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Benchmarks of Historical Thinking
http://www.histori.ca/benchmarks/
Title: Jun 1810:00 AM (1 of 16)
A surveyor cut a "benchmark" into a stone or a wall when measuring the altitude and/or level of a tract of land. A bracket called a "bench" was secured in the cut to mount the surveying equipment, and all subsequent measurements were made in reference to the position and height of that mark.
The term "benchmark" was first used around 1842 to refer to a standard of quality by which achievement may be measured.
What is a benchmark?
Benchmarks in history are an attempt to help teachers establish standards for assessing student learning of the modes of thought that constitute historical thinking, a way of creating a standard for an otherwise chaotic undertaking, given the vastness of human history.
Title: Jun 1810:05 AM (2 of 16)
There are six aspects of historical thinking :
1) establish historical significance2) use primary source evidence3) identify continuity and change4) analyze cause and consequence5) take historical perspectives6) understand ethical/moral dimension of history
Title: Jun 1810:13 AM (3 of 16)
1) Establish Historical SignificanceThis aspect looks at why an event, person, or development from the past is important. We ask questions like what is the significance of a particular event in history? What would have happened if this person had not existed?
For purposes of illustration we will use the Industrial Revolution as our area of history under review.
Jethro Tull
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsCyC1dZiN8The Seed Drill
Title: Jun 1810:50 AM (4 of 16)
What do you know about the Industrial Revolution that is significant to your life today?
Title: Jun 1811:14 AM (5 of 16)
2) Using Primary Source Evidence
The litter of history —letters, documents, records, diaries, drawings, newspaper accounts and other bits and pieces left behind by those who have passed on — are treasures to the historian. These are primary sources that can give up the secrets of life in the past. Historians learn to read these sources.
The Luddite Oath: 1812
Title: Jun 1811:15 AM (6 of 16)
Why are primary source documents important? Why can we not just depend on the words written in history books?
Title: Jun 1811:30 AM (7 of 16)
3)Identify continuity and change
Students sometimes misunderstand history as a list of events. Once you start to understand history as a complex mix of continuity and change, you will reach a fundamentally different sense of the past.
One of the keys to continuity and change is looking for change where common sense suggests that there has been none and looking for continuities where we assumed that there was change. Judgments of continuity and change can be made on the basis of comparisons between some point in the past and the present, or between two points in the past.
This aspect of historical thinking looks at the things that happened between the marks on a timeline.
Title: Jun 1811:31 AM (8 of 16)
Horse Drawn Tiller
Hydraulic Tiller
What is the continuity and the change in these photos?
Title: Jun 1811:40 AM (9 of 16)
4) Analyze Cause and Consequence
In examining both tragedies and accomplishments in the past, we are usually interested in the questions of how and why. These questions start the search for causes: what were the actions, beliefs, and circumstances that led to these consequences?
In history, as opposed to geology or astronomy, we need to consider human agency. People, as individuals and as groups, play a part in promoting, shaping, and resisting change.
Cause and consequence examine why an event unfolded that way it did and asks if there is more than one reason for this and there always is!
It also explains that causes are not always obvious and can be multi layered.
Title: Jun 1811:46 AM (10 of 16)
An example of cause and consequence from the Industrial Revolution is the working conditions that developed in the factories. What human aspect caused these conditions and what were the consequences of this time period?
Title: Jun 1811:49 AM (11 of 16)
5) Taking Historical Perspectives
Taking historical perspective means understanding the social, cultural, intellectual, and emotional settings that shaped people’s lives and actions in the past. At any one point, different historical actors may have acted on the basis of conflicting beliefs and ideologies, so understanding diverse perspectives is also a key to historical perspectivetaking. Though it is sometimes called “historical empathy,” historical perspective is very different from the commonsense notion of identification with another person. Taking historical perspective demands comprehension of the vast differences between us in the present and those in the past.
Title: Jun 182:13 PM (12 of 16)
What are the different historical perspectives of these two photos?
Street children during the Industrial Revolution
Street children living in the Congo in 2010
Title: Jun 182:25 PM (13 of 16)
6) Understanding ethical/moral dimensions of history
This aspect of historical thinking assists in making ethical judgments about past events after objective study. We learn from the past in order to face the issues of today.
Taking historical perspective demands that we understand the differences between our ethical universe and those of bygone societies. We do not want to impose our own anachronistic standards on the past ( an error in chronology). At the same time, meaningful history does not treat brutal slaveholders, enthusiastic Nazis, and marauding conquistadors in a “neutral” manner.
Title: Jun 182:48 PM (14 of 16)
What ethical or moral dimensions exist from looking back on the Industrial Revolution?
Title: Jun 183:19 PM (15 of 16)
a standard of excellence, achievement, etc., against which similar things must be measured or judged: The new hotel is a benchmark in opulence and comfort.
Title: Jun 183:23 PM (16 of 16)