Estonia

Contact
 
Eesti Ajaloo- ja Ühiskonnaõpetajate Selts
The Estonian History and Civics Teachers’ Association
Tiiu Ojala

Kaare 12
EE - 65605 Võru
Phone/Fax: +372-7825677
Email: tiiuojala@hot.ee
Homepage: http://jelek3.havike.eenet.ee/aja/
About the organisation
The Estonian History Teachers´ Association is a non-governmental organisation. It was founded in 1993 by history teachers from different counties and cities. Members of the association are history teachers and educators from Estonian and Russian Language Schools. The main aim of the association is to support and to develop history education in Estonia.
The history competition
The aims of the competition "Õpilaste Ajalooalased Uurimistööd" is to reflect on the national history and values; the preservation and continuation of connections between the generations; to deepen the students’ interest in history, widen their mental horizon, and to develop their academic skills. The competition fits into a long-standing Estonian tradition of teaching local history. Nonetheless, students’ research on this subject had never been a competitive discipline. In this respect, the competition is, indeed, groundbreaking and very different from our previous work.
Other activities
In order to realise its aims, EAS is organising conferences, seminars, summer days, in-service training courses for teachers, excursions and other activities for teachers. Through different projects we have developed and are developing teaching material: The Baltic History Textbook and Sourcebook (with the Council of Europe, Latvia and Lithuania), a handbook for teachers on 20th century history (with Latvia and EUROCLIO). The association together with EUROCLIO also undertakes a three-year project to develop teaching material for multicultural schools. Teachers are supported to participate in international conferences and seminars.
Requirements
The competition is open to students in grades 7-9 and 10-12. Individual and group papers are accepted. The submissions should be printed on paper (A4). If possible, a computer disc with a copy of the research paper should also be presented. Any additional materials (schemes, charts, photocopies etc.) can be presented inside the text or at the end of the paper. VCR or sound tapes as well as CDs can also be added. Help from tutors is accepted.
Jury
The jury is made up of members of different scientific institutions. Members of the organisational committee do not belong to the jury. The jury determines the best papers and makes its decisions regarding prizes as well as recommendations about the presentation of papers during the conference/award ceremony and the publication of the submissions. Deciding on the evaluation standards for the competition requires particular scrutiny, because any kind of biased or unfair decisions have to be avoided. For that reason, the jury has to read the submissions without knowing the authors’ names.
Evaluation
Evaluation criteria are:

  • resourcefulness and originality in finding and approaching one’s research subject
  • variety and originality of sources (unpublished material)
  • reliability of sources
  • ability to link different material, to assess it, draw conclusions and parallels
  • composition of paper: subtopics/subthemes, introduction, conclusion, bibliography
  • use of sources.
Award
There are three main cash prizes for the students in both age groups.
1st prize: 2,000 Estonian Crowns (125 €)
2nd prize: 1,500 Estonian Crowns (94 €)
3rd prize: 1,000 Estonian Crowns (63 €)
The tutors of the best research works were awarded with six prizes, 1,000 Estonian Crowns each. In addition to the cash prizes, the jury gives book awards to the students and their tutors. All participants receive a letter of thanks signed by the President of Estonia