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SavannahYear 8
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HistoryThinking like a historian30 min★★★ difficulty

Change, cause and significance: thinking historically

Historians do not only collect facts; they use a small set of thinking tools to organise them. Learning those tools makes every topic easier to write about.

Lesson overview

What you'll learn in this lesson

Understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance

Key learning points

  • • Continuity and change
  • • Similarity and difference
  • • Cause and consequence
  • • Significance

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

historicalconceptscontinuitychangeconsequence

Scroll down — the lesson carries on below

Part 1 of 19 · Discover5%
1

Watch & discover

Part 1 of 19

Watch first

Change, cause and significance: thinking historically

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

In a nutshell

Understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance

2

What you already know

Part 2 of 19

Before we start

What you already know

You should already be able to describe events in chronological order.

3

Key words

Part 3 of 19

Key words

Words you'll need today

Continuity
Something that stays broadly the same over time.
Consequence
A result that follows from an event.
Significance
How important something was, judged against criteria.
Second-order concept
A thinking tool historians use to analyse the past.
4

Learning cycle

Part 4 of 19

Learning cycle 1 of 2

Change, similarity and difference

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

5

Explore the idea

Part 5 of 19

Learn

Continuity and change

Most periods contain both. After 1066 the language of government changed while the farming year did not. A strong answer measures change: how fast, how widespread, and for whom. Saying 'everything changed' is almost always inaccurate, and looking for what stayed the same is usually the quickest way to find a sharper argument.

6

Explore the idea

Part 6 of 19

Learn

Similarity and difference

Comparing groups within the same period prevents sweeping claims. The Industrial Revolution meant something very different for a mill owner, a child worker and a rural labourer. When you write, name the group you mean rather than 'people', because unspecified generalisations are the most common weakness in period essays.

7

Quick check

Part 7 of 19

Quick check

Continuity means something that...

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Quick check

Part 8 of 19

Quick check

A trigger differs from an underlying cause because it...

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

Cause, consequence and significance

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

11

Explore the idea

Part 11 of 19

Learn

Cause and consequence

Causes can be long-term or short-term, and a trigger is not the same as an underlying cause. Ranking causes and explaining how they interact is more convincing than listing them. Consequences work the same way, and should be traced over different timescales, since immediate and long-term results often point in opposite directions.

12

Explore the idea

Part 12 of 19

Learn

Significance

Significance is a judgement, not a property. Historians ask whether something affected many people, lasted a long time, changed later events, or matters to how we understand the present. Because criteria differ, significance can be argued about honestly — which is why the criteria should be stated before the judgement.

13

Quick check

Part 13 of 19

Quick check

Comparing a mill owner and a child worker is an example of...

14

Quick check

Part 14 of 19

Quick check

Significance judgements should begin by stating...

15

Common mix-ups

Part 15 of 19

Common mix-ups

Things people often get wrong

  • People often confuse a trigger with a cause. A trigger sets off a situation that longer-term causes created.
  • People often treat significance as fixed. It depends on the criteria chosen and can be debated.
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.

A strong answer measures ____: how fast, how widespread, and for whom.

18

Mastery quiz

Part 18 of 19

Marked quiz

End of lesson quiz: Change, cause and significance: thinking historically

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

  1. 1. Which phrase weakens a history essay?

  2. 2. Consequences should be traced over...

  3. 3. Ranking causes is better than listing them because it...

  4. 4. Second-order concepts are...

  5. 5. Measuring change means asking how fast, how widespread and...

  6. 6. Two historians can differ on significance because they...

19

Lesson round-up

Part 19 of 19

Lesson round-up

Ready when you are

Quiz score

Not sat

Games

Not played

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

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Part 1 of 19 · Watch & discover

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