AP World History Historical Thinking Skills – Flashcards

Can you identify and analyze another writer's thesis? Can you craft an effective and persuasive thesis of your own?

Can you weigh and measure the strengths and weaknesses of various sources and other pieces of evidence?

Can you identify and explain cause and effect? Do you know the differences between causation (*one thing causing another*), correlation (*one thing happening along with another in a way that is related, but not necessarily because of it*), and coincidence (*things happening together by chance*)? Can you distinguish between long-term, medium-term, and short-term causes? Or between competing explanations for why something happens?

Can you trace a trend or development over a long period of time? Can you discuss which elements of that trend or development remain largely the same, and which change as time passes?

Do you understand how and why historians divide time into different historical periods? Are you aware of competing methods of periodization, and can you evaluate their strengths and weaknesses?

Can you draw useful comparisons over time (*one specific trend or geographical region in different historical eras*) or place (*two or more regions during the same time period*)? Are you aware that genuine comparison involves *analyzing likenesses AND differences*?

Can you connect specific events and facts to wider settings and to broader trends?

Can you read and analyze pieces of historical evidence with an eye to the point of view and possible bias? Do you understand the various ways that *different forms of historical evidence (including myths and oral traditions, works of art and architecture, graphs and charts, diaries and autobiographies, government documents, and so on) can be taken advantage of*? Can you discuss the historical consensus about a key event or trend might change over time or vary from country to country?

Can you bring together various--and even contradictory--sources, explanatory theories, and pieces of evidence to arrive at a useful and convincing understanding of a historical problem or argument? Do you have a sense of how insights from other scholarly disciplines, such as archaeology, statistics, and the environmental sciences, can aid historians in their research?