The Historical Thinking Project

The Historical Thinking Project, directed by Professor Peter Seixas, based at the University of British Columbia, and coordinated by Jill Colyer, an educator with 20 years experience with the Waterloo Region District School Board in Ontario and OISE (University of Toronto), was designed to foster a new approach to history education - with the potential to shift how teachers teach and how students learn, in line with recent international research on history learning. It revolves around the proposition - like scientific thinking in science instruction and mathematical thinking in math instruction - that historical thinking is central to history instruction and that students should become more competent as historical thinkers as they progress through their schooling. The project has developed six historical thinking concepts to provide a way of communicating complex ideas to a broad and varied audience of potential users.
The project is guided by six historical thinking concepts:

• historical significance
• cause and consequence
• historical perspective--taking
• continuity and change,
• use of primary source evidence
• ethical dimension of history

These concepts have been integrated into the curriculum guidelines in a number of provinces and territories across Canada.

The members of the project work and collaborate with:

• department heads, consultants, and superintendents in the planning of professional development sessions on historical thinking
• ministry of education staff, educators, and administrators to revise curriculum guidelines, course profiles, and/or unit plans to incorporate historical thinking
• publishers and others who produce student and teacher resources to develop historical thinking resources

They also give workshops and presentations on historical thinking to teachers, administrators, and other educators.

The Historical Thinking Project is a non-­profit educational initiative funded by the Department of Canadian Heritage (Canadian Studies Program) and THEN/HiER.

Information:
www.historicalthinking.ca  - www.thenhier.ca