World History Thinking Skills

Historical Thinking Skills

    History is a sophisticated quest for meaning about the past that goes far beyond just trying to remember as much content as possible. Yes, in this course you will learn a startling amount of information (names, places, states, terminology & dates) but history is not just memorization but rather taking the content you have learned and applying it to analytical thought that requires higher-level thinking skills.  Don't just memorize the facts....DO something with the facts

We will apply the course content to four historical thinking skills.  The interaction of skills and content found in this course is an approach that emphasizes historical scholarship’s reliance on diverse sources, each of which may reveal a different facet of the past and how it should be interpreted by contemporary thinkers.

1. Crafting Historical Arguments from Historical Evidence

        -Prepare facts/evidence to discuss and debate history

2. Chronological Reasoning

        -Use the order of events in history to predict, analyze, or synthesize a 

        cause or effect of a given action. Periodization & Timelines.

3. Comparison and Contextualization

        -Identify similarities & differences between multiple subjects.  How external 

        factors influence a person, place, or thing.

4. Historical Interpretation and Synthesis

        -Interpret primary & secondary sources. Identify multiple points of view for     

        major events throughout history