What is Historical Thinking?

Historical Significance
How do we decide what is important to learn about the past?

What is Historically Significant?

It must result in a change

It must shed light on an enduring or emerging issue
It must have a meaningful place in the narrative
It will vary over time and from group to group

Significance Criteria
Did the event result in change?
o How profoundly were people affected?
o How many people were affected?
o Was the change long-lasting?

How does the event reveal to us the past?

Is the event relevant to the present?
Who is the event important for today?
Has the event become more important over time?

from Historical Thinking Project

Evidence
How do we know what we know about the past?

Evidence
Something that is left behind from something or someone in the past
o Historical Evidence is not the same as historical information
Evidence is information offered to establish a fact or point in a
question.
Anything can become evidence when responding to a theory,
issue or problem

Why Evidence?
Much like a scientific inquiry, the role of the Historian is to solve a historical
problem
o To do this, an historian will:
Ask big, important questions (Thesis)
Conduct close analysis of available sources
Place these sources in the context of the time period

Evidence
Evidence is derived from two sources of information
Primary
o must be original or first-hand in terms of time and access to the event
Fossils, Photos, newspaper articles etc.
Secondary
o has been constructed from other sources of information -- it is secondhand; it is not direct in its access to the past.
Stories, textbooks. replicas, movies

Connections to the past

Primary Sources are Raw Materials
Historical conclusions are made upon this information

Information can be drawn from traces or accounts from the past

(can be primary or secondary)
Accounts: describe or explain an event
o Are deliberate telling or reckoning of the event or period
Traces: remnants of the past -- marks, documents and artifacts
o Can also include a reconstructed artifact.
o Two Types: Accidental and Purposeful

Analyze
History is based on INFERENCES based on Primary Sources
Any source can become Evidence when you ask Good Questions
o Use the 5 Ws to help!
Who wrote this?
When was it written?
What was his or her position?
Why would the author have this position?
Where was it written?
All should be Corroborated (checked) against other sources

Continuity and Change

How can we make sense of the complex flow of history?

In History
Students sometimes misunderstand history as a list of
events. Once they start to understand history as a
complex mix of continuity and change, they reach a
fundamentally different sense of the past.

What does this mean?

History is about looking at the past?
o How much of the past hasnt changed?
o View the Following list Then and Now
How have things changed?
How have they stayed the same?
Big Question: Did the event lead to progress or decline?

Cause and Consequence

Why do events happen, and what are their impacts?

Cause and Consequence

Change is driven by multiple causes, and results in multiple
consequences
The causes that lead to a particular historical event vary in their
influence
Events result from the interplay of two types of factors
o Historical Actors (People who take action that cause events)
o Conditions (social, political, economic, and cultural)
Unintended Consequences
o Historical Actors cannot always predict what will happen
Events are not inevitable
o If you alter a single action, history might have turned out differently

Where does change occur?

Change can occur in
o Social
o Political
o Economical
o Historical
Actions often have unintended consequences

Cause and Consequence

Causes
My Math
Mark
Consequences

Cause and Consequence

Vocabulary
Underlying Causes

Pre-existing social
conditions, people,
groups and prior events
Trigger Causes

The tipping point, an

individuals or a groups
action, and event that
initiates change

Individuals

important or influential
people
Social Institutions

eg. government,
families, education
Social Conditions

eg. equality, poverty,

state of being in a
society

Historical Perspectives
How can we better understand the people of the past?

Aspects of Historical Perspective

Taking the perspective of historical actors depends upon evidence for
inferences about how people felt and thought
It is important to avoid presentism
o the unwarranted imposition of present ideas on actors of the past
Historical events or situations involve people who may have diverse
perspectives on it
o Exploring these is a key to understanding the even
Taking the perspective of a historical actors does not mean identifying
with that actor

Historical Perspectives
Remember the question:
Was Canada a Great
Country in 1913?
Why would a Canadian in
1913 have a different
opinion from you?
Are these women

Image from Historical Thinking Project Poster

Big Ideas
There is an ocean of difference can lie between current worldviews
(beliefs, values, and motivations) and those of earlier periods of history
It is important to avoid presentism (the imposition of present ideas on
actors in the past)

Big Ideas
The perspectives of historical actors are best understood by considering
their historical context
Taking the perspective of historical actors means inferring how people
felt and thought in the past
Different historical actors have diverse perspectives on the events in
which they are involved

Times have changed

1932 - Lottie Jones accepts a teaching position in Ontario. These were the
conditions.

1. not get married

2. not ride in carriage or automobile with any any man except her father or
brother
3. not leave town without permission
4. not dye her hair or dress in bright colours and wear at least two
petticoats
6. Keep the school room clean and scrub it with soap and water at least
once a week
7. not use face powder or mascara, not wear dresses more than 2 above
the ankles and finally, not to loiter downtown in ice cream parlours.