Sunday, April 29, 2012

The Five C's: Learning to Think Like a Historian

Over the course of four summers, I had the chance to participate and administer a Teaching American History grant for Jeffco schools.  One thing that struck me is how we have, for ages, asked kids to remember history rather than employ flexible structures for thinking about history.  Basically, how to think like a historian?  Thomas Andrews and Flannery Burke have outlined the concepts that are connected to thinking historically.  Their essay, What Does It Mean to Think Historically?, examines these five concepts so teachers can begin to apply these concepts within classroom conversation and student work.
1. Change Over Time
2. Context
3. Causality
4. Contingency
5. Complexity

No comments:

Post a Comment