Historical Thinking Explanation
Knowledge about the past is based on evidence from sources. Historical sources include both primary and secondary sources. Primary sources come from the time being studied and include historical perspectives.They include written accounts, visual representations and objects. Secondary sources are created later and include historical interpretations.A source must be evaluated to be used as evidence: What is the source? Who made it? When? Where? Why? It is vital to explore the content and purpose of the source. It is necessary to link the source to its historical context: time, place and location. Also, students must determine the extent to which the source is reliable, and whether the source can be corroborated with other sources. Historical sources can be used to develop an appreciation of the diverse historical perspectives and historical interpretations. Only then can students evaluate their worth and usefulness as evidence in constructing a historical argument.

AOS1 Key Skill
Evaluate sources for use as evidence

AOS2 Key Skill
Evaluate sources for use as evidence

Historical Thinking
Comprehending the past involves consideration of how historical actors understood their world. Historical thinking involves making judgments by analysing, within their context, the actions, beliefs, values and attitudes of people in the past. Identifying and comparing different historical perspectives develops an understanding that perspectives were different in the past and that these mindsets may differ from those of the present. Historical perspectives are often found in primary sources. In order to make use of primary sources as evidence, they must be critically evaluated.

AOS1 Key Skill
Analyse the perspectives of people during the development of the revolution and how perspectives changed and/or remained the same over time.

AOS2 Key Skill
Analyse the perspectives of people on the post-revolutionary society and how perspectives changed and/or remained the same over time

Historical Thinking
The past is constantly being interpreted and reinterpreted by historians. Historical interpretations are often found in secondary sources and are the result of disciplined inquiry as additional evidence comes to light and new theories are constructed. Historical thinking involves understanding that historians have different interpretations of the past, and how these interpretations are similar to and different from each other. Historical interpretations are contestable. Students should be able to ask questions of historical interpretations by using the key knowledge and historical thinking concepts, for example: ‘What does the historian identify as the significant causes and/or consequences of the event?’ Students should be able to compare different historians’ interpretations of the past, for example: ‘How does the interpretation of these historians differ when assessing historical changes?’ In VCE History, students are required to evaluate these interpretations and use them as evidence in support of their own
arguments about the past.

AOS1 Key Skill
Evaluate historical interpretations about the causes of the revolution.

AOS2 Key Skill
Evaluate historical interpretations about the consequences of the revolution

Historical Thinking
The exploration of causation is central to history and is multifaceted when explaining complex historical events. Historical investigation involves the identification of chains of events, ideas, people and movements that are causes and consequences. There are many different kinds of causes, such as short-term triggers and long-term causes and these can be social, political, economic, cultural, environmental and technological. Significant events and turning points can have intended and unintended consequences and the changes brought by them can also be short term or long term.

AOS1 Key Skill
Analyse the causes of the revolution

AOS2 Key Skill
Analyse the consequences of the revolution

Historical Thinking
Continuity and change are multifaceted and involve the analysis and evaluation of significant changes, causes of change, type and rate of change and the consequences of change. In addition to this, students should be able to identify when change did not occur and the possible reasons for continuities. Continuity and change can coexist, they can happen simultaneously and continuity can underpin a change. Chronologically sequencing events can support the analysis of the interplay of continuity and change. Analysis of continuity and change can happen at different scales of time (for example, over a single month, a year, decade, generation or longer) and changes can take place in one aspect of the past while other conditions remain unaltered. Continuity and change can be compared between different social groups and judgments can be made about the impact the change may have had on these different social groups. Identification of turning points and analysis of progress and decline for different groups and popular movements are useful ways for historians to mark continuity and change.

AOS1 Key Skill
Evaluate the extent of continuity and change in ideas, individuals and popular movements in the development of the revolution

AOS2 Key Skill
Evaluate the extent of continuity and change in the post-revolutionary society

Historical Thinking
Historical thinking necessitates the selection of substantive knowledge. Significance is always ascribed. It is an evaluation, using criteria, that determines the importance, in the past, of an event, individual or popular movement and ideas. Criteria may be used to support this judgment such as an understanding of the way in which that aspect of the past was perceived at the time or, subsequently, the profundity of its impact, the number of people it affected, its duration, what it reveals more generally about the period, and its relevance to the present.

AOS1 Key Skill
Evaluate the historical significance of events, ideas, individuals and popular movements that contributed to the outbreak of the revolution

AOS2 Key Skill
Evaluate the historical significance of the consequences of the revolution

Historical Thinking
The capacity to use substantive knowledge, historical thinking concepts, and sources for use as evidence is important in developing a well-supported argument about the past and is central to historical thinking. Such arguments represent the outcome of a historical inquiry.

AOS1 Key Skill
Construct arguments about the causes of the revolution using sources as evidence.

AOS2 Key Skill
Construct arguments about the consequences of the revolution using sources as evidence.