| Compared to areas of Science, Engineering and Mathematics, we do not know much about learning in the Humanities, especially in historically oriented fields. This study explored the role of beliefs, like how we know what we know, on students' learning in a Religious Studies class on 'American History of Religion Post-Civil War' at a large Midwest research oriented institution. The class employed a case-oriented approach to teaching and utilized a web-based hypertext system that represented the content in a non-linear fashion and allowed students to add their own research projects.;The class was designed to support a different experience of learning history, not as the memorization of timelines, events, and places, but as an interpretative act answering the question "What was going on at a particular case?" The inquiry was supported by primary documents primarily from eyewitness accounts. The research utilized qualitative research methodologies, in particular analytical induction, to analyze the essays and two interviews with 22 student participants. Through a repeating process of coding and comparing codes, several themes and categories were identified.;Results show that students felt that single perspectives in the cases became deeper and that the case-based teaching approach let them experience underlying 'psychological' factors that influence the course of history. Additional findings show that students' beliefs were very contextual, meaning that they were dependent on if topics were emotionally close to them or not, and often played a crucial role in their learning progress. The study indicates that learning processes in history are more complex than previously conceptualized. |
