"Concepts are big powerful ideas that have relevance both within and
across subject areas. Concepts help to move students from knowledge to understanding as “knowledge is integrated with existing schemas and cognitive frameworks” (Anderson and Krathwohl 2001). Concepts also help to provide bridges between old knowledge and new knowledge, and facilitate transfer of knowledge across subject areas/contexts. Understanding the “big ideas” behind a topic can also help students get to the heart of why they are learning a particular topic. The DP history course is focused on six key concepts: causation, consequence, change, continuity, significance and perspectives. In their efforts to place thinking at the centre of historical understanding, researchers in history education have highlighted the role that concepts such as these play in helping to shape our thinking about history (Seixas and Morton 2013). These concepts help students to think critically about historical issues; helping students to identify and solve problems, make decisions, and form judgments about past claims, actors and issues. These concepts are also extremely useful to history teachers as a tool for helping to craft creative lessons and assessment activities that avoid passive content delivery, and that provide opportunities for students to build on their prior knowledge and to think deeply about historical issues and events" (IB History Guide, 2015, p. 94). |