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
- 25 parts to scroll through
- 4 quick checks
- Marked quiz at the end
- Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses
Words to know
Scroll down — the lesson carries on below
Watch & discover
Part 1 of 25
Visual introductionPicture this
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.
In a nutshell
Understand the methods of historical enquiry, including how evidence is used rigorously to make historical claims
What you already know
Part 2 of 25
Before we start
What you already know
You should already be able to identify the origin and purpose of a source.
Key words
Part 3 of 25
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.
Reset break
Part 4 of 25
Pause
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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.
Learning cycle
Part 5 of 25
Learning cycle 1 of 2
Running an enquiry
A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.
Explore the idea
Part 6 of 25
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.
Explore the idea
Part 7 of 25
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.
Reset break
Part 8 of 25
Pause
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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.
Quick check
Part 9 of 25
Quick check
Part 10 of 25
Learning cycle
Part 11 of 25
Learning cycle 2 of 2
How interpretations are constructed
A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.
Reset break
Part 12 of 25
Pause
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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.
Explore the idea
Part 13 of 25
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.
Explore the idea
Part 14 of 25
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.
Quick check
Part 15 of 25
Reset break
Part 16 of 25
Pause
That's sitting 4 of 6 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.
Quick check
Part 17 of 25
Common mix-ups
Part 18 of 25
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.
Challenge round
Part 19 of 25
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
Reset break
Part 20 of 25
Pause
That's sitting 5 of 6 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.
Challenge round
Part 21 of 25
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.
Challenge round
Part 22 of 25
Game · Recall cards
A good enquiry question is...
Card 1 of 4
Exit quiz
Part 23 of 25
Exit quiz
Show what you've learned
6 questions, marked together at the end. Nothing is timed.
1. Every source has...
2. Historians' interpretations may differ because of...
3. Evidence about poorer lives often comes from...
4. An interpretation can be judged weaker if it...
5. Which question is best for an enquiry?
6. Rigorous claims require evidence that is...
Mastery quiz
Part 24 of 25
Marked quiz
End of lesson quiz: Enquiry, evidence and interpretations
4 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.
1. A good enquiry question is...
2. Provenance means a source's...
3. Corroboration means...
4. A silence in the evidence usually means...
Lesson round-up
Part 25 of 25
Lesson round-up
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