Cognitive Strategies, Metacognition &

Historical Thinking

Carly BrownEDP 504

Tutoring SystemSpring 2011

Before we begin, here is how you can navigate throughout the tutorial…

These arrow buttons will guide your journey, allowing you to go back or go forward.

If at anytime you would like to return to the home screen, click

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HOME

Purpose

Historical Thinking

Wineburg’s Cognitive Heuristics

Activity: Rosa Parks &the Montgomery Bus Boycott

Metacognition

Case Study: Kohlmeier

Works Cited

Teaching Resources

Start Here!

Purpose

The purpose of this tutorial is to introduce

secondary history teachers to cognitive and

metacognitive strategies to facilitate historical

thinking in the history classroom.

What is Historical Thinking?“The ‘process of using historical information including

deciphering content, perspective, point of view, and perceived

facts,’ (Chowen, 2005) via inquiry into and analysis of multiple, often

primary, sources for deliberative conclusions.” (Pelligrino, 2010)

Still a little unclear?

What is Historical Thinking?

• Video: “What is Historical Thinking” (8 min)

You’ve probably heard the term “historical thinking”

before but this video will introduce the various facets

of historical thinking and its importance in the history

classroom. Pay attention to the video… there might be

a quiz!(Cannot access YouTube or link broken?)

Oh no! Don’t Worry…In the event that you cannot access YouTube or if the link is broken… Go here.

Click on the video entitled “What is Historical Thinking”

After finishing the video…

Video Quiz1. __________ __________ is the reading,

analyzing, and writing that is necessary to tell historical stories. Answer

Video Quiz

1. Historical Thinking Back

Video Quiz1. __________ __________ is the reading,

analyzing, and writing that is necessary to tell historical stories.

2. What is an original document/object created at the time under study? Answer

Video Quiz

1. Historical Thinking2. Primary source Back

Video Quiz1. __________ __________ is the reading,

analyzing, and writing that is necessary to tell historical stories.

2. What is an original document/object created at the time under study?

3. Can primary sources tell different stories about the same historical event? Answer

Video Quiz

1. Historical Thinking2. Primary source3. Certainly, this is why comparing primary sources

(known as corroboration) is necessary! Back

Video Quiz1. __________ __________ is the reading,

analyzing, and writing that is necessary to tell historical stories.

2. What is an original document/object created at the time under study?

3. Can primary sources tell different stories about the same historical event?

4. True/False: Teaching historical thinking is included in most state standards for social studies. Answer

Video Quiz

1. Historical Thinking2. Primary source3. Certainly, this is why comparing primary

sources against each other (corroboration) is necessary!

4. True! Teaching historical thinking is not only important, it’s required by many state standards.

Good Job! Let’s continue!

Why is Historical Thinking Important?

• Getting students to think historically is one of the greatest challenges facing social studies educators.

• Successful historical thinking allows students to become active “doers” of history, rather than consumers.

Now that you have a sense of what historical

thinking is… let’s explore Sam Wineburg’s

three cognitive heuristics that students can

use to begin thinking historically…

Historical Thinking:

Wineburg’s Cognitive Heuristics

Corroboration

SourcingContextualization

Click on a bubble to explore that cognitive heuristic…

After exploring all 3 heuristics, let’s continue…

A heuristic is a “rule of thumb,” or a strategy that can be used in a variety of similar situations.

Corroboration• Corroboration is the “act of comparing

documents with one another.”

• Stated as a heuristic: “Whenever possible, check important details against each other before accepting them as plausible or likely.”

(Wineburg, 1991)

Sourcing

• Sourcing is the “act of looking first to the source of the document before reading the body of the text.”

• Stated as a heuristic: “When evaluating historical documents, look first to the source or attribution of the document.”

(Wineburg, 1991)

Contextualization• Contextualizing is the “act of situating a

document in a concrete temporal and spatial context.”

• Stated as a heuristic: “When trying to construct historical events, pay close attention to when they happened and where they took place.”

(Wineburg, 1991)

Activity: Rosa Parks & the Montgomery Bus Boycott

• Now that you have been introduced to Wineburg’s heuristics for historical thinking, let’s practice.

• In the following activity, you will explore several documents and passages about Rosa Parks and the beginning of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. (This will seem familiar… think back to the Historical Thinking video.)

The common narrative states…

Rosa Parks was a tired seamstress who refused to give her seat on the bus to a white man in Montgomery, AL. Parks was consequently arrested. When African Americans in Montgomery heard of Parks' arrest, they decided to boycott the buses.

While this story seems logical and even plausible, was Rosa Parks actually unaware of the consequences of her actions? Is this really how the Montgomery Bus Boycott began?

Using historical thinking strategies, let’s explore…

• Here, you will find several tabs with various names on them. Read and examine each tab, including side bars. Make sure to keep Wineburg’s cognitive heuristics in mind!

While reading, complete the following chart.

Historical Thinking:

Wineburg’s Cognitive Heuristics

Corroboration

SourcingContextualization

Click on a bubble to explore that cognitive heuristic…

Back to activity

A heuristic is a “rule of thumb,” or a strategy that can be used in a variety of similar situations.

Corroboration• Corroboration is the “act of comparing

documents with one another.”

• Stated as a heuristic: “Whenever possible, check important details against each other before accepting them as plausible or likely.”

(Wineburg, 1991)

Sourcing

• Sourcing is the “act of looking first to the source of the document before reading the body of the text.”

• Stated as a heuristic: “When evaluating historical documents, look first to the source or attribution of the document.”

(Wineburg, 1991)

Contextualization• Contextualizing is the “act of situating a

document in a concrete temporal and spatial context.”

• Stated as a heuristic: “When trying to construct historical events, pay close attention to when they happened and where they took place.”

(Wineburg, 1991)

Print and complete this chart (Page 1) while reading.

Document Sourcing (Who & When)

Main Points

Letter from Robinson to the MayorLetter from Durr to Director of Highlander Folk SchoolRobinson on the Boycott Leaflet CampaignAbernathy Remembers the First Meeting of the Montgomery Improvement AssociationHandbill from Central Alabama Citizens Council RallyMartin Luther King Jr. Speaks to the CrowdBayard Rustin’s Diary“Me Too,” Interview About the Boycott

After completing the chart, let’s continue.

Completing the previous chart required that you use the sourcing heuristic to decipher the author and when the document was written.

Next, let’s corroborate and contextualize these documents.

Answer the following questions on Page 2 of packet:1. Do these documents show proof of corroboration? In other

words, what details are consistent? What details are not?2. To put these documents into context, organize them in

chronological order. Do you have any prior knowledge of other related or unrelated events that occurred around the same time as the Montgomery Bus Boycott? How might this knowledge help you place these documents/events in historical context?

Now we have used sourcing, corroboration, and contextualization to assess these documents!

Let’s conclude with some final questions.

After posting on the blog and reading former responses, it’s time to continue!

Without knowing it, the act of answering the questions on the blog has just required you to practice metacognition!

Metacognition is essentially thinking about your own thinking processes.

Let’s explore metacognition and its importance to historical thinking…

What is Metacognition?• Metacognition is the knowledge people have

about their own cognitive processes. In layman’s terms, metacognition is “thinking about thinking.”

• This aspect of thinking is usually late developing. Therefore, high school students need help and scaffolding to think about their learning metacognitively.

Why is Metacognition Important?• Metacognition is the essential component of effective

learning as it enables students to coordinate…

… to accomplish learning goals and outcomes.

Reflection

Thinking

strategies

Having students reflect metacognitively on historical thinking heuristics

and how they were beneficial, will help make using these heuristics

routine.

“As students learn skills to make them successful in

learning historical content, an intrinsic motivation to

learn becomes evident, thereby prompting deeper

learning.” (Pellegrino, 2010)

What does metacognitive reflection onhistorical thinking look like?

Metacognition & Historical Thinking

Metacognitive Reflection onHistorical Thinking

Metacognitive reflection on historical thinking is essentially asking students to reflect of the process of historical thinking.

What was most difficult about

reading this passage?

How did you decide what information from the text was most meaningful?

How did this experience

relate to the last time you

read this document?

How did this document compare

your prior knowledge about the topic?

Now that you are familiar with…• what historical thinking is,• some cognitive heuristics that lead to successful

historical thinking,• and metacognitive reflection…

Let’s explore a case study in which historical thinking via the use of cognitive heuristics and metacognitive reflection was successful…

Jada Kohlmeier’s “Experiencing World History through the Eyes of Ordinary Women”

Jada Kohlmeier, a world history teacher, was frustrated with her students’ lack of appreciation for history.

She became curious as to “whether developing and using a consistent series of strategies with various primary documents could teach students to think like historians.” Sound familiar?

(Kohlmeier, 2004)

Kohlmeier chose three documents for her lesson:

• An interview with a Russian peasant living under Stalin

• A memoir of a young girl living during the Cultural Revolution in China

• A set of letters written by a woman to her merchant husband during the Renaissance

She then developed a three strategy plan that was designed to guide students through a deeper analysis of each document, accompanied by a “historian’s journal” in which her students would reflect metacognitively on the process.

Explore each element by clicking on it.

Graphic Organizer

Web

Socratic Seminar

Discussion

Historical Essay

Historian’s Journal

After exploring each strategy and the Historian’s Journal, click to continue.

Graphic Organizer WebThis web was completed for each document.Kohlmeier believed

that having students complete the web would help them organize their thinking.

She explains that “each question is designed to encourage the student to consider not only what the document is saying, but also why and how the document was created.”(Kohlmeier, 2004)

Socratic Seminar DiscussionKohlmeier conducted a Socratic seminar to allow the students to take historical perspective, an aspect not explored by the webs.

The class discussion allowed students to “share their initial impressions with the classmates and generate further questions by probing the documents.”

Each discussion started with an opening question (e.g., Was Ji-Li a true revolutionary?)

Kohlmeier says that “these seminars allowed us as a class to explore the texts at a deeper level, adding that crucial layer of historical empathy to the analysis of the documents.”

(Kohlmeier, 2004)

(Kohlmeier, 2004)

Historical EssayAn essay was written for each document.

Historical Essay

• Kohlmeier had the students write a historical essay for each document that “required them to create a picture of the time period we studied using both the information from the documents and their prior knowledge.”

• This process allowed students to realize that “historical information is often unavailable, biased, or even inaccurate, thus influencing the historical account.” (Kohlmeier, 2004)

Historian’s Journal

Kohlmeier asked each student to write in an “Historian’s Journal,” in which they would record their impressions of the documents and the strategies, essentially reflecting metacognitively about the three-step process.

She believed this metacognitive reflection was necessary because she was asking her students to think in new and challenging ways.

This journal would help them become “aware of their own thinking by having them describe their decision-making processes.”

(Kohlmeier, 2004)

Historian’s Journal after the WebAfter completing the web, students wrote in their journals about the process of creating the web, answering questions such as:

“How did you decide what information to put in your web?”“What was the most difficult aspect of making the web?”“What was the most rewarding?”“How did this experience compare to the last web?”

Do these questions sound familiar? Think about your blog post!

Historian’s Journal after Socratic Seminar

After each Socratic Seminar, Kohlmeier and her students conducted a debriefing session allowing students to share their and record their thoughts about…

StrengthsWeaknessesSuggestions for improvement

… for the next seminar.

Historian’s Journal after the Historical Essay

Each student’s essay included a metacognitive

section in which they described how the

strategies influenced their understanding of

the document.

Impact of Historian’s JournalKohlmeier reported that her students “benefited greatly

from exploring their own thinking and increased their

appreciation for the challenging tasks as historians.”

Having students reflect metacognitively served as one of

the most important parts of Kohlmeier’s unit, as it

helped to facilitate and instill historical thinking

strategies.

To conclude your participation in this tutorial, complete a final blog post!

Here are other pages you might want to visit to find out more about cognitive strategies, metacognition, and historical thinking…Works CitedTeaching Resources

You have reached the end of the tutorial!

Works CitedChowen, B. W. (2005). Teaching Historical Thinking: What Happened in a Secondary

School World History Classroom. (Doctoral dissertation, University of Texas as Austin, 2005).

Kohlmeier, J. (2004). Experiencing World History Through the Eyes of Ordinary Women. Social Education. 68(7), 470-476.

historicalthinkingmatters.org

National History Education Clearinghouse (creator), nhecvideo (poster), (April 5, 2010), What is Historical Thinking. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/user/nhecvideo.

Pellegrino, A. (2010). Critical Thinking in History: A Misnomer? National Social Science Journal. 34(1), 113-122.

Wineburg, S. S. (1991). Historical Problem Solving: A Study of the Cognitive Processes Used in the Evaluation of Documentary and Pictorial Evidence. Journal of Educational Psychology. 83(1), 73-87.

Teaching Resources• www.historicalthinkingmatters.org

• www.teachinghistory.org

• Seixas, P. & Peck, C. (2004). Teaching Historical Thinking. In A. Sears and I. Wright (Eds.) Challenges and Prospects for Canadian

Social Studies (109-117). Vancouver: Pacific Education Press.

• Wineburg, S. S., (2001) Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts: Charting the Future of Teaching The Past. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

• Investigating US History