A Study Of The Historical Thinking Skills Development Of Canadian Secondary School Students

The development of historical thinking skills of Canadian secondary school students has been driven by both profound influence of international development in history education externally and the integration of history curriculum in the country internally,with Peter Seixas,a professor at the University of British Columbia,being a dedicated pioneer in this field.In 2006,Professor Seixas led the Historical Thinking Project which later developed the benchmarks of historical thinking for secondary school student,featuring six concepts(historical significance,evidence,continuity and change,cause and consequence,historical perspectives,and the ethical dimension),with an aim to help teachers establish criteria for assessing the development of historical thinking of secondary school students.The reformers,led by Professor Seixas,encountered many adversities in their efforts to integrate historical thinking into the social studies curriculum in British Columbia.However,they overcame the difficulties and achieved expected results: historical thinking finally became a learning objective and a research framework specified in the curriculum documents in British Columbia.As the provincial curriculum model changed,the form of teaching practice and teaching assessment were also adjusted,resulting in the formation of a pathway for teaching historical thinking that was appropriate for Canada’s own conditions.The case of the social studies curriculum reform in British Columbia has displayed the pathway’s three main features as follows: first,a shift from a “content-driven” to a“competency-driven” curriculum design,which is reflected in the redesign of the curriculum model at the provincial level and the reduction in the amount of classroom time required for teachers to deliver the required content to encourage and guide teachers to focus on cultivating students’ critical thinking skills;secondly,a shift from a “knowledgeoriented” to a “thinking-oriented” class teaching,with teachers helping students actively participate in classroom activities through concept-based teaching and inquiry teaching,in the process of which students can understand historical thinking concepts and develop historical thinking skills;third,a shift from a “test-focused” to a “classroom-focused”teaching assessment,which attaches greater importance to formative assessment so that teachers can establish standardized classroom assessment frameworks and procedural classroom assessment processes.These three features have helped transform the historical thinking development of Canadian secondary school students from a “castle in the air”scheme to a “down to earth” approach,which ultimately facilitates the cultivation of historical literacy of its citizens.Against the backdrop of China’s promotion of “Historical Thinking Skills” and “Key Competencies of History”,the Canadian approach to the historical thinking development of secondary school students provides a significant perspective that is worth taking.