Should we, and how do we, develop in our students a sense of period – or a series of senses of period – in a thematic study spanning a thousand years? This was the problem faced by Matthew Fearns-Davies in preparing for the GCSE ‘Health and the People’ paper. He shows...

When the first revised GCSE specifications were launched in 2016, Sharon Aninakwa and her team at the Convent of Jesus and Mary Language College in North London made the decision to change their thematic unit to a study of migration. Some years later, they have a chance to reflect upon...

This feature of Teaching History is designed to build critical, informed debate about the character of teacher training, teacher education and professional development. It is also designed to offer practical help to all involved in training new history teachers. Each issue presents a situation in initial teacher education/training with an...

Do GCSE and A-level questions that purport to be about consequences actually reward reasoning about historical consequences at all? Molly-Ann Navey concluded that they do not and that they fail to encourage the kind of argument that academic historians engage in when reaching judgements about consequences. Navey decided that it...

Please note: these links were compiled in 2009. For a more recent resource, please see: What's the Wisdom on: Historical significance.  This selection of Teaching History articles on 'Significance' are highly recommended reading to anyone who wants to get to grips with this key concept. All Teaching History articles are free to HA Secondary Members...

I started teaching ‘crime and punishment through time’ thematically a few years ago. I was teaching it as a Schools History Project ‘study in development’. We had moved from ‘medicine through time’ in order to keep things fresh. After six times through the content, much as I loved it, crime,...

For many teachers the thematic study is the most new and most troubling unit of the new GCSE specifications. By following this link, you will be connected to an article that appears on www.thinkinghistory.co.uk.  This free website for teachers is maintained by Ian Dawson.  In this article Ian works with...

Thematic studies have been a long-standing feature of the Schools History Project (SHP) GCSE specifications in England and Wales; but for teachers of ‘Modern World’ GCSE specifications, the thematic study in the new GCSE specifications for teaching in England from September 2016 is unfamiliar territory. Perhaps you are entirely new...

Comparision of new GCSE Specifications Treatment of Familiar Topics If you, like many other departments are beginning to ask the questions that will determine which of the new history GCSE specifications your department will choose, one consideration may well be looking at the retention of familiar topics that you already...

The helpful guide below sets out links to a range of podcasts, articles and pamphlets that will provide subject knowledge guidance that you may find useful for all of the identified thematic topics of the  GCSE specifications. In addition there are also links to helpful articles dealing with bigger picture...

For all that history teachers appreciate the need to build substantive knowledge and conceptual understanding systematically over time, they are also likely to have experienced that sickening moment when they realise that a Year 11 pupil has somehow missed something fundamental. In Anna Fielding's case, her pupil's misconception was related to...

Moving forward, looking back - historical perspective, ‘Big History' and the return of the longue durée: time to develop our scale hopping muscles ‘Big history' is a term receiving a great deal of attention at present, particularly in North America where considerable sums of money have been invested in designing curricula...

This classic pamphlet takes you through some of the key ideas on the shape, size and movements of the Earth as they changed over time from classical cosmology to the work of Galileo and Isaac Newton.

Migration HA Podcast Series: England's Immigrants 1330-1550 When were Jews in medieval England most in danger? HA Podcast Series: Social & Political Change in the UK 1800-present: Part 3 Diversity - A Changing Population HA Podcast Series: Diversity in Early Modern Britain Cunning Plan - Exploring the Migration experience... Britain...

Warfare

GCSE Thematic Study LinksBigger picture history and teaching change and continuity over time.

GCSE Thematic Study LinksMedicine:

Crime and Punishment: HA Podcast: Crime & Punishment - Factors and Time Periods HA Podcast: Crime and Punishment - Roman to Early Modern HA Podcast: The Bloody Code - Early Modern Crime and Punishment HA Podcast: Roman Crime and Punishment Topic Pack: Crime and Punishment Through Time

Power and Democracy

The study of an aspect or theme in British history that consolidates and extends pupils'chronological knowledge from before 1066While the 2014 Curriculum sets out the broad focus of each particular content area, considerable choice has been left to history departments in determining which particular events or developments to include and...