Monday, December 18, 2017

Ethical Judgement

History isn't always perfect as we know.  Historians and students need to decide if what happened in the past was right and fair.  Were the actions of certain people fair or unjust.  Ethical judgements look at the effects of actions or decisions on people.


Another working definition from "TC2"may be:

Ethical judgments are attempts to assess the appropriateness of past actions and our current responses to them, remaining mindful of present values and sensibilities and considering fully the norms of the time.

  • ethical judgments may be positive or negative
  • ethical judgments can be directly stated or implied
  • ethical judgments should consider interests and perspectives of all key groups
  • ethical judgments of the past must be sensitive to historical context
  • the quality of ethical judgments depends on adequacy of the evidence
  • to determine whether an ethical judgement is defensible requires evidence in light of criteria

    http://tc2.ca/uploads/sections/thinking_about_history/ethical_judgment_secondary.pdf


     Is History fact or judgement?

    Sometimes the language is what gets us:

    For example:


    • Muslim terrorists killed 3000 innocent people when they bombed the World Trade Center in New York City.
    • Thirty freedom fighters from Saudi Arabia crashed a plane into a building in New York City as a protest
      against the unlawful actions carried out in the Middle East by imperialist Western regimes.
    • Three thousand people died when thirty men from Saudi Arabia crashed a plane into a building in New York City.


      How do we get out fact from judgement?
      1. In order to determine which statement is most defensible, explain to students that they must consider the following criteria to judge the quality of their ethical judgment:
        • Interests and perspectives of all key groups are considered
        • Beliefs at the time are considered
        • Adequate relevant evidence is consulted

          http://tc2.ca/history.ph

    Summary of concept:
  • Ethical judgements are assessments about the appropriate treatment of others
  • Not all historical judgements are ethical judgements
  • Ethical judgements in history focus on judging whether past actions were justified, assigning historical responsibility, and attributing contemporary accountability
  • Ethical judgements can be explicit or implicit
  • Ethical judgements help us make sense of and understand the past and the present
  • Ethical judgements require sensitivity to both historical and contemporary ethical standards

Thursday, October 26, 2017

Cause & Consequence


Cause & Consequence are fairly easy concepts to understand.  Essentially you are looking for clues to try and determine what happened in the past and why.  Cause and consequence look specifically at what influenced the events to occur and then what the spin offs of that event are.  How & Why certain conditions and actions led to others!

The cause can be many things:  conditions, ideologies, institutions, beliefs, circumstances, actions, prior events.

Just as in everyday life (and history) things that happen can have immediate, underlying and/or long-term consequences and these can vary in importance.  In order to determine the importance of the events one has to provide evidence to support your claims (think Napoleon report card!).  

www.TC2.ca recommends using the following criteria to help you:
  1. Determining the importance of causes
    • Evidence of a causal connection. Is the cause clearly connected with the event and not just a coincidence? If this factor were removed, how likely is it that the event would still have occurred?
    • Degree of influence. To what extent did the cause contribute to the direction and intensity of the event or make other causes more or less important?
    • Absence of alternative explanations. Is there no reason to suspect that some other factor, closely aligned with the suggested causal factor, can explain the outcome?

      Determining the importance of consequences
      • Depth of impact: How deeply felt or profound was the consequence?
      • Breadth of impact: How widespread were its impacts?
      • Duration of impact: How long-lasting was the consequence? 






Tuesday, October 17, 2017

Continuity & Change

As we continue to learn about the six historical thinking concepts we now move onto continuity and change.  We will continue to look at historical significance with the French Revolution as well but will focus on continuity and change as well.

Continuity is the idea of things staying the same, being consistent or stable over time.

Change is the opposite of continuity, idea of things changing, transforming or becoming different over time.

Here is an example:
http://tc2.ca/teaching-resources/have-you-seen-the-free-resources-in-our-special-collections/thinking-about-history.php

Essentially it is evaluating change over time using ideas of progress and decline.
Asking the questions of:
What has changed over time versus what has stayed the same?
Were the continuities and changes positive? or negative?
How rapid or slow were the changes?
Did any of the changes mark turning points in history?

(How are lives and living conditions alike over time and how have they changed?)
Significant/dramatic change =turning points in history.

Create two lists, one of constants in your life and one of changes when you look at your life from Kindergarten until now.

Consider the statement:  The more things change, the more they stay the same.

How did you arrive at your criteria for determining important constants and changes?


Criteria for an important change:
Substantial effect: Dramatic difference in the way things function
Relatively permanent: Lasting condition or development
Widespread: Effects are broadly felt across society/ time period
Criteria for an important constant:
No substantial deviation: Little or no difference in the way things function
Important aspects: The similarities are found in significant aspects of life
Widespread: Similarities are broadly present across society/time period

(from: http://tc2.ca/uploads/sections/thinking_about_history/continuity_and_change_elementary.pdf)

Friday, October 6, 2017

Evidence & Interpretation

When examining "evidence and interpretation" we look at where our sources of evidence come from. Primary Sources and Secondary Sources.

Primary Sources are documents or objects created at the time we are examining.  Examples include:  photographs, journals, letters, drawings, oral and written accounts or sources from the time period.  These sources offer an inside view of a particular event.

Secondary Sources are documents written after an event has happened providing a secondhand account of what happened.  They could include an opinion or analysis of an event and often bring in different perspectives.  Primary sources are used to construct secondary sources.  Example:  textbooks

From t2c.ca:
History is not simply a description of “what happened.” All we learn about the past comes from clues that have been left behind and discovered, be they artifacts (e.g., tools, photographs, buildings, drawings), documents (e.g., wills, catalogues, posters) or written and oral descriptions. This evidence needs to be critically examined by asking the question, Is the evidence adequate to support the conclusions reached? Understanding the sources and limitations of historical evidence is necessary if students are to appreciate the tentative nature of historical knowledge.

Look at 4 photographs of Canadian Teens in the 21st century.  Is there evidence in the photos to support the idea/notion: “Canadian teens lead wholesome, active lives.”?

https://tc2.ca/uploads/sections/thinking_about_history/evidence_and_interpretation_secondary.pdf


Assess the quality of the evidence
Is it reliable or trustworthy? (and how do we know?)
Is it relevant? (does it answer the question we’re asking)
Is the interpretation reasonable? (do the conclusions go beyond the evidence?)


http://tc2.ca/videos.php

Big questions to ask:
- Can we trust the source of information?
-Are the artefacts authentic?
-Are the authors qualified to report or create an account on a topic?
-Do the sources provide evidence to help answer the questions we hope to answer?
-Does the evidence support the interpretation offered?