Critical thinking student learning outcomes for History
- History majors should be able to consider primary source evidence in terms of the identities and interests of the source’s producer; when, and where, and for what purpose a source was created; and given this context, what the strengths and limits a primary source has as historical evidence.
- History majors should be able to responsibly weigh the always contradictory and incomplete evidence when formulating a historical interpretation
- History majors should be able to develop interpretations sensitive to the complex, overlapping causal processes driving historical changes
- History majors should be able to demonstrate understanding the biographical, social, cultural, and political context which shapes the questions historians formulate when developing a historical interpretation
- History majors should be able to demonstrate recognition that all historical interpretations are tentative, partial, and open to revision as new primary source evidence emerges and as new questions and perspectives are applied to the existing primary source record