ABSTRACT
The best instruction focuses on 'essential questions' that are deliberately formulated and thought-provoking. The centrality of questions to both teaching and learning history allows teachers to introduce a sense of mystery into the most ordinary and standard lessons by raising thought-provoking questions, ones that demand answers supported by reasons, by evidence. Questions about causality, multiple perspectives, historical contingency, empathy, change and continuity over time, influence/significance/impact, contrasting interpretations of the past, and intent/motivation occupy the research and writing of historians and are easily mined for historical investigation with students. In addition, students must develop and refine the skills necessary to interrogate these sources and use the information to address historical questions. In order for students to effectively and consistently replicate the questions and mind-sets that historians employ when examining sources, they need some sort of tool to evaluate historical evidence.
