This study investigates to what extent the popular online gaming platform called Kahoot can be used as a creative and effective tool to promote motivation, engagement and meaningful learning. For this purpose, a quasi-experimental study was conducted with a sample of 101 undergraduate students of education who participated in online Kahoot quizzes by designing their own questions as part of the formative assessment. According to the results of the pre- and post-tests, the integration of this game-based student response system into the teaching process improved students’ perception of certain concepts in social science teaching, increased their active participation in the lesson, and motivated them towards learning in a more interactive and stimulating environment. Therefore, it is recommended to take gamification to a whole new level with attractive digital participation platforms to increase motivation and enhance students’ learning experience in higher education contexts.

This study investigates the effects of the flipped classroom on Education students’ perceptions of their learning and motivation during the current pandemic. The sample consisted of 179 student teachers from the Faculty of Education of the University of Murcia in the academic year 2020–2021, in which the flipped classroom model was implemented. Identical surveys were administered and examined through both descriptive statistics and non-parametric tests. Statistically significant differences were found between pre-tests and post-tests with experienced students scoring higher on average in the latter. Most students had a positive perception about the flipped classroom, noting the advantage of practical in-class activities, as well as increased self-autonomy in learning.

The aim of this paper is to analyze what historical knowledge teachers are assessing and how they are assessing it in compulsory education in Spain. For this purpose, 359 exams and 3127 questions have been used in the Region of Murcia (Spain) in the courses in which history is mainly taught: 3rd Cycle of Primary Education, and 1st, 2nd and 4th Cycles of Compulsory Secondary Education. We have analyzed the type of exercises, the content evaluated, the cognitive skills required to answer the questions, and the presence of concepts about history of first and second order. The results show the predominance of questions that require rote-learning of conceptual-factual knowledge, with a great lack of procedures.

Research on heritage education has progressed remarkably and a large number of studies point to a greater presence of active methodologies and the use of resources and primary sources in the classroom. At this point it seems important to investigate the perceptions and experiences of future history and social science teachers. Thus, this paper studies the value that 506 Spanish and English teachers in initial training place on heritage and its presence in the teaching-learning process of history, as well as their views on the existing connections between methodological perceptions and the use of cultural heritage in the classroom. It is a non-experimental descriptive and quantitative study with data collected through questionnaire. This questionnaire was built ad hoc to analyze the opinions and perceptions of teachers in initial training about history education in Secondary Education. The results show that teachers in initial training value highly or very highly the use of cultural heritage in Secondary Education to promote active methodologies, the critical teaching of history, and the development of historical skills. Teachers in training in Spain value more highly the use of heritage than English teachers. While English teachers in training value more highly the resolution of problems through historical documentary sources, Spanish teachers rate the emotional and motivational aspects higher.

History education research has long defended a transformation of the teaching and learning process in order to overcome the repetitive and conceptual learning of history, advocating an approach based on the development of historical thinking. Gamification is an innovative educational tool which may facilitate the learning of historical thinking concepts in the classroom. The objective of this quasi-experimental research was to verify whether the learning of history of 4th year primary school children improved following the implementation of a gamified project in the classroom compared with a control group which followed a traditional methodology. For this purpose, the learners completed a mixed performance test before and after the classroom intervention. The results showed significant differences in the intergroup (posttest) and intragroup (pretest–posttest) comparisons. This research may serve as a reference point for promoting the implementation of gamification in the primary classroom, and for orienting teacher training programmes towards an epistemological and methodological change.

El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar las percepciones de los docentes de Educación Secundaria en formación sobre el patrimonio y su rol en la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de la historia. Se ha seleccionado la información de esta temática del cuestionario titulado "Opinión y percepción del profesorado en formación inicial sobre el aprendizaje de la historia y la evaluación de competencias históricas". La muestra la componen 506 estudiantes del Máster de Formación del Profesorado de Educación Secundaria en España (344) y del Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) y el Teach First en Inglaterra (162). Participaron 22 universidades: 13 españolas y 9 inglesas. Los datos han sido codificados en el programa estadístico SPSS v21.0, y se ha realizado un análisis descriptivo, tablas de contingencia, pruebas estadísticas y correlaciones. Los resultados muestran una estrecha vinculación entre la valoración positiva del patrimonio, el uso de metodologías activas de aprendizaje y una concepción epistemológica de la historia como saber crítico.