Historical Thinking Matters

Historical Think Matters is a collaborative project of the Center for History and New Media, George Mason University, and School of Education, Stanford University. The project is supported by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation with additional support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

As stated on its home page this is a “website focused on key topics in U.S. history, that is designed to teach students how to critically read primary sources and how to critique and construct historical narratives.”

The web site is divided into several main sections. Student Investigations focuses on four central topics derived from post- US Civil War history, specifically the Spanish American War, the Scopes Trial, Social Security and Rosa Parks. These include activities that “foster historical thinking and encourage students to form reasoned conclusions about the past.” The second section, Why Historical Thinking Matters provides “an introduction to the site's approach using documents to explore conflicting accounts of the 1775 Lexington Green skirmish.” Teacher Materials and Resources provides history instructors resources, “pre-service teachers and teacher-educators offering classroom materials and strategies, examples of student and teacher work, and supplementary sources.” The project includes a how-to-use section that you can access at this link.

Historical Thinking Matters was the 2008 Winner of the American Historical Association's (AHA) James Harvey Robinson Prize for an Outstanding Teaching Aid. The History Education Council of Hawaii highly recommends this exceptional historical teaching and learning resource.