Student understanding of causation in History in relation to specific subject matter - Causes behind the scramble for Africa

The purpose of this paper is to contribute with knowledge for what students might need to learn to master casual reasoning regarding specific subject matter (the scramble for Africa). The History-didactical framework originates from the Historical Thinking tradition. Data has been derived from a Learning Study and consists of a total number of 138 pre- and post-assessments. Results showed the following aspects to be critical for the participating students' ability to reason on causation in relation to the scramble: 1. Discern that the scramble had causes. 2. Discern that claims for what caused the scramble need support from evidence. 3. Discern that the scramble had both long-term and short-term causes. 4. Discern the chronological structure relating to the scramble not to confuse causes and consequences. 5. Discern that the scramble had composite causes of differing importance. 6. Discern that the scramble was caused by interaction between societal structures and the actions from historical actors. A value in these findings is that they can contribute with empirically tested knowledge for what students might need to learn when causation is investigated in relation to specific subject matter. Another value is that the critical aspects found are extracted through a combined analysis of the character of the ability, curricular demands and the analysis of students' conceptions before and after research-lessons. Thereby they can hopefully support planning and implementation of teaching