Historical inquiry is a process of investigation undertaken to understand the past. It is a cyclical process that begins with the asking of guiding historical questions, followed by locating and analyzing historical sources to establish historical evidence. The historical evidence is then used to construct historical interpretations that seek to answer the guiding historical questions. The goal of historical inquiry is to help students establish significance by using evidence, finding patterns, and analyzing perspectives. It is a way of thinking about the past that goes beyond the usual fact-finding, memorization, and regurgitation of dates and people.
Historical inquiry is a fun, hands-on approach to learning that can make history more interesting and memorable for students. It allows students to understand that history is not simply a collection of facts, but rather a rigorously constructed set of arguments. By using an inquiry approach, students can identify key ideas and make connections between the past and present, which helps them better make sense of the past in a comprehensive way.
The historical inquiry process involves several steps, including posing questions, locating and analyzing sources, constructing historical interpretations, and testing hypotheses using evidence. Students are encouraged to differentiate between historical facts and historical interpretations, articulate a historical argument, and support an interpretation with evidence from primary and secondary sources. They are also taught to interpret the complexity and diversity among issues, events, and ideas of the past, and to distinguish among multiple perspectives that shape interpretations of the past.
In summary, historical inquiry is a process of investigation that helps students understand the past by analyzing evidence based on artifacts to make a claim or provide an explanation. It is a cyclical process that involves several steps, including posing questions, locating and analyzing sources, constructing historical interpretations, and testing hypotheses using evidence. The goal of historical inquiry is to help students establish significance by using evidence, finding patterns, and analyzing perspectives.
