In the context of rapidly changing educational environment, the Department of History is facing various difficulties. One is that students do not choose history subjects, and the other is that history departments are at a disadvantage in the curriculum organization.
To solve the former problem, we will need to know why students don’t choose history subjects. Therefore, a survey was conducted to find out the students’ perception of the history elective subject. The subjects of the survey were 349 students in the first and second grades of D High School, a leading high school credit system. After preparing a questionnaire through a preliminary survey, the main questionnaire was conducted, and the questionnaire was divided into groups according to the learning conditions of the students.
As a result, first, the biggest reason that students do not choose history subjects is because they perceive history subjects as too many and difficult. Second, as the number of students taking history subjects decreased due to this perception, it became disadvantageous for their grades, creating a vicious cycle in which more students did not choose history subjects. Third, although few students chose history, they thought that more students wanted to learn history and should learn it. It was confirmed that it was necessary to improve the problems while maintaining the charm of the history subject itself.
In order to overcome the difficulties faced by the history department, the following elective subjects should be developed. First, it is necessary to deal with the contents derived from the basic contents while maintaining the original nature of the subject. Second, it should be composed of content that students want to learn and the teacher’s expertise can be demonstrated, rather than guiding students’ choices with easy and concise content.