Teaching and Assessing Historical Thinking and Global Awareness

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Overview and Purpose

Historical thinking is a critical skill that enables students to analyze events, understand contexts, and make meaningful connections to contemporary global issues. However, traditional assessments often emphasize memorization over analysis, limiting opportunities for students to think like historians. This mini-course equips educators with strategies to design authentic assessments that foster skills such as evaluating primary sources, constructing evidence-based arguments, and addressing global perspectives. Tailored for middle and high school history or social studies teachers, the course offers practical tools and insights for creating engaging, real-world learning experiences. Through interactive modules, participants will explore the principles of historical thinking, develop authentic assessments like document-based questions (DBQs) and project-based activities, and reflect on implementation strategies. With an emphasis on global awareness and relevance, this course empowers educators to inspire students to think critically about history and its connection to the modern world.

Needs Assessment

I found that many educators face challenges in creating assessments that go beyond simple memorization or multiple-choice questions. Students often miss opportunities to engage in critical historical thinking, such as analyzing sources, building arguments, and connecting historical events to global issues. This aligns with research suggesting that effective learning environments must help students connect factual knowledge with conceptual understanding through active engagement and inquiry (Bransford et al., 1999, p. 132).

Teachers also wanted more strategies for keeping students engaged and making culturally relevant and inclusive assessments. According to How People Learn, learning is most effective when it is relevant to students’ cultural and personal experiences, fostering greater engagement and motivation (Bransford et al., 1999, p. 134). This mini-course is designed to address those gaps by providing practical tools and ideas for developing authentic assessments that encourage deeper thinking, historical inquiry, and global awareness. Authentic assessments are especially valuable because they align with what Bransford et al. describe as “performance-based learning,” where students apply knowledge in meaningful ways rather than simply recalling information (Bransford et al., 1999, p. 153).

Performance Objectives

Design authentic historical assessments that engage students in critical thinking, source analysis, and the construction of evidence-based arguments.
Integrate global perspectives into history lessons, connecting historical events with contemporary issues and fostering global awareness among students.
Develop culturally relevant assessments that consider diverse student backgrounds and incorporate inclusive, equitable teaching practices.
Apply strategies for promoting historical inquiry that move beyond memorization, encouraging students to question, analyze, and synthesize historical content.
Use assessment tools and strategies that effectively measure students’ ability to make connections between historical events and present-day global issues, encouraging deeper learning and engagement.

Pre-requisite Knowledge & Skills

Before taking this course, the participant should:

Be familiar with traditional assessment methods used in social studies education, such as multiple-choice questions, short essays, and group projects.
Possess a general understanding of the importance of aligning assessments with learning objectives and standards.
Have experience working with students in a social studies classroom and be open to experimenting with new pedagogical strategies.
Be ready to engage with the concepts of critical historical thinking, global awareness, and culturally responsive teaching.
Be willing to incorporate new strategies for creating assessments that promote deeper learning and historical inquiry.

Course Units

This mini-course includes the following units. Click the title of a unit to go to its page.

Unit 1: Understanding Historical Thinking and Global Awareness in Assessments

After this unit, the learner:

Will be able to define historical thinking skills and explain their significance in social studies education.
Will understand the importance of global awareness and how it can be incorporated into assessments.
Will be able to identify opportunities to integrate historical thinking into their own classroom assessments.
Will begin working on a course-long project focused on designing an assessment that incorporates historical thinking and global awareness.

Unit 2: Pedagogical Approaches for Designing Effective Social Studies Assessments

After this unit, the learner:

Will understand various pedagogical approaches that can be used to enhance social studies assessments, including inquiry-based learning and collaborative methods.
Will be able to identify the benefits of these approaches for improving student engagement and critical thinking.
Will evaluate which pedagogical methods align best with their students’ needs.
Will read articles focused on pedagogical approaches for social studies assessment.
Will continue working on the course-long project by refining the assessment designed in Unit 1.

Unit 3: Aligning Assessments with Learning Objectives and Standards

After this unit, the learner:

Will understand strategies for aligning social studies assessments with learning objectives and educational standards.
Will be able to design clear rubrics and assessment tools that measure students’ understanding of historical concepts and global issues..
Will continue their course-long project by developing a rubric and refining the assessment’s alignment with standards.

Unit 4: Developing and Refining Assessments for Social Studies Education

After this unit, the learner:

Will have a comprehensive understanding of how to develop and refine a social studies assessment from scratch.
Will draft a final plan on how to integrate the strategies and pedagogical techniques learned in previous units into their classroom.
Will learn methods for evaluating and improving assessments, such as the ADDIE model.
Will read an article covering the ADDIE model for instructional design and assessment improvement.
Will complete their course-long project by finalizing their assessment and preparing a reflection on its design and potential classroom implementation.

Extended Resources

American Psychological Association, Coalition for Psychology in Schools and Education. (2015). Top 20 principles from psychology for preK–12 teaching and learning. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/ed/schools/cpse/top-twenty-principles.pdf
Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L., & Cocking, R.R. (1999). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school (Chapter 6). Washington, DC: National Academy Press. Retrieved from http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=9853&page=131
Danish, J. A., & Gresalfi, M. (2018). Cognitive and sociocultural perspectives on learning. In International Handbook of the Learning Sciences (pp. 34–43). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315617572-4
Golann, J. W. (2018). Conformers, adaptors, imitators, and rejecters: How no-excuses teachers’ cultural toolkits shape their responses to control. Sociology of Education, 91(1), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038040717752450
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2018). How people learn II: Learners, contexts, and cultures. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/24783
Paris, D. (2012). Culturally sustaining pedagogy: A needed change in stance, terminology, and practice. Educational Researcher, 41(3), 93-97. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X12441244
Wiliam, D. (2011). Embedded formative assessment. Solution Tree Press.