Exploring the Perceptions of Junior High School Students Towards Historical Texts

Understanding how students perceive learning world history through historical texts is an underdeveloped area of research in the field of history education. As such, this study investigated how secondary students perceive learning world history as content of Araling Panlipunan (AP) through historical texts. This study employs an exploratory sequential mixed-methods design involving 123 junior high school students to determine their perceptions of using historical texts in studying world history as a content area of AP. Semi-structured interviews and surveys were administered to obtain data about their perceptions of historical texts in their classes. Findings show that perceptions of the use of historical texts are influenced by the content and layout of the reading material, how these texts are utilized in class, and students' interest in and perceived relevance of the text's content. Building on this, the development and use of historical texts must be carefully undertaken to achieve positive results.