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Using History to Teach Critical Thinking Skills

Feb 26, 2019

Exploring Historical Perspectives for Critical Thinking Development

One of the most important tools we can give our students is the ability to think critically.  In this age of unlimited social media sharing, fake news, and hidden agendas, it has never been more important to be able to look at information and its source and determine if the information is accurate and true.  Dictionary.com defines critical thinking as clear, rational, open-minded, and informed by evidence.  In a good history class, one that moves beyond the textbook, thinking critically is part of the package.

Students of history look at an event from many different perspectives.  The use of both primary (first-hand accounts) and secondary (recounting with interpretation and analysis) sources helps students see an event from many different angles.  Imagine an event like the Boston Massacre.  The account of the British soldier involved would be very different from the patriot on the street. Likewise, Paul Revere, Thomas Jefferson, and King George III would all see the Boston Massacre from a different place.  A twenty-first century historian would add another view of the event. A British historian and an American historian would likely see the event in two different lights.  A student of history learns to read all the accounts and make judgments about the event.  Were the patriots justified in their actions?  Were the soldiers?  Why did Paul Revere refer to the event as a massacre?  How did the event contribute to the tensions between the colonies and the crown leading up to the American Revolution?

Looking at different sources, the perspective of the author, and the bias brought to the event help students learn to discern and think critically.  This important skill can be extrapolated to their non-academic life to determine if a news article, tweet, or report is valid or bait.

Becky Frank has been steeped in American History from her early days growing up on the family farm in Northeastern North Carolina. Although Barrow Creek Farm has been in her family since the 1680s, her parents were the first to live on it in three generations. On the farm she learned to milk cows, sheer sheep, and drive a tractor.

After an internship at Historic Edenton, she received a B.S. in Public History from Appalachian State University in 1992. Answering God’s call to teach in a classroom setting, she added teacher certification from East Carolina University to her degree in 1998. Becky then taught social studies in Gates County, North Carolina where her classes included U.S. History, World History, Economics, Government, and Humanities. In 2003 she married her husband John and left the classroom to start a family.

Becky has been teaching online for more than 10 years.  She also homeschools her three children and is an active leader in the Children’s and Youth’s ministry at her church. She also enjoys gardening, cooking, scrapbooking and long walks with her kids and the family dog. Sharing the heritage of our great country is one of her passions as well. Her lifelong dream is to return to the family farm and make a portion of the acreage a living history site.

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Explicitly Teaching Critical Thinking Skills in a History Course

• Published: 20 March 2017
• Volume 26 , pages 93–105, ( 2017 )

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• Anne Collins McLaughlin 1 &
• Alicia Ebbitt McGill 2  

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Critical thinking skills are often assessed via student beliefs in non-scientific ways of thinking, (e.g, pseudoscience). Courses aimed at reducing such beliefs have been studied in the STEM fields with the most successful focusing on skeptical thinking. However, critical thinking is not unique to the sciences; it is crucial in the humanities and to historical thinking and analysis. We investigated the effects of a history course on epistemically unwarranted beliefs in two class sections. Beliefs were measured pre- and post-semester. Beliefs declined for history students compared to a control class and the effect was strongest for the honors section. This study provides evidence that a humanities education engenders critical thinking. Further, there may be individual differences in ability or preparedness in developing such skills, suggesting different foci for critical thinking coursework.

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Anne Collins McLaughlin

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Alicia Ebbitt McGill

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Appendix 1: Pew test of science knowledge

All radioactivity is man-made. Is this statement true or false?

Correct Answer: False

Electrons are smaller than atoms. Is this statement true or false?

Correct Answer: True

Lasers work by focusing sound waves. Is this statement true or false?

The continents on which we live have been moving their location for millions of years and will continue to move in the future. Is this statement true or false?

Which one of the following types of solar radiation does sunscreen protect the skin from?

Correct Answer: Ultraviolet

Does nanotechnology deal with things that are extremely...

Correct Answer: small

Which gas makes up most of the Earth’s atmosphere?

Correct Answer: Nitrogen

Carbon Dioxide

What is the main function of red blood cells?

Correct Answer: Carry oxygen to all parts of the body

Help the blood to clot

Fight disease in the body

Which of these is a major concern about the overuse of antibiotics?

Correct Answer: It can lead to antibiotic-resistant bacteria

People will become addicted to antibiotics

Antibiotics are very expensive

Which is an example of a chemical reaction?

Correct Answer: Nails rusting

Water boiling

Sugar dissolving

Which is the better way to determine whether a new drug is effective in treating a disease? If a scientist has a group of 1000 volunteers with the disease to study, should she...

Correct Answer: Give the drug to half of them but not to the other half, and compare how many in each group get better

Give the drug to all of them and see how many get better

What gas do most scientists believe causes temperatures in the atmosphere to rise?

Correct Answer: Carbon dioxide

Which natural resource is extracted in a process known as “fracking”?

Correct Answer: Natural gas

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McLaughlin, A.C., McGill, A.E. Explicitly Teaching Critical Thinking Skills in a History Course. Sci & Educ 26 , 93–105 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-017-9878-2

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Published : 20 March 2017

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How History is Made: A Student’s Guide to Reading, Writing, and Thinking in the Discipline

(3 reviews)

Stephanie Cole, Arlington, Texas

Kimberly Breuer, Arlington, Texas

Scott W. Palmer, Arlington, Texas

ISBN 13: 9781648160066

Publisher: Mavs Open Press

Language: English

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Reviewed by Lisong Liu, Professor of History, Massachusetts College of Art and Design on 7/3/24

The book covers almost everything related to the field of history: It has five main units: “Thinking Historically,” “Reading Historically,” “Researching Historically,” “Writing Historically,” and “Performing Historically.” It also includes... read more

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

The book covers almost everything related to the field of history: It has five main units: “Thinking Historically,” “Reading Historically,” “Researching Historically,” “Writing Historically,” and “Performing Historically.” It also includes specific campus resources (at the authors' institution) and some appendices in the end. Really informative and useful for students studying history and pursuing their career in various history-related fields.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

The book provides clear and concise discussions of the field of history, such as the definitions of history and its sub-fields (for example, oral history and digital history) and the nature of the the various methods in studying and interpreting historical sources. The book illustrates the authors' deep understanding of the field as well as their rich experience of teaching history.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

The book is extremely useful, especially for any course related to historical methods. I have been teaching such methods classes for many years and this book is one of the best I have read.

Clarity rating: 5

The book is very clear. It is also often humorous that can really help students feel comfortable with the field.

Consistency rating: 5

The book is consistent in its terminology and framework in introducing the field. The quality is also consistent throughout despite the fact that it was written by multiple authors.

Modularity rating: 5

Very useful modules that both teachers and students can adopt in their own teaching and learning. For example, the rubrics of historical analysis in the end are very useful and can be easily adopted in our own classes.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

Very thoughtful organization with the five main units as mentioned earlier that cover all the different aspects of the field.

Interface rating: 5

The book is easy to navigate and provides many useful links.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

The book is well written.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

The book highlights critical thinking in historical analysis, including the need to be cultural sensitive. It has many good examples showing the complexity of history and the diversity of human experiences (and the need to bring such richness and inclusiveness to our classroom).

I really enjoyed this book and have learned a lot from the authors' deep understanding of the field and deep love of the students!

Reviewed by Ingo Heidbrink, Professor of History, Old Dominion University on 5/22/24

The book covers successfully the basic methods of historical research and writing. It has been prepared as a textbook for the methods classes at the University of Texas, Arlington (UTA) and therefore is focusing especially on methods that are of... read more

The book covers successfully the basic methods of historical research and writing. It has been prepared as a textbook for the methods classes at the University of Texas, Arlington (UTA) and therefore is focusing especially on methods that are of importance to the historical course offerings at UTA, but also provides a highly comprehensive overview of the standard methodology taught at any department of history throughout the US and around the globe. Overall, it discusses the complete process of historical research from source selection, critique and analysis to the process of historical writing and preparation of other means of communication of historical research to academic and non-academic audiences. It needs to be highlighted, that the book begins with an introduction to the different types of reading as a critical skill for all historical research, but also includes some brief chapters on the use of GIS systems, oral history, data-bases etc. and thus covers the standard set of methods most historians will use today. Nevertheless, it needs to be mentioned, that specialised methods like for example the whole range of quantitative methods typically used by economic historians are more or less completely neglected, but this seems to be very much acceptable, as the book is written as a basic textbook for students of history regardless of field of specialisation and not as a dedicated higher-level methods publication for a particular sub-field of historical research.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

The description of methodology and writing practice follows the broadly accepted standards of historical research in the US. While the text is accurate, seems to be error-free, and unbiased, it needs to be mentioned, that all textbooks focusing on historical method will only present some but not all potential methods and that the selection of which methods are included or excluded is always depending on the authors and their take on historical research. But as the book is mainly dealing with the basic mechanics of historical research and writing on which nearly all historians agree, this is a minor issue.

As the book is mainly dealing with the basic standard methodology of historical research and writing, the risk of the main parts of the book becoming outdated or obsolete is extremely low or to a certain degree not existing. After all, while historical method has improved substantially over the last decades, the fundamentals of reading, source critique and analysis, and historical writings remained valid. Some of the chapters dealing with specific methods like the use of GIS systems might become outdated at a certain time, but as they are presented as individual chapters, these chapters can easily be exchanged if needed. If the authors might decide that it would be useful to add additional chapters on other (new) methods, they can easily be integrated into the book and thus it is unlikely that the book will become outdated in the foreseeable future. When it comes to relevance at large, the book is covering a topic of utmost relevance, as it provides a comprehensive and easily accessible to the main methods and skills for any historian and thus a topic that is fundamental for the discipline and any student of history.

Clarity rating: 4

The book is written as a textbook with undergraduate students in mind as the target readership. Therefore it needs to be lauded that the amount of discipline specific jargon and/or discipline specific terminology is limited, but on the other hand, it can also be criticised that the amount of discipline specific terminology introduced in the book is limited. Analytical historical research regularly requires very precise wording and it would have been helpful if the book would have introduced more of the typical canon of terminology used by professional historians.

The text is consistent in terms of the terminology used throughout the book and it can be clearly seen that the authors and spend a lot of effort on generating this consistency.

The book has a certain degree of modularity and individual chapters can be easily assigned as a reading when using the book as a textbook. All individual chapters have a length that they can easily be assigned as a reading from one class session to the next. If the book might be assigned as an additional textbook in a thematic history course, individual chapters of the book that are of special relevance for this course can be easily assigned without the students needing to read anything beyond the chapter to understand the content that is required for that particular class.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

The book is basically organised along the flow of historical research, which seems to be the most logical approach for any textbook on historical methods and historical writing.

Interface rating: 4

The text is largely free from interface issues, but the pdf version is suffering from some issues with the few pages in landscape format. Navigation within the book is basic but functional and appropriate

The text does not seem to contain any major grammatical errors

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

While the book is using some examples that are inclusive of races, ethnicities, and backgrounds, it needs to mentioned, that the book is highly US focused. On the one hand this is not a major issue as the examples chosen does not really matter when it comes to a discussion of methods, but it might limit the usability or at least the attractivenes of the book outside the US.

Having taught historical methods class for two decades, I never found a textbook that fulfilled all my needs and. thus worked mainly with individually assigned materials and texts instead of a textbook. Although this book is also not the perfect textbook for me, I'll consider introducing the book to my methods classes as it comes as an open textbook and thus without cost to the students. Furthermore, it seems to me that this book is a very solid example or base for the development of department specific historical method textbooks at individual departments of history throughout the US.

Reviewed by Ramon Jackson, Assistant Professor of History, Newberry College on 11/4/22

This textbook was developed for HIST 3300, a history research methods course at the University of Texas-Arlington. The course doubles as a substitute for UNIV 1101, the freshman "College Life" seminar. The authors offer useful, comprehensive... read more

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

This textbook was developed for HIST 3300, a history research methods course at the University of Texas-Arlington. The course doubles as a substitute for UNIV 1101, the freshman "College Life" seminar. The authors offer useful, comprehensive chapters on thinking, researching, writing, and performing historically as well as useful supplementary sections that offer tips for student success while in college. There are also excellent appendices that discuss how to develop and utilize databases in historical research. An issue is that the textbook was developed for UTA students which means that certain information will not apply to those outside of that university system.

How History is Made offers practical advice for undergraduate and graduate History students and continuing scholars alike. It accurately and concisely documents the evolution of the historical profession and outlines how students can utilize the training provided in History courses and programs as future professionals. The authors provide numerous examples of how race and ethnicity have shaped academic and Public History but sometimes fall short of providing readers with an understanding of how specific skills such as oral history may be more difficult to apply in Black and marginalized communities or the obstacles one may face as minorities within the profession.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

Substantial sections of the information offered in this textbook are timeless, specifically the sections that instruct students about how to think, research, write, and perform historically. The chapters on "Digital History" and Public History may need to be revised later due to increased participation and innovation in these fields. Instructors outside of the UTA system will need to supplement the use of this book with their own research and writing activities and versions of parts VI-VIII to provide skills, resources, and advice for future graduates that best reflect conditions on their own campuses.

The authors did a fine job of providing readers with an accessible, concise, and useful textbook that examines the history of the historical profession and provides useful strategies, skills, and resources for success in the field. Minor grammatical errors and occasional formatting issues obstructed the flow of specific chapters but, overall, the authors made a compelling case for the value of historical thought, research, and writing among undergraduate students and future professionals in every discipline.

Consistency rating: 4

The text is consistent and avoids jargon, slang, and other unnecessary mistakes that would distract or confuse readers. How History is Made is accessible for undergraduate and graduate students in History and other disciplines.

Modularity rating: 4

How History is Made is easy to follow and would serve as an excellent course textbook for introductory, special topics, and upper-level History courses that emphasize critical thinking, research, and writing as key learning outcomes or assign research papers or "Un-Essay" projects as final projects. This book is also useful for "College 101" or "College/University Life" courses offered to provide study skills and knowledge to freshmen and sophomores. I definitely plan to use this book to scaffold the research and writing process in my special topics and upper-level History courses. Certain sections may even be useful for providing introductory level History students with an understanding of the origins and evolution of the historical profession and/or knowledge about how professional historians utilize a variety of sources to craft arguments, interpret the past, and offer compelling and profound narratives about the relevance of our shared history to contemporary life.

How History Is Made is organized in a logical, clear fashion.

The pdf version of the book contains minor grammatical errors and a few charts and lists that could distract or confuse the reader.

Grammatical Errors rating: 4

See the above comment.

Cultural Relevance rating: 3

One issue with How History is Made is the authors' assertion that the historical discipline is different than "history that everyone owns." This seems to detract from their efforts to offer students from all disciplines the skills and knowledge related to "thinking historically." Additionally, there are moments where greater attention to the experiences of historians from Black and marginalized communities is warranted, specifically the sections on becoming a professional historian and the chapter on oral history. If you decide to use this book, it would be a good idea to pair it with studies and interviews featuring scholars from diverse backgrounds to challenge and complicate some of the assertions made about how history is written and performed. One size does not fit all. Practitioners of digital history may not find this book useful due to the brevity of the information provided.

I enjoyed reading this book and plan to use it as a main or supplementary text to help my students learn to think, research, write, and perform historically. I look forward to seeing if it helps them to improve as researchers and scholars.

Table of Contents

• About the Publisher
• About this Project
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• I. Thinking Historically
• II. Reading Historically
• III. Researching Historically
• IV. Writing Historically
• V. Performing Historically
• VI. Skills for Success
• VII. UTA Campus Resources
• VIII. Degree Planning and Beyond, Advice from the UTA History Department
• Bibliography
• Appendix A- Database Rules and Datatypes
• Appendix B - Working With Multiple Tables
• Appendix C- Database Troubleshooting and Coding
• Appendix D- Database Design and Parts of a Database
• Appendix E- Writing Criteria/ Example Rubric
• Image Credits
• Accessibility Rubric
• Errata and Versioning History

Ancillary Material

About the book.

Learn what it means to think like an historian! Units on “Thinking Historically,” “Reading Historically,” “Researching Historically,” and “Writing Historically” describe the essential skills of the discipline of history. “Performing Historically” offers advice on presenting research findings and describes some careers open to those with an academic training in history.

About the Contributors

Stephanie Cole received her PhD in History from the University of Flordia in 1994 and has taught the introduction to historical methods, as well as courses in women’s history, the history of work, history of sexuality and marriage and related topics at UT Arlington since 1996.  Her most recent publication is the co-edited volume  Texas Women: Their Histories, Their Lives  (University of Georgia Press, 2015).

Kimberly Breuer received her PhD in History from Vanderbilt University in 2004 and has been at UT Arlington since 2004. She regularly teaches the introduction to historical methods, as well as courses in the history of science and technology and Iberian history. Her research centers on the relationship between student (team-based) creation of OER content, experiential learning, and student engagement; student mapped learning pathways and self-regulated learning; interactive and game-based learning.

Scott   W.  Palmer received his PhD in History from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 1997. From his arrival at UT Arlington in 2016 until Fall 2022, he served as  Chair of the Department of History. He  regularly teaches courses on Russian/Soviet History, Flight Culture and the Human Experience, and History of Video Games, along with upper level offerings in the History of Technology and Science.” “ He is author  of  Dictatorship of the Air: Aviation Culture and the Fate of Modern Russia  (Cambridge University Press, 2006),  co-editor of  Science, Technology, Environment, and Medicine in Russia’s Great War and Revolution  ( Slavica , 2022), and editor of the forthcoming c ollection  Flight Culture and the Human Experience  (Texas A&M University Press, 2023).

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Historical content matters: a response to the critical thinking skills agenda

Katie barclay | 06 november 2019.

Executive Summary

• Historical knowledge is a significant form of ‘common sense’ knowledge that shapes decision-making
• Academic histories play a key role in shaping this ‘common sense’ knowledge
• As a result, academic historical scholarship plays a significant and undervalued role in producing social, economic and political outcomes in all areas
• Universities, policymakers and society should take greater heed of historical research as vital to the healthy functioning of societies, economies and polities
• The value of history degrees is not just an important skillset in critical thinking, but the historical content that it provides students

Introduction

History is regularly deployed by people from all walks of life for all sorts of purposes. Pro-Brexit campaigners have variously called upon Britain’s imperial heritage or nostalgic imaginings of whiter British past to justify their retreat from the European Union. Remainers have responded with their own histories of Empire and migration. Both sides have wielded experts in universities to support their points, or posed with historical writings in piles behind them as they make political arguments. The Christchurch shooter carved the dates of Crusade battles into his weapon, locating his action – he claimed – in a long history of Christian-Muslim conflict. Recent debates around sex education in schools have deployed arguments about ‘traditional’ family structures , that LGBT families are meant to sit outside. More benignly, journalists and the public display surprise when they encounter academic scholarship that sheds light on contemporary issues, claiming these ‘hidden’ histories have been withheld from them. It is a degree of surprise, sometimes outrage, that is suggestive that the public recognise that history does important work in shaping how we feel about the world, and that gaps in knowledge are somehow unjust or designed to deceive the public.

For all these people, history matters. And it matters to historians that the public has access to the best and most cutting-edge histories to help inform these discussions. One of the key purposes of History & Policy is to direct the knowledge and findings produced by historians towards those addressing similar problems in the present. Historians, deeply appreciative of the importance of context, are loathe to suggest that ‘lessons from the past’ can be directly applied to a new set of circumstances. But equally we argue that understanding the past can help people make better decisions when encountering similar circumstances today. It can be particularly useful for highlighting how a specific problem has arisen, and for offering an appreciation of the scope of an impact of a choice and the variety of dimensions that need to be considered. Thus, for example, research on children and institutions illuminates why institutions have repeatedly failed many of the children that have been brought into them and why these same problems continue into the present. Historical knowledge, however, is also significant because it shapes our understanding of who we are, our identities, and our potential as people. It is important not just where it can be directly applied but as a source of general information that informs how we engage with the world. That it plays this role ensures that we should not only consider historical research and teaching critical when it has an instrumental and applied value but also because of its role in producing people, inclusive democracies, and nations.

Histories and the everyday

Historical knowledge is all around us. It is transmitted through families, fact and fiction books, television, museums and heritage sites, in language, and as ‘common sense’ information that we use to make decisions. Our first encounters with the past are often in the stories told about own ancestors – parents and grandparents – designed to help us understand what is valued in our family or how our childhood experience might have differed in a previous era. These stories offer a set of common sense information that help us locate our own experiences in relation to time and place, to significant events, and to other people. They can be incredibly varied, ranging across histories of childhood, school, workplaces and occupations, political parties and geopolitics, climate and environment, arts and culture, love and friendship, science, medicine and technology to name a few. As we age and encounter other histories, perhaps at school or in books, our knowledge of the world expands and we learn both about diversity and how historical events have differential impacts on groups.

As the histories that help us make sense of our experiences, these accounts become central to how we understand our personal identity, that of others, and our role in the nation. Given our investments in our identity and attachments to our pasts, these stories also ensure that history becomes politically significant in the public sphere. That the public intuitively recognises this can be seen in the debates, protests and highly emotive engagements with public statues associated with controversial figures, such as the imperialist Cecil Rhodes or US confederate leader Robert E. Lee , or in museum displays associated with local conflicts, such as The Troubles in Northern Ireland or Aboriginal-settler conflict in Australia. What is represented in public histories becomes central to debates about who we are, who is included and excluded, who holds power, and the production of contemporary values and rights.

These ‘everyday histories’ are related to academic scholarship in important ways. The popular histories that are taught at school and museums and appear on television, in children’s books, even fiction, typically draw on academic research. If they are sometimes less rigorous or flatten complex arguments, they nonetheless draw on a body of research conducted by professional historians. Increasingly academics also produce public-facing historical writing to aid with this process. The histories that shape identities grow from academic scholarship. Historians play a significant role in determining what is important to remember. A move from histories of monarchs and diplomacy to that of women and workers may have been encouraged by grassroots civil rights movements in the middle of the twentieth century, but it was historians who determined the key features of the new social histories that emerged.

Historical research is often considered an art because the historian plays such a key role in shaping their accounts of the past. It is the questions that they consider to be important that determine what they look for in the archive. It is their sifting and selection from often sizeable collections of material that determine what makes it into history books and what is forgotten. It is these choices, and that others might make different choices, that produce historical debate and argument, and which informs the evolution of the field as a new generation of scholars bring a different set of concerns to the material that survives from the past. Thus the knowledges that we grow up with and that shape our understanding of ourselves and identities reflect the trends and critical questions within the historical discipline in our formative years. It is perhaps natural then that new histories produced by a new generation of scholars can be challenging to those whose identities were shaped by older understandings of the past, just as those same histories have been liberating for many – such as women, the LGBT community, or ethnic minorities – who lacked stories of people like them when they were growing up. Yet this evolution is critical in producing history that remains relevant to our contemporary experience and identity-making, and to answering questions raised by new circumstances and contexts.

Research and teaching history

In recent years, the value of historical research, and indeed humanities research in general, has been questioned. Right-wing commentators have suggested that universities are increasingly driven by ‘identity politics’ . Critics fear that the history curriculum has fragmented into a wide range of modules driven by the politics of their teachers. Others have questioned the value of research that is not seen to hold a direct and measurable social, but especially economic, impact. This has become particularly significant for the student market where degrees are increasingly promoted with claims of a direct and obvious employment route. Both criticisms demand a straightforward account of what a history degree teaches, and a single type of job that those with history degrees take up. Without this, critics argue, history is useless knowledge. Universities have sought to counter such claims by locating the value of history not in historical knowledge – the content of what was learned – but in ‘critical thinking’, ‘writing and communication’ and similar important but generic skills . For such commentators, the historical content is of less significance than the opportunity to read widely, think deeply, research, and solve problems, a skillset that can be applied in any context.

No one would contest that a history degree offers these benefits, but it is an account that fails to recognise the importance of historical knowledge in the everyday. The histories we use are significant in interpreting everyday experiences and identity. Indeed, critical thinking requires historical knowledge. What we determine to be ‘common sense’, how we understand the world to operate, does not arise naturally but is based upon the everyday histories that we are taught in childhood and across our lives. This is the case when we, for example, make an assumption about normative family forms in the past, or when we draw on an interpretation of the causes of the First World War when producing foreign policy. Such ‘common sense’ histories are always partial, reflective of our experience and our encounters with the historical knowledge available to us. Access to a broader, more sophisticated body of historical research counters these ‘common sense’ accounts by offering a firmer grounding for decision-making and critical analysis. This can be seen in the now famous example of the US Supreme Court decision for marriage equality, that referenced the scholarship of key marriage and sexuality historians , and transformed the legal rights of LGBT individuals across the US.

New histories are therefore important for the work they do in shaping individuals and society. A democratic society – one where all members of the polity have a place – requires inclusive accounts that acknowledge and recognise all parts of the community. This is even more critical for groups who have been subject to disadvantage, harm or exploitation, where their histories act as an acknowledgement and first step in redress for past wrongs. It is vital for minorities who need histories of others like them to explain their experience and role in the world. New histories are also important in giving us accounts of art, culture, science, technology, business, economy and more that help us interpret the present, much as History & Policy promotes. Importantly, for a rich account of the past to emerge, a variety of topics and perspectives becomes critical.

In the present moment, a popular television show such as Downton Abbey, exploring changing social relations in early twentieth-century Britain, can draw on histories of war, economy, society, fashion, popular culture, material culture, accent and language use, technology, medicine and more, in its rich ‘world-building’. This is possible due to the work of dozens of scholars and years of effort, which itself builds upon generations of earlier work, though this work is usually unacknowledged within television credits. Such a history is richer, more interesting, perhaps a fuller capture of the past. Its strength lies in collaboration and the representation of a diversity of perspectives. With significant viewing figures both in the UK and internationally, Downton Abbey is an account of the past that will inform how many of us interpret our present experiences. Yet it is an account that is not usually acknowledged as either ‘history’ that people will use in making sense of themselves, nor as rooted in academic historical research – despite it being both. Remarkably, despite the fact that governments and increasingly university campaigns targeting students have sought to instrumentalise historical knowledge by emphasising its benefits for public policy , for productivity and growth, and for future employment, the important and everyday impacts of history – the ways that it is used by ordinary people in their own lives – is rarely considered as a domain shaped by historical research.

For an informed and productive society, the historical knowledge disseminated to the public must be broad, diverse and evolving to reflect new research. Universities are a key space where new accounts of the past can be taught and disseminated. That there is not a core history curriculum taught at every university, as some conservatives suggest there should be, is not a flaw, but a feature. It is not possible for every member of society, nor every historian, to know everything about the past. History courses thus specialise, and disseminate diverse accounts of the past. As history students from different institutions spread outwards, taking their specialist knowledges to an array of workplaces nationally and internationally, they share their educations with others, increasing the opportunity for knowledge to reach those that will find it most useful. Acknowledging the significance of the historical content of degrees may also offer opportunities for individuals to be targeted by employers or communities for historical learning that gives them expertise and critical thinking in specific areas.

Importantly, this is not an account of historical knowledge that attends only to the modern histories that explain the immediate experiences of those in the polity. Historical knowledges have long legacies in culture and society, requiring investment and dissemination in histories both deep and wide. This can be seen most recently in the use of crusading history both by the Christchurch shooter and by conservative political parties in Australia  (where Senator Cori Bernardi recently tabled a motion asking the Senate to note the anniversary of the breaking of the siege of Vienna in 1529), to promote a right-wing agenda. But it can also be seen in our contemporary understanding of love and sex that was first forged in conflicts within the medieval church. Knowing this – like our more well-known modern histories of sex and gender – may well open up new ways of thinking about something so central to our everyday lives. A successful and inclusive democratic state requires not just research skills, but historical knowledge.

Historical knowledge shapes how people interpret their experiences, and those of others. It aids critical thinking and decision-making. Providing people with richer, more sophisticated, and up to date historical content therefore contributes not only to a better educated public but one that can make better decisions in a vast array of areas of life. Acknowledging this requires a move from promoting history degrees for their generic critical thinking and communication skillset to celebrating historical knowledge as a key form of information required by productive members of society. This has implications for how universities promote their history research and teaching, but also for policymakers as they seek to produce the best outcomes in areas as diverse as education, health, industry, politics, economy, technology, arts, and society.

• Barclay, Katie
• History in practice

Further Reading

Anna Green, ‘Intergenerational Family Stories: Private, Parochial, Pathological?,’ Journal of Family History 38, no. 4 (2013): 387-402

Shurlee Swain and Nell Musgrove, ‘We are the Stories We Tell About Ourselves: Child Welfare Records and the Construction of Identity among Australians who, as Children, Experienced Out-of-Home “Care”,’ Archives and Manuscripts 40, no. 1 (2012): 4-14

Penny Summerfield, ‘Culture and Composure: Creating Narratives of the Gendered Self in Oral History Interviews,’ Cultural and Social History 1 (2004): 65-93

Jay Winter, Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning: The Great War in European Cultural History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995)

About the author

Katie Barclay is Deputy-Director of the ARC Centre for Excellence in the History of Emotions and Associate Professor in History, University of Adelaide. Her research explores the transmission of knowledge across generations within families and the implications for self, identity and nation.

Related Policy Papers

How history matters now, ludmilla jordanova | 27 november 2008, in defence of applied history: the history and policy website, john tosh | 10 february 2006, why history matters, john tosh | 20 november 2008, why history matters - and why medieval history also matters, john arnold | 28 november 2008, related opinion articles, back to the past for the school history curriculum, nicola sheldon | 20 february 2013, papers by author, papers by theme, digital download.

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Why Study History? (1998)

/ AHA Resource Library

/ Why Study History? (1998)

Published Date

January 1, 1998

Resource Type

AHA Archival Document, Essay

History of the Discipline, Teaching Methods

Graduate Education, K–12 Education, Teaching & Learning

This historical document is from the archives of the American Historical Association. It is provided for you to interpret as a primary source and might no longer reflect the editorial decisions or views of the organization.

In 2020, Peter N. Stearns revisited this essay with “ Why Study History? Revisited ” in  Perspectives on History .

By Peter N. Stearns

People live in the present. They plan for and worry about the future. History, however, is the study of the past. Given all the demands that press in from living in the present and anticipating what is yet to come, why bother with what has been? Given all the desirable and available branches of knowledge, why insist—as most American educational programs do—on a good bit of history? And why urge many students to study even more history than they are required to?

Any subject of study needs justification: its advocates must explain why it is worth attention. Most widely accepted subjects—and history is certainly one of them—attract some people who simply like the information and modes of thought involved. But audiences less spontaneously drawn to the subject and more doubtful about why to bother need to know what the purpose is.

Historians do not perform heart transplants, improve highway design, or arrest criminals. In a society that quite correctly expects education to serve useful purposes, the functions of history can seem more difficult to define than those of engineering or medicine. History is in fact very useful, actually indispensable, but the products of historical study are less tangible, sometimes less immediate, than those that stem from some other disciplines.

In the past history has been justified for reasons we would no longer accept. For instance, one of the reasons history holds its place in current education is because earlier leaders believed that a knowledge of certain historical facts helped distinguish the educated from the uneducated; the person who could reel off the date of the Norman conquest of England (1066) or the name of the person who came up with the theory of evolution at about the same time that Darwin did (Wallace) was deemed superior—a better candidate for law school or even a business promotion. Knowledge of historical facts has been used as a screening device in many societies, from China to the United States, and the habit is still with us to some extent. Unfortunately, this use can encourage mindless memorization—a real but not very appealing aspect of the discipline. History should be studied because it is essential to individuals and to society, and because it harbors beauty. There are many ways to discuss the real functions of the subject—as there are many different historical talents and many different paths to historical meaning. All definitions of history’s utility, however, rely on two fundamental facts.

History Helps Us Understand People and Societies

In the first place, history offers a storehouse of information about how people and societies behave. Understanding the operations of people and societies is difficult, though a number of disciplines make the attempt. An exclusive reliance on current data would needlessly handicap our efforts. How can we evaluate war if the nation is at peace—unless we use historical materials? How can we understand genius, the influence of technological innovation, or the role that beliefs play in shaping family life, if we don’t use what we know about experiences in the past? Some social scientists attempt to formulate laws or theories about human behavior. But even these recourses depend on historical information, except for in limited, often artificial cases in which experiments can be devised to determine how people act. Major aspects of a society’s operation, like mass elections, missionary activities, or military alliances, cannot be set up as precise experiments. Consequently, history must serve, however imperfectly, as our laboratory, and data from the past must serve as our most vital evidence in the unavoidable quest to figure out why our complex species behaves as it does in societal settings. This, fundamentally, is why we cannot stay away from history: it offers the only extensive evidential base for the contemplation and analysis of how societies function, and people need to have some sense of how societies function simply to run their own lives.

History Helps Us Understand Change and How the Society We Live in Came to Be

The second reason history is inescapable as a subject of serious study follows closely on the first. The past causes the present, and so the future. Any time we try to know why something happened—whether a shift in political party dominance in the American Congress, a major change in the teenage suicide rate, or a war in the Balkans or the Middle East—we have to look for factors that took shape earlier. Sometimes fairly recent history will suffice to explain a major development, but often we need to look further back to identify the causes of change. Only through studying history can we grasp how things change; only through history can we begin to comprehend the factors that cause change; and only through history can we understand what elements of an institution or a society persist despite change.

The Importance of History in Our Own Lives

These two fundamental reasons for studying history underlie more specific and quite diverse uses of history in our own lives. History well told is beautiful. Many of the historians who most appeal to the general reading public know the importance of dramatic and skillful writing—as well as of accuracy. Biography and military history appeal in part because of the tales they contain. History as art and entertainment serves a real purpose, on aesthetic grounds but also on the level of human understanding. Stories well done are stories that reveal how people and societies have actually functioned, and they prompt thoughts about the human experience in other times and places. The same aesthetic and humanistic goals inspire people to immerse themselves in efforts to reconstruct quite remote pasts, far removed from immediate, present-day utility. Exploring what historians sometimes call the “pastness of the past”—the ways people in distant ages constructed their lives—involves a sense of beauty and excitement, and ultimately another perspective on human life and society.

History Contributes to Moral Understanding

History also provides a terrain for moral contemplation. Studying the stories of individuals and situations in the past allows a student of history to test his or her own moral sense, to hone it against some of the real complexities individuals have faced in difficult settings. People who have weathered adversity not just in some work of fiction, but in real, historical circumstances can provide inspiration. “History teaching by example” is one phrase that describes this use of a study of the past—a study not only of certifiable heroes, the great men and women of history who successfully worked through moral dilemmas, but also of more ordinary people who provide lessons in courage, diligence, or constructive protest.

History Provides Identity

History also helps provide identity, and this is unquestionably one of the reasons all modern nations encourage its teaching in some form. Historical data include evidence about how families, groups, institutions and whole countries were formed and about how they have evolved while retaining cohesion. For many Americans, studying the history of one’s own family is the most obvious use of history, for it provides facts about genealogy and (at a slightly more complex level) a basis for understanding how the family has interacted with larger historical change. Family identity is established and confirmed. Many institutions, businesses, communities, and social units, such as ethnic groups in the United States, use history for similar identity purposes. Merely defining the group in the present pales against the possibility of forming an identity based on a rich past. And of course nations use identity history as well—and sometimes abuse it. Histories that tell the national story, emphasizing distinctive features of the national experience, are meant to drive home an understanding of national values and a commitment to national loyalty.

Studying History Is Essential for Good Citizenship

A study of history is essential for good citizenship. This is the most common justification for the place of history in school curricula. Sometimes advocates of citizenship history hope merely to promote national identity and loyalty through a history spiced by vivid stories and lessons in individual success and morality. But the importance of history for citizenship goes beyond this narrow goal and can even challenge it at some points.

History that lays the foundation for genuine citizenship returns, in one sense, to the essential uses of the study of the past. History provides data about the emergence of national institutions, problems, and values—it’s the only significant storehouse of such data available. It offers evidence also about how nations have interacted with other societies, providing international and comparative perspectives essential for responsible citizenship. Further, studying history helps us understand how recent, current, and prospective changes that affect the lives of citizens are emerging or may emerge and what causes are involved. More important, studying history encourages habits of mind that are vital for responsible public behavior, whether as a national or community leader, an informed voter, a petitioner, or a simple observer.

What Skills Does a Student of History Develop?

What does a well-trained student of history, schooled to work on past materials and on case studies in social change, learn how to do? The list is manageable, but it contains several overlapping categories.

The Ability to Assess Evidence . The study of history builds experience in dealing with and assessing various kinds of evidence—the sorts of evidence historians use in shaping the most accurate pictures of the past that they can. Learning how to interpret the statements of past political leaders—one kind of evidence—helps form the capacity to distinguish between the objective and the self-serving among statements made by present-day political leaders. Learning how to combine different kinds of evidence—public statements, private records, numerical data, visual materials—develops the ability to make coherent arguments based on a variety of data. This skill can also be applied to information encountered in everyday life.

The Ability to Assess Conflicting Interpretations . Learning history means gaining some skill in sorting through diverse, often conflicting interpretations. Understanding how societies work—the central goal of historical study—is inherently imprecise, and the same certainly holds true for understanding what is going on in the present day. Learning how to identify and evaluate conflicting interpretations is an essential citizenship skill for which history, as an often-contested laboratory of human experience, provides training. This is one area in which the full benefits of historical study sometimes clash with the narrower uses of the past to construct identity. Experience in examining past situations provides a constructively critical sense that can be applied to partisan claims about the glories of national or group identity. The study of history in no sense undermines loyalty or commitment, but it does teach the need for assessing arguments, and it provides opportunities to engage in debate and achieve perspective.

Experience in Assessing Past Examples of Change . Experience in assessing past examples of change is vital to understanding change in society today—it’s an essential skill in what we are regularly told is our “ever-changing world.” Analysis of change means developing some capacity for determining the magnitude and significance of change, for some changes are more fundamental than others. Comparing particular changes to relevant examples from the past helps students of history develop this capacity. The ability to identify the continuities that always accompany even the most dramatic changes also comes from studying history, as does the skill to determine probable causes of change. Learning history helps one figure out, for example, if one main factor—such as a technological innovation or some deliberate new policy—accounts for a change or whether, as is more commonly the case, a number of factors combine to generate the actual change that occurs.

Historical study, in sum, is crucial to the promotion of that elusive creature, the well-informed citizen. It provides basic factual information about the background of our political institutions and about the values and problems that affect our social well-being. It also contributes to our capacity to use evidence, assess interpretations, and analyze change and continuities. No one can ever quite deal with the present as the historian deals with the past—we lack the perspective for this feat; but we can move in this direction by applying historical habits of mind, and we will function as better citizens in the process.

History Is Useful in the World of Work

History is useful for work. Its study helps create good businesspeople, professionals, and political leaders. The number of explicit professional jobs for historians is considerable, but most people who study history do not become professional historians. Professional historians teach at various levels, work in museums and media centers, do historical research for businesses or public agencies, or participate in the growing number of historical consultancies. These categories are important—indeed vital—to keep the basic enterprise of history going, but most people who study history use their training for broader professional purposes. Students of history find their experience directly relevant to jobs in a variety of careers as well as to further study in fields like law and public administration. Employers often deliberately seek students with the kinds of capacities historical study promotes. The reasons are not hard to identify: students of history acquire, by studying different phases of the past and different societies in the past, a broad perspective that gives them the range and flexibility required in many work situations. They develop research skills, the ability to find and evaluate sources of information, and the means to identify and evaluate diverse interpretations. Work in history also improves basic writing and speaking skills and is directly relevant to many of the analytical requirements in the public and private sectors, where the capacity to identify, assess, and explain trends is essential. Historical study is unquestionably an asset for a variety of work and professional situations, even though it does not, for most students, lead as directly to a particular job slot, as do some technical fields. But history particularly prepares students for the long haul in their careers, its qualities helping adaptation and advancement beyond entry-level employment. There is no denying that in our society many people who are drawn to historical study worry about relevance. In our changing economy, there is concern about job futures in most fields. Historical training is not, however, an indulgence; it applies directly to many careers and can clearly help us in our working lives.

Why study history? The answer is because we virtually must, to gain access to the laboratory of human experience. When we study it reasonably well, and so acquire some usable habits of mind, as well as some basic data about the forces that affect our own lives, we emerge with relevant skills and an enhanced capacity for informed citizenship, critical thinking, and simple awareness. The uses of history are varied. Studying history can help us develop some literally “salable” skills, but its study must not be pinned down to the narrowest utilitarianism. Some history—that confined to personal recollections about changes and continuities in the immediate environment—is essential to function beyond childhood. Some history depends on personal taste, where one finds beauty, the joy of discovery, or intellectual challenge. Between the inescapable minimum and the pleasure of deep commitment comes the history that, through cumulative skill in interpreting the unfolding human record, provides a real grasp of how the world works.

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Content Warning

This page contains words or ideas that might be offensive to modern readers. To maintain the accuracy of historical documentation, the content is reprinted in its entirety as it was originally published. This accurate reproduction of original historical texts therefore contains words and ideas that do not reflect the editorial decisions or views of the American Historical Association.

History Cooperative

A Systematic Approach to Improve Students’ Historical Thinking

THIS ESSAY AIMS TO PROVIDE beginning and experienced history teachers as well as history teaching methods professors with a helpful strategy designed to improve students’ knowledge of historical content and competence in historical thinking. It introduces a systematic approach to the use of primary sources which emphasizes the “doing” of history, or better yet, the “doing of teaching history.” It is consistent with the best practices in pedagogy. We base the approach to be discussed on our teaching experiences at the high school and university levels (in content courses and teaching methods courses), a review of literature regarding historical thinking, and our experiences with undergraduate entry-level teachers, graduate students in history, and experienced classroom history teachers.

This approach is designed around what we label as First-Order, Second-Order, and Third-Order documents. It provides a systematic way for teachers to engage students in historical thinking. Anecdotal comments of experienced teachers and student teachers illustrate the potential of this approach. One veteran teacher with thirty-four years of experience commented, “This approach has made me think more carefully about the way I think about primary sources. Many primary sources are available from textbook companies and the Internet, as if they [primary sources] are all equal. They are not. This method makes me think like a historian.” A student teacher using this method during her student teaching experience, which included AP students and lower level students, simply stated, “It works!” She later wrote, “I may have to edit my primary sources, depending on my students’ abilities, but the method helps them know content. Students relate sources one to another when they use this method.” 

All history educators, we believe, should be dedicated to eliciting historical thinking. If the argument of our article is correct—that use of this systematic approach will engage students in historical thinking and improve their knowledge and understanding of history—then we think all teachers should consider implementing this approach in their teaching. 3 A word about the scope of this approach is in order. We realize that it is by no means the only approach a teacher can use to improve students’ knowledge and understanding of history. Far less is our approach to be used on a daily basis. We suggest it be used judiciously (perhaps once or twice per semester). However, it should be revisited at times when a teacher deems it appropriate. The decision when to use this approach must depend on each teacher’s knowledge of historical narrative and sources. We suggest in the strongest way that teachers should implement this approach at a time propitious to their expertise. In our view, use of this systematic approach will breathe life into students’ capacities to know and understand history. 

This essay thus addresses the following headings: Conventional Practices in Using Primary Sources; First-/Second-/and Third-Order Approach in Using Primary Sources; Selecting First-/and Second-Order Documents; An Example of the First-/Second-/and Third-Order Approach; The Importance of Asking Questions; Editing First-/ and Second-Order Documents; Historical Narrative and Using Guides to Develop Historical Thinking; and the Potential of This Systematic Approach for Assessing Students’ Historical Knowledge, Understanding, and Dispositions. 

Conventional Practices in Using Primary Sources

In observing student teachers and classroom teachers, we have found that most history teachers use primary sources—particularly textual sources and images—in one of two ways. Teachers use a single source approach or a multiple source approach. Some teachers intersperse a single primary source within a historical topic, often to validate to students that information the teacher has presented is correct. Other teachers provide students with multiple primary sources for students to discover for themselves what the teacher already knows. This second way is more complex, usually involving jigsaw learning or other group techniques, because a variety of sources are brought to bear on a topic in the classroom. Most teachers when using the second approach will do the following: 1) they will select age appropriate sources; 2) they will make sure selections are readable and edited properly; 3) they will provide background to help students “decode” the source; 4) they will involve students in groups to work with primary sources; and 5) they will provide purpose and motivation for reading a primary source.1 Because teaching with primary sources is an active form of instruction, the teacher must pose questions that cause students to read and examine the primary sources. The object is to provoke students positively to the end that they become engaged in historical inquiry and interpretation.2 

We think the aforementioned approaches (use of a single source to validate the teacher’s information and use of multiple sources for students to discover conclusions of historians) are valid and useful. However, we think teachers should consider a third way to extend the use of primary sources, which we have found successful in working with undergraduate students, graduate students, and teachers during in-service institutes. This third approach is an inquiry method designed around what we label as First-Order, Second-Order, and Third-Order documents. 

Using First- Second- and Third-Order Primary Sources

We define the First-Order document (hereafter, 1st-order) as the teacher’s essential primary source. This 1st-order document must be one that is so essential to the teacher that the teacher regards it as one he or she cannot live without. This core document must be located at the epicenter of the teacher’s instruction. And the teacher must lead a discussion of this 1st-order document based upon a broad, open-ended question he or she poses to students. For example, in our own teaching of American history we have come to regard the Tenth Federalist as our 1st-order document when we teach about American constitutional and political experiences in the eighteenth century. In the twentieth century, we regard George F. Kennan’s “Long Telegram” of 1946 as our essential, 1st-order document. (Later we will tease out the use of Kennan’s “Long Telegram” as a 1st-order document.) 

Second-Order documents (hereafter, 2nd-order) are those primary sources that support or challenge the 1st-order document. We suggest the teacher bring in three to five 2nd-order documents, which may be comprised of textual (print) documents, images (photographs, paintings, charts, and tables), or artifacts. These 2nd-order documents should serve two purposes. Some 2nd-order documents should corroborate ideas found in the 1st-order document. Other 2nd-order documents should contrast the ideas found in the 1st-order document. 2nd-order documents therefore surround the 1st-order document. Our purpose is that through discussion students will achieve a more nuanced understanding of the past as they consider how the 2nd-order documents support or challenge the 1st-order document. 

Third-Order documents (hereafter, 3rd-order) are primary sources students eventually find themselves. All teachers experience at one time or another the moment when a student enters class and exuberantly describes a primary source (perhaps a family photograph, a letter, an old newspaper article, a family story, or a primary source found on the Internet) that relates to a topic or idea recently discussed in class. These experiences may be all too infrequent, and we argue that they should be made more systematic. A 3rd-order document, therefore, is a primary source every student locates and is important to him or her. We emphasize, however, that the student must find a 3rd-order document that relates to their teacher’s 1st-order document. 

Selecting the First-/and Second-Order Documents

Something more must be said about the selection of a 1st-order document. There are two key criteria: its historical value and its potential contribution to students’ historical knowledge and thinking. As teachers determine a document’s historical value, they should consider at least two essential qualities. First and most importantly, does the source represent the heart of a historical issue or periodization in history? The teacher’s selection of a 1st-order document is an act of interpretation. It determines the intellectual direction of subsequent discussions. Second, the source should express a position so vividly that its articulation enables opportunities for other documents to be found that challenge or corroborate the position. The best 1st-order document is one that has the above qualities and has the potential to contribute to students’ historical knowledge and thinking.

When teachers select documents for analysis in their classes, they must consider multiple factors that relate to fostering students’ knowledge and ability to think historically. Here are several questions that must be asked when teachers select a 1st-order document:

• Will this document be of interest to my students?
• Will the document enable students to draw upon their prior knowledge?
• Does the document allow students to relate the concept, idea, or event to knowledge with which they are familiar?
• Does the document allow students to examine change over time?
• Is the document appropriate cognitively for students?
• In what ways might the document deepen students’ contextual understanding?
• How will the document affect students’ preconceived historical narrative?
• How will the document contribute to students’ abilities to deliberate and make informed decisions?
• In what ways does the document require students to use history’s habits of the mind?
• How does the document relate to state and local standards and performance indicators that call for the development of historical thinking?

Teachers use similar criteria in the selection of 2nd-order documents. 

Searching for a 1st-order document and three to five surrounding 2nd-order documents will engage teachers in the discovery of numerous sources. These sources should not be simply discarded. They should be used to create a list of potential 3rd-order documents. This list of potential 3rd-order documents serves two purposes. First, teachers can use the list to give students examples they might find in case some students lack the motivation to find a 3rd-order document without prompting. Second, teachers can use the list of key documents representing central ideas as a way to incorporate the aforementioned multiple sources teaching strategies that are already part of their repertoire of best practices. 

An Example of the First- Second- and Third-Order Approach

We offer as an example the use of 1st-/2nd-/and 3rd-order documents in an investigation of the period of the Cold War. Teachers can readily access primary sources on the Cold War period through the Internet. The “Cold War International History Project” (http://cwihp.si.edu/default.htm) provides a wide range of both documents and links to other related websites and sources. The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (http://www.archives.gov/) also provides sources and teaching strategies, including the Digital Classroom, which a teacher can draw upon to incorporate sources and teaching strategies. 

Finding this rich source of documents is only the beginning. The teacher now needs to consider document selection and must organize those sources chosen as 1st-/2nd-/and 3rd-order documents. We chose as our 1st-order document George F. Kennan’s “Long Telegram” of February 1946. The question we would pose for students as they read Kennan’s “Long Telegram” is: How did American leaders view relations among the Grand Alliance members, and how did they view the international balance of power and American resources? 

George F. Kennan was the U.S. Charge d’Affaires in Moscow and wrote the secret 8,000-word “long telegram” to officials in Washington, D.C. on February 22, 1946. His telegram assessed Soviet behavior within a historical context. Kennan warned, “We have here a political force [the Soviet Union] committed fanatically to the belief that with [the] U.S. there can be no modus vivendi [arrangement between people who agree to cope with matters over which they disagree], that it is desirable and necessary that the internal harmony of our society be disrupted, our traditional way of life be destroyed, the international authority of our state be broken, if Soviet power is to be secure.” 3 Kennan’s assessment led to the widely shared U.S. objective of containment in the post World War II period. His assessment of how to achieve containment became an important issue in the Truman administration and succeeding administrations. Would containment of Soviet expansionism be limited to Europe? Would containment be global? In addition, how would the threat to national security affect the relationship between the American citizen and state government? 

Our choice of 2nd-order documents included Nikolai Novikov and Frank Roberts’ telegrams of 1946, respectively. Soviet Ambassador Novikov’s cable assessed the United States from the Soviet perspective. Novikov’s cable is informative and captivating to both a reader whose knowledge is limited and to one who is more knowledgeable and well grounded. The Soviet cable was first published publicly in November 1990 during the era of glasnost and perestroika. It appeared in an issue of Mezhdunarodnaia zhizn’, an official publication of the Soviet Foreign Ministry. For another 2nd-order document we chose Frank Roberts’ cable, also written in 1946, which provides a British perspective of Soviet and United States objectives. Sean Greenwood described its significance over ten years ago in the Journal of Contemporary History.4 We thought it appropriate to include as a 2nd-order document an image, perhaps a picture taken of the Allied leaders during the Potsdam Conference of July 1945. 

We also noted several possible 3rd-order documents, including Winston Churchill’s 1946 “Iron Curtain” Speech in Fulton, Missouri; a May 17, 1946 Speech by the General Secretary of the Hungarian Communist Party at the Meeting of the Central Committee; Kennan’s 1947 “X” Article; the Truman Doctrine of 1947; the Marshall Plan of 1947; and the 1950 NSC 68, to name a few. All these documents were found on the Internet. 

The Importance of Asking Questions

When teachers discuss with their students a 1st-order document such as the “Long Telegram” they cannot simply give students the document with the instructions to read it and answer some questions. Intellectual enjoyment and engagement are the products of a co-investigation involving both teachers and students. History, after all, is to a great extent an investigation. History is a process of interrogating primary sources and secondary narratives. Historians primarily ask questions when they “do” history, often prefaced with “why” and “how.” History teachers also ask questions, though perhaps for different purposes. The historian’s purpose is to give meaning to historical facts. As a discipline and course of study, history insists upon “meaning over memory.”5 History teachers should ask questions (and encourage their students to ask questions) to help students think historically and to “give meaning to their historical experiences.”6 History teaching is a co-investigation in which the teacher and students shape and reshape their interpretations about the past. 

Teachers will need to ask basic questions common to historical thinking such as the following: Who is the author? When was the source written? What type of document is it? Who was the intended audience? And what factors motivated the author to create the source? Was Kennan, in our example, writing the “Long Telegram” because he had been asked to assess the relationship among the members of the Grand Alliance? Did he take the initiative to write the persuasive cable? (See Figure 1: Primary Source Analysis Guide to Historical Thinking: Print Documents)7 These are the sort of questions historians ask and ones students need to practice asking. By engaging students to speculate on these questions, teachers enable students to weave a 1st-order document such as the Kennan Long Telegram into their historical frameworks of understanding. 

Only after considering these questions should teachers discuss with students the central meaning of the 1st-order document and how Kennan supported his argument. During this deliberative discussion, teachers should ask students to suspend judgment regarding whether or not Kennan was right or wrong. This suspension of present-mindedness is essential to deliberation. Teachers should also ask students to consider events and ideas that were taking place regionally, nationally, and internationally at the time the document was written. And teachers should ask students to relate the document to a theme of history (such as conflict and cooperation) and to other disciplines in the social sciences. In effect, teachers are engaging their students in the dual process of examining a particular document and simultaneously connecting that document within a larger context of historical understanding. (Again, see Figure 1.) 

Similar to the questions asked in the 1st-order document, discussion of 2nd-order documents requires analytical questioning. (See Figure 1.) Again, teachers should ask questions that help students identify the document and analyze its significance and relationship to the 1st-order document and larger events. The three textual documents and the image document, in this example, provide students with a nuanced understanding of the Cold War from three perspectives, that of the United States, the then Soviet Union, and Great Britain. Questions to ask include: How did relations among the three Grand Alliance nations of World War II change? How did relationships among citizens of each nation change relative to their allegiance to their national government? How did the three nations establish objectives? How do the three telegrams compare in style, in substance, and significance?8 These comparative questions serve as portals into a co-investigation of the Cold War.9 When teachers turn to the photograph, they should ask students five essential questions:

• Was this photograph taken east or west of the Elbe River (or another appropriate geographic feature)?
• Who are the people in this photograph?
• What time was this photograph taken?
• What does this photograph tell us about their lives?
• What were the motives of the photographer?
• These questions encourage students to view the creation of an image as having purpose and meaning and elicit student thinking about people in the dimensions of time and space.

Editing First-Order and Second-Order Documents

The 1st-/2nd-/and 3rd-order documents named above are examples we have used in our classrooms for a United States history survey course in both schools and universities and for a university course on American diplomatic history. We adjust the length of the textual documents depending on the nature of the course. In the American diplomatic history course, we use the entire primary sources. In the United States history survey, we edit them but we have had students who then ask how they can find the entire document, which we regard as a sign that students’ interests have been aroused. 

While the Internet and textbook companies make documents readily available, these sources do not absolve teachers from the responsibility of editing the sources for their students. Teachers must think carefully about which portions of a document, particularly textual documents, will be deleted and which sections will be retained. Editing is an act of interpretation, and many teachers find it to be a difficult task. Just as the selection of a document is an interpretive act on the part of the teacher, editing a document involves interpretation. One of a teacher’s priorities must be to maintain intellectual honesty. A teacher should never distort the meaning of a document through ellipses or other editorial devices. (For example, a teacher should never delete such words as “not,” “never,” or “always.” As obvious as this point may appear, scholarship has sometimes violated this canon of the discipline.) Students trust their teacher’s intellectual honesty and their confidence can quickly be lost if a teacher deliberately falsifies a document through ellipses, links multiple documents in seriatim as if they were one, or makes up a false document. When editing a primary source, we suggest teachers consider these questions:

• Is it possible to edit the source?
• What do I know about the document that will help me edit it appropriately?
• What more do I need to know about the document in order to edit it appropriately?
• How will this document enhance my teaching and student learning?
• What are the essential parts of this document?

While the above questions serve as a guide, the final decisions require good judgment. Teachers must keep in mind when selecting passages from a textual document that their students may ask what parts have been omitted. Instead of responding defensively, teachers should regard their students’ questions as ones of curiosity and interest. They should encourage their students to read an entire, unedited document and ask them to select key sections of the source. 

Maintaining a Historical Narrative While Using First-, Second-, and Third-Order Documents

All of us know that effective history teachers blend narrative and primary sources. While this essay focuses on a strategy for using primary sources, we do not want readers to think we are overlooking the power and importance of narrative in teaching. The recent study conducted by Kathleen Medina and her research team points to problems that occur when teachers overemphasize either primary sources or interpretative exercises in their teaching.10 Jerome Bruner informs us of the power of narrative to help students construct the past. For Jerome Bruner, the narrative, or story, is the means employed by individuals to create meaningful frameworks that organize individual experience and make meaning of the world both past and present.11 

A recent American Historical Association publication concludes that students walk into our classrooms with a narrative already in mind, albeit not always a sophisticated one. Students are not “blank slates (tabula rasa).”12 Their narratives are acquired from a wide-range of sources including television, their parents, their former teachers, and other students. We also know from research in history education that students often “learn official history” only in order to pass tests, or they internalize what teachers say in class in their own way.13 Students perceive “official history” to be what the teacher (and or the school and textbook authorities) dispense to them. This learning of “official history” knows no ideological or national borders. It occurs in the United States and other nations when students engage in the ritualistic study of politically palatable views of the past. 

History should be an investigation, the creation of domain-specific knowledge with integrative capabilities, and it should involve special ways of thinking. Historical thinking is more than reading history or telling a story, albeit both are important. Historical thinking is framed by positionality (or frame of reference), which emanates from an array of cultural experiences to inform a world-view, and by existential (who am I), and epistemological (how do I know) stances.14 Historical thinking is an act of thinking about a new experience with a set of temporal bearings. As teachers we need to probe our students’ ontological, existential, and epistemological positions. It is important for teachers to probe the positionalities of their students, and to include opportunities for students to engage in such habits of the mind as historical imagination and empathy. The 1st-/2nd-/and 3rd-order systematic approach, accompanied with analysis guides, is designed to call upon students to engage in historical thinking. We specifically refer to the analysis guides that accompany this essay. 

In Figure 1, an analysis guide for print documents, sections 1 and 2 involve the “sourcing heuristic” while the “corroborative heuristic” is called for by the second question under section 2 and by all of sections 4 and 5. Section 3 also involves “contextualization.” In Figure 2, which deals with photographs and images, the “sourcing heuristic” applies to sections 1 and 2 except for questions beginning with the words “Preceding conditions,” “Relationship,” and “Biases” which call for the “corroborative heuristic.” The “corroborative heuristic” is also involved in the entirety of sections 4 and 5. “Contextualization” and the “comparative heuristic” are called for in section 3. These figures show that our guides are unlike most guides that serve as mere checklists. They show how our guides are keyed to the cognitive studies research of cognitive studies researcher Sam Wineburg regarding historical thinking. 

Wineburg has gained much deserved acclaim for his observation that “historical thinking, in its deepest forms, is neither a natural process nor something that springs automatically from psychological development.” He bases his statement on empirical evidence. He writes that the “achievement” of historical thinking “actually goes against the grain of how we ordinarily think.”15 Wineburg’s book, appropriately entitled Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts, adds a dimension to the literature that distinguishes professional historians from teachers and beginning students of history. Wineburg found that historians commonly used the “sourcing heuristic” and the “corroboration heuristic.” He had historians and AP students “talk aloud” what they were thinking as they approached primary sources related to the Battle of Lexington. He found that the way AP students think differs from the thinking of persons trained in the discipline of history, thus building a case for seeing historical thinking as unique.

In his analysis Wineburg uses two key concepts—the “sourcing heuristic” and the “corroboration heuristic”—to explain how historians think as they read documents. When historians examine primary sources, they engage in the sourcing heuristic by asking questions about an author’s credentials, motivations, and participation in events at the time a document was written, and they also ask about the audience for whom the document was intended. Historians then contextualize the content of a document, which enables them to appreciate ways of perceiving and thinking that are quite different from conventional ways of perceiving and thinking. When teachers and students use the sourcing heuristic, they can create a distance between their own views and those of the people of earlier eras. Historians also use the corroboration heuristic to compare information learned from several documents. Historians make inter-text links while reading documents, noting corroboration among primary sources as well as among historians’ interpretations.16 Thus, Wineburg suggests that the sourcing heuristic (what historians do before reading for content comprehension); the corroboration heuristic (what historians do to relate one document to another document); contextualization (what historians do to describe the time frame and conditions locally, nationally and in a world context); and comparative thinking (what historians do to describe conditions in other parts of the world at the time) are central elements to the thinking of a historian. These progressively sophisticated thinking levels make teaching history complex, and, coupled with research on students’ positionality, make teachers’ work problematic. 

We are convinced that the analysis guides we provide are a helpful start for teachers and their students. These guides provide them with questions organized around the sourcing heuristic and the corroboration heuristic. We believe that having students practice asking these problem-solving questions (heuristic strategy)—questions that historians ask themselves as they probe the meaning of a document often before even reading the document—will help them develop life-long habits of mind that will forever assist them. We include two guides, one for textual documents and the other for image documents, which pose questions that engage teachers and students in thinking about a document in historical context. The guides are not intended as worksheets; nor are they mere checklists of characteristics, which so often are presented ritualistically to students. 

Each guide is organized around five major headings, which are in turn informed by more detailed components. The headings are as follows: identify the document; analyze the document; determine the historical context; identify the vital theme and narrative represented in the document; and indicate the relationship the document has to a discipline in the social sciences/social studies. Each guide is related to aspects of historical thinking suggested by Sam Wineburg: the sourcing heuristic, corroboration heuristic, contextualization, and comparison. The over-printing in Figure 3 and Figure 4 illustrates the relationship between these concepts and the guide. The potential benefits of analyzing documents both contextually and comparatively moves students beyond consideration of themselves as isolated individuals and moves them into the role of individuals whose lives are contextualized in a fabric of historical ties. A teacher may use this guide to internationalize the teaching of United States history.17 

The guides also enable students to embed particular historical experiences within a larger and meaningful historical context. At its best, history teaching is a co-investigation in which the teacher and students shape and reshape their interpretations of the past. Historical thinking includes periodization, assessing change over time, detecting motives of an author, constructing an argument through use of evidence, and analyzing someone else’s argument. Its habits of mind embrace handling diverse interpretations and realizing that all interpretations are not equally valid.18 One of the most difficult habits of mind is to suspend judgment and avoid presentism so as to understand the past within its own context. These guides assist in the use of the systematic approach of 1st-/2nd-/and 3rd-order documents. 

Wineburg’s work and the work of others has defined the problem of historical thinking. Few, however, have offered a solution to the problem other than to provide students with a narrative account of the past enhanced by active teaching strategies using primary sources. We believe, however, that our systematic approach—which stresses discussion of 1st-order, 2nd-order, and 3rd-order documents and the use of Analysis Guides—will add an additional dimension of active engagement in historical content and historical thinking. First, it will encourage students to engage in sourcing. Second, it will promote the discussion of central ideas using a core document and relate the central ideas to supporting and contrasting documents. Third, it will promote a discussion of central ideas within the concept of space and time, emphasizing habits of the mind. And fourth, when students find a 3rd-order document, this document will become their own 1st-order document. They will attachtheir document to an important idea in a particular time in history. Their document becomes the epicenter for their understanding of history, transforming their narrative. 

The thinking process involved in this systematic approach means teachers and students will attach historical content to a memorable primary source (their 1st-order document) and that they will have done so because they are using historians’ habits of mind. Working with 2nd- and 3rd-order documents will counter the dangers of believing that all primary sources are the truth and that all primary sources are equally valuable. Students thus have a more nuanced understanding of history. 

Assessing Historical Knowledge, Understanding, and Dispositions

The concepts of historical knowledge, understanding, and dispositions are inextricably linked, and teachers will want to assess their students’ development in both the cognitive and affective domains. As students relate their document to their teacher’s 1st-order document, the content of both will become more meaningful to them. Teachers can assess their students’ historical understanding (the cognitive dimension) by engaging in conversations that involve students’ examination of their documents in relationship to the teacher’s 1st-order document. Cognitively, the 3rd-order step intertwines the 1st-/ and 2nd-order documents within the process of historical inquiry and deliberation.

A teacher can assess students’ abilities to communicate the relationship their 3rd-order document has to the teacher’s 1st-order document. Does a student’s document challenge or corroborate it? How so? Does a student relate the essential qualities of his/her document to the issue or historical period? Having students discover a 3rd-order document allows them to take ownership of the historical period or issue and to reconfigure their narrative of history in a more informed way. Becoming able to do this lies at the heart of historical thinking because students are engaging in the doing of history with historians’ habits of mind. Acquiring this skill is their portal to illuminating knowledge of the past. 

Students who come to understand history must necessarily learn to value and enjoy historical thinking. The process of examining 1st-/2nd-/ and 3rd-order documents enables teachers to assess their students’ disposition toward inquiry, their capacity to engage in historical inquiry, as well as their historical understanding. Teachers have an opportunity to assess the affective dimensions of their students in at least three ways. First, some students will demonstrate their enthusiasm for history by bringing in voluntarily newspaper articles related to a topic, artifacts from home, and primary sources they find interesting from research in the library or on the Internet. All these activities indicate positive dispositions regarding the study of history. Are they willing to relate their finding to the teachers’ 1st-order document? 

Second, some students will not voluntarily locate sources on their own. Teachers must then resort to the list of the 3rd-order documents they have prepared. These documents represent potential opportunities for students to become engaged in historical inquiry. Teachers can “seed” their students’ interests and provide a structured starting point for inquiry. Some students will require this structure in order to feel confident and secure in historical inquiry. And third, once a student begins to work with a 3rd-order document (from their perspective now a 1st-order document), a teacher can determine the student’s willingness to ask the kind of questions historians pose when they examine documents. Are students willing to ask questions, to participate in a co-investigation of the past? 

We recognize the need for further research to determine the impact this 1st-/2nd-/and 3rd-order systematic approach can have on history teaching. Even though teachers and students are not confounded by the use of such terminology as primary sources and secondary sources, the inclusion of our terminology (1st-/2nd-/and 3rd-order documents) does at first confuse some teachers and some students. However, with patience and explanation we have found that our terminology does not confuse students when 1st-/2nd-/and 3rd-order documents are defined as the teacher’s essential document (1st-order), supporting and contrasting documents (the teacher’s 2nd-order), and documents students find (3rd-order). 

We recognize some readers may regard our approach as pedantic. So be it. We believe the systematic approach, used at times teachers deem appropriate, effectively compels teachers to think more carefully about primary sources as part of the narrative to be brought into their classrooms; and we believe this approach improves students’ historical knowledge and thinking. The selection process of a 1st-order document and surrounding 2nd-order documents is a creative act on the teacher’s part. Teachers will apply and enlarge their historical understanding as they determine the essential core documents that comprise their historical interpretation. Students become engaged in creative scholarship as they make meaningful connections between ideas contained in 1st-order and 2nd-order documents and apply their historical understanding as they investigate 3rd-order documents. This systematic approach enlarges the capacity to make history meaningful, encourages use of history’s habits of mind, and shapes and reshapes historical narratives linked to primary sources. We believe it will contribute to the renascence of using primary sources in history classrooms and will assist teachers at all levels in developing historical thinking among their students. 

1.� Joan W. Musbach, “Using Primary Sources in the Secondary Classroom,” OAH Magazine of History (Fall 2001): 30–32.

2.� M. Anne Britt, Charles A. Perfetti, Julie A. Van Dyke, and Gareth Gabrys, “The Sourcer’s Apprentice: A Tool for Document-Supported History Instruction,” Knowing, Teaching, and Learning History: National and International Perspectives, eds. Peter N. Stearns, Peter Seixas, and Sam Wineburg (New York: New York University Press, 2000), 437–470.

3.� Kenneth M. Jensen, Origins of the Cold War: The Novikov, Kennan, and Roberts’ ‘Long Telegrams’ of 1946 (Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace, 1995), 28.

4.� See Sean Greenwood, “Frank Roberts and the ‘Other’ Long Telegram: The View from the British Embassy in Moscow, March 1946,” Journal of Contemporary History 25 (London: Sage Publishing Inc., 1990), 103–22.

5.� Peter N. Stearns, Meaning Over Memory: Recasting the Teaching of Culture and History (Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, 1993).

6.� Robert B. Bain, “Into the Breach: Using Research and Theory to Shape History Instruction,” in Knowing, Teaching, and Learning History, 332.

7.� Given NCATE/NCSS regulations requiring university programs that seek accreditation to ensure that their pre-service teachers teach the ten NCSS themes, we incorporate these themes into this print analysis guide as well as the photograph/image analysis guide and their respective annotations. We believe this inclusion will assist history education programs as they strive to meet the NCSS SPA requirement for NCATE accreditation.

8.� Following the public release of the Novikov “Long Telegram” and a symposium prepared by the United States Institute of Peace, the editors of the journal Diplomatic History, made available the documents. Kenneth M. Jensen’s revised edition of Origins of the Cold War: The Novikov, Kennan, and Roberts ‘Long Telegrams’ of 1946 (Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace Press, 1993) provides excellent commentaries regarding historians’ views of the three documents and their significance.

9.� We realize that comparison is very difficult and that it must be taught with great care and nurturing. Peter N. Stearns’ excellent essay, “Getting Specific about Training in Historical Analysis: A Case Study in World History,” suggests ways to help students “grasp comparative fundamentals” and view history in a “comparative context.” See Peter N. Stearns, “Getting Specific about Training in Historical Analysis: A Case Study in World History,” Knowing, Teaching, and Learning History: National and International Perspectives, 419–436.

10.� Kathleen Medina, Jeffrey Pollard, Debra Schneider, and Camille Leonhardt, How Do Students Understand the Discipline of History as an Outcome of Teachers’ Professional Development? (Regents of the University of California, 2000).

11.� Jerome Bruner, The Study of Thinking (New York: Wiley, 1956); Jerome Bruner, The Process of Education (New York: Vintage Books, 1960); and Jerome Bruner, The Culture of Education (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1996).

12.� Sam Wineburg, Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts: Charting the Future of Teaching the Past (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2001), 45; Bruce VanSledright and Jere Brophy, “Storytelling, Imagination, and Fanciful Elaboration in Children’s Historical Reconstructions,” American Educational Research Journal 29 (1992), 837–61; and Bruce VanSledright, In Search of America’s Past: Learning to Read History in Elementary School (New York: Teachers College Press, 2002).

13.� James V. Wertsch, “Is It Possible to Teach Beliefs, as Well as Knowledge about History?” in Knowing, Teaching, and Learning History: National and International Perspectives, 38–50.

14.� Bruce A. VanSledright, “On the Importance of Historical Positionality to Thinking About and Teaching History,” The International Journal of Social Education 12, No.2 (Fall/Winter 1997–98): 1–18.

15.� Sam Wineburg, Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts, 7.

16.� Frederick D. Drake, “Teaching Historical Thinking,” ERIC Digest (August 2002). EDO-SO-2002-6.

17.� The Historical Context section of the analysis guide draws students to consider the document in the context of local/regional, national, and world views. The importance of internationalizing U.S. History has been emphasized in several articles. See David Thelan, “Of Audiences, Borderlands, and Comparisons: Toward the Internationalization of American History,” The Journal of American History 79 (September 1992): 432–462; Pauline Maier, “Nationhood and Citizenship: What Difference Did the American Revolution Make?” in Diversity and Citizenship: Rediscovering American Nationhood, eds. Gary Jeffrey Jacobsohn and Susan Dunns (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 1996), 45–64; Peter N. Stearns, Peter Seixas, and Sam Wineburg, eds., Knowing, Teaching, and Learning History: National and International Perspectives; and Thomas Bender, La Pietra Report: Project on Internationalizing the Study of American History (2000). See also on the Internet http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/icas/inter_history.htm .

18.� The former Bradley Commission on History in Schools (now The National Council for History Education) presents six Vital Themes and Narratives. The NCHE also presents thirteen Habits of Mind for historical thinking in their indispensable pamphlet, Building a History Curriculum: Guidelines for Teaching History in Schools (Washington, D.C.: Educational Excellence Network, 1988), 9 and 10–11 and in their collection of essays in Paul Gagnon, Historical Literacy: The Case for History in American Education (New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1989).

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Thinking Historically

Historians are about a lot more than impressing readers with cool facts about the past. To know the import of those facts, and to put them into a coherent story, they must develop essential skills in critical thinking and organization. In simple terms, they sift through a great deal of raw data, evaluate it, and create lucid reports for others to read. In history terms, our data are primary sources, our evaluation method rests on assessing the influence of various elements of the specific context, and our “reports” can be anything from research papers to books on a single topic, called monographs, to digital and media artifacts.

While it is the point of this chapter to expand on the above sentence, you should read it resting in the knowledge that learning to succeed as a history student will provide you with many of the same skills needed for professional success. As do those in any number of professions including law, business, and teaching, historians frequently begin with data that can be both extensive in quantity and contradictory in quality, and so must determine what is most important; they have to resolve contradictions and ultimately tell a coherent story, one that their audiences find compelling and meaningful. In essence, history requires essential critical thinking skills, including judgment, synthesis, and creativity.

As is often the case, the best way to begin to develop higher-order thinking skills is break them down into manageable chunks and practice putting them into action. This chapter starts by defining the term history and explaining a bit about how the discipline of history is structured. As scholars, historians must build on the knowledge of others, rather than pursuing stories and information for its own sake. They participate in the academic project—a phrase often used to capture what scholars do when they consider how new knowledge relates to current understandings. The nature of historical thinking—evaluating and ranking types of evidence, figuring out how to weave together fragments of meaning, knowing when to recognize historical fallacies and other sloppy thinking patterns—forms the core of the chapter. Once you’ve oriented yourself toward some of the main ideas behind historical thinking, you’ll be ready to move onto the next section—Reading Historically—which focuses on perhaps the most essential skill historians (and history students) possess, that is, how to read all sorts of documents critically.

How History is Made: A Student’s Guide to Reading, Writing, and Thinking in the Discipline Copyright © 2022 by Stephanie Cole; Kimberly Breuer; Scott W. Palmer; and Brandon Blakeslee is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Why History Matters: Understanding Our Past to Shape Our Future

By: Author Paul Jenkins

Posted on April 6, 2024

Categories Culture , History , Society

History isn’t just a dusty collection of names and dates from the past. It’s a mirror reflecting our societal evolution, a guidebook to our present, and a compass pointing to our future. Let’s explore why history holds the key to understanding ourselves and the world we inhabit.

Key Takeaways

• Historical study fosters an understanding of societal trends and human nature.
• A sense of identity and a shared narrative are cultivated through history.
• History is crucial for developing analytical and critical thinking skills.

Understanding the Value of History

The value of history lies in its power to elucidate the past events, inform the present conditions, and guide future decisions. Through a structured analysis and application of historical context, one appreciates its role as an essential discipline.

Analyzing Past, Present, and Future

History provides a detailed record of past events which significantly influence present societal structures and future trajectories. Historical research identifies patterns that have shaped societies, cultures, and traditions. This analysis allows individuals to learn from past decisions and understand the possible implications for future outcomes.

The Importance of Historical Context

Understanding historical context is crucial for interpreting events accurately. It ensures a nuanced view of past actions and decisions within the context of their time. Recognizing the value of historical context prevents the misrepresentation of events and promotes a deeper appreciation for the complexities of past societies and their decisions.

History as a Discipline

Studying history as a discipline involves meticulous research and fact-checking . It equips historians with frameworks and techniques to construct accurate accounts of the past. This discipline underscores the credibility of historical narratives and validates their relevance to current understandings. It fosters an awareness that present conditions result from human choices that can be influenced by further action.

The Role of History in Society

History serves a critical role in society by fostering informed citizens, preserving the collective memory, and enhancing an understanding of cultural and religious diversity. Each of these aspects contributes to a society that values its past while shaping its future.

Developing Informed Citizens

Informed citizens are the bedrock of a healthy democracy. Historical knowledge equips them with the context necessary to understand current policies and their impact on rights and responsibilities. They learn not only about historical events but also how to engage critically with sources and discern patterns that influence modern governance. Recognizing the evolution of societal norms and laws from historical precedents contributes to a more engaged and analytical electorate.

• Key Point : History teaches critical thinking skills.
• Impact : Engaged citizens contribute to a more robust democracy.

Preserving Collective Memory

Societies with a strong sense of their history possess a collective memory that safeguards against cultural and memory loss. The preservation of this memory through documentation, oral traditions, and historical landmarks helps communities maintain a sense of identity and continuity. Without this, societies risk becoming rootless, lacking the connection to shared experiences that guide collective values and traditions.

Examples of Collective Memory Preservation :

• Historical literature

Understanding Cultural and Religious Diversity

History illuminates the traditions and beliefs of different cultures and religions, revealing the rich tapestry of human experience. By studying the historical contexts of societies, it becomes possible to appreciate the diversity of perspectives and practices that exist. This understanding fosters tolerance and can help mitigate conflicts arising from cultural or religious misunderstandings.

Benefits of Historical Understanding :

• Enhances social cohesion.
• Promotes mutual respect.

Collectively, the role of history in society is multifaceted, playing a pivotal part in shaping the narratives that societies live by, guiding principles of democracy, and contributing to the rich mosaic of human cultures and religions.

Learning from Historical Events

Historical events offer invaluable insights into the complexities of human experience, from the sobering repercussions of wars and conflicts to the transformative power of significant milestones.

Lessons from Wars and Conflicts

Wars and conflicts stand as stark reminders of both human frailty and resilience. For instance:

• The Holocaust encapsulates the extremity of human cruelty and the importance of empathy and courage. Remembering the Holocaust is essential for understanding the impact of prejudice and the necessity of standing up against it.
• Courage is highlighted by stories of resistance and survival, which provide a deeper understanding of the Jewish experience and the capacity for individuals to enact change amidst adversity.

The Impact of Significant Historical Milestones

Significant historical milestones shape the course of world history and inform current societal norms. They are moments that echo through time, prompting reflection and adaptation.

• The end of slavery in the United States marked a drastic turn in human rights and freedoms, encouraging a global reassessment of racial equality.
• Signified the end of the Cold War and the start of a new era in international relations, and it serves as a potent symbol of liberation and the desire for unity.

Connecting Personal and Collective Histories

Connecting personal and collective histories enhances understanding of societies by intertwining individual experiences with broader historical narratives. This synthesis fosters empathy and helps individuals appreciate the depth of the human experience.

Embracing a Broader Human Experience

Individuals often perceive history through the lens of their personal stories, which are fundamentally tied to the larger tapestry of society’s past. For instance, the Holocaust is not merely a chapter in a history book, but a profound part of many personal histories that still resonate today. Examining both personal memories and collective histories allows people to engage more deeply with being human. Such engagement provides grounding, as histories give context to present circumstances, ensuring that individuals are not rootless but connected to a continuum that defines cultures and communities.

The Dangers of Historical Amnesia

Forgetting or ignoring the past, a condition akin to societal memory loss, poses a significant risk to societies. It is crucial to remember the trials and lessons of history, such as the horrors of the Holocaust, to build resilience against repeating past atrocities. Neglecting to connect personal experiences with the collective memory of societies can lead to a lack of empathy and understanding. This disconnect also stymies learning and growth, as historical amnesia prevents societies from effectively rooting themselves in history, which can guide better decision-making and foster a more inclusive understanding of the human experience.

Educational Perspectives on History

The study of history occupies a crucial role in academic curriculums, offering methodologies that cross into various disciplines and fostering a wide range of competencies critical to intellectual development.

History’s Place in Academic Curriculums

History, as an academic discipline, grounds students in the temporal dimensions of human experience. Educational systems globally include history to various extents, recognizing its role in cultivating critical thinking and an understanding of how societies have evolved. The reasons to include history in curriculums hinge on its ability to provide context for current events and to enhance civic literacy .

Methodologies and Approaches in Historical Studies

Historical research harnesses diverse methodologies ranging from diachronic analysis , which tracks changes and continuities over time, to comparative historical study , which juxtaposes past and present to foster deeper understanding. The approach to studying history typically emphasizes the diachro-mesh of events, ideas, and figures, offering students a toolkit for discerning and interpreting complex narratives.

The Interplay between History and Other Academic Disciplines

History does not exist in isolation. It actively engages with and enriches other fields, like economics, literature, and political science. This interplay underscores the multidisciplinary essence of historical education, thereby illuminating the interconnectedness of knowledge and the multiplicity of perspectives. By situating historical events within broader intellectual landscapes , students learn to appreciate the nuanced interdependencies that have shaped human societies.

Why Is It Important to Study History?

Even if you live to be 100, you’ll never run out of new things to learn. From computer science and cryptocurrency to French literature and Spanish grammar, the world is full of knowledge and it’s all at your fingertips. So, why choose history?

Many people study history in high school and come away thinking it’s boring, irrelevant, or both. But as we get older, even just by a few years, we start to see the importance of understanding the past.

Why do we study history?

We study history because history doesn’t stay behind us. Studying history helps us understand how events in the past made things the way they are today. With lessons from the past, we not only learn about ourselves and how we came to be, but also develop the ability to avoid mistakes and create better paths for our societies.

How does history impact our lives today?

Events in the past have displaced families and groups, changing the makeup of regions and often causing tensions. Such events have also created government systems that have lasted generations beyond when they started. And all of it affects each person alive today.

Take the Great Depression, for example—one of the most difficult but impactful periods in American history. The economic crisis put almost 15 million people out of work and sent countless families into homelessness, stealing their sense of security. Many of those people would feel insecure for the rest of their lives.

The government had to learn how to help . This effort gave rise to Social Security, federal emergency relief programs, and funding for unemployment efforts. These changes continue to make life more secure for millions of Americans. 

Society today comes from hundreds and thousands of actions like these. The more you learn about how these things happened, the better you understand real life.

What lessons can we learn from history?

History teaches us about things such as:

• Why some societies thrive while others fail.
• Why humans have gone to war.
• How people have changed society for the better.

History isn’t a study of others. The people you learn about may have lived decades or even centuries ago, but their actions directly affect how we live our lives today. Events that seem like dates on a page have been turning points in the story of our societies.

“Historical knowledge is no more and no less than carefully and critically constructed collective memory.” -William H. MacNeill, former president of the American Historical Association

Historical research builds and codifies these stories. When we study history, we learn how we got where we are, and why we live the way we do. It’s the study of us—of humans and our place in an ever changing world. Without it, we wouldn’t understand all of our triumphs and failures, and we would continually repeat patterns without building forward to something better.

As Spanish philosopher George Santayana once said, “Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it. ” 

How do past events help us understand the present?

The past creates the present. Our modern world exists because of events that happened long before our time. Only by understanding those events can we know how we got here, and where to go next.

1. History helps us understand change

History is full of transitions that have altered the world’s story. When you build your knowledge of history, you understand more about what created our present-day society. 

Studying the American civil rights movement shows you how people organize successfully against oppressive systems. Learning about the fall of Rome teaches you that even the most powerful society can fall apart—and what happens to cause that crumbling.

By learning about different eras and their respective events, you start to see what changes might happen in the future and what would drive that change.

2. We learn from past mistakes

History gives us a better understanding of the world and how it operates. When you study a war, you learn more about how conflict escalates. You learn what dilemmas world leaders face and how they respond—and when those decisions lead to better or worse outcomes.

Historical study shows you the warning signs of many kinds of disaster, from genocide to climate inaction. Understanding these patterns will make you a more informed citizen and help you take action effectively.

3. We gain context for the human experience

Before 2020, most Americans hadn’t lived through a global pandemic. The 1918-1919 flu pandemic had faded from the popular picture of history, overshadowed by World War I on its back end and the Roaring 20s that followed. 

Yet within months of COVID-19 entering the public awareness, historians and informed private citizens were writing about the flu pandemic again. Stories of a deadly second wave were re-told to warn people against the dangers of travel, and pictures of ancestors in masks re-emerged.

Through study of the past, we understand our own lives better. We see patterns as they re-emerge and take solace in the fact that others have gone through similar struggles 

How do we study history?

There are many ways of studying and teaching history. Many people remember high school classes full of memorization—names, dates, and places of major historical events. 

Decades ago, that kind of rote learning was important, but things have changed. Today, 60% of the world’s population and 90% of the U.S. population use the internet and can find those facts on demand. Today, learning history is about making connections and understanding not just what happened, but why.

Critical thinking

If you’ve ever served on a jury or read about a court case, you know that reconstructing the facts of the past isn’t a simple process. You have to consider the facts at hand, look at how they’re connected, and draw reasonable conclusions. 

Take the fall of Rome , for example. In the Roman Empire’s last years, the central government was unstable yet the empire continued to spend money on expansion. Outside groups like the Huns and Saxons capitalized on that instability and invaded. The empire had split into East and West, further breaking down a sense of unity, and Christianity was replacing the Roman polytheistic religion.

When you become a student of history, you learn how to process facts like these and consider how one event affected the other. An expanding empire is harder to control, and invasions further tax resources. But what caused that instability in the first place? And why did expansion remain so important?

Once you learn how to think this way and ask these kinds of questions, you start engaging more actively with the world around you.

Finding the “So what?” 

The study of history is fascinating, but that’s not the only reason why we do it. Learning the facts and following the thread of a story is just the first step. 

The most important question in history is “So what?”. 

For instance:

• Why were the Chinese so successful in maintaining their empire in Asia? Why did that change after the Industrial Revolution?
• Why was the invasion of Normandy in 1944 a turning point? What would happen if Allied forces hadn’t landed on French beaches?

Studying this way helps you see the relevance and importance of history, while giving you a deeper and more lasting understanding of what happened.

Where can I study history online?

The quality of your history education matters. You can read about major historical events on hundreds of websites and through YouTube videos, but it’s hard to know if you’re getting the full story. Many secondary sources are hit-or-miss when it comes to quality history teaching.

It’s best to learn history from a reputable educational institution. edX has history courses from some of the world’s top universities including Harvard , Columbia , and Tel Aviv . Explore one-topic in depth or take an overview approach—it’s completely up to you. The whole world is at your fingertips.

Related Posts

Why is it important to study logistics, are free online courses worth it, why is it important to study supply chain.

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Supplement to Critical Thinking

This supplement elaborates on the history of the articulation, promotion and adoption of critical thinking as an educational goal.

John Dewey (1910: 74, 82) introduced the term ‘critical thinking’ as the name of an educational goal, which he identified with a scientific attitude of mind. More commonly, he called the goal ‘reflective thought’, ‘reflective thinking’, ‘reflection’, or just ‘thought’ or ‘thinking’. He describes his book as written for two purposes. The first was to help people to appreciate the kinship of children’s native curiosity, fertile imagination and love of experimental inquiry to the scientific attitude. The second was to help people to consider how recognizing this kinship in educational practice “would make for individual happiness and the reduction of social waste” (iii). He notes that the ideas in the book obtained concreteness in the Laboratory School in Chicago.

Dewey’s ideas were put into practice by some of the schools that participated in the Eight-Year Study in the 1930s sponsored by the Progressive Education Association in the United States. For this study, 300 colleges agreed to consider for admission graduates of 30 selected secondary schools or school systems from around the country who experimented with the content and methods of teaching, even if the graduates had not completed the then-prescribed secondary school curriculum. One purpose of the study was to discover through exploration and experimentation how secondary schools in the United States could serve youth more effectively (Aikin 1942). Each experimental school was free to change the curriculum as it saw fit, but the schools agreed that teaching methods and the life of the school should conform to the idea (previously advocated by Dewey) that people develop through doing things that are meaningful to them, and that the main purpose of the secondary school was to lead young people to understand, appreciate and live the democratic way of life characteristic of the United States (Aikin 1942: 17–18). In particular, school officials believed that young people in a democracy should develop the habit of reflective thinking and skill in solving problems (Aikin 1942: 81). Students’ work in the classroom thus consisted more often of a problem to be solved than a lesson to be learned. Especially in mathematics and science, the schools made a point of giving students experience in clear, logical thinking as they solved problems. The report of one experimental school, the University School of Ohio State University, articulated this goal of improving students’ thinking:

Critical or reflective thinking originates with the sensing of a problem. It is a quality of thought operating in an effort to solve the problem and to reach a tentative conclusion which is supported by all available data. It is really a process of problem solving requiring the use of creative insight, intellectual honesty, and sound judgment. It is the basis of the method of scientific inquiry. The success of democracy depends to a large extent on the disposition and ability of citizens to think critically and reflectively about the problems which must of necessity confront them, and to improve the quality of their thinking is one of the major goals of education. (Commission on the Relation of School and College of the Progressive Education Association 1943: 745–746)

The Eight-Year Study had an evaluation staff, which developed, in consultation with the schools, tests to measure aspects of student progress that fell outside the focus of the traditional curriculum. The evaluation staff classified many of the schools’ stated objectives under the generic heading “clear thinking” or “critical thinking” (Smith, Tyler, & Evaluation Staff 1942: 35–36). To develop tests of achievement of this broad goal, they distinguished five overlapping aspects of it: ability to interpret data, abilities associated with an understanding of the nature of proof, and the abilities to apply principles of science, of social studies and of logical reasoning. The Eight-Year Study also had a college staff, directed by a committee of college administrators, whose task was to determine how well the experimental schools had prepared their graduates for college. The college staff compared the performance of 1,475 college students from the experimental schools with an equal number of graduates from conventional schools, matched in pairs by sex, age, race, scholastic aptitude scores, home and community background, interests, and probable future. They concluded that, on 18 measures of student success, the graduates of the experimental schools did a somewhat better job than the comparison group. The graduates from the six most traditional of the experimental schools showed no large or consistent differences. The graduates from the six most experimental schools, on the other hand, had much greater differences in their favour. The graduates of the two most experimental schools, the college staff reported:

… surpassed their comparison groups by wide margins in academic achievement, intellectual curiosity, scientific approach to problems, and interest in contemporary affairs. The differences in their favor were even greater in general resourcefulness, in enjoyment of reading, [in] participation in the arts, in winning non-academic honors, and in all aspects of college life except possibly participation in sports and social activities. (Aikin 1942: 114)

One of these schools was a private school with students from privileged families and the other the experimental section of a public school with students from non-privileged families. The college staff reported that the graduates of the two schools were indistinguishable from each other in terms of college success.

In 1933 Dewey issued an extensively rewritten edition of his How We Think (Dewey 1910), with the sub-title “A restatement of the relation of reflective thinking to the educative process”. Although the restatement retains the basic structure and content of the original book, Dewey made a number of changes. He rewrote and simplified his logical analysis of the process of reflection, made his ideas clearer and more definite, replaced the terms ‘induction’ and ‘deduction’ by the phrases ‘control of data and evidence’ and ‘control of reasoning and concepts’, added more illustrations, rearranged chapters, and revised the parts on teaching to reflect changes in schools since 1910. In particular, he objected to one-sided practices of some “experimental” and “progressive” schools that allowed children freedom but gave them no guidance, citing as objectionable practices novelty and variety for their own sake, experiences and activities with real materials but of no educational significance, treating random and disconnected activity as if it were an experiment, failure to summarize net accomplishment at the end of an inquiry, non-educative projects, and treatment of the teacher as a negligible factor rather than as “the intellectual leader of a social group” (Dewey 1933: 273). Without explaining his reasons, Dewey eliminated the previous edition’s uses of the words ‘critical’ and ‘uncritical’, thus settling firmly on ‘reflection’ or ‘reflective thinking’ as the preferred term for his subject-matter. In the revised edition, the word ‘critical’ occurs only once, where Dewey writes that “a person may not be sufficiently critical about the ideas that occur to him” (1933: 16, italics in original); being critical is thus a component of reflection, not the whole of it. In contrast, the Eight-Year Study by the Progressive Education Association treated ‘critical thinking’ and ‘reflective thinking’ as synonyms.

In the same period, Dewey collaborated on a history of the Laboratory School in Chicago with two former teachers from the school (Mayhew & Edwards 1936). The history describes the school’s curriculum and organization, activities aimed at developing skills, parents’ involvement, and the habits of mind that the children acquired. A concluding chapter evaluates the school’s achievements, counting as a success its staging of the curriculum to correspond to the natural development of the growing child. In two appendices, the authors describe the evolution of Dewey’s principles of education and Dewey himself describes the theory of the Chicago experiment (Dewey 1936).

Glaser (1941) reports in his doctoral dissertation the method and results of an experiment in the development of critical thinking conducted in the fall of 1938. He defines critical thinking as Dewey defined reflective thinking:

Critical thinking calls for a persistent effort to examine any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the evidence that supports it and the further conclusions to which it tends. (Glaser 1941: 6; cf. Dewey 1910: 6; Dewey 1933: 9)

In the experiment, eight lesson units directed at improving critical thinking abilities were taught to four grade 12 high school classes, with pre-test and post-test of the students using the Otis Quick-Scoring Mental Ability Test and the Watson-Glaser Tests of Critical Thinking (developed in collaboration with Glaser’s dissertation sponsor, Goodwin Watson). The average gain in scores on these tests was greater to a statistically significant degree among the students who received the lessons in critical thinking than among the students in a control group of four grade 12 high school classes taking the usual curriculum in English. Glaser concludes:

The aspect of critical thinking which appears most susceptible to general improvement is the attitude of being disposed to consider in a thoughtful way the problems and subjects that come within the range of one’s experience. An attitude of wanting evidence for beliefs is more subject to general transfer. Development of skill in applying the methods of logical inquiry and reasoning, however, appears to be specifically related to, and in fact limited by, the acquisition of pertinent knowledge and facts concerning the problem or subject matter toward which the thinking is to be directed. (Glaser 1941: 175)

Retest scores and observable behaviour indicated that students in the intervention group retained their growth in ability to think critically for at least six months after the special instruction.

In 1948 a group of U.S. college examiners decided to develop taxonomies of educational objectives with a common vocabulary that they could use for communicating with each other about test items. The first of these taxonomies, for the cognitive domain, appeared in 1956 (Bloom et al. 1956), and included critical thinking objectives. It has become known as Bloom’s taxonomy. A second taxonomy, for the affective domain (Krathwohl, Bloom, & Masia 1964), and a third taxonomy, for the psychomotor domain (Simpson 1966–67), appeared later. Each of the taxonomies is hierarchical, with achievement of a higher educational objective alleged to require achievement of corresponding lower educational objectives.

Bloom’s taxonomy has six major categories. From lowest to highest, they are knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Within each category, there are sub-categories, also arranged hierarchically from the educationally prior to the educationally posterior. The lowest category, though called ‘knowledge’, is confined to objectives of remembering information and being able to recall or recognize it, without much transformation beyond organizing it (Bloom et al. 1956: 28–29). The five higher categories are collectively termed “intellectual abilities and skills” (Bloom et al. 1956: 204). The term is simply another name for critical thinking abilities and skills:

Although information or knowledge is recognized as an important outcome of education, very few teachers would be satisfied to regard this as the primary or the sole outcome of instruction. What is needed is some evidence that the students can do something with their knowledge, that is, that they can apply the information to new situations and problems. It is also expected that students will acquire generalized techniques for dealing with new problems and new materials. Thus, it is expected that when the student encounters a new problem or situation, he will select an appropriate technique for attacking it and will bring to bear the necessary information, both facts and principles. This has been labeled “critical thinking” by some, “reflective thinking” by Dewey and others, and “problem solving” by still others. In the taxonomy, we have used the term “intellectual abilities and skills”. (Bloom et al. 1956: 38)

Comprehension and application objectives, as their names imply, involve understanding and applying information. Critical thinking abilities and skills show up in the three highest categories of analysis, synthesis and evaluation. The condensed version of Bloom’s taxonomy (Bloom et al. 1956: 201–207) gives the following examples of objectives at these levels:

• analysis objectives : ability to recognize unstated assumptions, ability to check the consistency of hypotheses with given information and assumptions, ability to recognize the general techniques used in advertising, propaganda and other persuasive materials
• synthesis objectives : organizing ideas and statements in writing, ability to propose ways of testing a hypothesis, ability to formulate and modify hypotheses
• evaluation objectives : ability to indicate logical fallacies, comparison of major theories about particular cultures

The analysis, synthesis and evaluation objectives in Bloom’s taxonomy collectively came to be called the “higher-order thinking skills” (Tankersley 2005: chap. 5). Although the analysis-synthesis-evaluation sequence mimics phases in Dewey’s (1933) logical analysis of the reflective thinking process, it has not generally been adopted as a model of a critical thinking process. While commending the inspirational value of its ratio of five categories of thinking objectives to one category of recall objectives, Ennis (1981b) points out that the categories lack criteria applicable across topics and domains. For example, analysis in chemistry is so different from analysis in literature that there is not much point in teaching analysis as a general type of thinking. Further, the postulated hierarchy seems questionable at the higher levels of Bloom’s taxonomy. For example, ability to indicate logical fallacies hardly seems more complex than the ability to organize statements and ideas in writing.

A revised version of Bloom’s taxonomy (Anderson et al. 2001) distinguishes the intended cognitive process in an educational objective (such as being able to recall, to compare or to check) from the objective’s informational content (“knowledge”), which may be factual, conceptual, procedural, or metacognitive. The result is a so-called “Taxonomy Table” with four rows for the kinds of informational content and six columns for the six main types of cognitive process. The authors name the types of cognitive process by verbs, to indicate their status as mental activities. They change the name of the ‘comprehension’ category to ‘understand’ and of the ‘synthesis’ category to ’create’, and switch the order of synthesis and evaluation. The result is a list of six main types of cognitive process aimed at by teachers: remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, and create. The authors retain the idea of a hierarchy of increasing complexity, but acknowledge some overlap, for example between understanding and applying. And they retain the idea that critical thinking and problem solving cut across the more complex cognitive processes. The terms ‘critical thinking’ and ‘problem solving’, they write:

are widely used and tend to become touchstones of curriculum emphasis. Both generally include a variety of activities that might be classified in disparate cells of the Taxonomy Table. That is, in any given instance, objectives that involve problem solving and critical thinking most likely call for cognitive processes in several categories on the process dimension. For example, to think critically about an issue probably involves some Conceptual knowledge to Analyze the issue. Then, one can Evaluate different perspectives in terms of the criteria and, perhaps, Create a novel, yet defensible perspective on this issue. (Anderson et al. 2001: 269–270; italics in original)

In the revised taxonomy, only a few sub-categories, such as inferring, have enough commonality to be treated as a distinct critical thinking ability that could be taught and assessed as a general ability.

A landmark contribution to philosophical scholarship on the concept of critical thinking was a 1962 article in the Harvard Educational Review by Robert H. Ennis, with the title “A concept of critical thinking: A proposed basis for research in the teaching and evaluation of critical thinking ability” (Ennis 1962). Ennis took as his starting-point a conception of critical thinking put forward by B. Othanel Smith:

We shall consider thinking in terms of the operations involved in the examination of statements which we, or others, may believe. A speaker declares, for example, that “Freedom means that the decisions in America’s productive effort are made not in the minds of a bureaucracy but in the free market”. Now if we set about to find out what this statement means and to determine whether to accept or reject it, we would be engaged in thinking which, for lack of a better term, we shall call critical thinking. If one wishes to say that this is only a form of problem-solving in which the purpose is to decide whether or not what is said is dependable, we shall not object. But for our purposes we choose to call it critical thinking. (Smith 1953: 130)

Adding a normative component to this conception, Ennis defined critical thinking as “the correct assessing of statements” (Ennis 1962: 83). On the basis of this definition, he distinguished 12 “aspects” of critical thinking corresponding to types or aspects of statements, such as judging whether an observation statement is reliable and grasping the meaning of a statement. He noted that he did not include judging value statements. Cutting across the 12 aspects, he distinguished three dimensions of critical thinking: logical (judging relationships between meanings of words and statements), criterial (knowledge of the criteria for judging statements), and pragmatic (the impression of the background purpose). For each aspect, Ennis described the applicable dimensions, including criteria. He proposed the resulting construct as a basis for developing specifications for critical thinking tests and for research on instructional methods and levels.

In the 1970s and 1980s there was an upsurge of attention to the development of thinking skills. The annual International Conference on Critical Thinking and Educational Reform has attracted since its start in 1980 tens of thousands of educators from all levels. In 1983 the College Entrance Examination Board proclaimed reasoning as one of six basic academic competencies needed by college students (College Board 1983). Departments of education in the United States and around the world began to include thinking objectives in their curriculum guidelines for school subjects. For example, Ontario’s social sciences and humanities curriculum guideline for secondary schools requires “the use of critical and creative thinking skills and/or processes” as a goal of instruction and assessment in each subject and course (Ontario Ministry of Education 2013: 30). The document describes critical thinking as follows:

Critical thinking is the process of thinking about ideas or situations in order to understand them fully, identify their implications, make a judgement, and/or guide decision making. Critical thinking includes skills such as questioning, predicting, analysing, synthesizing, examining opinions, identifying values and issues, detecting bias, and distinguishing between alternatives. Students who are taught these skills become critical thinkers who can move beyond superficial conclusions to a deeper understanding of the issues they are examining. They are able to engage in an inquiry process in which they explore complex and multifaceted issues, and questions for which there may be no clear-cut answers (Ontario Ministry of Education 2013: 46).

Sweden makes schools responsible for ensuring that each pupil who completes compulsory school “can make use of critical thinking and independently formulate standpoints based on knowledge and ethical considerations” (Skolverket 2018: 12). Subject syllabi incorporate this requirement, and items testing critical thinking skills appear on national tests that are a required step toward university admission. For example, the core content of biology, physics and chemistry in years 7-9 includes critical examination of sources of information and arguments encountered by pupils in different sources and social discussions related to these sciences, in both digital and other media. (Skolverket 2018: 170, 181, 192). Correspondingly, in year 9 the national tests require using knowledge of biology, physics or chemistry “to investigate information, communicate and come to a decision on issues concerning health, energy, technology, the environment, use of natural resources and ecological sustainability” (see the message from the School Board ). Other jurisdictions similarly embed critical thinking objectives in curriculum guidelines.

At the college level, a new wave of introductory logic textbooks, pioneered by Kahane (1971), applied the tools of logic to contemporary social and political issues. Popular contemporary textbooks of this sort include those by Bailin and Battersby (2016b), Boardman, Cavender and Kahane (2018), Browne and Keeley (2018), Groarke and Tindale (2012), and Moore and Parker (2020). In their wake, colleges and universities in North America transformed their introductory logic course into a general education service course with a title like ‘critical thinking’ or ‘reasoning’. In 1980, the trustees of California’s state university and colleges approved as a general education requirement a course in critical thinking, described as follows:

Instruction in critical thinking is to be designed to achieve an understanding of the relationship of language to logic, which should lead to the ability to analyze, criticize, and advocate ideas, to reason inductively and deductively, and to reach factual or judgmental conclusions based on sound inferences drawn from unambiguous statements of knowledge or belief. The minimal competence to be expected at the successful conclusion of instruction in critical thinking should be the ability to distinguish fact from judgment, belief from knowledge, and skills in elementary inductive and deductive processes, including an understanding of the formal and informal fallacies of language and thought. (Dumke 1980)

Since December 1983, the Association for Informal Logic and Critical Thinking has sponsored sessions at the three annual divisional meetings of the American Philosophical Association. In December 1987, the Committee on Pre-College Philosophy of the American Philosophical Association invited Peter Facione to make a systematic inquiry into the current state of critical thinking and critical thinking assessment. Facione assembled a group of 46 other academic philosophers and psychologists to participate in a multi-round Delphi process, whose product was entitled Critical Thinking: A Statement of Expert Consensus for Purposes of Educational Assessment and Instruction (Facione 1990a). The statement listed abilities and dispositions that should be the goals of a lower-level undergraduate course in critical thinking. Researchers in nine European countries determined which of these skills and dispositions employers expect of university graduates (Dominguez 2018 a), compared those expectations to critical thinking educational practices in post-secondary educational institutions (Dominguez 2018b), developed a course on critical thinking education for university teachers (Dominguez 2018c) and proposed in response to identified gaps between expectations and practices an “educational protocol” that post-secondary educational institutions in Europe could use to develop critical thinking (Elen et al. 2019).

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Home > Blog > Tips for Online Students > Why Is History Important And How Can It Benefit Your Future?

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Why Is History Important And How Can It Benefit Your Future?

Updated: July 8, 2024

Published: July 1, 2020

History is a topic that many find boring to study or a waste of time. But there is more to studying history than meets the eye. So, why is history important? Let us explain.

Understanding history helps us develop critical decision-making skills, cultural awareness, and the ability to anticipate future trends based on historical patterns. By examining historical events, we can all learn valuable lessons, avoid past mistakes, and make informed decisions that can positively impact both our personal and professional development.

What Is History?

History is the knowledge of and study of the past. It is the story of the past and a form of collective memory. History is the story of who we are, where we come from, and can potentially reveal where we are headed.

Why Study History: The Importance

History is important to study because it is essential for all of us in understanding ourselves and the world around us. There is a history of every field and topic, from medicine, to music, to art. To know and understand history is absolutely necessary, even though the results of historical study are not as visible, and less immediate.

History Allows You to Comprehend More

Understanding and studying history enhances our grasp of the world, shedding light on cultural diversity, social dynamics, and geopolitical complexities. It helps us see how past events influence the present and guides us in making informed decisions. It also helps us grasp the following:

1. Our World

History gives us a very clear picture of how the various aspects of society — such as technology, governmental systems, and even society as a whole — worked in the past so we understand how it came to work the way it is now.

2. Society And Other People

Studying history allows us to observe and understand how people and societies behaved. For example, we are able to evaluate war, even when a nation is at peace, by looking back at previous events. History provides us with the data that is used to create laws, or theories about various aspects of society.

3. Identity

History can help provide us with a sense of identity. This is actually one of the main reasons that history is still taught in schools around the world. Historians have been able to learn about how countries, families, and groups were formed, and how they evolved and developed over time. When an individual takes it upon themselves to dive deep into their own family’s history, they can understand how their family interacted with larger historical change. Did family serve in major wars? Were they present for significant events?

4. Present-Day Issues

History helps us to understand present-day issues by asking deeper questions as to why things are the way they are. Why did wars in Europe in the 20th century matter to countries around the world? How did Hitler gain and maintain power for as long as he had? How has this had an effect on shaping our world and our global political system today?

5. The Process Of Change Over Time

If we want to truly understand why something happened — in any area or field, such as one political party winning the last election vs the other, or a major change in the number of smokers — you need to look for factors that took place earlier. Only through the study of history can people really see and grasp the reasons behind these changes, and only through history can we understand what elements of an institution or a society continue regardless of continual change.

Photo by Yusuf Dündar on Unsplash

You learn a clear lesson.

Delving into history provides clear lessons that inform present-day actions and decisions. We can identify enduring principles and cautionary tales relevant to contemporary issues by studying past events.

1. Political Intelligence

History can help us become better informed citizens. It shows us who we are as a collective group, and being informed of this is a key element in maintaining a democratic society. This knowledge helps people take an active role in the political forum through educated debates and by refining people’s core beliefs. Through knowledge of history, citizens can even change their old belief systems.

2. History Teaches Morals And Values

By looking at specific stories of individuals and situations, you can test your own morals and values. You can compare it to some real and difficult situations individuals have had to face in trying times. Looking to people who have faced and overcome adversity can be inspiring. You can study the great people of history who successfully worked through moral dilemmas, and also ordinary people who teach us lessons in courage, persistence and protest.

3. Builds Better Citizenship

The study of history is a non-negotiable aspect of better citizenship. This is one of the main reasons why it is taught as a part of school curricular. People that push for citizenship history (relationship between a citizen and the state) just want to promote a strong national identity and even national loyalty through the teaching of lessons of individual and collective success.

4. Learn From The Past And Notice Clear Warning Signs

We learn from past atrocities against groups of people; genocides, wars, and attacks. Through this collective suffering, we have learned to pay attention to the warning signs leading up to such atrocities. Society has been able to take these warning signs and fight against them when they see them in the present day. Knowing what events led up to these various wars helps us better influence our future.

5. Gaining A Career Through History

The skills that are acquired through learning about history, such as critical thinking, research, assessing information, etc, are all useful skills that are sought by employers. Many employers see these skills as being an asset in their employees and will hire those with history degrees in various roles and industries.

6. Personal Growth And Appreciation

Understanding past events and how they impact the world today can bring about empathy and understanding for groups of people whose history may be different from the mainstream. You will also understand the suffering, joy, and chaos that were necessary for the present day to happen and appreciate all that you are able to benefit from past efforts today.

Photo by Giammarco Boscaro on Unsplash

Develop and refine your skills through studying history.

Engaging with history hones your critical thinking, research, and analytical skills, which are essential for interpreting complex information. Writing about historical events helps you communicate effectively and build strong arguments.

1. Reading And Writing

You can refine your reading skills by reading texts from a wide array of time periods. Language has changed and evolved over time and so has the way people write and express themselves. You can also refine your writing skills through learning to not just repeat what someone else said, but to analyze information from multiple sources and come up with your own conclusions. It’s two birds with one stone — better writing and critical thinking!

2. Craft Your Own Opinions

There are so many sources of information out in the world. Finding a decisive truth for many topics just doesn’t exist. What was a victory for one group was a great loss for another — you get to create your own opinions of these events.

3. Decision-Making

History gives us the opportunity to learn from others’ past mistakes. It helps us understand the many reasons why people may behave the way they do. As a result, it helps us become more impartial as decision-makers.

4. How To Do Research

In the study of history you will need to conduct research . This gives you the opportunity to look at two kinds of sources — primary (written at the time) and secondary sources (written about a time period, after the fact). This practice can teach you how to decipher between reliable and unreliable sources.

5. Quantitative Analysis

There are numbers and data to be learned from history. In terms of patterns: patterns in population, desertions during times of war, and even in environmental factors. These patterns that are found help clarify why things happened as they did.

6. Qualitative Analysis

It’s incredibly important to learn to question the quality of the information and “history” you are learning. Keep these two questions in mind as you read through information: How do I know what I’m reading are facts and accurate information? Could they be the writer’s opinions?

Photo by Matteo Maretto on Unsplash

We are all living histories.

All people and cultures are living histories. The languages we speak are inherited from the past. Our cultures, traditions, and religions are all inherited from the past. We even inherit our genetic makeup from those that lived before us. Knowing these connections give you a basic understanding of the condition of being human.

History Is Fun

Learning about history can be a great deal of fun. We have the throngs of movies about our past to prove it. History is full of some of the most interesting and fascinating stories ever told, including pirates, treasure, mysteries, and adventures. On a regular basis new stories from the past keep emerging to the mainstream. Better yet, there is a history of every topic and field. Whatever you find fascinating there is a history to go along with it. Dive a bit deeper into any topic’s history and you will be surprised by what you might find in the process.

What are the Best History Degree Programs in 2024?

Looking for the best history degree programs in 2024? Consider universities known for their strong academic reputation, faculty expertise, resources, and opportunities for experiential learning, like the ones below:

• Harvard University : Renowned for its comprehensive history programs and expert faculty, Harvard provides extensive resources and research opportunities.
• Yale University : Offers robust history programs with a focus on diverse historical perspectives and hands-on learning experiences.
• University of Pennsylvania : Known for its interdisciplinary approach and strong faculty, UPenn provides excellent research facilities and learning opportunities.
• Princeton University : Offers a deep dive into historical analysis with a strong emphasis on research and academic excellence.
• University of Chicago : Known for its rigorous curriculum and focus on critical thinking and research skills.

The subject of history can help you develop your skills and transform you to be a better version of yourself as a citizen, a student, and person overall.

If you are looking to develop more of yourself and skills for your future career, check out the degree programs that are offered by University of the People — a tuition-free, 100% online, U.S. accredited university.

Why should I care about studying history?

Studying history helps you understand how past events shape our present and future. It provides context for current events and helps you make sense of the world.

Can history help me make better decisions in life?

Yes, by learning from past successes and mistakes, you can make more informed decisions and avoid repeating errors.

How does history influence present-day societies and cultures?

History shapes societal norms, cultural practices, and national identities. It influences political decisions and social structures.

What are the practical benefits of learning about history?

Learning history enhances critical thinking, research, and analytical skills. It also improves your understanding of cultural diversity and global issues.

What lessons can we learn from historical mistakes and successes?

History teaches us the consequences of actions, helping us to understand the importance of ethical behavior and the impact of decisions on society.

Are there any specific careers or fields where history knowledge is valuable?

Yes, a strong understanding of history benefits careers in education, law, public policy, journalism, and museum curation.

What role does history play in preserving cultural heritage?

History preserves cultural heritage by documenting and interpreting past events, traditions, and values, ensuring they are remembered and respected.

What are some misconceptions about the relevance of history today?

Some believe history is irrelevant to modern life, but it actually provides critical insights into current issues and future challenges.

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Home > Books > Pedagogy, Learning, and Creativity

Utilizing Creative and Critical Thinking to Build Knowledge and Comprehension through Inquiry-Based and Art-Based Learning: A Practical Tool for Teaching Local History in Pre-Primary and Primary Education

Submitted: 20 June 2023 Reviewed: 27 July 2023 Published: 24 August 2023

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.112688

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Studying local history can be approached in a modern way that encourages young students to utilize the methods and skills of a historian. This includes collecting, recording, comparing, and interpreting data from primary and secondary resources. Inquiry-based and art-based learning are effective frameworks for exploring local history. Students can gain a deeper understanding of the subject by focusing on inquiry, fieldwork, thorough recording, and constructing historical narratives based on critical interpretation of all information, including opposing and alternative views. Art-based learning allows students to analyze the forms and social aspects of artifacts, constructions, events, and phenomena and then express their knowledge and understanding in various multimodal and symbolic ways. It’s essential for children to take the initiative, and be involved in the learning process, and work in collaborative environments that support their free thinking and exploration. This approach is conducive to critical thinking and encourages creativity in learning history. This chapter outlines the conditions that define inquiry and art-based learning environments and offers a tool with practical suggestions for pre-primary and primary teachers to develop their local history lessons. The tool covers four major dimensions: learning interactions, understanding historical times, art-based learning, and practical strategies specific to local history.

• local history
• pre-primary and primary education
• inquiry-based learning
• art-based learning
• practical strategies

Author Information

Maria ampartzaki *.

• University of Crete, Rethymno, Greece

*Address all correspondence to: [email protected]

1. Introduction

Local history is localized history. The study of local history is focused on a specific geographical area and the societies that existed there in the past, viewed through the lens of individuals who lived in these societies. This area could be a small community, a town, or even a wider geographical area [ 1 ]. Often, local citizens who are not professional historians take on the task of writing about their community’s history, driven by a desire to preserve and share what they believe is important. By delving into local history, one can gain a deeper understanding of the broader national narrative, as the two are closely intertwined [ 2 ].

Stefaniak et al. [ 3 ] argue that influencing memories through teaching local history could become a powerful strategy for enhancing place connection and, by extension, fostering more community participation. History classes do not have to be boring if teachers plan activities that encourage students to use primary sources to learn interesting, relevant, and applicable information about the past. The study of local history is one of the best ways to gain insight into the relevance of the past. Public historical materials and re-creating individual histories could be the subject of such research [ 4 , 5 ]. Stories about real-life local heroes or landmarks in a children’s community capture their attention and captivate their minds. Also, a great technique to get children interested in history is to find interesting links to their own family and community’s past. The Bradley Commission on History in Schools [ 6 ] argues that teaching children about their local history might serve as a “robust bridge” to teaching them about larger historical periods.

The “new history” concept moved away from the traditional emphasis on chronology and historical facts. Instead, it highlighted the importance of history as a unique field of knowledge that required specific skills and conceptual understandings to fully comprehend. It has been argued that students can achieve a higher level of understanding of history if it is perceived as a unique form of knowledge and a means of reasoning through the use of second-order concepts such as change and continuity, causation, significance, accounts, and evidence [ 7 , 8 ]. Research came to a consistent conclusion that children can possess remarkably advanced ideas at a young age. This presents an opportunity for educators to develop a structured curriculum that builds on their existing knowledge, allowing for a more comprehensive understanding of history. One of the key concepts presented in this work is that students should have a solid grasp of the foundational principles of their subject. This includes understanding how historical knowledge is created, evaluated, and debated. Therefore, history education’s main focus is to examine students’ ideas and beliefs about the past. To acquire or develop their knowledge, they must be able to comprehend and apply key concepts. As a result, history educators and scholars must be attentive to students’ conceptions and perceptions of history as both a subject and a discipline [ 9 , 10 ].

Academics have suggested the need for “big picture” frameworks to help students understand their place in time [ 11 ]. They also propose a “conceptual framework of human history” that would allow students to connect different elements of the past and present in a meaningful way ([ 12 ], p. 93). Lee ([ 11 ], p. 68) emphasizes the importance of developing a comprehensive historical literacy that promotes an “active historical consciousness,” enabling students to navigate the constantly evolving past and present. Historical consciousness relies on historical competence that involves a multifaceted approach. It requires the ability to ask meaningful questions, analyze sources, and evaluate historical accounts. It also involves connecting the past to our own lives and society and developing a deep understanding of historical concepts. By honing these skills, we can better appreciate the richness and complexity of our shared history [ 9 , 13 ].

2. The creative perspectives of learning local history

Historians become creative when they use their imagination to make sense of the past, which often involves striving to understand unfamiliar practices, frameworks, and worldviews. Good historians can put themselves back in time and visualize the world as it was. Historical imagination is crucial for learning about other cultures, times, and worlds. Thinking creatively and imaginatively is the key to the capacity to see situations under different parameters and frameworks [ 14 ]. This is the capacity we call historical empathy [ 10 ].

Inquiry approaches such as, tackling historical problems; collecting and analyzing data; evaluating and verifying previously established accounts and pieces of evidence; interpretations, revisions, readings, and understandings; discovering new sources; applying new modes of communication; and altogether new historical narratives. Understanding the past in new ways sheds light on how it influences the present.

The capacity of the historian to make connections, discriminate between, and draw similarities between different, intriguing, and valuable aspects of history, situating the information within a broader context.

Borrowing ideas, concepts, theories, and methods from other frameworks or disciplines (e.g. philosophy, anthropology, cultural studies, literature, the arts, etc.) in order to examine a problem from a fresh angle.

Alternative history is also a good way to be creative, as long as the goal is to get people to think.

Historians face the challenge of interpreting and making sense of the past’s intricate social structures by using a big-picture approach, all the while working with limited data. Making meaning of contradictory and partial evidence requires imagination too.

Being a part of a bigger team that carries out in-depth investigations can also require the use of creativity.

In the present chapter, we are focusing on two learning strategies that can promote creative and critical thinking in studying local history: the strategy of inquiry-based and the strategy of art-based learning [ 16 , 17 , 18 ].

3. Inquiry-based learning

Inquiry-based learning is an approach that prioritizes the learner by encouraging questioning and discovery. Students are given the opportunity to explore their interests to find answers to their inquiries. Students collect, record, and organize relevant data and information and prepare summaries, reports, and/or presentations of the culminated knowledge at the end of the process [ 19 ]. Personal assessment and reflection are important components too [ 20 ]. The core of inquiry-based learning is discovery, which is achieved through research using primary and secondary resources. Fieldwork is also an important component, which includes not only site visits but also measurements, experimentation, object examination, and oral source investigation. This approach requires active learning, both individually and in groups, necessitating a supportive learning environment that caters to the material, emotional/psychological, and social needs of the learners [ 21 , 22 , 23 ]. In a spiral mode, the components could evolve in any sequence and traverse through phases. An inquiry may take the shape of cycles, with each cycle including querying, investigating, and concluding, or formulating new, more specific questions and returning to the research cycle.

When the aforementioned procedures are not confined to strict guidelines, they have the potential to encourage creativity. This is primarily because handling, utilizing, and examining information, materials, and ideas is a key aspect of creative endeavors for individuals of all ages. The cultivation of critical thinking skills (which are imperative for comprehending information) is equally vital. Moreover, knowledge and creativity are interconnected. Creativity can be a product of engaging with the regulations and principles of particular domains. The aforementioned necessitates excellent investigative abilities, which will empower learners to discern, obtain, and assess intricate structures and data to fuel their own creative pursuits [ 24 , 25 ].

4. Art-based learning

Encouraging children to present what they have learned in various ways that incorporate multiple modes of expression can transform inquiry-based learning into a powerful, constructive, and expressive process, as stated by Wallace [ 26 ]. Art offers numerous avenues for expression and can serve as an additional means of discovery. Exposure to diverse cultural artifacts allows children to investigate different perspectives, ideas, and cultures, particularly when introduced in a social studies context, such as geography, history, citizenship, etc. One effective method to fight against prejudice is to educate oneself about various cultures and ethnicities. By assimilating new knowledge into their pre-existing frameworks, children can develop a deeper appreciation for the differences and similarities among individuals, rather than relying on broad racial or ethnic stereotypes [ 26 , 27 , 28 ].

In addition, artmaking provides a platform for exploring various means of expression and symbolically conveying personal experiences. Through visual, verbal, musical, and physical semiotics, art serves as a medium of communication and a way of constructing meaning [ 29 ]. According to Atkinson ([ 30 ], p. 77) children “use drawing and other practices such as painting or constructing, for a rich variety of expressive and representational purposes. Children use such art activities to construct narratives, to depict time sequences, to play games, to represent actions, to describe objects, to describe object and spatial relations, and much more. In these activities, children are developing semiotic strategies as well as conceptual understanding” (see also [ 22 , 31 ]). In essence, artmaking is a valuable tool for exploring and constructing concepts, ideas, and perspectives.

5. The benefits of inquiry-based and art-based learning for creative and critical thinking

Inquiry-based and art-based learning foster the holistic growth of students as they engage their cognitive, social, and psychological aspects [ 32 , 33 , 34 ].

When students participate in inquiry-based learning, they are able to acquire genuine, practical knowledge that is relevant to their personal lives as it occurs in a particular social and individual setting, which encourages students to form connections and engage actively in the learning process [ 32 , 35 ]. Experiential learning is beneficial for the development of practical life skills with emotional and social dimensions that are closely linked to personal and social values [ 21 ]. This benefits creativity which is primarily driven by personal relevance and meaningfulness [ 36 , 37 , 38 ].

When students have control over the timing, materials, and participation in the process of inquiry or artistic creation, they tend to develop a sense of personal ownership and self-worth. This, in turn, helps them regulate themselves better and increases their self-efficacy [ 35 , 39 , 40 ]. Considering the student’s desires, thoughts, and perspectives during discussions can also enhance their self-assurance, self-respect, sense of belonging, and self-worth [ 35 , 41 ]. The development of well-being matters for creativity. Self-identity, self-awareness, self-confidence, and a sense of belonging enable individuals to unfold their creativity with confidence [ 42 ]. Moreover, the development of well-being is also a product of creativity [ 43 ].

Students experience cognitive, social, and emotional growth when they take charge of their own learning [ 32 ]. Additionally, engaging in creative pursuits fosters a sense of independence and agency, enabling individuals to better understand themselves [ 42 ].

Collaborative learning allows learners to pool their unique knowledge, skills, and attitudes toward a shared goal. This approach, as noted by Chu et al. [ 44 ], fosters co-construction of learning outcomes. Similarly, creativity in the humanities and creativity, in general, celebrates diversity and inclusivity [ 42 , 45 ].

Explorations such as those carried out in inquiries into history and the artistic and cultural creation of different societies promote children’s social development and comprehension. This also helps them develop historical empathy and empathy in general, which involves understanding the emotions, viewpoints, and motives of others [ 16 , 35 ].

Working together in inquiries and artistic creation fosters a space for learning and growth, where effective communication skills are developed and refined, ultimately enhancing creativity [ 35 , 42 , 44 ].

Inquiry-based and art-based learning allow students to enhance their analytical abilities, which can lead to sharp and perceptive interpretations of real-world situations [ 44 , 46 ]. This skillset can greatly improve their quality of life. Additionally, since inquiries often stem from the world around us, this type of learning promotes “social knowing” ([ 47 ], p. vii; [ 35 ]). Developing analytical skills and insightful interpretations is a hallmark of creative thinking [ 38 , 48 , 49 ].

Interactions are important to inquiry-based, art-based learning and creativity since they enable children to develop a healthy reliance on each other, vivid social interactions, good relationships, and “positive feelings towards peers” ([ 40 ], p. 10; [ 46 ]). According to Zhou [ 50 ], an effective method of recognizing creative learning and its qualities is through social interaction with others. Engaging in positive peer-to-peer interaction can enhance learners’ motivation to build interpersonal connections through collaborative efforts. Such efforts may foster creative thinking, generate innovative ideas, and lead to practical solutions.

Inquiries cater meaningful engagement to learning, which means that children are emotionally involved in learning activities. This affects dispositions as it breeds children’s natural curiosity, eagerness, and motivation to learn [ 28 , 40 ]. Moreover, art allows for the expression of emotions, thereby promoting emotional intelligence [ 35 ]. Helm and Katz report that “research suggests that there is a relationship between the role that children have in determining their own learning experiences and the development of social skills” ([ 22 ], p. 5). They also argue that “when students are energized by their own work, their disposition to solve problems and to seek deeper understanding can be developed and strengthened” (p. 5; see also [ 51 ]). According to a study by Nakamura and Csikszentmihalyi [ 52 ], persistence is a key trait for creativity in the later stages of life.

Art can facilitate emotional regulation and positive emotional development in children [ 53 ]. Moreover, it enables children to express emotions and fears visually, providing control and reflection on their triggers, and contributes to the reduction of stress since pursuing art boosts serotonin levels, fighting depression, and promoting well-being [ 35 ].

On the whole, inquiry-based and art-based learning can contribute to resilience, therapeutic healing [ 54 ], and a “stronger performance regardless of race, gender, or prior achievement” ([ 40 ], p. 4).

6. Conditions that embed and enhance creativity and critical thinking in inquiry-based and art-based learning

6.1 conditions that empower the role of the teacher.

Whether in history or art, conducting an inquiry or implementing inquiry-based lessons requires a teacher with advanced skills. In order to promote student involvement in personal inquiry or artistic exploration, it is essential that teachers first become proficient in inquiry and remain up-to-date with the latest advancements in art education. It is critical for teachers to possess a thorough understanding of the inquiry process and maintain a solid grasp on current developments in the field of art education [ 19 , 20 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 ].

Seek out various sources of information, techniques, and ideas in order to gain knowledge on a particular topic. This can involve reading books, conducting interviews, visiting museums, and verifying through cross-checking [ 23 , 59 ]. Especially in art, teachers can seek to explore diverse forms and genres, media, and techniques before introducing them into their class [ 59 , 60 ].

Explore other perspectives and opposing information related to the topic at hand [ 23 ].

Explore the underlying concept behind a topic (the big idea) or important questions, or the message behind an example of artwork and conduct thorough research [ 59 , 61 ].

If fieldwork is planned, visit the location and take note of various details such as exciting features, potential discoveries for children both independently and with adult guidance, the presence of people in the area, any safety hazards, areas where children can make observations and recordings, places for rest, and areas requiring adult supervision [ 22 ].

A crucial aspect of inquiry-based teaching is for teachers to relinquish control [ 23 ]. According to Kidman and Casinader [ 19 ], this means teachers must be willing to shed their title and authority and instead take on the roles of coach, mentor, facilitator, and critical friend. However, it’s important for teachers to make this transition gradually. Students may not possess the necessary skills, maturity, or intellectual sophistication to take on full responsibility for their learning. Teachers can encourage students to lead the creative process and sometimes engage in playful interactions with them to create a more relaxed and enjoyable learning environment [ 46 ]. Therefore, teachers must teach students the necessary skills and gradually increase their independence and intellectual capacity over time [ 55 ].

Teachers can adopt several key roles during the transition process: “direct instruction provider,” “organizer,” “questioner,” “discussion facilitator,” “mentor,” and “facilitator of interpretation” ([ 19 ], p. 44; see also [ 56 , 61 , 62 ]). It’s important for teachers to switch between these roles depending on the needs of their students. For instance, with less experienced students, teachers should focus more on direct instruction, while with more independent and advanced students, they should take on a facilitator role. The balance between these roles may also vary depending on the topic being studied. For new and unfamiliar topics, students may require more guidance in the initial stages of exploration. Studies have shown that presenting challenges to children and empowering them to find solutions can enhance their creativity [ 59 ].

The teacher’s feedback plays a critical role in this process, as it guides the learners in making decisions and taking independent actions [ 63 ]. Collaboration and inquiry-based processes are fostered in both inquiry-based and art-based learning, leading to the development of trust among students, which allows them to take risks and learn from their failures without fear, creating a positive classroom climate overall [ 31 , 64 ]. Furthermore, students are encouraged to be open and honest about any outside issues that may affect their work [ 23 , 46 , 65 ].

Teachers play a crucial role in helping children interpret data and information without bias. As a “facilitator of interpretation,” they can guide children to differentiate between theories, opinions, and evidence, while also encouraging them to generate and evaluate new interpretations and ideas. This support promotes children’s independence as inquirers and problem-solvers, as well as their conceptual knowledge, metacognitive strategies, and creativity. To ensure effective teaching, assessment should also be used to inform responsive teaching, with modes of assessment tailored to the varying capabilities of young children [ 63 ].

Another important condition in inquiry-based and art-based learning is exploring the materials, instruments, and tools involved. Skilled teachers select materials that aid their students’ learning and are appropriate for the key concepts being taught. The equipment provided should encourage experimentation and exploration, and risk-taking which are aspects of intellectual quality [ 20 , 23 , 31 , 46 ].

6.2 Conditions that empower children’s learning processes

Studies have revealed that children possess the ability to plan various things, such as deciding what they want to learn or where they wish to go. To facilitate planning with children, teachers can adopt the K-W-L pattern, which involves identifying what they already Know about a subject, what they Want to learn about it, and what they have Learned after investigating it [ 66 ].

Children may be unfamiliar with asking inquiries. In learning processes, it is necessary to cultivate a culture of inquiry and inquiry-based discovery [ 63 ]. In this case, teachers must place children in the proper mindset and engage them in activities that cultivate their question-asking and discussion skills [ 62 , 67 ]. If teachers switch to a different mode of instruction or interaction, children who are accustomed to sitting and listening silently do not comprehend what is expected of them [ 55 ]. Children must also be taught to observe and respond to one another in brief conversations on a topic. They must comprehend and acknowledge the significance of waiting their turn and maintaining composure during a discussion. Finally, children must develop an understanding of what a query is and how it facilitates learning and information gathering. In other words, teachers must ensure that they address the aforementioned concerns and devote sufficient time to familiarizing students with the inquiry and discussion processes [ 16 , 20 , 23 , 56 ].

Another factor that could prevent children from asking pertinent questions is a lack of information about the topic at hand. Children may know very little about certain subjects, while others may know only the bare minimum. If that’s the case, children might have trouble articulating what they find engaging. Here is a case in point: The town square features a memorial. Many children have seen it and walked by, but they have not been able to process it any further. They have no other information, and they are unable to formulate any questions. In this situation, educators are tasked with sparking students’ curiosity and pique. There are several ways to ignite curiosity, which can be used separately or in combination. These include going on a field trip to the place of interest, reading a book, story, or poem, or utilizing audio-visual resources such as TV shows, videos, websites, newspapers, magazines, and films. Teachers can also initiate classroom discussions, create incidental experiences, or establish ongoing projects that can lead to new areas of interest as experiencing a situation is necessary before questions develop [ 68 , 69 ]. Additionally, arranging a learning environment that showcases related objects or creating interactive learning centers can pique children’s curiosity and stimulate conversations about the materials and where they can take us [ 23 , 66 , 70 ].

Extensive knowledge and profound understanding of objects, images, phenomena, or events, which is elaborated with clarity and repleted in detail in their artwork or other types of work [ 23 , 31 , 46 , 58 , 71 , 72 , 73 ].

Complex problem-solving skills, and advanced thinking abilities which allow children to combine semiotic elements, and form messages and ideas in new creations [ 23 , 31 , 46 , 58 , 71 , 73 ].

Use of technical terms and/or art language with mastery and understanding, for effective communication by students in their work (although with young children, teachers might downplay the vocabulary to the benefit of concrete exploration and learning of the major concepts) [ 20 , 31 , 46 , 58 , 71 ].

Originality which brings unusual or unexpected results. Rather than copying or emulating someone else’s work, students are encouraged to be innovative, explore new possibilities, and tap into their creativity to produce original and authentic pieces of work. In this effort, children are encouraged to use their own knowledge, thinking, expressive skills, and semiotic modes [ 23 , 31 , 42 , 46 , 72 , 73 , 74 ].

Flexibility in thinking which allows children to move beyond the boundaries [ 31 ].

Enjoying the process of inquiry and art and feeling positive about them is a crucial aspect of intellectual quality [ 23 , 31 , 46 , 58 , 71 ].

Creating compositions that present “unity, balance and harmony” and the expression of emotions ([ 31 ], pp. 128–129).

Intellectual quality involves also understanding the technical and expressive aspects of art forms or other artifacts. This is achieved through analyzing carefully chosen works of art and artifacts [ 18 , 46 , 58 ].

Meaningful learning is closely the empowerment of children [ 75 ]. According to Gibson, Anderson, and Fleming [ 46 ], this is accomplished by tapping into prior knowledge and personal identities, as well as taking into account external contexts and diverse viewpoints beyond the classroom. With reference to young children, meaningful learning might as well occur when children are given the opportunity to satisfy their natural curiosity and when they are involved in the planning of learning activities [ 28 , 76 ].

In addition, it is vital for students to collaborate with others to express their emotions, co-construct or share their knowledge and creations, consider diverse perspectives, offer constructive feedback, and critically evaluate both the learning processes and outcomes of inquiry-based and art-based learning. Classes are turned into a “community of learners” or a “community of practice.” Encouraging students to express themselves beyond verbal critique and feedback is important. There are various means of communication available to them ([ 46 ], p. 117; see also [ 64 , 72 , 74 ]).

The conditions mentioned above are prevalent in both learning approaches (inquiries and art-based approaches) and the contemporary interpretation of studying local history. Additionally, a high-quality learning environment is crucial for facilitating these intricate processes.

7. Creating conducive learning environments for creative and critical thinking in inquiry-based and art-based learning

A quality learning environment in inquiry-based and art-based learning is characterized by deep focus, sustained engagement, and a loss of sense of time, similar to Csikszentmihalyi’s concept of “flow” [ 46 , 77 ].

The learning experience encompasses not only the curriculum but also the physical surroundings and the timeframe within which artistic expression takes place. The environment should be practical [ 46 ] and offer students the appropriate materials and technical guidance or demonstrations at key moments [ 31 , 73 ]. In Reggio Emilia schools, space and environment are regarded as the “third teacher” [ 78 ], and it is critical to provide physical spaces that serve, showcase, and recognize the students’ own work, enhancing their confidence and sense of ownership [ 23 , 31 , 46 , 73 ].

According to Kidman and Casinader’s proposal ([ 19 ], p. 39), there are two distinct types of learning environments: the classroom learning environment (CLE) and the field learning environment (FLE). It would be beneficial to explore the characteristics of these environments further.

7.1 Classroom Learning Environments (CLEs)

CLEs could feature resource displays and interactive learning centers. Teachers must select and evaluate these materials with great care. Books and audiovisual or multimedia content must be chosen based on their compatibility, with large pictures and photographs and appropriate content being two major considerations. Teachers can mediate if there are challenging terms used, either by explaining them to students or by including additional narration into a multimedia piece (such as a video, PowerPoint, or movie segment) created with modern technology [ 23 ].

Choosing appropriate resources can be challenging, particularly in the early years, when children may not have the skills to conduct independent research on primary and secondary sources [ 19 ]. In order to optimize the use of resources by young children, it’s important for teachers or designers to carefully choose resources that align with the learning objectives and assist children in making appropriate selections [ 20 ]. This approach not only enhances the effectiveness of resources for young children but also benefits older children who may struggle with processing information. Additionally, it promotes the perception of information resources as a means to an end, rather than the end itself [ 79 ]. If teachers read books to children, they may want to avoid reading complex sentences and focus instead on reading the most important parts. Children that are at a reading level are free to peruse the content and read as much or as little as they can manage [ 80 ]. Fiction and nonfiction books for children of all ages are accepted, if available [ 16 ].

As previously stated, resources on alternative perspectives, nontraditional or sidelined genres, and conflicting information (as long as they do not infringe on human rights) should be included [ 16 , 17 ]. This has the potential to promote democratic values and foster children’s attitudes of tolerance and acceptance toward diversity, while also enhancing their ability to analyze and interpret multiple viewpoints (see, for example, a discussion by Jones [ 81 ]).

7.2 Field Learning Environments (FLEs)

The Field Learning Environment (FLE) [ 19 ], commonly known as Fieldwork, is highly valued by educators due to the significant role sensory learning plays in education. Field trips offer a complete sensory experience of the environment, making them an essential teaching tool. Classroom learning cannot offer the same level of firsthand and sensory experience as other forms of education. Children can explore and become acquainted with their surroundings through movement. This also helps them to orient themselves and navigate their way [ 66 , 82 ]. Excursions also offer chances to practice map-reading, introducing children to decoding and understanding spatial diagrams and representations [ 15 , 66 , 83 ]. This could also be achieved with support from ICT [ 84 ].

Moreover, children have the opportunity to interact with a variety of workers or experts (art and history experts included) and observe how they each play a role in daily life [ 22 , 23 ]. For example, they may encounter the bus driver, the shop owner, a housewife shopping, a museum guard, or individuals working at a ticket desk.

One of the primary benefits of fieldwork is that it allows children to utilize inquiry skills and tools, such as observing and recording information about their surroundings [ 16 , 22 ]. In addition, it offers chances for children to engage in shared experiences and participate in group activities [ 66 ]. Visits can be accompanied by parents, providing ample opportunities for parental involvement [ 22 , 23 , 66 ]. And as previously mentioned, it has been argued that this approach stimulates fresh ideas and promotes learning by piquing children’s curiosity and presenting new inquiries that require solutions [ 22 , 66 ].

Seefeldt, Castle, and Falconer ([ 66 ], pp. 66–68) identified various types of fieldwork including “walking” trips around the school or neighborhood, “small-group trips,” “specific purpose field trips” that focus on a particular issue, “virtual field trips” to distant places, and “WOW” trips that offer an element of surprise without being tied to any particular project or topic. Our focus is on “repeated fieldwork” trips, which can enhance in-depth investigations. The excitement of the first visit may cause children to miss details and opportunities for exploration. Experience shows that returning to the same place allows for a re-examination of the subject, uncovering new issues for observation and recording. This may prompt new questions and perspectives, leading to further visits that build on the findings of the initial trip [ 22 ,  23 , 66 , 85 ]. From a social-emotional perspective, returning to a familiar location can provide children with a sense of mastery and security to take risks in new learning opportunities. Continuity in field trips can also enhance learning, connecting the intentions of repeated trips or complementing different trips. For example, a visit to a monument could be followed by a trip to a museum or library to gather additional information about the topic. Lastly, an initial visit to a place of interest can serve as a starting point for children’s investigations, inspiring good questions and guiding their inquiry toward deeper levels of learning [ 23 ].

7.2.1 Preparing fieldwork

As previously stated, adequate preparation is crucial for a successful trip. Teachers should involve the children in the planning process, encouraging them to consider transportation options, map usage, and necessary equipment [ 16 , 23 ].

Explicitly discussing and laying out standards of behavior and safety rules is also important. Seefeldt, Castle, and Falconer [ 66 ] suggest reviewing these standards with both children and adults attending the trip. When everyone is clear on what is expected of them, the trip becomes safer. It can be helpful to chart certain rules for quick and easy reference. As part of an emergency plan, parents and children need to be aware of what steps to take in case of an accident, such as identifying an emergency meeting point, understanding who is responsible for calling emergency services, and knowing who is certified to administer first aid.

According to the literature on inquiry-based learning, it is recommended that children have a background experience and some questions prepared before going on a trip to aid in their investigations. However, this may not always be possible or necessary, especially if the children lack prior knowledge on the topic. Teachers may choose to wait until visiting the place to encourage the children to ask questions and support them in expressing their curiosity about the situation, object, or phenomenon. Sometimes, direct experience is needed to truly observe and appreciate something, which can lead to a desire to learn more [ 23 ].

When visiting a new place, there is an important issue to consider: When it comes to children and travel, simply visiting a site and listening to a tour guide is not enough for an enriching experience. Teachers should avoid acting solely as guides and instead focus on creating opportunities for inquiry-based learning. While adult involvement is still important, it should be thoughtfully planned out [ 22 , 23 ].

Observing, listening, or experimenting and then attempting to answer questions that were previously recorded in the classroom before heading out. Move around in an organized manner, and use their senses to smell, touch, hear, look, and feel everything around them. They can also discuss their thoughts and feelings with each other and with adults [ 22 , 23 ].

Completing assignments such as collecting leaves, stones, or bugs, recording details in journals, or checking off items on a list. Children can also take pictures themselves or use a audio recorder and camera to collect evidence that is going to be used in the classroom afterward to recall important information and discuss their findings [ 22 ].

Organizing a treasure hunt where children can search for clues and answer questions that guide them through historical sites or museums. This encourages children to collect information in a playful way and allows them to work in groups or individually with appropriate adult supervision. Still, it is best for children to work in groups with minimal adult guidance.

The aforementioned conditions allow for the creation of CLEs and FLEs that aid and encourage the exploration of local history through creative and critical thinking processes.

8. Focusing on local history: the importance of space and time concepts

As children interact with their daily and local surroundings, they naturally begin to take notice of places, monuments, objects, and ceremonies. This familiarity allows their surroundings to gain meaning and significance [ 16 ]. Through hands-on exploration and observation of historical objects, children can actively develop their historical thinking and learn the so-called “procedural concepts of history” which are “cause and effect” “continuity and change,” “similarity and difference” ([ 16 ], pp. 27, 43). They can also develop historical empathy, that is a greater understanding of how past individuals may have thought, felt, and acted differently due to knowledge, societal, economic, and political differences [ 16 ].

Children’s innate curiosity about history aids in developing their personal identity in relation to others and time. Studying local history increases children’s awareness of how society’s members are interconnected and helps them embrace differences by recognizing that a community can consist of individuals with diverse cultural backgrounds [ 16 , 22 ].

Exploring historical sites, monuments, and museums, or conducting research using primary and secondary resources can foster inquiry skills and be a focal point in history studies [ 18 ]. Such experiences help children appreciate the connection between the past and present, the importance of cultural heritage, and the necessity of preserving it. Additionally, they develop a love for the environment, which enhances their sense of responsibility and care.

Children, like adult historians, learn about the past by tracing the causes and effects of changes over time or continuity, understanding that there can be multiple accounts of the past and making deductions and guesses about remaining artifacts. Thus, working with time concepts is essential because if children become aware of the skills and concepts involved in learning about the past, they can become independent learners [ 16 , 83 ]. To become increasingly aware of historical changes, children need to build and apply knowledge of cause and effect, motivation, and consequence; to become able to draw parallels and dissimilarities (what shared features existed between the ‘before’ and the ‘now,’ and what new features emerged, and why); to gradually determine how much time has passed (hours, days, weeks, months, and years); and learn to organize the order of events (from personal experience, recent memory, and future projections) [ 83 ].

Studying space concepts is also vital for understanding history. Children can better comprehend time and change by identifying and describing features of places, observing and recording patterns and processes related to space and the environment, reading spatial representations, and recording places and routes themselves using all senses [ 83 ]. Therefore, it is highly beneficial to work systematically on understanding concepts and language related to direction, measurement, positions, perspective, spatial patterns, feature names, and spatial representation skills such as maps, maquettes, floor plans, and birds-eye views [ 83 , 86 , 87 ].

9. A four-dimensional tool with practical suggestions for developing creative and critical thinking in learning local history

I would like to share a helpful tool for teachers who want to develop local history lessons using inquiry-based and art-based learning methods. The tool is comprised of four lists of practical strategies, covering important aspects such as learning interactions, understanding historical times, art-based learning, and specific strategies for local history (see Tables 1 – 4 ). Each strategy is backed by reasoning to justify its effectiveness. In general, this tool ensures that the conditions discussed earlier are met, and it allows teachers to establish a setting that promotes creative, critical, and analytical thinking while exploring local history.

Dimension 1—Practical strategies for learning interactions.

Dimension 2—Concept work to understand historical times.

Dimension 3—Art-based learning.

Dimension 4—Approaching local history.

When approaching local history several sources can be utilized: artifacts and furnishings; monuments; buildings, entrances, and fountains; artworks; museums; places of worship such as monasteries, churches, mosques, and temples; photographs, books, albums, and sound recordings; letters and stamps. Different sources call for unique approaches and provide distinct opportunities. In Table 4 , we focus on strategies for work with artifacts and furnishings, monuments, buildings, and other large constructions, and museums.

10. Conclusions

Learning about local history can help children develop a historical perspective and better understand the connections between different groups, cultures, and civilizations. This can also help children become more self-aware and learn about the challenges of their time. Inquiry-based and art-based learning methods can create a learning environment where children act as investigators, gathering and analyzing information from primary and secondary sources, and expressing their conclusions creatively. I hope that the learning principles, practical strategies, and conditions outlined above, will give teachers the confidence to develop their own creative approaches to teaching local history in pre-primary and primary students.

Acknowledgments

Classroom implementations were conducted to test the effectiveness of the practical tool mentioned earlier in the “Early Childhood Education – building sustainable motivation and value paradigm for life (MOV UP)” project, funded by Erasmus+ (580339-EPP-1-2016-1-BG-EPPKA3-IPI-SOC-IN).

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A Brief History of the Idea of Critical Thinking

• Back Issues
• Letters Policy

Volume 57 | ISSUE 2: September 6, 2024

Hazelwood green tour shares progress, promise of multifaceted bioforge project.

By SHANNON O. WELLS

In the brilliant sunlight of a late summer afternoon at Hazelwood Green by the Monongahela River, even the weathered old shell of the former Jones & Laughlin Steel factory — with the help of thousands of solar panels up top — looms majestically amid the site’s mix of fresh landscaping, open spaces and construction zones as a tour group strolls around the once-fallow former industrial site.

While the popular phrase “eds and meds” describing Pittsburgh’s transition from manufacturing giant to a university- and medical center-fueled hub suggests the latter supplanted the former, Pitt’s fledgling BioForge project is aimed toward bringing together the city’s history of product creation with its more recent flair for cutting-edge innovation.

On Sept. 5, a group of about two dozen folks from Pitt and the surrounding Hazelwood neighborhood got a sneak preview of the 185,000-gross-square-foot BioForge life-sciences manufacturing center now being constructed on 3.5 acres of the former steel-making property.

The event was held ahead of a topping-off ceremony for the building on Friday morning.  

“I first heard about BioForge when I was a candidate for chancellor, and it is one of the main reasons that I am here in this role,” Pitt Chancellor Joan Gabel said at the Sept. 6 ceremony. “Because when you look at what a research university can do in terms of discovery, in terms of advancing science, in terms of advancing therapies and cures, in terms of economic development, in terms of partnering with a community in service or in terms of just being vibrant and exciting and inspiring as a place to live and learn and work — there’s really nothing like this anywhere, and I wanted to be a part of it.”

On Thursday, Heidi Ward, director of planning for Pitt’s Neighborhood Commitment in Hazelwood, guided a walking tour through the expansive site. The couple dozen neighbors and Pitt representatives on the tour were given an opportunity to sign the final construction beam that was put in place Friday morning. 

The $250 million BioForge project will share Hazelwood Green with existing facilities including the Advanced Manufacturing Research Center, Motional driverless vehicles, and Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Innovation Center as well as proposed residential housing development to create a more well-rounded neighborhood mix. 

“In addition to our greater Hazelwood neighborhood commitment, the University of Pittsburgh is developing a new biomanufacturing facility called the BioForge,” Ward explained. “This catalytic development is why we continue to hear the term life sciences … the field of study that helps us learn about our health, really how we can coexist and have a better, more thriving world together.”

First announced in fall 2021, the BioForge project’s exterior construction is scheduled to be complete in the first half of 2025. When the project is complete, probably by the summer 2026, it’s expected to create around 830 jobs. 

Therapies within reach

Currently overseeing design and construction of the facility, Ken Gabriel, a former engineering professor at Carnegie Mellon University who serves as founding director of BioForge’s Advanced Biomanufacturing Institute, will direct operations as chief executive officer of the life-sciences manufacturing center. He described the significance and opportunity BioForge represents for Pitt as well as the once-blighted property it will occupy.

BioForge, he noted, will innovate in the subset of therapy known as precision medicine.

“And the basic idea of precision biologic medicine is that the best therapy for you — the best medicine for you — is you,” Gabriel explained. “And what I mean by that is your own body being helped to fight a disease or overcome a condition. And these types of precision biological medicines are relatively new. We’ve been hearing a lot about them.

“They fall under the category of cell and gene therapy, or RNA, which some of you may have experienced, like we all did as a (COVID) vaccine,” he added, “but these are the types of new therapies that actually help your body heal itself.”

As promising and exciting as these are, including regular news articles celebrating breakthroughs like “(deaf) children who can hear again,” or patients “overcoming cancer of the blood, in particular through these sort of treatments,” there’s still the not-so-little matter of affordability.

“By the time you get to page three or the seventh screen of that article, they tell you the therapy costs $3 million or $2.5 million dollars, half the cost of putting up solar panels here,” he observed. “That’s not within reach of the people who need it. It’s barely a drop in the bucket to address the number of people who need these sorts of treatments.”

BioForge, therefore, is designed to seek and create breakthroughs and innovations in manufacturing precision biological medicines to accelerate their delivery and use.

“That’s our whole focus and point. And we’re going to focus like a laser beam,” Gabriel said. “We don’t need more science. That’s already happening at the University of Pittsburgh. There’s tons of money in the private sector that’s ready to come in to invest.”

Closing the gap

Before BioForge, Gabriel served as founding chief operating officer of Wellcome Leap, an organization that combined life sciences and engineering to deliver critical medical innovations at accelerated timescales. In just over two years, the organization launched 10 ongoing programs ranging from artificial kidneys and depression biology to next-generation surgical delivery and resilient aging.

He also worked as president and CEO of Draper, an engineering spin-off of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as corporate vice president and founding co-lead of the Advanced Technology and Projects group at Google, and as acting director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency at the U.S. Department of Defense. 

“What BioForge is going to do is close that gap between where these technologies get through in the laboratory and where they need to be, in terms of manufacturing and repeatability, so that we can get it out to everyone equitably and as fast as possible,” Gabriel added on the Hazelwood Green tour. “It’s not going to be easy.”

What he finds encouraging, however, is the innovation that already surrounds the BioForge site. Synergy among the facilities will be a key element of BioForge’s ability to thrive.

“The building of BioForge is over there, where we’re going to be focusing on the manufacturing and the life sciences and the biology needed,” he said, gesturing south toward the river, where construction is underway. “But right next to us is the manufacturing of futures. Right over there is Robotics Innovation Center …

“In order to do the manufacturing advances that we need, we need automation. We need machine learning. We need robotics, not just by itself, but working together with the life sciences,” he added. “So this is putting us, as a region, very well positioned to do this in a way that gets precision biological medicines out and delivers on the promising potential and makes it real.”

A neighborly place

As part of the site tour, Heidi Ward provided historical information on the roller-coaster history of Hazelwood Green, which once was considered part of the Squirrel Hill neighborhood. Noting a long population decline, she said 2020 census data indicates 4,548 residents live in greater Hazelwood.

“And when we compare it to a city, the population in greater Hazelwood really is overrepresented by those that are under the age of 18 and those that are over the age of 65,” she said. “As a dear friend, Sonia Tillman, once said to me, ‘Hazelwood is like a barbell — one side is really the youth and the other side is our older citizens, and so we have very few people that are actually in that working population.”

Pointing toward green space on the southwest section of the Hazelwood Green site, Ward explained the housing component of the redevelopment project that will be completed in three separate phases.

“It really will be multi-family development. The first phase will have 50 units (with 27) reserved as ‘affordable,’” she said. “The other 13 units will be set aside for families that are involved in the Pittsburgh Scholar House,” a project designed to improve the quality of life for single parents and their children through post-secondary education and supportive services.

“I think all of us are really looking forward to housing coming here in the development,” she added.

More than 1,000 greater Hazelwood residents came together to help create a neighborhood plan, “to really share what they wanted to see happen to this neighborhood after the steel mill collapsed,” Ward said. “The plan focuses on ways to strengthen and improve the community while proactively preparing for future growth and change as the neighborhood continues to evolve.

“The community will use its plan to ensure it remains an inclusive, family friendly neighborhood that recognizes that its greatest asset is its people — all of you.”

Shannon O. Wells is a writer for the University Times. Reach him at   [email protected] .

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