An Instructional Unit
The Industrial Revolution
A Turning Point in History
Reflection
Personal comments on the learning experience:


Reflections on this Unit:

We have found that this unit supports student progress toward the attainment of the learning standards because it

  • meets the needs of all learners by promoting active learning and providing multiple learning environments.

  • develops intellectual skills such as critical thinking and decision making by fostering skills such as evaluating data.

  • develops social skills by providing for working connections between pupils of varying abilities and holding students accountable for individual as well as group work.

Reflections - Looking Ahead:

In the 1999-2000 school year we will be teaching this unit in Grade Ten as part of the new Global History and Geography course.

We find that our unit as now taught not only analyzes the causes and effects of the Industrial Revolution and why it is a turning point in history, but also deals with most of the topics and issues recommended in the Global History and Geography core curriculum. We examine:

  1. Agrarian Revolution
  2. Factory System
  3. Changing Roles of Men, Women and Children in an Industrial Society
  4. Shift from Mercantilism to Laissez-Faire Economics - Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations
  5. Changes in Social Classes
  6. Urbanization
  7. Competing Ideologies: Liberalism, Conservatism, Social Reformism, Socialism
  8. Karl Marx and Command Economies
  9. Utopian Reform
  10. Parliamentary Reforms
  11. Sadler Report and Reform Legislation
  12. Writings of Thomas Malthus Essay on the Principles of Population

In addition, our unit includes examination of these questions listed in the Connections column of this new core curriculum:
  • What role did the Industrial Revolution play in the changing roles of men and women?

  • What impact did the Industrial Revolution have on the expansion of suffrage throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries?

  • How did the European arts respond to the Industrial Revolution?

  • In what ways did the abuses of the Industrial Revolution lead to such competing ideologies as liberalism, conservatism, socialism, and communism?

We are also using these Key Documents named in the new core curriculum:

  • Friedrich Engels - The Conditions of the Working Class in England in 1844
  • Thomas Malthus - Essay on the Principles of Population
  • Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels - The Communist Manifesto
  • Sadler Commission Report on Child Labor
    Adam Smith -The Wealth of Nations

We are expanding on what we have already done as we make the connections to other parts of the world by:

  • including the issue of, "To what extent did the Industrial Revolution lead to greater urbanization throughout the world?"

  • adding for purposes of comparison, a case study of the process of the Industrial Revolution in Japan.

  • examining the question, "To what extent is the Industrial Revolution still occurring in the non-Western world?" such as in Korea.

  • discussing the question, "What is a post-industrial economy?"

  • comparing social and economic revolutions with political revolutions in at least two nations.

The Global History and Geography core curriculum continues examination of industrialization in Units VIII and IX. We feel that this unit provides an excellent background for studying scientific and technological advances, industrialization, urbanization, modernization versus tradition, and the post-industrial economy of the twentieth century.