IB History Skills

IB History develops four key skills. As a student, you can expect your work in the class to depend on these skills and the assessments in the class to test your competency in them.

1. The gathering and sorting of historical evidence

Many of the skills developed in the history course relate to the gathering and sorting of historical evidence. This area includes research skills such as locating and selecting relevant and appropriate evidence from books, articles, websites and audio-visual resources; and recognizing the distinctions between different kinds of evidence. The course provides the opportunity for students to increase their confidence and independence in locating and using a variety of historical sources.

Examples: responsibly researching your Historical Investigation; finding primary sources through libraries, databases, and internet collections; taking effective and efficient notes during class activities; selecting relevant information from homework readings to complete a reading assignment

2. Evaluating Historical Evidence

A key element of the course relates to the development of thinking and research skills relating to the evaluation of historical evidence. These skills include recognizing the subjective nature of the historical evidence; examining sources for information and interpretations, and for cases where they corroborate, complement or contradict each other; recognizing the value and uses of sources, and reasons to use them cautiously; and recognizing and appreciating why and how opinions and interpretations differ. The course provides the opportunity for students to increase their awareness of multiple perspectives, historical opinions and interpretations.

Examples:

3. Recognizing and understanding historical processes and their relationships to human experience, activity and motivation

The history course allows students to develop their appreciation of the nature of human experience in a range of contexts. It achieves this through a focus on skills such as recognizing, explaining and analysing causes and consequences; recognizing, explaining and analysing continuity, change and development over time; recognizing, explaining and analysing similarity and difference; relating human activities, experiences and motivations in history to a range of cultural and social dimensions; and synthesizing material studied across time and space.

4. Organizing and Expressing historical ideas and information

The history course places a strong emphasis on developing the communication skills needed to organize and express ideas and information with clarity. These skills include: posing questions and hypotheses, and answering or testing them; handling and synthesizing several sources for one inquiry; selecting and deploying information and ideas; constructing narratives, with ideas, analysis and relevant substantiation; and summarizing and arriving at conclusions. The development of these skills helps increase students’ confidence and sophistication in both oral and written communication.