Standards for Historical Thinking

Much of the recent literature on pedagogical reform is built on notions of teaching for thinking or teaching for understanding. ¹ Much of the recent research on history education reflects this theoretical framework, in its investigations of students, student teachers and teachers. ² Based on a longer tradition of British work, these studies have in common a disciplinary conception of history. That is, they see knowing the past as a set of problems, the discipline of history as a set of practices with which to approach those problems, and the teaching of history as the development of children’s competencies in those practices. The nature of historical thinking thus lies at the centre of the research, whether the focus is individual students or teachers, or the larger units of classrooms or departments. ³