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Out went Caesar and in came the Conqueror: A case study in professional thinking
Teaching History article
A case study in professional thinking
Michael Fordham examines the evolution of his own practice as an example of how history teachers draw upon collective, professional knowledge constructed by other history teachers in journals, books, conferences and seminars. Fordham explains how a particular Year 7 enquiry examining historical change from the...
Out went Caesar and in came the Conqueror: A case study in professional thinking
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Hidden histories and heroism: post-14 course on multi-cultural Britain since 1945
Teaching History Article
A school-designed, post-14 course on multi-cultural Britain since 1945
Robin Whitburn and Sharon Yemoh describe the design of a school-generated GCSE course on the challenges that British people faced in forging a multicultural society in post-imperial Britain. Drawing on their own research into their students' experience, they build a discipline-based case...
Hidden histories and heroism: post-14 course on multi-cultural Britain since 1945
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Using ancient texts to improve pupils' critical thinking
Teaching History article
Did Alexander really ask, ‘Do I appear to you to be a bastard?' Using ancient texts to improve pupils' critical thinking
Beth Baker and Steven Mastin make the case for teaching ancient history in the post-14 curriculum. Pointing out the damaging messages that could be conveyed by assuming that ancient...
Using ancient texts to improve pupils' critical thinking
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Planning a more diverse and coherent Year 7 curriculum
Teaching History article
In this article, Jacob Olivey describes his department’s efforts to both diversify their Key Stage 3 curriculum and secure greater curricular coherence. Building on a large body of research and practice, Olivey sought new forms of curricular coherence through the selection and sequencing of substantive content across the curriculum. He...
Planning a more diverse and coherent Year 7 curriculum
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Teaching History 84
The HA's journal for history teachers
4 Viewpoint - Grant Bage
6 Great Britons? An Appraisal of Some Historical Personalities in Key Stage 2 - Peter Vass
10 History and Technology at Key Stage Two: A Practical Partnership- Paul Taylor
15 From Collingwood to the Teaching of Historical Thinking- Teresa Maclsaac
19 'A Concept Quite Alien'?...
Teaching History 84
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Miss, now I can see why that was so important: using ICT to enrich overview at GCSE
Teaching History article
Reflection and evaluation are key tools in the box of the successful history teacher. However, a focus on resources or exam results is futile unless a desire to develop pupils’ historical understanding is at the heart of the evaluation process. Maria Osowiecki’s department faced two problems: how to develop their...
Miss, now I can see why that was so important: using ICT to enrich overview at GCSE
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Making history meaningful: helping students see why history matters
Teaching History article
October 17 saw thousands of people writing a blog of a normal Tuesday as part of the ‘History Matters’ campaign. There was great media interest in the event and the papers were full of the blogs of the famous and not so famous; people were keen to write up their...
Making history meaningful: helping students see why history matters
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Politics, history and stories about the Cold War
Article
Interpretation of the Cold War is a fascinating area. Many students begin to study it certain pre-formed ideas – gleaned from their parents, perhaps, or from films or computer games. Historians have interpreted it in different ways – and those who believe in the ‘twenty-year rule’ that historical judgment is...
Politics, history and stories about the Cold War
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Year 12 write Zambia's history for Zambian students
Teaching History article
Peter Gray explains how his Year 12 students came to research and write a resource on the history of Zambia, for history teachers in Zambia. The construction of the resource stretched the Year 12 students in new ways: the Internet was useless and there were no easy digests in A-Level...
Year 12 write Zambia's history for Zambian students
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What’s The Wisdom On... Similarity and difference?
Teaching History feature
How often have you found yourself challenging a pupil’s use of ‘they’ or ‘people’? How often have you teased them with, ‘Really? All of them?!’ Every time we do this, we are pushing our pupils to respect the complexity of the past. We are pressing them to use their knowledge...
What’s The Wisdom On... Similarity and difference?
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The wrong beach? Interpretation, location and film
Teaching History article
In this article Paul Sutton examines the concerns associated with place in films. He points out the problems that this poses for our students - problems mainly, but not only, associated with a common lack of geographical authenticity. But this, he suggests, can be turned to our advantage. For what...
The wrong beach? Interpretation, location and film
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What’s The Wisdom On... change and continuity?
Teaching History feature
When it comes to historical change and continuity, what are history teachers asking pupils to think about and do?
What's the Wisdom On... is a short guide providing new history teachers with an overview of the ‘story so far’ of practice-based professional thinking about a particular aspect of history teaching. It...
What’s The Wisdom On... change and continuity?
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Beyond bias: making source evaluation meaningful to year 7
Teaching History article
In this article, Heidi Le Cocq demonstrates how to introduce Year 7 pupils to sophisticated techniques for evaluating sources. Taking up Seán Lang's criticism of the inappropriate use of the term ‘bias', she shows how even very young pupils can be encouraged to move beyond this wearisome response to questions...
Beyond bias: making source evaluation meaningful to year 7
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'I've been in the Reichstag': Rethinking roleplay
Teaching History article
Ian Luff constructs a rationale for the use of drama, practical demonstration and roleplay in pupils' learning. He follows this with a wealth of practical examples and detailed advice based on his own professional experience and his experience in running training sessions for other teachers. His analysis of the value...
'I've been in the Reichstag': Rethinking roleplay
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Teaching History 78
The HA's journal for history teachers
5 Using History to Develop Citizenship Education in the National Curriculum - Peter John and Ian Davies
8 Developing a Multicultural Perspective Within Key Stage 3 National Curriculum History - Paul Bracey
11 History Education in a Democratic South Africa- Peter Kallaway
17 History Teaching and the Council of Europe -...
Teaching History 78
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Democracy is not boring
Teaching History article
Seán Lang argues that whilst history teachers have expressed much support for the citizenship education proposals, and whilst their practice already addresses the skills of evidence-weighing, debate and argument, there are huge gaps in our coverage of relevant content. He argues that the freedom with which teachers may currently interpret...
Democracy is not boring
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Build it in, don't bolt it on: history's opportunity to support critical citizenship
Teaching History article
Andrew Wrenn offers a wide range of practical examples of the way in which National Curriculum History (and the continuation of its principles at GCSE) supports citizenship education. He focuses chiefly upon Key Element 3, ‘Interpretations', but also Key Element 4 ‘Enquiry'. He illustrates history teachers' long-established concern for the...
Build it in, don't bolt it on: history's opportunity to support critical citizenship
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Limited lessons from the Holocaust?
Teaching History article
Limited lessons from the Holocaust? Critically considering the ‘anti-racist' and citizenship potential
Previous issues of Teaching History have seen extensive debate about the appropriateness of approaching Holocaust education with explicitly social or moral - as opposed to historical - aims. Rather than taking sides, Alice Pettigrew first acknowledges the range...
Limited lessons from the Holocaust?
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Exceptional performance at GCSE
Teaching History article
In the last edition of Teaching History (February 1999, Issue 94) Kate Hammond used her own planning and classroom practice to extract some principles for stretching the very able pupil at Key Stage 3. How should history teachers build on this at GCSE? One way of defining goals for such...
Exceptional performance at GCSE
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And Joe arrives...: stretching the very able pupil in the mixed ability classroom
Articles
Kate Hammond examines a sequence of three history lessons in order to evaluate techniques for stretching a very able 11 year-old. She adopts a complex blend of differentiation strategies. Rather than merely bolting on ‘extension activities', she starts with demanding objectives for all, as the whole-class entitlement. She then attempts...
And Joe arrives...: stretching the very able pupil in the mixed ability classroom
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'Picture This': A simple technique to teach complex concepts
Teaching History article
When Peter Clements was introduced to the creative strategy that he describes in this article, his immediate reaction was to dismiss it as childish and trivial. Yet, upon closer examination, he realised that ‘Picture This' offered far more than a lively way of increasing variety and engagement in his GCSE...
'Picture This': A simple technique to teach complex concepts
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Counterfactual Reasoning: Comparing British and French History
Teaching History article
Year 8 use counterfactual reasoning to explore place and social upheaval in eighteenth-century France and Britain
Two linked motivations inspired Ellen Buxton's research study: she wanted pupils to make connections between British and French history and she wanted to explore the potential of counter-factual reasoning within a causation enquiry. It...
Counterfactual Reasoning: Comparing British and French History
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What about history? Lessons from seven years with project-based learning
Teaching History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Alternative curriculum models can take many forms. Some seem to be imposed on reluctant history teachers with little opportunity for planning. Other teachers are given the opportunity to really embed and revise models that might...
What about history? Lessons from seven years with project-based learning
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Using 1980s popular music to explore historical significance
Teaching History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Scott Allsop helped his students to uncover the implicit criteria informing someone else's attribution of historical significance to past events. That ‘someone else' was Billy Joel whose 1989 song became the focus for deconstructive analysis....
Using 1980s popular music to explore historical significance
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A modest proposal for change in Canadian history education
Teaching History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Peter Seixas recounts the development of a history education reform project in Canada. Like all good histories, it is a complex story and a matter of unanticipated consequences and ironic narrative twists.
Seixas' history is,...
A modest proposal for change in Canadian history education
