What is the difference between “the past” and “history”?Take 5 minutes to discuss

Prepare to explain to whole group

Learning How To Think Historically

An Introduction to the Benchmarks of Historical Thinking

Presented by: Carla Peck

http://www.historybenchmarks.ca

Benchmarks of Historical Thinking Website

Six Elements of Historical ThinkingSignificance

Continuity and change

Evidence

Cause and consequence

Historical perspective-taking

The moral dimension

Significance

– We can’t commemorate, teach or study everything about the past. We have to make choices.

– “Historical Significance”- the principles behind the choices we (the public, the government, historians, teachers, textbook authors, etc.) make.

– What are the key understandings of history?

– What criteria do we use to decide what to commemorate, teach, study?

Aspects of Significance

Resulting in Change• With deep consequences• For many people• Over a long period of time

Revealing

Occupies a key place in a meaningful narrative (applies to both the other aspects)

What “significance” might look like in…

Grade 4: Can a person have a history? Could there be a “History of Gerry Lawrence”? Why? Why not?

Grade 8: What were the most significant events/people/trends in Japan/Europe/Spain during the 1500’s?

Continuity & Change

– Understanding change over time is central to historical thinking.

– Can things change yet also retain elements of continuity?

– As things have changed, have they gotten better or gotten worse?

– Does perspective matter?

Aspects of Continuity & Change

Continuity and change are interrelated Turning points and tipping points Progress and decline are ways of evaluating

change over time. Chronology helps to organize our

understanding of continuity and change. Periodization helps to organize our

understanding of continuity and change.

What “continuity & change” might look like in…

Grade 4: List 5 ways the population of [your town, or province] has changed since 1900. List 5 ways it has stayed the same.

Grade 7: Organize a series of events in Canadian history by periods. What periods do students come up with, and why? How are they different from others in the class?

Sample Activity…Continuity & Change

How did the Suffragette movement change the lives of Canadian women?

Was there continuity and/or change for other Canadians?

Who might see the changes in society as progress? Who might see the changes as “decline”?

Source: Canada: The Story of a Developing Nation (p. 297), Grade 8 Social Studies textbook used in Ontario; published by McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd., 2000.

Using Evidence to Understand the Past

– How do we know about the past?

– How do we decide what to believe about the past?

– Learning to critically analyze accounts from the past is an important skill to develop:

• What are the problems with the account?

• How do I decide what/who to believe?

• Is this account reliable and how do I know?

Aspects of Evidence

Position of the author(s)

Purposes of the author(s)

Values and worldview of the author(s)

Contextualization

What “evidence” might look like in… Grade 5: Examine a Frances Anne Hopkins painting of

the voyageurs. What does this tell us about the life of voyageurs?

Grade 7: Using a variety of sources, write a new textbook entry about the Red River Resistance.

Shooting the Rapids ( Quebec )

1879

Library and Archives Canada, Acc. No. 1989-401-2

What are they doing in the canoe?

Summary Introduction to three historical thinking concepts:

historical significance, evidence, and continuity & change.

Activity: To delve deeper into “historical significance”: In your groups:– 30 cards – portraying different events in Canadian

history– Create a list of the 10 most significant events in

Canadian history (using these cards)– What did you select? What criteria did you use to make

your decisions about historical significance?– You will have 35 minutes, and then we will regroup

and discuss.

Cause and Consequence

– Why did things happen the way they did? Is there more than one reason that [X] happened? (There usually is!)

– Who makes history?

– What were the relationships of power at the time?

– What constraints (social, political, economical…) had an impact on this group’s history?

– What did this person/group do to effect change?

Aspects of Cause & Consequence

Causes are multiple and layered, involving both long-term ideologies, institutions, and conditions, and short-term actions and events

Human beings (individually and collectively) cause historical change (Agency). . .

In contexts that impose limits on change

Sample Activity… Cause & Consequence

What conditions made it possible for Louis Riel to effect change?

What conditions made it harder for him to make a difference?

1873, Ottawa, ON.

Notman Studio / Library and Archives Canada / C-002048

What “cause & consequence” might look like in…

Grade 5: What attitudes and actions led to anti-Asian sentiments in the early 1900s in Canada?

Grade 8: Who and what has enabled the survival of Francophone culture in Canada?

Historical Perspective-Taking

– Historical perspective-taking means understanding the different social, cultural, intellectual, and even emotional contexts that shaped people’s lives and actions in the past.

– Learning to use the frameworks of the day, rather than present-day perspectives, to judge past events.

– Why did this historical actor act in that way?

– What evidence do I have that supports my conclusions?

Aspects of Perspective-Taking

Taking the perspective of historical actors must use evidence for inferences about how people felt and thought (avoiding presentism).

Any particular historical event or situation involves actors who may have diverse perspectives on it.

Empathy is not identification.

What “historical perspective-taking” might look like in… Grade 4: Using evidence, write a newspaper

article about [X] in Quebec’s history.

Grade 8: Using evidence, develop your position on:– The Spanish plan to explore, conquest and convert

the Aztec people to Christianity, if you are a member of the Independent Counsel to the Catholic Church.

– You are a supporter of Hernando Cortés and have just found out about a policy the Catholic Church might be developing.

The Moral Dimension

– We want to learn from the past in order to face the issues of today.

– Major difficulty: Imposing our own ideas of “right” and “wrong” on a past time, on past actors.

– “The past is a foreign country-they do things differently there.”*

– What do I need to put aside before beginning to understand events or people from the past?

*David Lowenthal (1985). The Past is a Foreign Country. New York: CambridgeUP.

Aspects of the Moral Dimension Collective responsibility

– Examining the legacies of past actions: When do we owe reparations to injured parties? (Residential schools, Apology for Chinese Head Tax, etc.)

Profound change over time– Makes moral judgments difficult: We look back on the

past differently than those who lived it.

Connection with conditions in the present– Understanding how past actions/sentiments contributed

to current situations (e.g., John A. Macdonald’s stance on the Chinese and immigration policies that developed (and persisted) over time.)

What “the moral dimension” might look like in…

Grade 4: Examine a local historical event and decide whether the decisions made at the time resulted in positive or negative change in your community.

Grade 7: Should the Canadian government apologize for the Komagata Maru incident?

How you might begin… Students write a history of the first day of school.

In small groups, they compare their histories – Why are there differences? They all experienced the first day together – shouldn’t the histories all be the same?

Why do they think other students wrote histories different than theirs?

Discuss this with students – introduce terms like “significance”, “perspective”, “agency”…

Could the same thing happen when history books (and textbooks) are written? Why?

What does this tell us about historical accounts? – Interpretation is key!

Bain, R. B. (2005). "They thought the world was flat?": Applying the principles of how people learn in teaching high school history. In J. Bransford & S. Donovan (Eds.), How Students Learn: History, Mathematics, and Science in the Classroom (pp. 179-214). Washington: The National Academies Press.

Examine curricula for historical thinking teaching opportunities

PART 1 – Two groups look at each of the grade levels (8 groups in total)•1 group of (4,5,7,8) looks for opportunities to teach: significance, evidence and cause & consequence (and in particular, historical agency)•1 group (4,5,7,8) looks for opportunities to teach: continuity & change, taking an historical perspective and the moral dimension

PART 2 – Choose one outcome that you’ve highlighted and briefly map out how you might teach it, making sure that the historical thinking concept is central to the lesson (put on chart paper)

Group Activity