Early Career Development Programme

Spring 2023 cohort (February–April 2023)

Early Career Development Programme

The Early Career Development Programme is an online course aimed at history teachers in their second, third, or fourth year who are confident in the classroom, and who now want to re-focus their attention on teaching even more ambitious and rigorous history. 

Led by a team of seven mentors, the programme is built around webinars and readings that will take you through six modules: 

  • The aims and challenges of being a history teacher
  • Building pupils’ knowledge
  • Progression in history
  • Teaching the medieval world
  • Teaching the British Empire
  • Driving your own professional development 

A portfolio of self-directed tasks, which you will complete across eight weeks, will enable you to tie everything you learn to your own classroom. You will also be able to discuss your ideas with mentors and like-minded teachers at a similar stage in their career. 

By hearing from a range of experts and by making new connections across the country, you will be able to tap into the joy and wisdom that the history teaching community can offer. Most importantly, this course is designed to empower you to take an active role in this community yourself, and to rediscover the excitement of getting better at teaching history. 

This resource is available to purchase

Non-member instant-access price: £180.00

HA Members can get instant access for £120.00

Limited access: 45 available to purchase

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Module 1: What does it mean to be a history teacher?

  • Information for participants
  • Introduction
  • Conversation: What is history teaching?
  • A short history of history teaching in England
  • Why History? Part 1
  • Why history? Part 2
  • Mentor reflection
  • Participants' response tasks
  • Suggested reading and listening

Module 2: Building historical knowledge

  • Introduction
  • Conversation: What does it mean to ‘know’ history?
  • How does existing knowledge shape new learning in history?
  • Knowledge and historical thinking
  • How do students acquire knowledge in history?
  • How can stories build and shape students’ knowledge of the past?
  • Mentor reflection
  • Participants' response tasks

Module 3: Getting better at history

  • Introduction
  • Conversation: What does it mean to get better at history?
  • Teaching rigorous and meaningful history at KS4
  • Developing students' historical thinking
  • Reading in the history classroom
  • Making history accessible for all
  • Participants' response tasks

Module 4: Teaching the medieval world

  • Introduction
  • Conversation: What do we want students to know and understand about the medieval world?
  • Taking a long view of the medieval world
  • Broadening the scope of the medieval world
  • Building and complexifying the medieval world
  • Mentor reflection
  • Participants' response tasks

Module 5: Teaching the British Empire

  • Introduction
  • Conversation: What do we want students to know and understand about the British Empire?
  • Taking a long view of the British Empire
  • Teaching the British Empire: the trouble with textbooks
  • Mentor reflection
  • Participants' response tasks

Module 6: Developing (with) our communities

  • Introduction
  • Why is it so important to keep developing as teachers of our subject
  • What is the history teaching community, and how can it support me?
  • Developing (within) local networks
  • Growing (within) departments
  • Mentor reflection
  • Participants' response tasks