What is Historical Thinking

Summary

The video script delves into the concept of historical thinking, emphasizing its importance in understanding the past. It outlines five key aspects: using multiple sources for a comprehensive view, analyzing primary sources for their context and reliability, questioning the origin and purpose of sources (sourcing), understanding the historical context to avoid misinterpretation, and basing historical narratives on evidence. This approach is not only beneficial for a more accurate historical understanding but is also integral to fostering critical thinking and responsible citizenship.

Takeaways

• 📚 Historical thinking involves the reading, analysis, and writing necessary to understand and tell stories about the past.
• 🔍 It's not just about what we know about the past, but also how we know it, given the challenges of retrieving historical events.
• 📚 Multiple sources are essential for constructing a more accurate picture of past events, as no single account can capture the complexity of history.
• 📝 Primary sources are original documents and objects created at the time of the event and are crucial for reconstructing the past.
• 🤔 Historical thinking includes learning to read, question, contextualize, and analyze primary sources, as they can present different narratives about the same event.
• 👀 The importance of questioning eyewitness accounts and considering the interests and context in which they were recorded.
• 📚 State standards often include the requirement for students to use multiple sources and analyze them for purpose, perspective, and credibility.
• 📅 The concept of 'sourcing' involves identifying the origin of a source, the author's intent, the timing of its creation, and its intended audience.
• 🌐 Context is central to historical reasoning, requiring historians to understand the ideologies, politics, and social conditions of the time.
• 📈 Historical context involves locating events and sources in time and space, and making connections to understand the broader picture.
• 📖 Writing history requires telling stories supported by evidence; truth claims in history must be substantiated to distinguish good history from fiction.

Q & A

What is the definition of historical thinking as described in the script?

Historical thinking is the process of reading, analysis, and writing necessary to tell historical stories. It's not just about what we know about the past, but how we know it, and it involves constructing a more accurate picture of what happened and what it meant.

Why is it important to use multiple sources when studying history?

Using multiple sources is crucial for getting as accurate a picture as possible of past events. No single account written from one perspective can capture the complexity of the past, so students must work with multiple accounts and learn to analyze and synthesize them.

What are primary sources and why are they important in historical thinking?

Primary sources are original documents and objects created at the time under study. They are vital to reconstructing the past and help students learn how to read, question, contextualize, and analyze these sources to understand different stories about the same event.

How should primary sources be approached when studying a historical event?

Primary sources need to be questioned and read closely. Students should consider what the eyewitnesses had to lose or gain with their accounts, what interests were at stake, how soon after the event and for what audience each account was recorded, and look for points of agreement and disagreement.

What does the script suggest about the relationship between teaching historical thinking and state standards?

Teaching historical thinking is not only beneficial but also aligned with many state standards. At least 38 states specify this learning outcome, emphasizing the use of multiple sources and learning to analyze those sources for purpose, perspective, credibility, and validity.

What is the concept of sourcing in historical thinking?

Sourcing is about identifying and asking questions about the origin of the source, the author's purposes and perspective, when the source was created and for whom, and about its trustworthiness. It helps students to better understand historical events and their causes.

Why is context important in historical reasoning?

Context is central to historical reasoning because it helps to locate events and sources in time and space, and to ask questions that provide a fuller understanding. It involves making connections and considering factors such as ideologies, political tensions, and the broader world in which historical figures lived.

What role do sources play in writing history?

Sources provide evidence for claims made about the past. When writing history, stories must be supported by evidence to distinguish plausible claims from falsehoods and to ensure that the account is truthful and not mere fiction.

How does historical thinking help students become better readers, thinkers, and citizens?

Historical thinking helps students to critically analyze information, understand different perspectives, and make informed judgments. It is not separate from the content students learn but serves as a vehicle to help them master it, fostering critical thinking and responsible citizenship.

What are some additional elements of historical thinking mentioned in the script?

Additional elements of historical thinking mentioned in the script include concepts like causation, significance, change over time, and reading strategies like corroboration.

Where can teachers find teaching resources to help bring historical thinking into their classrooms?

Teachers can explore the Clearinghouse to find teaching resources that will help them incorporate historical thinking into their classrooms.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Understanding Historical Thinking

The first paragraph introduces the concept of historical thinking, emphasizing its importance in interpreting the past. It explains that historical thinking involves reading, analyzing, and writing to construct a more accurate picture of historical events. The paragraph highlights the necessity of using multiple sources to capture the complexity of the past, as no single account can fully represent it. Primary sources are identified as essential for reconstructing history, and the importance of questioning and analyzing these sources is discussed. The paragraph also addresses potential concerns about integrating historical thinking into educational standards and curriculums, noting that many states already include such learning outcomes in their standards.

05:05

🕵️‍♂️ Deepening Historical Understanding Through Context

The second paragraph delves into the role of context in historical reasoning. It uses Abraham Lincoln's words as an example to illustrate the importance of contextualizing historical statements. The paragraph suggests that historians must ask questions about the audience, purpose, and time period to fully understand a historical figure or event. It explains that context involves considering various factors such as ideologies and preceding events. The paragraph also discusses the importance of evidence in historical storytelling, emphasizing that history is not fiction and that truth claims must be supported by evidence. It concludes by mentioning additional elements of historical thinking, such as causation and change over time, and encourages the use of these concepts to enhance students' reading, thinking, and citizenship skills.

Keywords

💡Historical Thinking

Historical thinking is the process of reading, analyzing, and writing that is necessary to understand and interpret historical events and stories. It is central to the video's theme as it highlights the importance of not just knowing what happened in the past, but how we know it. The script illustrates this through examples such as the Boston Massacre and the Farmworkers Movement, emphasizing the need to construct an accurate picture of the past.

💡Multiple Sources

The concept of using multiple sources is essential in historical thinking as it allows for a more comprehensive understanding of past events. The video stresses that no single account can capture the complexity of history, hence the need to analyze and synthesize various accounts. An example from the script is the contrasting accounts of the Boston Massacre, which demonstrates the importance of considering different perspectives.

💡Primary Sources

Primary sources are original documents or objects created at the time period being studied. They are crucial for reconstructing the past and are a key concept in the video. The script explains that historical thinking involves learning to read, question, contextualize, and analyze these sources, as they can provide different narratives about the same event, such as the Boston Massacre accounts.

💡Sourcing

Sourcing is the process of identifying and asking questions about the origin of a historical source, the author's purpose and perspective, and its trustworthiness. The video uses the example of the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott to illustrate how sourcing can reveal that plans for a boycott existed before Rosa Parks' arrest, challenging the common narrative and providing a deeper understanding of the event.

💡Context

Context is vital in historical reasoning as it helps to understand the circumstances in which events, speeches, and actions took place. The video emphasizes the importance of contextualizing historical figures like Abraham Lincoln's views on race and political tensions of his time. Context involves considering the ideologies, societal norms, and events that shaped the historical narrative.

💡Evidence

In historical thinking, evidence is the foundation for making truth claims about the past. The video clarifies that history is not fiction and that stories told about the past must be supported by evidence. The script uses the Lincoln speech and the Joan Robinson letter as examples of sources that provide evidence for historical claims.

💡Corroboration

Corroboration is a reading strategy mentioned in the video that involves confirming a historical account or claim by finding additional sources that support it. While not explicitly defined in the script, it is implied as part of the process of analyzing multiple sources to construct a more accurate historical narrative.

💡Causation

Causation refers to the relationship between an event and the factors that led to its occurrence. Although not directly defined in the script, the concept is integral to historical thinking as it helps in understanding why events happened and their significance. The video suggests that understanding causation is part of the complex process of historical analysis.

💡Significance

Significance in historical thinking pertains to the importance or impact of an event, person, or idea in the broader context of history. The video implies that recognizing the significance of historical elements is crucial for understanding their role in shaping the past and the present.

💡Change Over Time

Change over time is a concept that acknowledges the evolution of events, ideas, and societies throughout history. The video suggests that historical thinking involves recognizing and analyzing these changes to understand the progression and development of historical narratives.

💡Historical Context

Historical context is the backdrop of time and space in which events and sources are located. The video explains that understanding the historical context is essential for interpreting sources accurately. It involves considering the social, political, and cultural environment that influenced the creation of historical documents and events.

Highlights

Historical thinking involves reading, analysis, and writing to tell stories about the past.

It's important to understand not just what we know about the past, but how we know it.

Multiple sources are necessary to construct an accurate picture of past events.

Primary sources are original documents and objects created at the time of study, crucial for reconstructing the past.

Historical thinking includes learning to read, question, contextualize, and analyze primary sources.

Contrasting accounts of the same event must be analyzed for their potential biases and interests.

Teaching historical thinking may align with state standards, as 38 states specify this learning outcome.

Students should learn to use multiple sources and analyze them for purpose, perspective, and credibility.

Understanding the context of historical events is central to historical reasoning.

Historical context involves making connections and considering factors like ideologies and political tensions.

Historical stories must be supported by evidence and cannot be altered for a more intriguing plot.

Truth claims in history need to be supported by evidence to distinguish them from fiction.

Historical thinking is complex and vital for students to become better readers, thinkers, and citizens.

Historical thinking is not separate from content learning but is a vehicle to master it.

The Clearinghouse offers teaching resources to bring historical thinking into the classroom.

Historical thinking is a gift that students will use for the rest of their lives.

Transcripts

Think historically? What's that?

You may have heard the term but been puzzled by it

We're all familiar with historical stories

we learn them from our textbooks

popular histories, movies, documentaries, and grandparents and neighbors

Historical thinking is the reading, analysis, and writing

that necessary to tell these stories

It's not only what we know about the past, it's how we know it

Because the past is hard to retrieve

We can't travel back in time to see what happened

at the Boston Massacre or at Wounded Knee,

to hear Sojourner Truth's words

or understand how Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta

mobilized the Farmworkers Movement

But thinking historically helps us get closer to that past to retrieve

and construct a more accurate picture of what happened and what it meant

This video focuses on five aspects of historical thinking

Many people think of history as a single account

but in fact, we must use multiple sources to get

as accurate a picture as possible of events in the past

Whether we use textbooks, original documents, photos, drawings, or film

teaching for historical thinking demands

that students work with multiple accounts

and learn to analyze and synthesize them

No single account written from one perspective

captures the complexity of the past

Primary sources are original documents and objects created at the time under study

and they are vital to reconstructing the past

Historical thinking includes learning how to read, question, contextualize,

and analyze these sources, as they can

tell different stories about the same event

So, when we study what came to be known as the Boston Massacre

we can read a report from the commanding British officer

that says that soldiers fired on the crowd of colonists without orders

We can then read a contrasting account from someone

in the crowd who remembers that officer giving orders to fire

But we can't just assume that one is lying and the other isn't

instead, we have to ask questions about what these two

eyewitnesses had to lose or gain with their accounts

What interests were at stake?

We consider how soon after the event

and for what audience each account was recorded

We look for points of agreement and

disagreement between the two contrasting accounts

To be useful in retrieving the past,

primary sources need to be questioned and read closely

Okay, you may be saying, "Wait a minute, this all

sounds good but what about my state standards?

And the fact that I'm expected to cover my textbook's 26 chapters?

How does that fit in?

Isn't this some pie in the sky way to teach history?"

Actually, teaching kids how history is known

may very well be in your state standards

at least 38 specify this learning outcome

For example, various state standards

say students should be using multiple sources

and learning to analyze those sources for

purpose and perspective, credibility, and validity

analysis akin to what we call sourcing

Sourcing is about identifying and asking

questions about the origin of the source

about the author's purposes and perspective

when the source was created and for whom; about its trustworthiness

Imagine your students are working with two accounts

related to the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott

The first, a textbook, says, "Rosa Parks was

arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white man

African Americans heard this and decided to boycott the buses."

The second, a letter written by English professor Joan Robinson

in May 1954 to the mayor of Alabama states

"There has been talk from 25 or more local organizations of

planning a city-wide boycott of busses

[ E ]ven now plans are being made to ride less, or not at all, on our busses."

This letter was written more than a year

before the start of the Montgomery Bus Boycott

A student who notices this learns that

plans for a bus boycott preceded Rosa Parks' arrest

and can better understand the boycott and its causes

Alternatively, a student who ignores the date of

Robinson's letter easily misses its real significance

the familiar story that depicts the boycott as an impulsive movement

motivated solely by Parks's arrest is left unchallenged

Sourcing the letter gets us closer to the fuller story

Context is at the center of historical reasoning

Consider these words spoken by Abraham Lincoln in 1858

"I have no purpose to introduce political and

social equality between the white and black races.

I...am in favor of the race to which I belong having the superior position."

Historians resist initial judgments to brand these words as bigoted

and instead realize that they must ask questions

Such as, who was Lincoln talking to and for what purpose?

What were the perspectives on race at the time?

What political tensions was Lincoln navigating?

They realize to get as accurate a picture as possible of the man

his times, and the event at which he spoke

they have to contextualize these words

and this requires making connections

Lincoln did not live in a vacuum

his speeches and actions are deeply intertwined

with what was going on in his own world

Context includes many different factors, from the ideologies of the day

to the words that came before those under investigation.

But in the big picture, historical context is about locating events

and sources in time and space and asking questions to do so

Taking a page from the math curriculum,

we can say that the coordinates of history are space and time

These sources are not free-floating items that speak for themselves

their historical context matters

When we write histories we tell stories and answer questions

To be called history, these stories must be supported by evidence

Sources, like the Lincoln speech and the Joan Robinson letter

provide evidence for claims made about the past.

History isn fiction

We can't change the story to create a more intriguing or satisfying plot

Truth claims in history need to be supported by evidence

That is how we distinguish plausible claims from balderdash

and good history from pure fiction

These five elements of historical thinking are all integral

to understanding how we know what we know about the past

But of course, there are more elements, concepts like causation

significance, change over time, and reading strategies like corroboration

Historical thinking is complex and it is vital

to helping students become better readers, thinkers, and citizens

It's not separate from the content we want students to learn

instead, it is the vehicle that will help them master it

Explore the Clearinghouse to find teaching resources that

will help you bring historical thinking into your classroom

It's a gift your students will use for the rest of their lives