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Common logical errors students make when evaluating historical sources and how to fix them
Every year, students in senior history classes lose a lot of marks on source evaluation for some very common, and very frustrating, mistakes.
For us as teachers, the most disappointing part of this is the fact that most of these students are genuinely trying to engage with the material, but the problem is that they are relying on a handful of surface-level shortcuts that sound convincing, but quickly fall apart under scrutiny.
From the students’ perspective, these shortcuts create the illusion of critical thinking without actually doing any of the hard analytical work that examiners are looking for.
The good news is that each of these errors has a clear fix. Once students understand why their reasoning is flawed, they can replace it with something far more effective.
Here are six of the most common logical errors in source evaluation and how to correct them.
