Building Historical Thinking Skills In The U.S. Survey

Abstract

As a history educator I am constantly reminded of the gulf between how I think about history and how my students think about it. Sophisticated historical thinking, Sam Wineburg has suggested, involves using the facts of history as knowledge that is "organized in interconnecting networks of meaning and significance," or, he suggested in an earlier article, as "subtext." Historians have disciplined themselves to see the connections; students are just beginning this training.1 To bridge the "breach," I have found that a project-based approach that teaches some basic disciplinary skills, primarily critical thinking and writing skills, increases student involvement in their history courses and aids retention of the material.