A great inquiry-based question addresses an authentic problem or issue. is complex and requires multiple levels of analysis. requires the use of primary / secondary sources to answer it. requires the use of historical thinking skills such as sourcing and contextualizing.

What is an effective question for launching historical inquiry related to the Cold War? What was the Cold War? After which historical event did the Cold War take place? How did the historical setting influence the cold war?

A process of investigation undertaken in order to understand the past. Steps in the inquiry process include posing questions, locating and analysing sources and using evidence from sources to develop an informed explanation about the past.

using art from ancient Roman buildings to determine which emperor built the Colosseum using pottery found by archeologists to determine how weather impacted crops in ancient Rome using letters from ancient Roman senators to learn about how the government of Rome changed using ancient Greek descriptions of naval battles …

As you learn to apply each concept, you will begin to think like a historian. The seven key concepts in History are: perspectives • continuity and change • cause and effect • evidence • empathy • significance • contestability. The concept of perspectives is an important part of historical inquiry.

Together, these concepts form the basis of historical inquiry. The six “historical thinking concepts” are: historical significance, primary source evidence, continuity and change, cause and consequence, historical perspectives and ethical dimensions.

Historical research involves the following steps:

• Identify an idea, topic or research question.
• Conduct a background literature review.
• Refine the research idea and questions.
• Determine that historical methods will be the method used.
• Identify and locate primary and secondary data sources.

• The Historical Inquiry Process. Formulate Questions. Students formulate questions:
• Formulate Questions. Students formulate questions:
• Gather and Organize. Students:
• Book with one author. Bernstein, T. M.
• Interpret and Analyse. Students:
• Evaluate and Draw Conclusions. Students:
• Communicate. Students:

Answer: the main areas of inquiry in history are: roles,space for dialogue,values,history and culture and process for linguistic:phonology,morphology, syntax and for political Science: politics,Government, laws and need for institution.

Historical Inquiry Process

• What were the major forces and developments during this period?
• What caused these major forces and developments?
• Who were the key players involved?
• How did the developments influence peoples’ decisions and actions and vice-versa?
• How did people’s views and perspectives shape their interpretation of these developments?

What is Historical Inquiry? A central goal of historical inquiry is the understanding of the broad picture of the past. This understanding is a cyclical process that begins with the asking of historical questions. These questions are then investigated by locating and analyzing relevant historical sources.

The use of primary sources exposes students to important historical concepts. First, students become aware that all written history reflects an author’s interpretation of past events. Therefore, as students read a historical account, they can recognize its subjective nature.

The Process of Historical Inquiry:

• Choose a time period or theme.
• Narrow your inquiry to a specific topic or event.
• Do background research to get an overview.
• Develop your essential question.
• Gather your sources.
• Work with each source:
• Corroborate the evidence across sources.
• Put it all together: make your argument.

Interpreting historical sources helps students to analyze and evaluate current sources–newspaper reports, television and radio programs, and advertising.

Source interpretation: written sources

1. Identify the source. Is it primary or secondary?
2. Put it in its context.
3. Consider the author and their purpose.
4. Evaluate the information.
5. Identify the source.
6. Put it in its context.
7. Consider the artist/creator and their purpose.
8. Evaluate the information.

Think about these questions when evaluating primary sources:

1. Ask who is responsible for the information. Who are they?
2. Ask who the original audience was. Get a sense for why the information was created in the first place.
3. Ask whether other sources match.

How to Analyze a Primary Source

1. Look at the physical nature of your source.
2. Think about the purpose of the source.
3. How does the author try to get the message across?
4. What do you know about the author?
5. Who constituted the intended audience?
6. What can a careful reading of the text (even if it is an object) tell you?

A historian will ask a variety of questions in order to find out historical information about a source….WHERE?

• WHERE is it?
• WHERE was it?
• WHERE was it made?
• WHERE was it used?

Historical analysis is a method of the examination of evidence in coming to an understanding of the past. It is particularly applied to evidence contained in documents, although it can be applied to all artefacts. The historian is, first, seeking to gain some certainty as to the facts of the past.

The Reading Like a Historian curriculum engages students in historical inquiry. Instead of memorizing historical facts, students evaluate the trustworthiness of multiple perspectives on historical issues. They learn to make historical claims backed by documentary evidence.

Historians have particular ways of interpreting what they read and study about the past. Historical claims interpret the past. The interpretations are grounded in historical evidence (written documents, eyewitness testimonies and artifacts from the period of study) and informed by the work of historians on the subject.

“We emphasize how historians think and how that thinking can change one’s understanding of topics past and present. “History is not just a collection of facts,” Cohn says, “but a linking of facts to a broader context to develop meaning out of them.

In response, we developed an approach we call the “five C’s of historical thinking.” The concepts of change over time, causality, context, complexity, and contingency, we believe, together describe the shared foundations of our discipline.