Fostering engagement and historical understanding with a digital learning environment in secondary education

The use of educational technology and digital learning environments in secondary education can offer multiple opportunities to go beyond the traditional approach frequently used in history education. This paper provides the result of a three-week intervention in two Spanish public schools with 86 fourth-year compulsory secondary education history students. The study examined the results of the implementation of a digital learning environment about the Spanish transition to democracy, and analyzed the effects of an intervention focused on the development of historical understanding and the use of digitized historical sources in student engagement and knowledge acquisition. Data obtained through the use of questionnaires were examined quantitatively and qualitatively using a mixed methods approach and different categories. Participants reported a positive perception of the methodological approach used during the sessions and high student engagement levels were detected after the intervention, which was supplemented by improvement in knowledge acquisition after the intervention. It is concluded that the intervention allowed students to become more engaged in a traditional discipline such as history by using a disciplinary approach, and that the use of the digital learning environment was useful in promoting historical understanding about the period under examination.