Reflect on your experiences of conducting historical research and connecting the past with the present.

Create one initial post and follow up with at least two response posts.

For your initial post, address the following:

1. How has examining your beliefs, assumptions, and values related to your historical and current events impacted how you process information in your daily life? For example, consider claims made by politicians, news headlines, tweets by celebrities, or articles shared by your family on social media.
2. What changes, big or small, have occurred in how you apply historical inquiry skills to classes, your personal life, and/or your career?

Be sure to provide specific examples to support your points.

For your response posts, address the following:

1. What perspectives have your peers offered that you had not previously considered about the value of identifying one’s beliefs, assumptions, and values?
2. Suggest other ways historical inquiry skills might help your peers in their personal, professional, and academic careers. 

Reply to at least two classmates outside of your own initial post thread:

response from : Richard

Hello class, we finally made it, and I am happy to say that I am proud of each and every one of us! Anyways, the way my daily life has been impacted by the way I look at my assumptions, beliefs, and values are how I view certain topics. When watching the news, I tend to wonder if the sources are reliable in the news story. I tend to wonder whether or not there is bias involved or if the whole story has been told. I think my assumptions have definitely begun to change in the aspect of finding evidence before I make an assumption. I try to make keep my values at the back of my mind like I have said in the past. I feel that history has taught me a few things about finding the correct information, I need to know what I am reading or doing research on is credible. The way this all compares to my historical and current events is having the ability to find the credible sources needed like I had to do to complete my research question. In relation to my chosen events, I tend to look out for the information which is useful to what I am researching.

The way I do research for future classes has definitely changed. In my mind this class helped me find a way to realize when a source is bias. I believe I have the capability now to figure out what firsthand and secondhand sources are and whether they will be useful to me. In my daily life it has helped me to figure out who is bias by listening to the words they are speaking. When it comes to my career, I have not started it yet but when I do, I will be sure to include what I learned in this class into my everyday work. By understanding perspective, I will be able to figure out new ways on how to deal with certain people when hearing secondhand accounts from a fellow employee or client. 

samantha

Reflecting on my beliefs, assumptions, and values related to my two topics influenced how I began to approach new information by allowing me to be more open-minded.

I’m currently overseas, and as an American, I’ve brought subtle beliefs and assumptions with me, especially in regards to cultural and political differences. By acknowledging and understanding them, I’ve allowed myself to be more open with concepts and beliefs that I may have originally approached with a negative outlook. Studying the Iranian Revolution actually helped me better understand the country I currently live in, which is also a fundamentalist nation. As an American, I think I struggled with this for a long time because it’s been so drastically different than what I am used to. Now, when I read the news, I consider what my initial thoughts and feelings are before carefully reading the article. I examine if whether or not I let my opinions get in the way of the information I am receiving and I likewise consider the biases and beliefs of the author.

I’d say the biggest change I’ve encountered thanks to obtaining historical inquiry skills is that I now view every issue with a curiosity to understand it’s background and context. It’s helped me in my career and personal life with my relationships because I can now gain an understanding of where someone is coming from instead of projecting my thoughts/opinions on them and overreacting. Overall, I feel like it’s made me a more mature adult.

Congratulations to everyone – we’ve made it to the end! Good work everybody, and I wish you luck with your future courses!