Learning Historical Thinking

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Learning Historical Thinking
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Background

• To think historically is essentially to be a
  critical thinker when it comes to the study of
  history.
• Peter Seixas,
• University of British Columbia

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6 Concepts of Historical Thinking

• Significance
• Evidence
• Continuity Change
• Cause Consequence
• Historical Perspective-taking
• The Moral Dimension (Judgment)

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Significance

• Events, people or developments have historical
  significance if they resulted in change. That is
  they had deep consequences, for many people, over
  a long period of time.
• Events, people or developments have historical
  significance if they are revealing over a long
  period of time. That is they shed light on
  enduring or emerging issues in history or
  contemporary life.
• Historical significance is constructive. That is
  Events, people or developments meet the criteria
  for historical significance only when they are
  shown to occupy a meaningful place in a
  narrative.
• Historical significance varies over time and from
  group to group.

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Evidence

• Problem the past is gone. So, how do we know
  about it? Through evidence.
• History is an interpretation based on inferences
  made from primary sources. Primary sources are
  made from accounts but they can also be traces,
  relics, or records.
• Asking good questions about a source can turn it
  into evidence.
• Sourcing often begins before a sources is read,
  with questions about who created it and when it
  was created. It involves inferring from the
  source the authors or creators purposes, values
  and worldview, either conscious or unconscious.
• A source should be analyzed in relation to the
  context of its historical setting the
  conditions and worldviews prevalent at the time
  in question.
• Inferences made from one source can never stand
  alone.

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Continuity and Change

• Continuity and change are interwoven both can
  exist together.
• Change is a process with varying paces and
  patterns. Turning points are moments when the
  process of change shifts in direction or pace.
• Progress and decline are broad evaluations of
  change over time. Depending on the impacts of
  change, progress for one people may be decline
  for another.

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The IBM 7094, a typical mainframe computer photo
courtesy of IBM
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Cause Consequence

• Change is driven by multiple causes and is driven
  by multiple consequences.
• The causes that lead to a particular historical
  event vary in their influence, with some being
  more important than others.
• Events result from the interplay of two types of
  factors
• Historical actors, who are people (individual or
  groups) who take actions that cause historical
  events, and
• The social, political, economic and cultural
  conditions within which the actors operate.

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Cause and Consequence

• The events in history were not inevitable, any
  more than those of the future are. Alter a
  single action or condition, and an event might
  have turned out differently.
• unintended consequences
• Part II
• Part III

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Columbine
Marilyn Manson
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Historical Perspective

• Presentism is the opposite of historical
  perspective. Presentism is when you examine the
  past through todays understandings (values,
  norms, technological understanding)
• The goal, when thinking historically, is to avoid
  presentism.

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Moral Judgment

• Authors make ethical judgments in writing
  historical narratives.
• Reasoned ethical judgments of past actions are
  made by taking into account the historical
  context of the actors in question.
• When making ethical judgments it is important to
  be cautious about imposing contemporary standards
  of right and wrong on the past.
• A fair assessment of ethical implications of
  history can inform us of our responsibility to
  remember and to respond to the contributions,
  sacrifices and injustices of the past.

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What about local history?
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• http//cct2.edc.org/PMA/image_detective/model_read
  ing3.html

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Thinking historically

• Make inferences about life around town at that
  time
• Consider the societal, economic, technological
  environment
• Compare with photos of the same place today
• Identify a list of things that have changed and
  stayed the same
• http//www.histori.ca/benchmarks/