Historical Thinking in an Inquiry-Based Classroom OISE – Jan. 19, 2016 Risa Gluskin, York Mills C.I. Blog: gluskin.ca Email: risa@cabal.org

Requires familiarity with curriculum expectations Less Is More More emphasis on how we teach More exploring through an inquiry method Emphasize why things happened rather than what Let go of some of the details Do more with less Requires familiarity with curriculum expectations

Historical Inquiry Interpretation Not always looking for one answer Starts with good questions As Jill Colyer and Jennifer Watt write in IQ: A Practical Guide to Inquiry Based Learning, a good inquiry question is “an invitation to think (not recall, summarize, or detail).”

Basic Principles of Historical Thinking history ≠ the past we do not need to turn students into historians, but rather, to help them understand how history is constructed our interpretation of evidence, and what we leave out, changes the history we tell 4

The Historical Thinking Concepts Historical Significance Cause and Consequence Continuity and Change Historical Perspectives Use of Primary Source Evidence Ethical Dimensions of History Overall Expectations Inquiry Strand 5

Inquiry Skills Formulating questions Gathering and organizing information, evidence, and/or data Interpreting and analysing information, evidence, and/or data Evaluating information, evidence, and/or data and drawing conclusions Communicating findings and/or plans of action

Achievement Chart Thinking Application - use of planning skills (e.g., finding appropriate primary sources) - use of processing skills (e.g., interpreting and analysing, detecting point of view and bias in primary sources; formulating conclusions) - use of critical/creative thinking processes (e.g., inferring, using historical thinking) - application of knowledge and skills in familiar contexts (e.g., creating a product such as a poster) - transfer of knowledge and skills to new contexts (e.g., applying historical thinking criteria) - making connections within and between various contexts (e.g., past and present)

Research vs. Inquiry Research Inquiry “Inquiry-based teaching is a profound change from business as usual. Inquiry-based teaching transforms the aims of schools from short-term memorization of facts into disciplined questioning and investigating.” (Wolk, 2008, p. 117)

Deep vs. Surface Learning Active Critical thinking Reflection Student-centred Passive Memorization Acceptance Teacher-centred

Critical Thinking and Criteria Importance of criteria Part of critical thinking is avoiding random thinking Knowing why a decision is made Having standards Eventually students can develop their own criteria It becomes a habit of mind

Learning Skills and Self-Assessment Organization Excellent Needs Improvement identifies, gathers, evaluates, and uses information, technology, and resources to complete tasks Consistently gathers information from reliable sources and uses criteria to assess reliability and relevance Accepts all sources as valid without investigating their reliability or relevance