CANADIAN

HISTORY 30
Historical Thinking
 “Come on, Bart. History can be fun. It’s like an
amusement park except instead of rides, you get to
memorize dates.”
 Marge Simpson in “Margical History Tour,” an episode of The Simpsons that aired on
December 22, 2004
THE STUDY AND WRITING OF HISTORY

 What is history?
 History vs. the Past
 The record of human activities; the term is
usually reserved for those actions considered to
be significant for their impact upon societies of
that time or later.
 A method of inquiry used by historians while
investigating and analyzing the past.
 “Whether or not we are conscious of it,
whether it enters our minds at all, every
aspect of the world we inhabit today is the
product of yesterday.”
 P. Seixas & T. Morton
STUDYING HISTORY

 Historians may disagree over the importance of

some person or event, that is, the amount of
influence that person or event had upon others or
on the future. Historians may also disagree if one
has access to more material than another and thus
has greater knowledge of what happened
 Early histories are most often the stories of
important people; Generals, Monarchs, Explorers,
etc. How does today’s history differ?
STUDYING HISTORY

 No historical account can ever be regarded

as absolutely final because:
 New material may be discovered which
changes the previous way of seeing a person
or event
 Another historian, using the same material,
may offer a different and better explanation of
its significance
HISTORIOGRAPHY
 The writing of history.
 Historians have problems in
selecting, organizing and writing
their material because:
 Their sources may be biased, incomplete or
contradictory
 Meanings of words may have changed over time
 They may have their own biases affecting how
material is interpreted
HISTORIOGRAPHY

 Bias
 A predisposition to support a certain view making
it difficult to be objective or impossible to judge
fairly.
 Ethnocentrism
 The belief that one’s own group is superior,
leading to the judging of others by the standards
of one’s own culture
THE STUDY AND WRITING OF
HISTORY
 Sources:
 Primary Sources
 Letters, speeches or reports written by participants
or eye-witnesses. Other primary sources include
artifacts unearthed by archaeologists, videotapes,
recordings and photographs.
 Secondary Sources
 Books and articles about events or person written by
individuals investigating or analyzing that topic.
WHY STUDY HISTORY?
 The study of history provides a greater understanding of the
present, a better basis for predicting future events, and the
development of intellectual skills such as the ability to analyze
information.
 The study of history can create a better citizen.
 There are many benefits to studying history including:
fascinating stories, a basis for understanding the present world,
an anticipation of the future, development of greater objectivity
and solid intellectual training
 In short, history can help you become the type of person our
democratic society requires- informed, reasonable and
conscientious.
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
Examine the following two sets of questions:
1. When did Canada enter the First World War? What
happened at the Battle of Vimy Ridge? What was the
Conscription Crisis?
2. To what extent did Canada respond effectively to the First
World War? Could a Conscription Crisis ever happen again
in Canada? Did participation in the First World War do
more harm or good for Canada

How are the questions similar? How are they different?

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
 May lead to more questions rather than clear-cut answers
 Are open-ended – they do not have one “correct” response
and may even have no correct response
 Cannot be answered with a “yes” or a “no” or even with a
single sentence.
 Are thought provoking, requiring you to make choices,
decision, and judgments that can be supported by evidence
or criteria.
Each cluster of this course is based around several essential questions.
For example: Cluster 4.2 – How did the establishment of national
institutions contribute to defining Canadian Identity?
THINKING HISTORICALLY
 The act of interpreting and assessing evidence from the past,
as well as the narratives, or stories, that historians and others
have constructed from this evidence.
 6 historical thinking concepts will guide and shape how you
think about and study history in this course. They are:
 Establishing historical significance
 Using primary-source evidence
 Identifying continuity and change
 Cause and consequence
 Taking a historical perspective
 Considering the ethical dimensions of history
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
 Make informed and
defensible judgments
about the historical
significance of people
and events in the past.
SOURCE EVIDENCE
 Select, evaluate and
interpret primary and
secondary source
evidence in order to
retell and explain the
past as objectively and
accurately as possible
CONTINUITY AND CHANGE
 Observe and explain
continuity and
change over time
CAUSE AND CONSEQUENCE
 Analyze the multiple
causes and
consequences of
historical events and
developments
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
 Take a historical
perspective in order to
interpret the past as it
may have been
experienced by the
people who lived in it
MORAL DIMENSION
 Consider the moral
dimension of events in
the past and the value
judgments that may
influence historical
account