Virtual Historical Thinking Institute

2026 Virtual Historical Thinking Institute (VHTI)

HISTORICAL THINKING CONTINUES TO EVOLVE.

Join us in exploring enduring ideas, examining new developments, and strengthening your educational practice.

How do we determine which interpretations of the past to believe? How do we decide which events and people from the past are worth knowing about? How do we evaluate different types of evidence? How do we explain why things happened and how the past has changed and stayed the same over time? How can we understand people in the past on their own terms? How should we respond to the past in the present?

Join educators, historians, researchers, and other professionals from across Canada and beyond for the 2026 Virtual Historical Thinking Institute (VHTI).

Presented by Canada’s History, in partnership with Thinking Historically for Canada’s Future and the Historical Thinking Project, the VHTI offers an interactive professional learning experience for anyone interested in teaching, learning, researching, and communicating about the past.

Across seven online sessions, participants will investigate an updated historical thinking model and explore seven concepts that support historical inquiry. The updated model builds on established approaches to historical thinking and decades of research, scholarship, and educational practice, while reflecting ongoing developments in the field.

Whether you are new to historical thinking or have participated in previous Institutes, you will have opportunities to deepen your understanding, explore important questions, exchange ideas with others, and consider how historical thinking can inform your practice.

What will participants investigate?

Throughout the Institute, participants will:

• explore an updated historical thinking model that builds on established approaches and ongoing research;
• investigate historical thinking concepts that help us investigate and interpret the past;
• consider how historical thinking can support inquiry, teaching, learning, and assessment;
• engage with practical strategies and examples that can be adapted to different educational contexts;
• discuss challenges and possibilities with other educators and professionals; and
• connect with a community of people interested in history education and historical thinking.

Seven sessions. A deeper understanding of historical thinking. 

The VHTI provides an introduction to historical thinking and explores seven concepts that support historical inquiry.

Session 1: Introduction to Historical Thinking and Interpretations

September 16, 2026

Explore the foundations of historical thinking, examine the updated model, and consider how historical interpretations are constructed, challenged, and revised.

Session 2: Historical Significance

September 30, 2026

How do we decide what matters about the past? Explore the ways historical significance is constructed and the questions that we should ask when determining why some people, events, developments, and experiences are considered historically significant.

Session 3: Evidence

October 14, 2026

How do we use evidence to investigate the past? Examine how to evaluate and interpret different types of historical evidence to deepen historical understanding.

Session 4: Cause and Consequence

October 28, 2026

How and why do things happen? Explore the complex relationships between the factors that cause historical events and developments to occur and the consequences that result. 

Session 5: Continuity and Change

November 11, 2026

How does the past change and what remains the same? Investigate how to identify, explain, and evaluate patterns of continuity and change over time.

Session 6: Historical Perspectives

November 25, 2026

How can we understand people in the past on their own terms? Explore how historical context, values, beliefs, experiences, and worldviews shape people's actions and decisions.

Session 7: Ethical Response

December 9, 2026

How should we respond to the past? Consider the relationships among historical understanding, ethical judgment, responsibility, and action in the present.

An interactive professional learning experience

The Virtual Historical Thinking Institute is designed to be more than a series of online lectures. Sessions combine presentations, discussions, collaborative activities, and opportunities to apply ideas to participants' own educational and professional contexts.

Participants will have opportunities to:

• engage with leading ideas and research in historical thinking;
• discuss questions and challenges with other participants;
• share experiences and approaches from their own contexts;
• work collaboratively to explore historical thinking in practice; and
• develop ideas that can inform their teaching, learning, or research.

Who should participate?

The Institute is open to anyone interested in historical thinking and history education, including:

• K–12 history and social studies educators;
• post-secondary educators;
• teacher candidates and graduate students;
• museum and heritage professionals;
• public and academic historians;
• archivists;
• curriculum developers; and
• educational leaders and professional learning providers.

Dates and times

The English-language online sessions occur every two weeks from September 16 to December 9, 2026 on Wednesdays from 7:00–8:30 p.m. ET / 4:00–5:30 p.m. PT. 

• September 16, 2026: Introduction to Historical Thinking and Interpretations
• September 30, 2026: Historical Significance
• October 14, 2026: Evidence 
• October 28, 2026: Cause and Consequence 
• November 11, 2026: Continuity and Change 
• November 25, 2026: Historical Perspectives
• December 9, 2026: Ethical Response

The Virtual Historical Thinking Institute is also available in French.

Instructors

English-language VHTI:

• Dr. Lindsay Gibson, University of British Columbia
• Dr. James Miles, University of Alberta

French-language VHTI:

• Dr. Catherine Duquette, Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (UQAC)
• Dr. Laurie Pageau, Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (UQAC)

Fees and refund policy

Early Bird Fee: $147 ($140 + GST) Available until September 1, 2026

Regular Fee: $183.75 ($175 + GST) Applies after September 1, 2026

Please note that should the course be cancelled, a full refund will be issued. To withdraw from the Fall 2026 Institute, please submit a written notice by September 8, 2026 to be eligible for a full refund (less an administration fee).

Register for the 2026 VHTI and join the conversation

Whether you are encountering historical thinking for the first time or have participated in previous Historical Thinking Institutes, join us to explore how historical thinking continues to develop, and how it can help us better understand the past.

Register for the 2026 Virtual Historical Thinking Institute and join educators and professionals from across Canada and beyond.

To register, fill out our online form here. You will then be asked to visit our online store to complete your payment and confirm your participation in the 2026 Virtual Historical Thinking Institute.

For more information contact:
Jean-Philippe Proulx, Histoire Canada
jpproulx@histoirecanada.ca