The aim of history in the Diploma Programme is to explain trends and developments, continuity and change through time and through individual events. The course is concerned with individuals and societies in the widest context: political, social economic religious, technological and cultural. Throughout the year we will investigate the recording, the reconstructing and the interpretations of the past through the investigation of a myriad of sources. This course reflects Thomas Jefferson High School’s emphasis on a global perspective to impart cultural empathy and foster respect for other societies.
"The aims of all subjects in group 3, individuals and societies are to:
1. encourage the systematic and critical study of: human experience and behaviour; physical, economic and social environments; the history and development of social and cultural institutions 2. develop in the student the capacity to identify, to analyse critically and to evaluate theories, concepts and arguments about the nature and activities of the individual and society 3. enable the student to collect, describe and analyse data used in studies of society, to test hypotheses and interpret complex data and source material 4. promote the appreciation of the way in which learning is relevant to both the culture in which the student lives, and the culture of other societies 5. develop an awareness in the student that human attitudes and opinions are widely diverse and that a study of society requires an appreciation of such diversity 6. enable the student to recognize that the content and methodologies of the subjects in group 3 are contestable and that their study requires the toleration of uncertainty. The aims of the history course at SL and HL are to: 7. promote an understanding of history as a discipline, including the nature and diversity of its sources, methods and interpretations 8. encourage an understanding of the present through critical reflection upon the past 9. encourage an understanding of the impact of historical developments at national, regional and international levels 10. develop an awareness of one’s own historical identity through the study of the historical experiences of different cultures" |