Two different surveys made in francophone Switzerland try to better know how students perceive school history. A questionnaire was
passed, half oriented interviews were made and then the students made an exercise of classification of a body of photographs that they had to match with the different disciplines that form the area of social science. Some quantitative and qualitative analyses made with the programme Alcestes are still being used to explore a second survey. The results therein obtained confirm those obtained before. Both surveys show the wide range of perceptions in students and the strong bond that they establish between history and «general culture». It seems that most students have deeply assumed a traditional «role of student» and at times are confused in front of an innovative teaching of history that requires participation and reflection. It would be advisable to effect a previous task with the students, consisting of specifying and making explicit the goals of history teaching and the problems that such a teaching presents. That would contribute to the disappearance of possible conceptual errors and misunderstandings. Such a piece of work would make history teaching be more according to its own goals, as many students seem to present a good attitude.