독일 김나지움 졸업시험 아비투어(Abitur)의 역사시험 문제

Abstract

A recent trend in the Public Teacher Appointment Examination of South Korea seems to reflect an effort to change the examination from the multiple-choice pattern into an essay-type pattern which tests one's writing capacity. A review of history education in other countries may provide important insights to South Korea. In this context, this article introduces the Abitur history test question, which is a partial requirement for the degree of Gymnasium (equivalent to high school diploma in Korea) in Germany. This paper also presents “The Unified Administration Guide on the History Curriculum of the Abitur,” a decision by the Conference of the Cultural Ministers of the Federal Republic of Germany. With this ‘Administration Guide,’ one can understand not only the pattern and contents of the history test but also the aim of history education in Germany. In the Federal Republic of Germany, the goal of history education is to enhance students’ understanding of history, i.e., to help develop students' ‘capacity to interprete history independently.’ This includes ‘the fact competence (Sachkompetenz), ’the methods competence (methodskompetence),‘ and ’the competence of judgment.’ In order to evaluate the examinee’s competence, it also requires three levels of understanding. The first level is the reproduction or summary of knowledge; the second requires reorganization and transfer; and the third includes reflection and problem solving. From the first level to the third, the degree of difficulty and independence ascends. A clear distinction of the German Abitur history examination from that of South Korea is that the former demands the examinee's competence in reasoning and judgement. And that has a very important implication for the history examination system in South Korea.