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Citation: 

Lévesque, Stéphane. “What it Means to Think Historically.” In New Possibilities for the Past: Shaping History Education in Canada, edited by Penney Clark, 115-38. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2011.

Abstract/Summary: 

In this chapter, Lévesque discusses the notion of historical thinking and how it can be used in teaching history in schools and not simply used by historians. Presently students are taught what history is about (substantive knowledge) but are not taught to think sophisticatedly in terms of concepts and methods (procedural knowledge) in addition to the content. According to Lévesque, students must be able to use both sets of knowledge as both content and skills are required to employ historical thinking. Lévesque discusses how progression in historical thinking can be ascertained by the use of the inquiry model through which residues of the past are turned into historical narratives. To determine what is historically significant, historians use different signifiers such as importance, profundity, quantity, durability, relevance, intimate interests, symbolic significance and contemporary lessons. In order for the past to be meaningful and significant, it needs to be organized in a coherent manner. Lévesque continues the chapter with a discussion of how continuity and change affect historians and historical thinking. He also discusses the notion of progress and decline and the different historical stances of the oppositional (cannot have progress without decline) and the successional (progress and decline cannot happen simultaneously). Lévesque concludes the chapter with a discussion of how historians use evidence to make sense of the past and how they employ empathy to make sense of their predecessors. Lévesque concludes that exposing students to historical knowledge will enhance their understanding of the past and the present.

Source/Credit: 
Erika Smith