Good Learning Co.
SavannahYear 8
← History
HistoryThinking like a historian30 min★★★ difficulty

Enquiry, evidence and interpretations

A historical claim is only as good as the evidence behind it. This lesson is about how enquiries are built, and how our knowledge of the past is constructed rather than simply found.

Lesson overview

What you'll learn in this lesson

Understand the methods of historical enquiry, including how evidence is used rigorously to make historical claims

Key learning points

  • • Starting with a question
  • • Weighing evidence
  • • Gaps and silences
  • • Why interpretations differ

This lesson at a glance

  • 30 minutes
  • 19 parts to scroll through
  • 4 quick checks
  • Marked quiz at the end
  • Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses

Words to know

methodshistoricalenquiryevidencerigorously

Scroll down — the lesson carries on below

Part 1 of 19 · Discover5%
1

Watch & discover

Part 1 of 19

Watch first

Enquiry, evidence and interpretations

An English teaching video on this topic from Miacademy & MiaPrep Learning Channel. Watch it, then scroll down for the lesson.

In a nutshell

Understand the methods of historical enquiry, including how evidence is used rigorously to make historical claims

2

What you already know

Part 2 of 19

Before we start

What you already know

You should already be able to identify the origin and purpose of a source.

Recap: Change, cause and significance: thinking historically
3

Key words

Part 3 of 19

Key words

Words you'll need today

Enquiry question
The focused question an investigation sets out to answer.
Provenance
The origin, purpose and audience of a source.
Corroboration
Checking a claim against independent evidence.
Interpretation
A historian's constructed account of the past.
4

Learning cycle

Part 4 of 19

Learning cycle 1 of 2

Running an enquiry

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

5

Explore the idea

Part 5 of 19

Learn

Starting with a question

Good enquiries begin with a focused, answerable question: not 'the Tudors' but 'why did Elizabeth I delay executing Mary, Queen of Scots?'. The question decides what evidence is relevant, which stops research becoming collection for its own sake. A question that can only be answered 'yes' is usually too narrow to be interesting.

6

Explore the idea

Part 6 of 19

Learn

Weighing evidence

Provenance matters more than whether a source is 'biased', since every source has a viewpoint and that viewpoint is often the most useful information in it. Ask who made it, when, for whom and why. Then corroborate: a claim supported by independent sources of different types is far stronger than one repeated in similar documents.

7

Quick check

Part 7 of 19

Quick check

A good enquiry question is...

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Quick check

Part 8 of 19

Quick check

Provenance means a source's...

9

Reset break

Part 9 of 19

Pause

That's sitting 1 of 2 done

Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.

Stop here for now
10

Learning cycle

Part 10 of 19

Learning cycle 2 of 2

How interpretations are constructed

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

11

Explore the idea

Part 11 of 19

Learn

Gaps and silences

Surviving evidence is not a fair sample. Literate, wealthy and official voices are over-represented, and the lives of the poor, of women and of colonised peoples often survive only through records made by others. Recognising a silence is itself a finding, and historians use indirect evidence such as archaeology and account books to work around it.

12

Explore the idea

Part 12 of 19

Learn

Why interpretations differ

Historians differ because they ask different questions, weight evidence differently, gain access to new archives, or write in periods with different concerns. That does not make history merely opinion: interpretations are still judged by how well they explain the available evidence, and one can be shown to be weaker than another.

13

Quick check

Part 13 of 19

Quick check

Corroboration means...

14

Quick check

Part 14 of 19

Quick check

A silence in the evidence usually means...

15

Common mix-ups

Part 15 of 19

Common mix-ups

Things people often get wrong

  • People often dismiss a source as 'biased'. Viewpoint is evidence about the person who created it.
  • People often think differing interpretations mean history is just opinion. Interpretations are tested against evidence.
16

Challenge round

Part 16 of 19

Game · Sort it

Which of these are true?

Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.

True

Not true

17

Challenge round

Part 17 of 19

Game · Fill the gaps

Finish the sentences

Choose the word that belongs in each gap.

The question decides what ____ is relevant, which stops research becoming collection for its own sake.

18

Mastery quiz

Part 18 of 19

Marked quiz

End of lesson quiz: Enquiry, evidence and interpretations

6 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.

  1. 1. Every source has...

  2. 2. Historians' interpretations may differ because of...

  3. 3. Evidence about poorer lives often comes from...

  4. 4. An interpretation can be judged weaker if it...

  5. 5. Which question is best for an enquiry?

  6. 6. Rigorous claims require evidence that is...

19

Lesson round-up

Part 19 of 19

Lesson round-up

Ready when you are

Quiz score

Not sat

Games

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Points this lesson

0

Best run

0 in a row

Luna: 0 out of 4 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?

Ask Luna

Do the work

Your written work for this lesson

This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.

Source

A factory inspector's notebook, 1842

"I visited the mill at seven in the morning. The machines were already running. I counted fourteen children at the frames, the youngest no more than nine years of age. The overseer told me they work from six until seven, with forty minutes for dinner."

"The air is thick with cotton dust and the windows are kept shut so the thread does not break. Two of the children showed me hands cut by the shuttles. The owner assured me that the work is light and that the families beg him for the places, since without the children's wages the rent cannot be paid."

"I have written to the magistrates. I doubt much will follow from it."

Original source-style text written for Good Learning Co.

Reading questions

  1. Who wrote this, when, and why might that make it useful to a historian?
  2. What does the source tell you about children's work — and what does it not tell you?
  3. How far does this source show that mill owners were to blame? Answer with a judgement and evidence.

  • Source work

    Reading

    Read the source closely. Write who made it, when, and what it tells you — then what it does not tell you.

    2 paragraphs

  • Essay answer

    Writing

    Answer the enquiry question with a clear judgement. Use two pieces of evidence and finish with a sentence that weighs them up.

    300–400 words

  • Timeline

    Diagram

    Draw a timeline of the events in this lesson with dates, then photograph it.

    6–8 events

Saved as you type.

Part 1 of 19 · Watch & discover

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