As these authors explained, historical thinking comprises several second-order aspects or concepts, or metaconcepts; cognitive skills typical of our discipline rather than repetitive skills. The historical consciousness every individual has and develops is another step to be implemented in teaching-learning processes. Although it was the British, Americans, and Canadians who researched these subjects more in-depth, professionals of other nationalities (German, Dutch, and Spanish) have also conducted studies in this area (Domínguez Castillo 2015; Rodríguez-Medina et al. 2020).

"Yet to understand the history discipline as a whole, Lee (1983) stressed the importance of drawing on procedural history, or second-order historical concepts, in conjunction with substantive history when undertaking historical inquiry" (Shaw 2021, p. 85). Wineburg questioned whether knowledge should form the basis of learning, as it does in the renowned taxonomy pyramid by Bloom, who, although much followed in didactics, is not at all recommendable for the subject of history, since critical thinking may turn this foundation upside down: "Putting knowledge at the base implies that the world of ideas is fully known and that critical thinking means gathering accepted facts in order to render judgement" (Wineburg 2018, p. 92).

Nevertheless, the study of English and Spanish secondary education curricula has determined that, while the 2008 English legislation provided that almost 50% of the content must be based on second-order concepts, in the 2015 Spanish legislation it was only 5%, although in previous Spanish laws historical thinking had more presence (Gómez and Chapman 2016, pp. 437–39). A recent study including the Portuguese curriculum has also underscored that legislative references to historical thinking were far more evident in the English case than in the other two countries analyzed (Santisteban et al. 2021, p. 21). Similarly, in Canada, Haskings-Winner has stated the difficulty of applying historical thinking in classrooms: "Sometimes the process of doing history and thinking historically can get forgotten, or teachers return to what they think history education is: lectures or the dissemination of facts, and, more recently, the use of technologies such as PowerPoint and smartboards to show pictures that reinforce talking points" (Sandwell and von Heyking 2014, p. 284). In Latin America, some countries include some of these meta concepts in their curriculum (Domínguez Castillo 2015, pp. 60–62).

In Spain, several books (Domínguez Castillo 2015), articles, and doctoral theses on history didactics emphasize the interest in competence development of historical thinking; this topic has aroused the most interest among Ph.D. students, as shown by a thorough list recently analyzed (Chaparro Sainz et al. 2020, p. 95). High-impact publications have demonstrated the importance of combining consciousness and historical thinking with the ethical dimension (Cavanna et al. 2021), and countless articles have exhibited an interest in addressing these aspects (Retz 2018; Rodríguez-Medina et al. 2020).

Historical reenactment also provides whoever experiences it with an in-depth understanding of history and facilitates informed and well-understood thinking as it presents a living history (Anderson 1984) that is also scientific, more approachable, and uses images and actions that will aid said reasoning. History has to be interpreted and imagined, and it requires narrators and reenactors. The relationship with nearby familiar elements researched or experienced with this reenactment helps consolidate second-order concepts, as shown in recent studies (Shaw 2021).

The use of historical reenactment in the classroom dates back to the 1960s in the United Kingdom (Retz 2018) and to the 1980s in the United States. Several American scientists highlighted that these activities or events had more impact on learning than dramatization, since they enabled an almost full immersion and empathic understanding of the historical moment being represented (Turner 1985). If performed with the required preparation and time, reenactment ensures pupils gain a broad, in-depth knowledge based on relevant sources and on adopting a historical perspective: "Simpler reenactments can involve students and teachers intellectually. Such intellectual involvement promotes better attention, interest, concern, reaction, and evaluation. [...] This activity can be an essential power for learning history and understanding contemporary social situations" (Turner 1985, p. 221). Turner and other authors in their more recent works advise using appropriate themes for young people that are related to their identity and local or regional heritage; simple, clear events with well-known characters or phenomena that have an impact on their emotions and end satisfaction, and pay attention to the importance of the location, the facilities, the program, the atmosphere or the ambience (López Cruz and Cuenca López 2014; Carneiro et al. 2019).

Nowadays, digitalization and new technologies, such as green screens, have enabled the introduction of reenactments in the classroom (Sheffield and Swan 2012), which is highly recommended for school settings. The process becomes far more GOALeffective if we add auditory immersion to visual immersion, since historically recreating sound may serve as an educational aid, as a primary source and emotional stimulus (Carneiro et al. 2019), by listening to or playing music (Goering and Burenheide 2010).

A recently published monograph on the relationship between violent pasts and reenactments analyzes their popularity and how this relates to the capacities and skills to think or make think historically that can be found in reenactors and spectators, and on the possible link between formal and informal education that come together as a result of these initiatives (Grever and Nieuwenhuyse 2020).

"In the 1970s, the term 'public history' gradually became acknowledged as a historical sub-discipline. Public history became institutionalized with the founding of graduate programmes, specific journals, and associations. [...]"

"As the observer of the past is always situated in a present which influences his/her view of the past, historical thinking is also about building an understanding of and reflecting on the complex relationship between past, present, and future. [ ... ] In formal history education at secondary schools, historical thinking has increasingly been adopted as the main aim of the school subject. In the history curricula of provinces, states, and countries such as British Columbia (Canada), California (United States), Flanders (Belgium), the Netherlands, Sweden, England, and Finland, historical thinking and historical reasoning occupy the centre stage (see particularly the related chapters in Metzger and Harris 2018)". (Grever and Nieuwenhuyse 2020, pp. 487–89)

Although we need to distinguish between professional and amateur reenactment (Brædder 2019)—or, as already mentioned, between reenactment and evocation or commemoration (Español-Solana et al. 2020)—we cannot ignore that some theorists oppose the idea that reenactments may be an appropriate educational tool for the subject of history, or for true knowledge of our discipline, since they often lead to disappointment, or dilute what is represented (Cook 2004; Handler and Saxton 1988). While no simulation of the past can obviously be perfect, some movies for television and theaters have paid special attention to production and language, and have even consulted and hired expert historians to make reenactments as close to actual events as possible. Nevertheless, according to Cook, they will never be the same, since many emotional, contextual, behavioral, and attitudinal issues are impossible to reproduce: "The challenge is to find a way of illustrating critical engagement with the past in a manner that captures the imagination of a lay audience—an audience that may well be eager for dramatic narrative and impatient with ambiguity and contention" (Cook 2004, p. 495).

For this reason, some authors that have interviewed professional reenactors specialized in several historical stages have found they are inspired by a passion for learning focused on others, on themselves, and on scientific material itself.

"Against these criticisms, scholars with a more social-constructionist approach have ventured that the essentialist distinction between authentic and inauthentic is untenable [...] Reenactment may have a genuine investigative dimension in which the quest for authenticity is not solely about dramatising an already wellknown past but generating new knowledge through the activity itself (Crang 1996, pp. 419–20; Cook 2004, pp. 487–88)". (Brædder et al. 2017, pp. 172–73)

It is authenticity (Handler and Saxton 1988; Brædder et al. 2017), or its most scientific approximation, that makes these reenactments truly good learning practices and enables them to attain considerable verisimilitude or legitimacy, auctoritas or prestige. In conclusion, it involves more in-depth knowledge than what can typically be taught in the classroom (Wineburg 2018, p. 100).

#### *2.2. Socializing Knowledge through Historical Reenactment and Its Didactic Use*

Researchers unanimously support the idea that history should be reconstructed with the most rigor—by avoiding anachronism or presentism—, with fixed criteria and clear concepts regarding the actions and materials to be used, and without ruling out the possibility of documenting the reconstructive process based on prior research in line with scientific methods—as occurs with experimental archaeology—to serve as the foundation for the process (Egberts 2014; Del Barco Díaz 2010; Cózar Llistó 2013; Robinson and Yerbury 2015; Español-Solana 2019b; Felices de la Fuente and Hernández Salmerón 2019; Jardón Giner and Pérez Herrero 2019; Corral Lafuente 2019; Agnew and Tomann 2019).

On the one hand, collective memory, knowledge socialization, and the participatory learning of history and heritage are some of the drivers of this discipline and are still hard to find in some events and projects. Although a didactic methodology is not applied at all times, there is a will to educate based on research results (Rojas Rabaneda 2019). On the other, we refer to a didactic component that, when inserted into the training method of new teachers, through the theatrical representation of scenes from the past, offers them the chance to work on new cognitive skills in their pupils, such as stimulating their imagination and creativity, adopting their own identity within the community, or relating and promoting social attitudes and respect for heritage (De Paz Sánchez and Ferreras Listán 2010; Sandwell and von Heyking 2014); in short, adding values related to pupils' comprehensive education. Furthermore, the didactic use of dramatization is unquestionable, by adopting a global conception that can result in a complete historical reenactment. The adoption of drama techniques in the classroom will depend on pupils' interpretive skills. It will be further outlined as it develops into a series of specific forms: symbolic play, representation of roles, and theater (Motos Teruel and Navarro Amorós 2003; Kneebone and Woods 2014). It is no less true, however, that the use, or abuse, of dramatization in non-formal didactics does not encourage interactivity between reenactors and audiences, a key element in the educational process (Español-Solana 2019b).

From this point, we should explore the main methodological principles involved in inserting historical reenactment practices into formal settings (Robinson and Yerbury 2015) using historical thinking as a reference framework at all times (Lévesque 2009). This is crucial for understanding how important a role historical reenactment can play in history and heritage didactics. As Español-Solana (2019b) points out, we have to overcome the reductionism of materiality in order to convey broader paradigms linked to explaining ideas related to the historical time, such as change and continuity or causes and consequences (Barton 2017), among other second-order concepts. In fact, practice needs discourse, explanatory, and operational resources that transgress mere reenactment of material culture, since, otherwise, the educational practice we establish will have a modest impact. Along the same lines, some authors advocate the convenience of using an approach focused on experimentation and historical thinking (Agnew 2004, 2007; Lévesque 2009).

Empathy to put ourselves in the shoes of historical figures and infer their reasons and reactions (Hernàndez Cardona 2001; Retz 2018; Solé 2019) is also indispensable, as is emotion (Carneiro et al. 2019) in both reenactors and spectators (Español-Solana 2019b). The practice of drama, however, involves developing and controlling emotions, consciously exploring feelings and moods, pursuing Goleman's emotional education (Motos Teruel and Navarro Amorós 2003) and allowing the development of intrapersonal intelligence (Gardner 1993).

Teaching for comprehension also helps attain in-depth and significant knowledge (Ishee and Goldhaber 1990). To this end, new content should be linked with subjects' concepts and experiences, and their personal and social memory; this can be achieved by planning reenactment-based methods with useful undercurrents and experiential elements (Jiménez Torregrosa and Rojo Ariza 2014) that awaken pupils' curiosity and improve and expand their cognitive skills. Nevertheless, we cannot ignore that pupils are placed center stage in learning and that they will construct their own rational structures alongside their peers (Motos Teruel and Navarro Amorós 2003). All these aspects are fundamental in order to instill knowledge in pupils using active, constructivist, and discovery learning methods. In fact, historical reenactment—following the hands-on, minds-on, and hearts-on didactic principle—establishes methodologies in which pupils solve problems through research (Cardona Gómez and Feliu Torruella 2014; Rivero Gracia and Pelegrín Campo 2019; Felices de la Fuente and Hernández Salmerón 2019). All this involves thinking processes and is linked to skills such as reasoning, divergence (Hernàndez Cardona 2001), adaptation, and flexibility. The content to be taught needs to be problematized, while avoiding linking concepts or historical data that are not very attractive for learners (Español-Solana 2019b).

Another key factor in this process is creativity (Hernàndez Cardona 2001; Felices de la Fuente and Hernández Salmerón 2019), understood as interacting with the audience rather than relying on closed scripts (Español-Solana 2019b). Although it may prove controversial, some authors defend compatibility between flexibility and rigor (Motos Teruel and Navarro Amorós 2003), since both are needed for good historical reenactment. Pupils may also experience uchronic situations (Hernàndez Cardona 2001), or disciplined historical imagination (Solé 2019), which are perfectly valid in some contexts.

Cooperative work is another strength of this methodology (Robinson and Yerbury 2015). It promotes collective feeling and social interaction. Historical reenactment normally occurs in a group, working on the skill of connecting with other participants, which favors the development of interpersonal intelligence (Gardner 1993). In addition, designing and implementing a reenactment pose a challenge that encourages critical thinking (Thelen 2003).

From the perspective of heritage didactics, including methodologies based on reenactment fosters individuals' relationships with these assets regarding belonging, ownership, and identity (Fontal 2008; López Cruz and Cuenca López 2014), which, in turn, lead to more involvement and respect (Rivero Gracia and Campo 2015).

It is very positive that historical reenactment can be carried out directly on the scene, where it takes place. Heritage sites are ideal for explaining and understanding historical events and periods (Sebares Valle 2017), and contemplation and experimentation play an extremely important role in generating emotions and feelings that help us recognize the asset and identify with it (López Cruz and Cuenca López 2014; Felices de la Fuente and Hernández Salmerón 2019). This interest brings us closer to this heritage so we can overcome that image of opacity typical of cultural assets (Bardavio and González Marcén 2003).

A clear and definitive commitment must be made, by the different administrations and historical spaces, programming historical recreations as a way of socializing knowledge, as a way to improve and respect this local historical heritage. For this, we propose to flee from that mass and structured tourism that generates negative effects at all levels. It is necessary that quality mark the success or failure of an activity of this type, but rather the transmission and democratization of knowledge, in a community eager to obtain it, but seeking economic viability that implies prosperity of the territory and quality employment. For this, quality activities must be designed, with rigor and entertainment that provide the greatest cultural satisfaction to the visitor, trying to involve the local population in the whole process. But for a historical recreation project to be considered sustainable, from a tourism and social point of view, it must also take into account other aspects such as pollution, waste produced, or social discrimination, among many other factors of development settled by the 2030 Agenda. The 17 SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) marked the way to take action

just for education, equality, economic growth, improving communities, and responsible consumption. Governments, companies, and reenactors should lead these civic politics.

#### *2.3. Some Examples of Historical Reenactment Worldwide*

Besides this general approach to certain methodological factors, we must consider the advantages this cultural industry currently offers in non-formal settings, which are easy to include in any historical and heritage education program. There are now hundreds of Spanish and international historical reenactment projects combining all the necessary factors to construct an educational event, as outlined above (Figure 1). When planned in advance by teachers, they can be visited by groups of schoolchildren and form part of educational material and practice. Many of these projects are designed to offer a wide range of didactic possibilities, since they are suitable for a variety of audiences with differing educational levels. Some examples are outlined below.

**Figure 1.** Medieval reenactment in Aragón, Spain.

American Civil War reenactments are quite common. The Battle of Olustee (Florida), for example, is reenacted yearly with specialists and historians coming from all over the country to mark this historical event. One day is completely dedicated to students so they can interview the reenactors. Another example is the Battle of Gettysburg, which has brought together up to 30,000 reenactors. In Virginia (USA) there is a living museum called Colonial Williamsburg. It is a long-term project reproducing an eighteenth-century colonial city where visitors immerse themselves in a didactic space reconstructing all aspects of civil life in this period. It is similar to the British model reproduced at the Jorvik Viking Centre. Jorvik allows visiting the site reconstructed with areas of the old Viking settlement of York. This project has revolutionized the world's panorama of how to reconstruct down to the last detail—a phenomenon as complex as medieval military architecture, by showing the entire process. The largest and oldest association of reenactors, The Sealed Knot, is also in England. It was founded in 1968 by a group of soldiers who dress in seventeenth-century fashion.

In the Pacific, several maritime reenactments have been held with the help of the Polynesian Voyaging Society consisting in building ships and canoes to sail the ocean in a traditional manner. These reconstructions have had a considerable impact worldwide thanks to the documentaries on the topic and to the fact that, for decades, they were conceived as real research or technological and anthropological studies, despite the controversial views they elicited about their authenticity or the consideration toward native populations (Scanlan 2017).

In Russia, the Battle of Borodino, one of the most important events of Napoleon's French invasion of Russia, which happened in 1812, is reenacted yearly on the first Sunday of September. Another famous reenactment is that of the Battle of Kulikovo, that took place in 1380, which in 2016 held twenty consecutive editions.

In Europe, there are paradigmatic models such as Biskupin in Poland, which is the reconstruction of a settlement on an Iron Age site dating from the eighth century BC. This archaeological park combines activities for the general public through historical reconstruction and experimental archaeology, while it is still studied by archaeologists and historians as part of the dissemination offering. The Eketorp site in Sweden, dating from the fifth century, is similar; in this case, it is a mixed model that reconstructs ways of life and material culture. The reconstruction of the Iberian Citadel of Calafell and the transfer and subsequent reconstruction of the town El Cabo in Andorra, both in Spain, allow walking through streets and homes as they would have been in the pre-Roman period, thereby favoring historical reenactment as a means to spread awareness of the past. These examples fall under "open-air" or "open" models, which, following an increasingly popular philosophy, are pervading many management designs for heritage assets. This approach makes visitors participate in the work of archaeologists, architects, and specialists. These open-air museums include those known as archaeodromes, such as the Archeodromo di Poggibonsi in Italy, linked to the University of Siena. Major battles have also been reenacted in Europe, such as Waterloo (Belgium) and Bailén (Spain), part of the Napoleonic Wars, or the Battle of Hastings (United Kingdom) or the Normandy landings (France), from other periods.

The European Union has financed didactic actions as part of the Socrates program, fostering communication between school and society (De Paz Sánchez and Ferreras Listán 2010, pp. 531–32). In Portugal, the work on Lindoso Castle (Solé 2019) is worth highlighting, and in France, all the educational work around the new Guédelon Castle in Treigny, where, for over 20 years, they have been building ex novo strictly using materials, techniques, and procedures dating from the medieval period (twelfth and thirteenth centuries). The project was conceived as an open-air museum rooted in education and experimental archaeology, even though it is also an incentive to create jobs and a tourist attraction beyond compare; it is now an immense living museum. Several reenactments have been held in Italy for years inspired by both the Roman past and prehistoric cultures. Many projects promoted by the Emilia-Romagna region, and present on its website, such as Antiqva Italia, have tried to encourage a connection and training between involved operators, schools, and groups to implement good reenactment practices.

In Spain (Español-Solana 2019c), the best-known project of this kind is possibly "Open for works" by the Santa Maria Cathedral Foundation, in Vitoria (https://www. catedralvitoria.eus/). This is not a historical reconstruction model *per se*, but it successfully echoes the philosophy of this new dissemination and investigative trend in heritage. There are other important projects that schools are gradually recognizing as valuable means for history and heritage education, for example, Tarraco Viva Festival, which takes place in Tarragona every year, and Emerita Lvdica, in Mérida (Figure 2). The former was devised as an attraction for Tarragona's candidacy to become a World Heritage Site and it is now the city's most important heritage management project and, undoubtedly, the best known and most imitated in Spain. It attracts almost 200,000 visitors every year and its main purpose is to spread awareness of the Roman legacy on the peninsula. In Mérida, over 18 reenactment associations gathered in 2021, involving the local population and attracting

many visitors from elsewhere. These are just a few general examples that provide clues on how to tackle any educational project through organizational complexes, mostly managed by local authorities, in which historical reenactment is the primary educational technique.

**Figure 2.** Tarraco reenactment, Spain.

Peracense Siglo XIII, also in Spain, exhibits the link between historical reenactment and cultural heritage (Figure 3). This interesting reenactment focuses on studying, researching, and recreating the clothing, weapons, and ways of life of the former territory of the Crown of Aragon in the thirteenth century. Other activities are also held in Peracense, which fall under the umbrella of live interpretation (Solé 2019) involving face-to-face contact between reenactors and visitors.

#### *2.4. The Metaconcepts of History Instruction, the Key for Historical Reenactment*

There are values in history that are sometimes hard for teachers to explain and even harder for pupils to understand (Sandwell and von Heyking 2014). It is usually said that history helps understand the present and avoid repeating past "mistakes", but, in truth, society's thinking about current aims, problems, and challenges is not well-formed. This is one of the reasons why the discipline is now distancing itself from the very society it is meant to serve. Consequently, history needs to be given value "so that students find something truly valuable there that transforms how they think about the world and themselves" (Paricio Royo 2018, p. 233). The benefits of history instruction for society are more than evident with the change in methodology that helps develop critical thinking at the service of democratic citizens. This is not something people acquire naturally as they mature psychologically (Stueber 2002); instead, they need to learn a series of skills that have to be worked on in teaching (Gómez Carrasco et al. 2014; Soria López 2015). There is also an ethical, behavioral, and attitudinal learning that is extremely useful in molding personality and for community social life. The difference between this type of history and history learned by accumulating and memorizing information is significant.

**Figure 3.** Peracense reenactment, Spain.

Historical thinking allows individuals to approach history independently and construct their own representation of the past as it gives them a series of instruments to analyze, understand, and interpret this history (Rüsen 2005; Santisteban Fernández 2010). It is a creative process limited to interpreting the sources historians produce to create reliable historical narratives. Some concepts are key to developing these narratives: sources, historical relevance, causation, change and continuity, historical perspective, and the ethical dimension of history (Lévesque 2009; Seixas and Morton 2013; Paricio Royo 2020). Soria López (2015) considers that the conceptual proposal put forward by Santisteban, González, and Pagès—although her statement is also applicable to Seixas and Morton's—is a dynamic model consisting of elements that are all crucial and configured in relation to the others, even though it is not a sequence of steps to follow. Citizens need a reflective and critical view of the past so they can be aware of their actions and take responsibility for them. This is far from memorizing dates and historical content, a practice followed by some teachers, which does not entail any reflection or interpretation.

That is why history learning should be focused on research, inquiry, and problems with individuals needing to deal with historical facts and develop cognitive skills and procedures for understanding and explaining them (Cardona Gómez and Feliu Torruella 2014; Paricio Royo 2018). "Unfortunately, schools are not usually designed to acquaint students with such investigative processes. Usually, curriculum structures and instructional patterns are designed to transmit content (which students are expected to remember) or to teach isolated skills (which students are expected to practice)" (Barton 2017, p. 459).

Teachers/historians, let alone their pupils, no longer limit themselves to talking or writing (Plá 2005), even though this has mainly been the way of capturing thinking so far. Today, it is usual for teachers and historians to become involved in multiple practical and multimedia actions enabling pupils or the interested general public to know more and understand better by reflective thinking (Sandwell and von Heyking 2014; Franco-Calvo 2021).

Historical relevance involves reflecting on what and who should be remembered and why and, therefore, what and who should be studied. To this end, we need to analyze the social impact of the process, the importance contemporaries gave to it, how long the consequences lasted and continued, and what it reveals about our present (Seixas and Morton 2013; Rivero Gracia and Pelegrín Campo 2019). When a group decides to recreate a specific historical period, a choice has been made, determined by a variety of reasons. From then on, the group engages in an ongoing exercise of historical relevance: What do we want our reenactment to show? Which type of characters will appear in it? Which content do we want it to have and how? Should we focus on major events or everyday life? The reenactment generates a story of the past in which characters, events, and material culture all play a role in the historical narrative (Rüsen 2005).

"Given that historical reenactment is not a historical source, historical contents must be worked on using sources" (Jiménez Torregrosa and Rojo Ariza 2014, p. 38). The use of historical sources is significantly complex, since we cannot address them if we are incapable of interpreting their partiality or intentionality (Rüsen 2005). For that reason, we must be able to classify the sources based on their types, but also to analyze, evaluate, or compare them with other evidence (Barton 2017) so that we can use them to formulate hypotheses or solutions to the problems we have set ourselves. The rigor required in historical reenactments leads to using these sources to, as far as possible, document the event or activity to be recreated based on the information provided both in written documents and by archaeologists, who establish first-order evidence for reenactors in museums and cultural institutions. In general, there is a shortage of information that archaeology cannot fill. However, we must also consider that countless questions can be asked about these archaeological objects, and these questions are not exclusively concerned with the objects themselves, but also with their context, which includes the people that used them (Egea Vivancos and Arias Ferrer 2018).

Change and continuity are essential concepts shaping history in a constant back and forth, a coherent story about how the world transformed. The aim is not merely to point out changes between two points in history, but to link a narrative that establishes connections so that these changes make sense.

"An all-encompassing, yet in-depth view of not only change processes but also of diverse and sometimes opposing forces that have led to these changes, and of resistance and continuity factors, as well as the meaning of these series of changes and the very nature of change in history". (Paricio Royo 2018, p. 236)

As Paricio Royo (2018) also points out, this involves selecting the most relevant processes, but from a dynamic stance in which changes condition future actions, thus fostering new historical transformation processes with a display of forces that try to promote or slow down said processes. But we must also explore how this change manifests itself and how it is perceived by contemporaries, while analyzing everything remaining from the past and shaping the present, straddling both realities. We cannot ignore that all this contributes to gaining historical perspective—historians' distance from events—when attempting to explain the whys and wherefores of the past, the causes and consequences, and how events were viewed by their contemporaries (Barton 2017; Paricio Royo 2020).

A historical reenactment is an effective tool for appreciating changes in everyday objects that, by using similarities and differences, allow us to place their owners in time and space (Egea Vivancos and Arias Ferrer 2018). We need historical consciousness as it will help us assess and interpret these changes and continuities while promoting understanding of concepts such as periodization or simultaneity (Rüsen 2005). Historical consciousness is the consciousness of time as it is based on the relationships we establish between the present and the past (Santisteban Fernández 2010). Acquiring historical consciousness means accepting our situation in the world at a specific moment in the development of history we find ourselves in, where, based on that dynamic conception, we accept how fleeting our existence and way of life are (Paricio Royo 2018; Retz 2018).

The main instrument used in memorizing history is the unidirectional narrative. To escape this encyclopedic view, we have to break away from that use of narrative and take advantage of it to make the past understandable, while tackling problems linked to thinking historically (Rüsen 2005; Soria López 2015). Designing a historical narrative, in this case for historical reenactment, is no easy task if our aim is to develop historical thinking. Constructing a historical narrative involves using sources to produce a story that must be structured on an explanation of causes and consequences, which naturally involves seeking those causal connections. Why do events happen and what are their consequences?

The concept of historical empathy refers to the capacity to understand the attitudes and motives of past figures (González Monfort et al. 2009; Endacott and Brooks 2018; Paricio Royo 2019). Empathic understanding allows us to imbue other ways of life, experiences, norms, or past belief systems with meaning by putting ourselves in someone else's shoes and thereby explaining their decisions. There is a debate on whether emotional involvement is necessary or not in historical empathy exercises (Doñate Campos and Sarria 2019): defenders of improvement in the capacity to understand the emotional component against those remarking that this emotional involvement is not a form of historical reasoning (Paricio Royo 2019). Consequently, some confusion arises between the ambiguity of the terms empathy and sympathy. When conducting a rational study of the past, with no affective identification with the protagonists, or even understanding of events from an emotional standpoint, establishing the concept of historical perspective-taking was deemed necessary (Barton 2017; Paricio Royo 2020). This involves recognizing our own attitudes, beliefs, and intentions in a different historical and cultural context. We need to be able to differentiate between the past and the present by establishing a temporal distance that helps us recognize the reasons behind the actions (González Monfort et al. 2009), thereby overcoming presentism. Therefore, although empathy allows us to work on historical imagination, for it to have historical value, it must go hand in hand with contextualization (Santisteban Fernández 2010), with sources and evidence as its only starting point (Barton 2017; Paricio Royo 2019), and without forgetting that it is a process, as described by Foster, Ashby, Lee, and, more recently, others (Endacott and Brooks 2018, pp. 206, 209).

Based on these arguments we can ask ourselves: Is this not the aim of a historical reenactment? Of course it is. History can be learned by developing historical empathy through role-playing and hot-seating activities (Paricio Royo 2019), simulation (Hernàndez Cardona 2001; Kneebone and Woods 2014), recreating processes, or designing a reenactment (Rivero Gracia and Campo 2015), connecting with the more human part of history (Fontal 2008; Cardona Gómez and Feliu Torruella 2014). The more precise the historical reenactment is—approaching conditions similar to those in the past—the more empathic the experience will be. Can we really put ourselves in another's shoes? Can we feel what the protagonists of the events felt? This is one of the major problems, since empathy does not distinguish between cognitive and emotional elements. The answer to the above questions would obviously be "no" as this technique does not enable us to return to the past, but rather to interpret it (Rüsen 2005; Solé 2019). Although we are momentarily replicating an event, the society we live in is different from the one at that time, which is why our responses to stimuli will be too. Feeling safe despite the possible risks our actions may entail, and the possible presence of an audience, prevent us from thinking and acting as they did in the past, which distorts our reactions. We are limited by our way of understanding the world and we relate with others based on our own system of beliefs (Jiménez Torregrosa and Rojo Ariza 2014). But, without a doubt, historical reenactment is the best way of trying to experience history as it clarifies many of the questions we may have (Español-Solana and Franco-Calvo 2021b), always from a rational standpoint, although without excluding emotions and experiences (Paricio Royo 2019).

The ethical dimension, or historical consciousness, involves the present having its origin and acquiring significance in past eras, with societies in constant flux and individuals playing a role, so the past is part of that individual (Gómez Carrasco et al. 2014; Retz 2018). Can history help us experience the present? Historical reenactment can perform an extremely important function in historical consciousness by highlighting the changes that occurred in the past, showing how contemporaries might have experienced them, and the consequences of their action or inaction, so that we can accept the historicity of the world and our own reality in the present and future possibilities.

Some historical reenactments not only focus on the ways of life of the elite or events such as battles that are represented, everyday life is also shown, by approaching mentalities, culture, and economic activities (Felices de la Fuente and Hernández Salmerón 2019).

If the basic elements of historical thinking consist of considering historical problems based on their relevance and impact on societies, with historical consciousness and historical reasoning founded on a critical use of sources (Retz 2018; Gómez Carrasco et al. 2014), duly contextualized historical reenactment can undoubtedly help develop the typical skills of historical thinking (Felices de la Fuente and Hernández Salmerón 2019). A good reenactor will implement what we can call reenactment thinking, which involves a "reenactment method" (Cózar Llistó 2013; Español-Solana and Franco-Calvo 2021b) and a way of working that leads us to develop historical thinking. Taking the steps that Jiménez Torregrosa and Rojo Ariza (2014) establish for historical reenactment as a reference, we can observe the important relationship between the key concepts established to achieve historical thinking. Consequently, historical relevance determines the contextualization steps for the episode, including the selection of the historical moment and the event to be recreated, and the choice of characters to be protagonists and secondary figures. Concepts such as change, continuity, and causation are present in the timing stages and in the choice of setting and propos within the narrative to establish, in which historical time will also play an essential role. Historical perspective and historical consciousness are connected in order to answer questions that help understand historical empathy such as: How did the protagonists feel? How would we feel and behave in similar situations? How do the decisions made impact the present?

#### **3. Final Reflections and Conclusions**

As mentioned above, the concept of historical thinking has been one of the newest and most interesting approaches in history instruction since the end of the twentieth century. Its origins are in the English-speaking world, in works by authors such as Dickinson, Lee, and Denis Shemilt. Later, it continued in the United States (Wineburg and VanSledright) and in Canada (Seixas and Lévesque), with slight variations between them. Interesting theoretical approaches are also being produced in Spain by Domínguez, Santisteban, Gómez, and Paricio, who have helped its use become more widespread.

The possibilities of historical reenactment in formal and non-formal education are immense. Its use involves applying methods that we could call new but have been around in practice for years. Historical reenactment, either observed or designed by pupils, allows them to develop a type of thinking that we have termed reenactment thinking, which, in turn, helps them develop historical and critical thinking.

This way of working on and analyzing history as a professional team leads to significant, contextualized, active, and dynamic learning, set in heritage sites, and it creates democratic citizens who opt to appreciate history and past culture for the values they contribute to society.

Consequently, as they are experiential, historical reenactments are becoming an effective didactic tool at historical monuments, and they are fostering increased interest at universities due to their accurate portrayals, alongside other characteristics such as the motivation, emotion, and the quality they achieve or their contribution to disseminating heritage. The tourism that takes place in these heritage spaces can have a huge economic, sociocultural and environmental impact, so it is necessary to establish a sustainable tourism that is compatible with the precepts established by the 2030 Agenda. We believe that historical reenactment can, perfectly, meet those criteria established with the 17 SDGs (specifically

04, Quality Education; 05, Gender Equality; 08, Decent Work and Economic Growth; 11, Sustainable Cities and Communities; & 12 Responsible Consumption and Production) and become a good practice for our communities and students.

In short, a good historical reenactor will be able to evaluate the relevance of events and the characters involved in them; manage to put themselves into past figures' shoes to understand their motives and actions; analyze the causes and consequences of the events; gain a perspective of the facts by considering alternatives to what happened—all in meticulous detail through a historical narrative created using sources and evidence and based on the research of material and intellectual culture. From these reenacted visions, the public will learn history more completely, more effectively, and more lastingly. There is no denying the contribution reenactments make to our discipline: teaching and learning History.

**Author Contributions:** All authors have contributed equally to the writing of the article. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** Investigation Group S50\_20R: ARGOS, Aragón Government, Spain. Grupo de Investigación S50\_20R: ARGOS, Gobierno de Aragón, España.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** Not applicable.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Not applicable.

**Acknowledgments:** Article written as part of the work performed by Argos Group, from the IUCA Institute of Research, University of Zaragoza, Spain.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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## *Article* **What Do School Children Know about Climate Change? A Social Sciences Approach**

**Álvaro-Francisco Morote 1,\* and María Hernández <sup>2</sup>**

**Abstract:** One of the subject areas that is currently most prominent in the field of education (Social Science) is climate change, given its implications for raising awareness and training the present and future society. The objectives of this study, focused on school children (Primary Education—10 to 12 years old; third cycle, Secondary Education—12–16 years old; and pre-university, Baccalaureate— 17–18 years old) in the Region of Valencia (Spain), are to analyse the following: the main information channels through which children receive information on climate change; the causes and consequences that they identify with respect to this phenomenon; and the main greenhouse gas that they believe is in the atmosphere. Based on the 575 students surveyed during the academic year 2020–2021, the results indicate that the three main information media are digital (TV—82.8%, Internet—56.2% and social networks—49.4%). With respect to the causes of the phenomenon identified by the students, particularly noteworthy was pollution (70.1%) and, in terms of the effects, the increase and changes in temperature (61.7%) were of particular note. Finally, with reference to greenhouse gases, the majority responded CO2 (63.5%). This is incorrect, as the main greenhouse gas in the atmosphere is water vapour. To sum up, we can highlight the role played by schools in training the future society and the risk arising from an increase in the information received from digital media by children as they grow older, due to the danger of misinformation.

**Keywords:** climate change; school; media; Social Sciences; Geography

#### **1. Introduction**

One of the main challenges faced by the society of the twenty-first century is global warming, as expressed in the Sixth Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC 2022). This report highlights the importance of adapting to this phenomenon due to its effects, such as the increase in temperature, the loss of climate comfort or the intensification and greater frequency of extreme weather phenomena (floods and droughts). Therefore, raising awareness and rigorously teaching about climate change is in everyone's interest, but is of particular concern for the educational environment (Jeong et al. 2021; Masters 2020; Nelles and Serrer 2020; Verlie and Blom 2021), as, in part, the future of society depends on increasing our knowledge about this serious problem (Borhaug 2021; Ferrari et al. 2019; Kurup et al. 2021; Morote and Olcina 2021a). The latter authors consider that the challenge of addressing global warming and climate change in education (Social Sciences) should be focused on by including informed decision making in classroom practices.

Regarding the research problem addressed here (teaching and climate change), for decades, different authors (Benejam 1997; Fien 1992) have described the urgent need to discuss world problems in schools (including climate change issues) through the Didactics of Social Sciences, in its different scales. Furthermore, the content of climate change is among of the most controversial that must be explained in social science classes (Ho and

**Citation:** Morote, Álvaro-Francisco, and María Hernández. 2022. What Do School Children Know about Climate Change? A Social Sciences Approach. *Social Sciences* 11: 179. https://doi.org/10.3390/ socsci11040179

Academic Editors: Helen F. Ladd and Nigel Parton

Received: 13 January 2022 Accepted: 11 April 2022 Published: 13 April 2022

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**Copyright:** © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).