Standard 4: The competent History teacher understands major trends, key turning points, and the roles of influential individual and groups in world history from prehistory to the Age of Exploration.

This standard requires a history teacher to understand a broad stretch of information, from early human history over 3.5 million years ago to early European forays into the world during the 1400's.
The knowledge required for early human history is primarily anthropological in nature. It is important to understand the recent theories of human evolution in order to trace the beginnings of civilization. The history teacher should understand the major hominid evolutionary stages, from early Australopithecus to Homo sapiens. Knowledge of major developments, such as early agriculture and tool use is also useful to understand the earliest human civilizations. It is vital that the teacher understand that this human history was not being made solely in Europe and Africa, but also in sites across the globe, including Asia and South America.
The teacher should understand the turning point, when a loose grouping of people founded a civilization. Particular attention should be paid to the reasons behind the civilization - protection, trade, or many other reasons. While the classical view of civilization focuses on Near Eastern cultures, parallels can be drawn in many other locations, including India and Peru. While tracing the path of human history, it becomes more apparent that there was extensive contact between seemingly disparate civilizations and locations. Use of material culture (artifactual remains) can help understand the concept of inter-cultural trade and contact. Studies of society, politics, and culture indicates that civilizations existed in many other locations besides the typically studied Greco-Roman world.
Classical civilizations, centering around the Mediterranean Sea, are often the focus of standardized testing. Teachers should be familiar with major turning points in the histories of these societies, including major wars, cultural developments, and technological discoveries. Again, material culture can help clarify these points, as can primary source documents. Many sources still remain, especially from Greece, Rome, Egypt, and the Arabian peninsula. Good translations can be had, and can prove extremely useful in the study of classical civilization developments. These sources can also tell the teacher about influential figures of the time period, and the causes they were associated with. Knowledge of these people can often help to understand the path of a civilization.
About fifteen hundred years ago, the classical civilizations began to fall apart. The teacher should know the reasons for the dissolution of these societies, as well as the ramifications of the fragmentations. The myriad causes for the end of the classical civilizations can also be used in a retrospective manner, shedding light on the primary flaws and aims of a society. Primary sources can be used to illuminate the causes, as well as to show the effects of this dissolution on the people and society. It should also be noted that not only the classical Mediterranean civilizations began to fail at this point. Within five hundred years, many of the world cultures had begun to fragment. Teachers should recognize the increasing interaction between cultures and people when civilizations began to fragment.
After the increasing mixing of cultures between 1000 CE and 1500 CE, power and strength began to consolidate in different regions. Teachers should be able to identify where power concentrated and why, and use primary sources to investigate the impact the changing structure of world power had on governments, on the relationships between governments, and on the people living within the societies. Use of primary sources can also illuminate key figures and their roles in the turning points of the centralization of power. Teachers should have a broad understanding of the Age of Exploration, focusing on the consequences explorations and "discoveries" of the pre-existing civilizations - both the exploring society and on the "discovered" society. Key figures tend to be thought of as European, but this may be a result of a lack of records and a tendency to rely heavily on Eurocentric histories and accomplishments. An effort should be made to see the path of human history from prehistory to the Age of Exploration in a holistic and inclusive manner.