Lesson 7: Evaluating Historical Significance (GREAT Criteria)
Researching an historical event or place of significance to New Zealanders for NCEA Level 3 History.
🎯 Ngā Whāinga Akoranga | Learning Intentions
Frameworks for evaluating historical significance: GREAT criteria (Groundbreaking, Remembered, Affected many, Terrifying/Transformative, Relevant today).
Apply GREAT criteria to justify the historical significance of your chosen event/place to New Zealanders across short-term and long-term timeframes.
🎥 Media Anchor & Pedagogical Scaffold
Historical Significance — Why Some Events Matter More Than Others
Video Clip: Explanation of historical significance as a second-order historical thinking concept: what makes an event or person historically significant, and how to evaluate significance rigorously.
🧠 1. Before Viewing (Activate & Predict)
What makes an event or place 'historically significant' to New Zealanders rather than just an isolated past occurrence?
👁️ 2. During Viewing (Watch With a Job)
Watch the full clip and record your answers to these questions in your research notes:
- List the criteria the video uses to judge historical significance.
- Give one example the video uses to illustrate significance — what made it pass the criteria?
- How does significance differ from 'importance' in everyday speech?
🗣️ 3. After Viewing & Kaiako Move (Process & Apply)
Kaiako Move: Guide students to connect past events to modern Waitangi Tribunal findings, constitutional debates, or public memorials.
Immediate Task: Complete Section 7 of your History Research Portfolio: GREAT Historical Significance Justification.
⚡ Whakaoho | Do Now: Significant to Whom?
Name an event you were taught was important, and one your whānau or community treats as important that school never mentioned.
Two minutes: what makes the difference between those two lists? Significance is a judgement someone makes, not a property an event has — and today you learn to make that judgement openly, with criteria you can defend.
📖 Activity 1: Run Your Topic Through GREAT
Score it honestly (13 min). Test your chosen event against all five criteria — Groundbreaking, Remembered, Effects, Affected many, Transformative. Write real evidence under each. Where the evidence is thin, say so; a topic that scores strongly on three criteria with proof beats one you have talked up on all five.
Split the timeframes (12 min). Now argue significance twice: what it meant within a decade, and what it means to New Zealanders today. Events often score very differently across those two, and explaining the gap is where Excellence answers separate themselves.
📝 Activity 2: Level 3 History Portfolio Task & Merit/Excellence Scaffolding (20 mins)
Portfolio Section 7. Submit: (1) your GREAT audit with evidence under each criterion, including where it is weak; (2) short-term and long-term significance argued separately; (3) one sentence naming who would disagree with your significance claim and on what grounds.
🏫 Kaiako Planning & Pedagogy Notes
NCEA Level 3 Alignment: Direct preparation for Level 3 History (Research an historical event or place of significance to New Zealanders). Emphasise critical source evaluation and detailed annotations for Merit/Excellence grades.