Centre for Didactics of History and Civics
History and society are mutually closely interwoven – what happened today will be a past event tomorrow. Through the teaching of history and civics we learn about values created by humankind, understand the society we live in and the links between the present-day and the past problems. Therefore teachers of history and civics are traditionally educated together.
First of all, the preparation of teachers of history and civics in the 1920s-1930s engaged Prof. Peeter Treiberg (Tarvel), lecturer Johannes Adamson; in the 1940s – 1960s Docent Leida Loone and in the 1960s up to the 1990s Docents Allan Liim and Hillar Palamets, the latter is also the author of numerous methodological treatments. In the re-established Republic of Estonia, teacher training in the Institute was conducted by lecturers Pille Valk (1990-1995), Urmas Klaas (1996-1998) and Anu Raudsepp (since 1998)
In order to more efficiently contribute to the conducting of study and research work in training teachers of history and civics, in 2008 the Centre for Didactics was set up at the Institute (since 2010 Centre for Didactics of the Teaching of History and Civics). The Centre is managed by Associate Professor Anu Raudsepp, PhD.
The main areas of activity of the Centre for the Teaching of History and Civics are:
Compiling didactic study materials on history and civics and publishing them in the series “History in Class” (www.raudpats.ee ).
International cooperation, e.g., participating in the teacher training project of the European Council 2010-2012 (http://www.che.itt-history.eu/). Another topical projects are the EU Culture Project EMEE EuroVisionMuseumsexhibitingEurope (2012-2014, the Department of Didactics of History of Augsburg University, coordinator Prof. Susanne Popp, PhD) and The European Commission`s Lifelong Learning Programme, Project Colonisation and Decolonisation in National History Cultures and Memory Politics in European Perspective/ “CoDec”. Reference number 539448-LLP-1-2013-DE-COMENIUS-CMP (01.10.1013-30.09.2015, coordinated by Prof. Bärbel Kuhn, University of Siegen).
Cooperation with the Estonian Association of Teachers of History and Civics in the area of teachers’ in-service training, evaluation of results of competitions as in students’ research papers on history as well as in teachers’ methodological materials etc.