THE MECHANISM FOR DEVELOPING HISTORICAL THINKING OF PRE-SERVICE HISTORY TEACHERS THROUGH VIRTUAL MUSEUMS: MODULAR CONTENT, PEDAGOGICAL MODEL AND ASSESSMENT CRITERIA

Abstract

The digital transformation of education requires future history teachers not only to know historical facts but also to select, critically evaluate and didactically adapt digital sources. Although virtual museums offer rich material for this purpose, their mere availability does not guarantee the development of historical thinking. This study aimed to develop a mechanism for fostering the historical thinking of pre-service history teachers through virtual museums and to test its effectiveness experimentally. The study drew on systemic, competency-based, activity-based, context-and-source, constructive, axiological and reflective approaches; theoretical analysis and modelling were combined with a three-stage pedagogical experiment conducted in 2024–2026 at three Uzbek universities with 438 students (experimental group n = 217; control group n = 221). The didactic potential of virtual museums was specified in five priority areas: work with historical sources, critical evaluation of digital resources, transformation of visual evidence into learning tasks, reflective analysis and academic integrity. The content was structured as a system of five interrelated modules, and a pedagogical model comprising target, content, organisational and diagnostic blocks was supplemented with six methodological tools and supported by the MEROSNOMA mobile application. Historical thinking was assessed by cognitive, procedural and integrative criteria. At the end of the experiment, the proportion of students at the high level was 36.9% in the experimental group versus 26.2% in the control group, and Pearson’s χ² test confirmed statistically significant differences (χ² = 11.18–19.07 > 5.991; α = 0.05). The findings indicate that virtual museums become effective for developing historical thinking when embedded in a structured mechanism that moves students from describing exhibits to analysing them and transforming them into school learning tasks.