Historical thinking

Last updated September 22, 2024

Historical thinking is a set of critical literacy skills for evaluating and analyzing primary source documents to construct a meaningful account of the past. Sometimes called historical reasoning skills, historical thinking skills are frequently described in contrast to historical content knowledge such as names, dates, and places. This dichotomous presentation is often misinterpreted as a claim for the superiority of one form of knowing over the other. The distinction is generally made to underscore the importance of developing thinking skills that can be applied when individuals encounter any historical content. History educators have varying perspectives about the extent they should emphasize facts about the past, moral lessons, connections to current events, or historical thinking skills^[1] and different belief about what historical thinking involves.^{[ citation needed ]}

U.S. Academic Standards and Disciplinary Frameworks

In the United States, the National Center for History in the Schools at the University of California, Los Angeles has developed history standards that include benchmarks for both content in U.S. and world history and historical thinking skills in Kindergarten thru grade 4 and grades 5-12. In both of these age ranges, the Center defines historical thinking in five parts:

Chronological Thinking
Historical Comprehension
Historical Analysis and Interpretation
Historical Research Capabilities
Historical Issues-Analysis and Decision-Making

As part of the national assessment effort called “The Nation’s Report Card, ” the United States Department of Education also developed benchmarks for student achievement in U.S. history. Their rubric divides history learning into three basic dimensions: major historical themes, chronological periods, and ways of knowing and thinking about history. The third dimension is further divided into two parts: historical knowledge and perspective, and historical analysis and interpretation.

History Textbooks

History textbooks draw much attention from history educators and educational researchers. The use of textbooks is nearly universal in history, government, and other social studies courses at the primary, and secondary levels in the U.S.; however, the role of textbooks in these courses remains controversial. Arguments against reliance on textbooks have ranged from ideological to pragmatic. While textbooks are often presented as the objective truth, they include constructed versions of a selected period in the past.

The construction and adoption of textbooks can be political, with groups fighting over the version of history they think should be presented to schoolchildren.^[2] For example, Texas history textbooks did not include slavery as a central cause of the Civil War until 2018, even though slavery has long been understood to be a core issue causing the Civil War.

Historical thinking has been suggested as a way to avoid presenting only one narrative as the truth. In response to the controversy over Texas textbooks, University of Northern Colorado History Department Chair, Fritz Fischer said that "many of these problems could be solved if the school board prioritized making primary documents available to students, rather than deciding on which version of events ought to be taught."^[2]

Still, other critics believe that using textbooks undermines the process of learning history by sacrificing thinking skills for content—that textbooks allow teachers to cover vast amounts of names, dates, and places while encouraging students simply to memorize instead of question or analyze historical events. For example, Sam Wineburg argues, "Traditional history instruction constitutes a form of information, not a form of knowledge. Students might master an agreed-upon narrative, but they lacked any way of evaluating it, of deciding whether it or any other narrative, was compelling or true” (41).^[3]

Despite their drawbacks, most textbook critics concede that textbooks are necessary tools in history education. Proponents of textbook-based curricula point out that history teachers require resources to support the broad scope of topics covered in the typical history classroom. Well-designed textbooks can provide a foundation on which enterprising educators can build other classroom activities that develop historical thinking.

Teaching Models

Models for historical thinking have been developed to better prepare educators in facilitating historical thinking literacies in students.

Benchmarks for Historical Thinking

Peter Seixas, a professor at the University of British Columbia and creator of The Historical Thinking Project, outlines six distinct but closely interrelated historical thinking concepts that constitute historical thinking literacy in students. The concepts focus on developing the skills necessary for students to create an account of the past using primary source documents and narratives, or what Seixas terms "traces" and "accounts." Although these benchmarks provide a model to develop historical literacies, Seixas states that these concepts can only can be applied with substantial learning about the past^[4]

Establishing Historical Significance is the ability to identify which events, issues, and trends are historically significant and how they connect to one another.^[5] Historical significance varies over time and between groups thus the criteria for determining what to study varies (e.g. Canadians will study Canadian history due to national connections).^[6]^[7]
Using Primary Sources as Evidence involves locating, choosing, understanding, and providing context for the past using primary sources of evidence.^[6] When teaching with primary sources, it is important to understand the differences between First, Second, and Third order sources, which are ordered by the originality of material and their proximity to the source of origin. First Order Sources or primary sources are contemporaneous records of events as they were first described or as they happened, without interpretive commentary (e.g., reports, speeches, letters). Meanwhile, second order or secondary sources are those that corroborate, restate, explain, or interpret first order documents (e.g., commentaries, reviews, analyses). Finally third order or tertiary sources list or catalog other sources (e.g., encyclopedias). While second and third order sources are read for information, first order sources require students to draw inferences and make comparisons about the purposes, values, and world views of the authors to construct a narrative argument about history or assess what questions cannot be answered.
Identifying Continuity is the ability to understand how issues change or stay the same over time and identify the change as progress or decline.^[5] Placing historical events in chronological order is a way of identifying continuity and the ability to group events into identifiable periods helps to better understand their interconnection.^[6]
Analyze Case and Consequences requires students to recognize how humans can cause change that impacts present day social, political and natural (e.g., geographic) issues. Seixas and Peck note that this benchmark requires understanding causes and/or circumstances, that include "...long-term ideologies, institutions, and conditions, and short-term motivations, actions and events" that lead to particular consequences in history and affect the present.^[8]
Taking a Historical Perspective is understanding different social, cultural, intellectual, and emotional perspectives that formed the experiences and actions of people from the past.
Understanding the Moral Dimension of History involves learning about moral issues today by examining the past. This is an important step in historical literacy because it requires reserving present day moral judgments to understand actions from the past without approving of those actions.^[5]

SCIM-C Strategy

Created by David Hicks, Peter E. Doolittle & E. Thomas Ewing, the SCIM-C strategy of historical thinking focuses on developing self-regulating practices when engaging with primary sources.^[9] The SCIM-C strategy focuses on the development of historical questions to be answered when analyzing primary sources. This strategy provides a scaffold for students as they build more complex investigation and analysis practices identified in the "capstone stage". The capstone stage in the SCIM-C model relies on students having analyzed a number of historical documents and having built some historical knowledge about the time, event, or issue being studied.^[10]

Summarizing is the process of finding information using a primary source. This information can include the type of source (e.g. text, photograph), creator, subject, date it was created, and the opinion or perspective of the author.^[9]^[10]
Contextualizing is the skill of identifying when and in what context the primary source was created. By placing the primary source in context the source can more easily be treated a historical document separate from contemporary morals, ethics, and values.^[9]^[10]
Inferring is the ability to use the information gathered during the summarizing and contextualizing of a source to develop a greater understanding of the sub-text of a primary source. This stage relies on the ability to ask questions requiring inference on what is not stated directly in the source.^[9]^[10]
Monitoring (Capstone Stage) involves identifying initial assumptions that may have been a part of the historical question asked. This stage requires an analysis of the original question and whether the historical information found has answered that question or whether more questions need to be considered.^[9]^[10]
Corroborating is the final stage that can only occurs once several historical documents have been analyzed. This stage involves comparing evidence from a number of sources. This comparison includes looking for similarities and differences in perspectives, gaps in the information, and contradictions.^[9]^[10]

Resources

Kobrin, David. Beyond the Textbook: Teaching History Using Primary Sources. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1996.
Lesh, Bruce. "Why Won't You Just Tell Us the Answer?" Teaching Historical Thinking in Grades 7-12." Portsmouth, Stenhouse, 2011.
Loewen, James. Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong. New York: Touchstone, 1995.
National Center for Education Statistics. National Assessment of Educational Progress: Nation’s Report Card. 2003. <> (last accessed 29 June 2004).
National Center for History in the Schools. National Standards for History. 1996. <> (last accessed 14 February 2011).
Stearns, P., Seixas, P, Wineburg, S (Eds.). Knowing, Teaching and Learning History: National and International Perspectives. New York: NYU Press, 2000.
Wineburg, Sam. Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2001.
Wineburg, Sam, Martin, Daisy, Monte-Sano, Chauncey. Reading like a Historian: Teaching Literacy in Middle and High School Classrooms. New York: Teachers College Press, 2012.
National History Education Clearinghouse

Related Research Articles

A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. Some historians are recognized by publications or training and experience. "Historian" became a professional occupation in the late nineteenth century as research universities were emerging in Germany and elsewhere.

Media literacy is an expanded conceptualization of literacy that includes the ability to access and analyze media messages as well as create, reflect and take action, using the power of information and communication to make a difference in the world. Media literacy applies to different types of media and is seen as important skills for work, life, and citizenship.

Critical thinking is the analysis of available facts, evidence, observations, and arguments in order to form a judgement by the application of rational, skeptical, and unbiased analyses and evaluation. In modern times, the use of the phrase critical thinking can be traced to John Dewey, who used the phrase reflective thinking. The application of critical thinking includes self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitored, and self-corrective habits of the mind; thus, a critical thinker is a person who practices the skills of critical thinking or has been trained and educated in its disciplines. Philosopher Richard W. Paul said that the mind of a critical thinker engages the person's intellectual abilities and personality traits. Critical thinking presupposes assent to rigorous standards of excellence and mindful command of their use in effective communication and problem solving, and a commitment to overcome egocentrism and sociocentrism.

Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (PSSM) are guidelines produced by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) in 2000, setting forth recommendations for mathematics educators. They form a national vision for preschool through twelfth grade mathematics education in the US and Canada. It is the primary model for standards-based mathematics.

Reading comprehension is the ability to process written text, understand its meaning, and to integrate with what the reader already knows. Reading comprehension relies on two abilities that are connected to each other: word reading and language comprehension. Comprehension specifically is a "creative, multifaceted process" that is dependent upon four language skills: phonology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics.

Critical literacy is the ability to find embedded discrimination in media. This is done by analyzing the messages promoting prejudiced power relationships found naturally in media and written material that go unnoticed otherwise by reading beyond the author's words and examining the manner in which the author has conveyed their ideas about society's norms to determine whether these ideas contain racial or gender inequality.

Source criticism is the process of evaluating an information source, i.e.: a document, a person, a speech, a fingerprint, a photo, an observation, or anything used in order to obtain knowledge. In relation to a given purpose, a given information source may be more or less valid, reliable or relevant. Broadly, "source criticism" is the interdisciplinary study of how information sources are evaluated for given tasks.

The European History Network has run a number of projects under the banner of the Creating Links and Overviews for a New History Agenda (CLIOH) since 1988, including CLIOH, CLIOHnet and CLIOHnet2. Both CLIOHRES and CLIOH-WORLD are currently in operation as of December 2011. It was initially founded as the ECTS History Network, a pilot project of the ECTS.

Inquiry-based learning is a form of active learning that starts by posing questions, problems or scenarios. It contrasts with traditional education, which generally relies on the teacher presenting facts and their knowledge about the subject. Inquiry-based learning is often assisted by a facilitator rather than a lecturer. Inquirers will identify and research issues and questions to develop knowledge or solutions. Inquiry-based learning includes problem-based learning, and is generally used in small-scale investigations and projects, as well as research. The inquiry-based instruction is principally very closely related to the development and practice of thinking and problem-solving skills.

Socratic questioning is an educational method named after Socrates that focuses on discovering answers by asking questions of students. According to Plato, Socrates believed that "the disciplined practice of thoughtful questioning enables the scholar/student to examine ideas and be able to determine the validity of those ideas". Plato explains how, in this method of teaching, the teacher assumes an ignorant mindset in order to compel the student to assume the highest level of knowledge. Thus, a student is expected to develop the ability to acknowledge contradictions, recreate inaccurate or unfinished ideas, and critically determine necessary thought.

History is the systematic study and documentation of human past. History is an academic discipline which uses a narrative to describe, examine, question, and analyze past events, and investigate their patterns of cause and effect. Historians debate which narrative best explains an event, as well as the significance of different causes and effects. Historians debate the nature of history as an end in itself, and its usefulness in giving perspective on the problems of the present.

Reciprocal teaching is a powerful instructional method designed to foster reading comprehension through collaborative dialogue between educators and students. Rooted in the work of Annemarie Palincsar, this approach aims to empower students with specific reading strategies, such as Questioning, Clarifying, Summarizing, and Predicting, to actively construct meaning from text.

English studies is an academic discipline taught in primary, secondary, and post-secondary education in English-speaking countries. This is not to be confused with English taught as a foreign language, which is a distinct discipline. The English studies discipline involves the study, analysis, and exploration of English literature through texts.

Teachinghistory.org, also known as the National History Education Clearinghouse (NHEC), is a website that provides educational resources for the study of U.S. history.

Thematic teaching is the selecting and highlighting of a theme through an instructional unit or module, course, or multiple courses. It is often interdisciplinary, highlighting the relationship of knowledge across academic disciplines and everyday life. Themes can be topics or take the form of overarching questions. Thematic learning is closely related to interdisciplinary or integrated instruction, topic-, project- or phenomenon-based learning. Thematic teaching is commonly associated with elementary classrooms and middle schools using a team-based approach, but this pedagogy is equally relevant in secondary schools and with adult learners. A common application is that of second or foreign language teaching, where the approach is more commonly known as theme-based instruction. Thematic instruction assumes students learn best when they can associate new information holistically with across the entire curriculum and with their own lives, experiences, and communities.

Learning development describes work with students and staff to develop academic practices, with a main focus on students developing academic practices in higher education, which assess the progress of knowledge acquired by the means of structural approaches. Learning developers are academic professionals who: teach, advise and facilitate students to develop their academic practices; create academic development learning resources; and reflect on their own academic practices through a community of practice.

Holocaust education is efforts, in either formal or informal settings, to teach about the Holocaust. Teaching and Learning about the Holocaust addresses didactics and learning, under the larger umbrella of education about the Holocaust, which also comprises curricula and textbooks studies. The expression "Teaching and Learning about the Holocaust" is used by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.

The CRAAP test is a test to check the objective reliability of information sources across academic disciplines. CRAAP is an acronym for Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose. Due to a vast number of sources existing online, it can be difficult to tell whether these sources are trustworthy to use as tools for research. The CRAAP test aims to make it easier for educators and students to determine if their sources can be trusted. By employing the test while evaluating sources, a researcher can reduce the likelihood of using unreliable information. The CRAAP test, developed by Sarah Blakeslee and her team of librarians at California State University, Chico, is used mainly by higher education librarians at universities. It is one of various approaches to source criticism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Historical significance</span> Historiographical concept

Historical significance is a historiographical key concept that explores and seeks to explain the selection of particular social and cultural past events for remembrance by human societies. This element of selection involved in both ascribing and analyzing historical significance is one factor in making the discipline of history distinct from the past. Historians consider knowledge of dates and events within and between specific historical periods the primary content of history, also known as "first-order knowledge" or substantive concepts. In contrast, historical significance is an example of a subject specific secondary key concept or "second-order knowledge" also known as a meta-concept, or disciplinary concept, which is typically used to help organize knowledge within a subject area, frame suitable areas of inquiry, provide the framework upon which substantive knowledge can be built, and map learner progression within a subject discipline. Specifically with regards to historical significance, the way dates and events are chosen and ascribed relative significance is not fixed and can change over time according to which criteria were used to form the judgement of significance as well as how those criteria were chosen themselves in the first place. This aspect to significance has been described as:

“a flexible relationship between us and the past”.

Samuel S. Wineburg is an American educational and cognitive psychologist. He is the Margaret Jacks Professor of Education and, by courtesy, of History & American Studies emeritus at Stanford University.

References

↑ Gestsdóttir, S. M., van Drie, J., & van Boxtel, C. (2021). Teaching Historical Thinking and Reasoning: Teacher Beliefs. History Education Research Journal, 18(1), 46-63. https://www.uclpress.co.uk/pages/history-education-research-journal
1 2 Fortin, Jacey (2018-11-21). "Texas Students Will Now Learn That Slavery Was 'Central' to the Civil War". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved 2019-11-02.
↑ Wineburg, Sam. Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts: Charting the Future of Teaching the Past. Temple UP, 2001.
↑ "Historical Thinking Concepts". The Historical Thinking Project. Canadian Heritage. April 18, 2024.
1 2 3 Seixas, Peter; Peck, Carla (2004). "Teaching historical thinking". In Sears, A (ed.). Challenges & prospects for Canadian social studies. Vancouver, BC: Pacific Educational Press. pp. 109–117. ISBN 9781895766721. OCLC 55681764.
1 2 3 Seixas, Peter (2006). "Benchmarks of Historical Thinking: A Framework for Assessment in Canada" (PDF). Historical Thinking. Retrieved January 31, 2018.
↑ "Historical Significance | Historical Thinking Project". historicalthinking.ca. Retrieved 2018-02-07.
↑ "Cause and Consequence | Historical Thinking Project". historicalthinking.ca. Retrieved 2018-02-07.
1 2 3 4 5 6 Hicks, D; Dolittle, P.E.; Ewing, E.T. (2004). "The SCIM-C strategy: Expert historians, historical inquiry, and multimedia". Social Education. 68 (3): 221–226.
1 2 3 4 5 6 "Virginia Tech | Historical Inquiry | SCIM-C". historicalinquiry.com. Retrieved 2018-02-08.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] Gestsdóttir, S. M., van Drie, J., & van Boxtel, C. (2021). Teaching Historical Thinking and Reasoning: Teacher Beliefs. History Education Research Journal, 18(1), 46-63. https://www.uclpress.co.uk/pages/history-education-research-journal

[:4-2] 1 2 Fortin, Jacey (2018-11-21). "Texas Students Will Now Learn That Slavery Was 'Central' to the Civil War". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved 2019-11-02.

[3] Wineburg, Sam. Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts: Charting the Future of Teaching the Past. Temple UP, 2001.

[4] "Historical Thinking Concepts". The Historical Thinking Project. Canadian Heritage. April 18, 2024.

[:1-5] 1 2 3 Seixas, Peter; Peck, Carla (2004). "Teaching historical thinking". In Sears, A (ed.). Challenges & prospects for Canadian social studies. Vancouver, BC: Pacific Educational Press. pp. 109–117. ISBN 9781895766721. OCLC 55681764.

[:0-6] 1 2 3 Seixas, Peter (2006). "Benchmarks of Historical Thinking: A Framework for Assessment in Canada" (PDF). Historical Thinking. Retrieved January 31, 2018.

[7] "Historical Significance | Historical Thinking Project". historicalthinking.ca. Retrieved 2018-02-07.

[8] "Cause and Consequence | Historical Thinking Project". historicalthinking.ca. Retrieved 2018-02-07.

[:2-9] 1 2 3 4 5 6 Hicks, D; Dolittle, P.E.; Ewing, E.T. (2004). "The SCIM-C strategy: Expert historians, historical inquiry, and multimedia". Social Education. 68 (3): 221–226.

[:3-10] 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Virginia Tech | Historical Inquiry | SCIM-C". historicalinquiry.com. Retrieved 2018-02-08.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]