Historical Thinking Ability among Talented Math and Science Students: An Exploratory Study.

This study sought to discern the extent to which a sample of talented math and science students displayed domain-relevant skills possessed by those expertly trained in history. Subjects' experiences varied in terms of their exposure to primary source materials. The students were presented with five different kinds of documents related to the subject of slavery. Students were asked to study the documents then tell a story tying all of the documents together. Responses were evaluated for interpretive skills as well as for sophistication in evaluating sources for accuracy. These gifted science students varied widely in their abilities to employ skills historians routinely use to reconstruct the past. Those who had previous experience with primary sources fared better than those who had no experience. Skills used in historical research include interpretation of primary sources, assessment of documents for biases, and synthesis of sources into coherent historical narratives. The knowledge that gifted science students may not creatively interpret, synthesize, or critically evaluate historical documents has implications for talent development and for history teaching and learning. Contains 18 references and reproduced documents. (PVD)