Inquiry Based Learning as a recommended approach for controversial historical issues teaching. Action research with pre-service teachers in Greece

Controversial past, besides its importance for historical education, raises a set of questions unknown to teachers" teaching-pedagogical reference model. For this purpose, collaborative investigation is expected to be a suitable reference model for teaching Controversial Historical Issues. This current research concerns to a suggested approach to educate pre-service teachers on teaching controversial issues through modern collaborative teaching practices. A six-month program based on the basic principles of Inquiry Based Learning, related to Occupation-Resistance-Civil War thematic, has been implemented with fourteen pre-service teachers. Data qualitative analysis showed that participants get familiarized with strategies and learning tools that help children draw valid conclusions, learn to source practices, and conduct their own enriched narrations about the controversial past. The major benefits and potential difficulties have also been recognized. After all, this training experience strengthens their perceived self-efficacy since they acknowledge that collaborative investigation is an effective approach to organize your own learning.