Abstract:

Implementing moral education in the new era and deepening curriculum-based education constitute an important pathway for building a strong education nation, in which historical thinking plays a vital role.As a cognitive tool, historical thinking enables the subject to examine developmental issues from historical standpoints, perspectives, and methods. It requires tracing the past, reflecting on the present, and anticipating the future in order to grasp the essence and developmental laws of the object of thought. In classroom teaching, historical thinking serves as a guiding framework for teachers to understand disciplinary knowledge, design instructional activities, and cultivate students’ intellect and character. It enables teachers to uncover the “roots” of knowledge and strengthen students’ inner values. With the value orientation of fostering moral integrity and enhancing intellectual development, historical thinking in classroom teaching directs attention to the historical attribute of knowledge and the gap between learners and knowledge, facilitating the transformation from superficial cognition to deep conceptual understanding. Guided by historical materialism, teachers should apply historical thinking to deepen teaching content and activity design, and adopt a “past-present-future” framework to construct dynamic and developmental classroom teaching that promotes teaching for deep learning.

Key words: historical thinking, classroom teaching, historical materialism, the historical attribute of knowledge, teaching for deep learning