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Questions and
Themes: Thematic Structure
of the
Curriculum |
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The Three Essential
Questions
World History for Us All introduces three overarching
thematic questions as guides for organizing classroom activities
and discussions:
Humans
and the Environment
Humans
and Other Humans
Humans
and Ideas
Ideas related to the Three Essential Questions
appear in the curriculum in three places:
- Study of each of the nine Big
Eras of world history begins with an introductory
essay titled "This Big Era and the Three Essenial Questions."
- All Landscape and Closeup Teaching
Units include a set of
three broad discussion questions in a section titled "This
Unit and the Three Essential Questions."
- At the end of the essay introducing each of the Seven
Key Themes, teachers will find thematic discussion
questions that link that Key Theme to the Three Essential
Questions.
Humans
and the Environment
How has the changing relationship between human beings
and the physical and natural environment affected human
life from early times to the present? Human beings are inhabitants
of the biosphere and their history is inseparable from it.
This is as true today as it was 200,000 years ago.
Why
this Essential Question?
Humans
and Other Humans
Why have relations among humans become so complex since
early times? We live in a world of intense, complicated,
and diverse relationships among billions of people. Throughout
most of its history our species has lived in small, scattered
communities of foragers and hunters. Questions about the
ways in which humans have multiplied on the earth and come
to relate to one another in such a variety of ways are fundamental
to historical investigation.
Why
this Essential Question?
Humans
and Ideas
How have human views of the world, nature, and the cosmos
changed? History is not only the study of "what happened"
but also about the ways in which humans have thought about,
questioned, interpreted, and represented (in words, pictures,
movies, and so on) what their senses tell them about the
world and the universe. Ideas influence historical developments
and, conversely, events shape ideas as humans strive to
make sense of change.
Why
this Essential Question?
The Seven Key Themes
This feature of the curriculum offers seven
themes that teachers and students may explore in relation
to any or all of the Big
Eras. All seven of these Key Themes, each of which
focuses on a particular sphere of human activity and thought,
may be encompassed within and related to the broader Three
Essential Questions. World history classrooms may
in the course of the school year choose to emphasize just
one theme, a few of them, or all seven.
A brief essay introduces each of the Key Themes.
Following each essay is a set of nine discussion questions
that relate the Key Theme to each of the Three Essential Questions.
All teaching units at Landscape
and Closeup levels include a section titled "This Unit
and the Seven Key Themes," which simply identifies the
Key Themes most relevant to the content of that particular
unit. For teachers who wish to explore certain thematic lines
throughout their course, the curriculum will include an index
of teaching units relevant to each of the Key Themes. This
feature remains to be developed.
Educators use the word "theme" in several different
ways. In World History for Us All a theme is defined as a
topic that addresses a particular sphere of human activity
over time. The major themes presented here concern broad aspects
of change that have been enduringly important in the human
experience.
The teaching and learning framework of World
History for Us All is fundamentally chronological. A premise
of the curriculum is that historical learning works best when
students begin their studies with remote eras and move forward,
connecting patterns of cause and effect over time. Whether
the scale of investigation is large or small, students are
encouraged to analyze and understand the chronological relationships
among events and to think about the full range of possible
causes and effects of historical developments.
On the other hand, world history education
should also include study of issues and problems that have
recurred over time. Attention to particular themes, whether
in the political, economic, cultural, social, environmental,
or other spheres, offers a way to connect the study of particular
periods and regions of the world to exploration of enduring
aspects of the human condition.
This curriculum recommends that teachers and
students select thematic questions to raise and discuss repeatedly
in different ways throughout the school year. The goal is
to encourage students to think more coherently, systematically,
and comparatively about the past. By linking particular events,
people, trends, and periods to questions about enduring aspects
of the human experience, students may more successfully distill
concrete meaning and significance from what they learn.
The National
Standards for World History includes this statement
about thematic history:
Here students identify and explore particular
historical issues or problems over determined periods
of time. For example, one unit of study might be concerned
with urbanization in different societies from ancient
to modern times, a second with slavery through the ages,
and a third with nationalism in modern times. This approach
allows students to explore a single issue in great depth,
often one that has contemporary relevance. Teachers may
want to consider, however, the hazards of separating or
isolating particular phenomena from the wider historical
context of the times. A useful compromise may be to choose
a range of themes for emphasis but then weave them into
chronological study based on one of the other three models.
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