Academic/General Training Module by Adam Smith First Published in 2015

What Skills Does a Student of History Develop? 
What does a well-trained student of history, schooled to work on past materials and 
on case studies in social change, learn how to do? The list is manageable, but it 
contains several overlapping categories. 
The Ability to Assess Evidence. The study of history builds experience in dealing with 
and assessing various kinds of evidence—the sorts of evidence historians use in 
shaping the most accurate pictures of the past that they can. Learning how to interpret 
the statements of past political leaders—one kind of evidence—helps form the 
capacity to distinguish between the objective and the self-serving among statements 
made by present-day political leaders. Learning how to combine different kinds of 
evidence—public statements, private records, numerical data, visual materials—
develops the ability to make coherent arguments based on a variety of data. This skill 
can also be applied to information encountered in everyday life. 
The Ability to Assess Conflicting Interpretations. Learning history means gaining some 
skill in sorting through diverse, often conflicting interpretations. Understanding how 
societies work—the central goal of historical study—is inherently imprecise, and the 
same certainly holds true for understanding what is going on in the present day. 
Learning how to identify and evaluate conflicting interpretations is an essential 
citizenship skill for which history, as an often-contested laboratory of human 
experience, provides training. This is one area in which the full benefits of historical 

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 IELTS
 JOURNAL 
 
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study sometimes clash with the narrower uses of the past to construct identity. 
Experience in examining past situations provides a constructively critical sense that can 
be applied to partisan claims about the glories of national or group identity. The study 
of history in no sense undermines loyalty or commitment, but it does teach the need 
for assessing arguments, and it provides opportunities to engage in debate and 
achieve perspective. 
Experience in Assessing Past Examples of Change. Experience in assessing past 
examples of change is vital to understanding change in society today—it's an essential 
skill in what we are regularly told is our "ever-changing world." Analysis of change 
means developing some capacity for determining the magnitude and significance of 
change, for some changes are more fundamental than others. Comparing particular 
changes to relevant examples from the past helps students of history develop this 
capacity. The ability to identify the continuities that always accompany even the most 
dramatic changes also comes from studying history, as does the skill to determine 
probable causes of change. Learning history helps one figure out, for example, if one 
main factor—such as a technological innovation or some deliberate new policy—
accounts for a change or whether, as is more commonly the case, a number of factors 
combine to generate the actual change that occurs. 
Historical study, in sum, is crucial to the promotion of that elusive creature, the well-
informed citizen. It provides basic factual information about the background of our 
political institutions and about the values and problems that affect our social well-
being. It also contributes to our capacity to use evidence, assess interpretations, and 
analyze change and continuities. No one can ever quite deal with the present as the 
historian deals with the past—we lack the perspective for this feat; but we can move in 
this direction by applying historical habits of mind, and we will function as better 
citizens in the process.