Although history standards generally aim at developing historical consciousness among secondary school students, there is not much research-based knowledge to support making connections between the past, the present and the future in history teaching. This study examines the effects of teaching analogous cases of an enduring human issue in two experimental conditions: one in which grade 10-12 students (n = 460) were actively encouraged to compare cases and to draw analogies with the present and one in which students studied cases without making comparisons or drawing analogies with the present (n = 273). Set against the results of a group of students who followed the usual history curriculum (n = 289), multilevel regression analyses on the collected data revealed that both experimental conditions positively affected students’ appraisals of the relevance of history, more so in the ‘case-comparison’ condition than in the ‘separate-case’ condition. Students in the case-comparison condition also deemed the lesson course more valuable and experienced less difficulty with the applied pedagogical approach than students in the separate-case condition. Case comparison did not negatively affect the acquisition of historical factual knowledge. Implications for further research are discussed.
Peat swamp forests in Southeast Asia are under heavy pressure. Deforestation, forest degradation, wildfires, and drainage have damaged or destroyed substantial areas of the once extensive peat swamp forest formations. Several efforts are underway to rehabilitate degraded peat forests areas in order to restore some of the valuable ecosystem services these forested areas once provided. However, these efforts often result in (mixed)-plantations that only partly resemble the original peat forests. Information about these peat swamp forests' complex origin and ecology is needed to improve restoration outcomes further. Our paper analyses historical data from coastal peat swamp forests in Sarawak and Brunei and discusses the potential to use this as the reference value for intact peat forests. We describe the observed stand structure and species composition for pristine peat swamp forest, and we analyze the population structure of three dominant peat swamp forest species: Gonystylus bancanus (ramin), Dactylocladus stenostachys (jongkong) and Shorea albida (alan batu). We compare the historical data with data from recently measured, degraded peat swamp forests. We discuss our results in relation to processes of peat dome formation, nutrient availability and hydrology, and give recommendations for peat swamp forest management and restoration.
MULTIFILE
SIA-RAAK gefinancierd MKB onderzoeksproject gericht op het onderzoeken van de vraag: hoe historische gebouwen energiezuiniger en comfortabeler kunnen worden gemaakt zonder monumentale waarden onevenredig aan te tasten.
In summer 2020, part of a quay wall in Amsterdam collapsed, and in 2010, construction for a parking lot in Amsterdam was hindered by old sewage lines. New sustainable electric systems are being built on top of the foundations of old windmills, in places where industry thrived in the 19th century. All these examples have one point in common: They involve largely unknown and invisible historic underground structures in a densely built historic city. We argue that truly circular building practices in old cities require smart interfaces that allow the circular use of data from the past when planning the future. The continuous use and reuse of the same plots of land stands in stark contrast with the discontinuity and dispersed nature of project-oriented information. Construction and data technology improves, but information about the past is incomplete. We have to break through the lack of historic continuity of data to make building practices truly circular. Future-oriented construction in Amsterdam requires historic knowledge and continuous documentation of interventions and findings over time. A web portal will bring together a range of diverse public and private, professional and citizen stakeholders, each with their own interests and needs. Two creative industry stakeholders, Yume interactive (Yume) and publisher NAI010, come together to work with a major engineering office (Witteveen+Bos), the AMS Institute, the office of Engineering of the Municipality of Amsterdam, UNESCO NL and two faculties of Delft University of Technology (Architecture and Computer Science) to inventorize historic datasets on the Amsterdam underground. The team will connect all the relevant stakeholders to develop a pilot methodology and a web portal connecting historic data sets for use in contemporary and future design. A book publication will document the process and outcomes, highlighting the need for circular practices that tie past, present and future.
