Promotes Historical Thinking
History is a Discipline, not a content. That motto embodies the work of Thinking Nation. Empowering students through disciplinary (historical) thinking is at the core of our resources, professional development, and assessments. Where the various contents within social studies can silo us, the disciplinary thinking skills inherent to our classes can unite us. Historical thinking empowers students and transform the paradigm of social studies education.
Aligns to State Standards
Thinking Nation’s curriculum is purposefully designed to align with state and national history standards, ensuring that students not only meet academic expectations but also engage in meaningful historical thinking. Whether schools follow state-specific guidelines, the C3 Framework, or Advanced Placement (AP) standards, Thinking Nation offers a standards-based approach that emphasizes both content mastery and disciplinary skills.
Developed by Educators
One of the key strengths of Thinking Nation is that its resources are designed by educators who understand the real needs of the classroom. Former teachers, curriculum specialists, and instructional leaders come together to create materials that are not only academically rigorous, but also practical, relevant, and teacher-friendly.
Historian Approved
Thinking Nation works with scholars to ensure that each of our units reflects current scholarship and is historically accurate. Consulting historians also join us for our podcast and Youtube series, "Thinking Historically About," where students can hear how a scholar approaches the same question they look at in our curriculum.
“I really admire the effort and thought that's been invested in this: it's important, timely and original.”
James Walvin Professor Emeritus in History, University of York
As a nonprofit, Thinking Nation cannot serve students without the generosity of others.
We're especially grateful for the scholars who have given their time and expertise to
making our resources stronger. Thank you to all those listed below!
Dr. Carol Berkin – Baruch College (Emeritus)
Dr. James Merrell – Vassar College (Emeritus)
Dr. Denver Brunsman – The George Washington University
Dr. Paul Cheney – The University of Chicago
Dr. Pearl Young – University of Houston–Clear Lake
Dr. H. Paul Thompson, Jr. – North Greenville University
Dr. Benjamin Gross – Jacksonville State University
Dr. Jennifer Cullison – California State University, Stanislaus
Dr. Manisha Sinha – University of Connecticut
Dr. Katlyn Carter – University of Notre Dame
Dr. Marc Van De Mieroop – Columbia University
Dr. J.B. Mayo – University of Minnesota
Dr. Vincent J. Cannato – University of Massachusetts Boston
Dr. Robert Elder – Baylor University
Dr. Alicia Jackson – Covenant College
Dr. Sean Jacobson – University of North Alabama
Dr. Curtis Austin – Arizona State University
Dr. James Walvin – University of York (Emeritus)
Dr. Nadya Williams – University of West Georgia
Dr. Lily Anne Welty Tamai – California State University, Channel Islands
Dr. Benjamin Foreman – The Master's University – IBEX
Dr. Michael Kazin – Georgetown University
Dr. Andrew Robertson – Lehman College
Dr. John Fea – Messiah University
Dr. Adam Seagrave – Arizona State University
Dr. Katharine Gerbner - University of Minnesota
Dr. Sheen Rajmaira – California State University, Channel Islands
All our resources are aligned to one or more of these skills!
Targeted Practice Shifts Paradigms
Thinking Nation's platform resources support the work teachers are already doing by providing targeted practice in four practice and assessment categories.
Source Analysis
Through both Thinking Nation's THINKS protocol and our historical thinking skill specific graphic organizers, students become expert analysts of information. This not only increases historical understanding, but provides students the information and media literacy skills essential for success, both in and out of the classroom.
Formative Assessments
Thinking Nation's formative assessments provide targeted practice and data on individual historical thinking skills, like causation and contextualization, through our source-based format. Like our CRPs, these are initially graded by AI to give students instant feedback and track student growth over their academic career.
Socratic Seminars
Thinking Nation's Socratic Seminars highlight the communal aspect of historical thinking. By making student-centered discussions a core component of the inquiry process, students learn to think in community. Seminars allow students to discuss complex and nuanced historical events with their peers, increasing historical empathy.
Curated Research Papers
Thinking Nation's Curated Research Papers (CRPs) give students the opportunity to showcase multiple historical thinking skills through document analysis, thesis creation, and long-form writing. CRPs are initially graded by AI to give students instant feedback on their writing and teachers robust data reports on student literacy and analysis skills.
