Empathy as a didactic resource for historical personalities' treatment in Primary Education

La empatía como recurso didáctico para el tratamiento a las personalidades históricas en la Educación Primaria

Abstract

This article reflects on the importance of the teaching of the History of Cuba at the primary educational level at the present time. Emphasis is placed on the role played by historical empathy, as a didactic resource to consider in the treatment of historical personalities under study in the programs of the subject History of Cuba in fifth and sixth grades. The teaching of the History of Cuba in de Cuban school must maximize the formative values. This implies great challenges, which is why it is necessary to organize the learning activity through the use of procedures and resources that stimulate the logical processes of thought, that train student learners in the search and assessment of knowledge in independent work and therefore that encourage the development of critical thinking. The study of the different historical personalities to lead students to identify with the main contributions, qualities, feelings, points of view, of the men and women who risked their lives for a common good. But this content must be expressed in such a way that it contains a meaning for the primary school, that enables the establishment of affective relationships, the formation of feelings and emotions and that this  together with historical knowledge continues regulatory elements of will and behavior.