Claim Testing
Put the evidence to the test with claim testing, an invaluable historical skill that guides students towards clear critical thinking and strong research fundamentals. Use these tools and resources with your class to help them understand what claim testing is, and how to use it to dig under the surface of the story and separate truth from fiction.
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Teaching This Skill
Claim Testing One-Pager
An analytical process for assessing the quality and truth of claims.
Claim Testing Activities Placement
Locate these activity progressions in all of our courses.
Claim Testing Posters
Intuition, logic, authority, and evidence—in poster form for easy reference!
Claim Testing Feedback Form
Provide specific and detailed feedback to build claim testing skills.
Featured Materials
What Are the Claim Testers?
Activity
What Are the Claim Testers?
What is claim testing? You’ll figure that out by deciding if you agree or disagree with a series of claims.
Claim Testing: Authority
Activity
Claim Testing: Authority
Whom do you trust, and why do you trust them? Who deserves to be called an authority? Begin thinking about these questions as you explore this claim tester.
Claim Testing: Social Class and Gender
Activity
Claim Testing: Social Class and Gender
Time to test some claims—this time about social class and gender.
Lessons
Lesson 1.4
Claim Testing
How do we know if the claims people make are true? In Big History, we test claims with four claim testers: intuition, logic, authority, and evidence.
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Lesson 1.1
Understanding Climate Change
There’s no simple definition for climate change, but a shared understanding is crucial to addressing it. Exploring what climate change means is the first step to addressing it.
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Materials
Claim Testing: Imperialism
Activity
Claim Testing: Imperialism
Use evidence to support or challenge statements about imperialism, and gain insight into the motivations behind colonialism and how people responded to it.
Claim Testing: Global Conflict
Activity
Claim Testing: Global Conflict
People make a lot of big claims about the world wars. In this activity, it’s your job to evaluate some of these claims.
Claim Testing: Globalization
Closer
Claim Testing: Globalization
Is globalization good or bad? Use your claim-testing skills to decide.