“What do I have to know to teach History well?” Knowledge and expertise in History teaching – a proposal

Abstract

Recent international research has made it clear that empirical educational research and investigations of individual subject didactics are paying increasing attention to the quality of History teachers. History didactics is now attempting to answer one of the key questions about the professionalization of History teachers: How does expertise arise from knowledge and what does it take to teach History well and effectively? This contribution presents the Heidelberg Model for Competence in History Teaching (Heidelberger Geschichtslehrerkompetenzmodell: HeiGeKo) in an attempt to initiate an international discussion about domainspecific profiling of professional conduct in History teaching from theoretical, research methodological, and pragmatic perspectives.