Was Columbus a genocidal? Problem-based Learning in Teaching history and historical thinking. Analysis of an experience in 3rd year of Compulsory Secondary Education

Abstract

In a society in which access to information is direct, immediate and without filters, it is absolutely essential that, from the educational system, and more specifically from the teaching of social sciences, students are provided with the necessary tools so that are able to question all the information they receive and can create their own opinion about it. However, the teaching model that, in general, is used in history classes is not usually aimed at creating that critical reasoning or fostering historical thinking. To mitigate these deficiencies, the use of problem-based learning is proposed so that, using the scientific method of history itself, students learn the compulsory contents that mark the curriculum, while solving a very controversial issue: Was Columbus a genocidal?