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Chartered Teacher of History
Multipage Article
The Chartered Teacher of History status (or CTHist) confers a distinction on its holder in recognition of a high level of commitment to ongoing professional development of historical knowledge and age-appropriate history pedagogy. It follows the same rigorous standards as other successful Chartered Teacher schemes.
Chartered Teacher of History (CTHist)...
Chartered Teacher of History
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An attempt to make Year 9 Masters of Learning
Teaching History article
‘Much to learn you still have!' An attempt to make Year 9 Masters of Learning
How can history teachers structure learning pathways through historical content in ways that engage and challenge all pupils, that enable them to work at an appropriate pace and that also encourage pupils to self-assess and...
An attempt to make Year 9 Masters of Learning
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Teaching History regular features
The HA's journal for secondary history teachers
Teaching History includes a number of regular features for secondary history teachers. On these pages you can access all recent and many older editions of each of these features:
What's the Wisdom On provides a short guide to an aspect of history teaching.
What have historians been arguing about... (formerly Polychronicon) aims to help...
Teaching History regular features
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The importance of history
Article
The importance of history: Powerpoint presentation from the Regional Subject CfBT/HA ConferencesStarting point. Creating a departmental vision.The construction of any curriculum begins with questions about the purpose and philosophy of the curriculum. The new orders for history offer departments a ready made statement of history's importance and purpose.
The importance of history
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Literacy and Oracy in History
Multipage Article
Argument is at the heart of history. The historically literate student can argue. Historical speaking and writing is about presenting an evidence-based argument, even when producing a narrative. History students need to bring together knowledge of different kinds to form an argument. They need to know how to defend and...
Literacy and Oracy in History
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AS & A2 History
Article
My complaints about the new AS/A2 specifications have been reported elsewhere,1 but below I outline my main concerns regarding the new examination system, which I see as a missed opportunity to introduce a 16-19 History curriculum that meets the needs of young people in the twenty-first century. The Curriculum 2000...
AS & A2 History
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Dealing with the consequences
Teaching History journal article
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...
Dealing with the consequences
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Developing sixth-form students' thinking about historical interpretation
Teaching History article
Understanding historical interpretation involves understanding how historical knowledge is constructed. How do sixth formers model historical epistemology? In this article Arthur Chapman examines a small sample of data relating to sixth form students' ideas about why historians construct differing interpretations of the past. He argues that understanding interpretation requires students to...
Developing sixth-form students' thinking about historical interpretation
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Filmed Lecture: Medlicott Lecture 2022 by David Olusoga
Article
Professor David Olusoga is a revered TV historian, a writer and a practising academic at Manchester University. In 2022 he was the recipient of the Historical Association's annual Medlicott medal, awarded for outstanding contributions to history.
The recipient of the medal provides the closing lecture of the HA's annual awards evening. Professor...
Filmed Lecture: Medlicott Lecture 2022 by David Olusoga
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Adaptive teaching and scaffolding in history
On-demand course for secondary history teachers and subject leaders
This autumn, as part of our regular termly CPD offer, the Historical Association is proud to launch this five-part, pre-recorded webinar series. It will equip teachers to anticipate barriers that history students may face in reading, writing, processing explanations and vocabulary and then to address them by using subject-specific scaffolds,...
Adaptive teaching and scaffolding in history
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Teaching history as a non-specialist
An induction course providing essential support for non-specialists teaching Key Stage 3 and GCSE history
Are you teaching history without a history background? Whether you’re an RS, geography, or general humanities teacher picking up some Key Stage 3 history – or have found yourself unexpectedly teaching a bit of GCSE – this flexible, supportive induction course is designed just for you.
With a series of...
Teaching history as a non-specialist
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Film: “The Talk Should Not Be Broadcast”: Homosexuality and the BBC before 1967
Virtual Branch
In the centenary year of the BBC, this Virtual Branch talk from Marcus Collins relates the strange tale of how the BBC did and did not broadcast about homosexuality in the 1950s and 1960s and what it tells us about sexuality, broadcasting and the origins of permissiveness in mid-twentieth century Britain.
Marcus Collins...
Film: “The Talk Should Not Be Broadcast”: Homosexuality and the BBC before 1967
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Helping Year 9 to engage effectively with ‘other genocides’
Teaching History article
In this article, Andy Lawrence returns to arguments made in Teaching History 153 about the importance of teaching young people about other modern genocides in addition to the Holocaust. Building on those arguments with his own rationale, Lawrence also acknowledges the constraints on curriculum time that compel all departments to...
Helping Year 9 to engage effectively with ‘other genocides’
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Using oral history in the classroom
Multipage Article
The Oral History Society has kindly agreed to produce two new films aimed at history teachers who are new to carrying out or using oral histories either in their teaching or with students. These two films will equip teachers with the essential tools and knowledge for using and devising effective...
Using oral history in the classroom
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Approaches to the History Curriculum: skills based curriculum
Briefing Pack
In 2010 many schools were adopting thematic or skills based curricula in England. This is one way of organising a curriculum. Some of the pros and cons of this approach are elaborated here.
There are an increasing number of schools now adopting a thematic or skills based curriculum for year...
Approaches to the History Curriculum: skills based curriculum
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Using fictional characters to explore the relationship between historical interpretation and contemporary attitude
Teaching History article
Helping students to understand how and why people in the present interpret the past differently is a challenge. It is also vital if we are to develop an understanding of why the meanings we ascribe to the past are not fixed, but rather are subject to our own prejudices or...
Using fictional characters to explore the relationship between historical interpretation and contemporary attitude
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Creating a progression model for teaching historical perspectives in Key Stage 3
Teaching History article
Jacob Olivey set out to design enquiries which would enable his pupils to reconstruct, using evidence, the perspectives of people in the past. In this article he shares in detail the planning and outcomes of two enquiries: one for Year 7 and one for Year 8. Olivey offers a example...
Creating a progression model for teaching historical perspectives in Key Stage 3
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How my interest in what I don't teach has informed my teaching and enriched my students' learning
Teaching History article
How my interest in what I don't teach has informed my teaching and enriched my students' learning
Flora Wilson argues here for the importance of maintaining a fascination with history as an academic subject for experienced, practising history teachers. Just as medical professionals keep their knowledge up to date by...
How my interest in what I don't teach has informed my teaching and enriched my students' learning
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The International Journal Volume 8 Number 2
Journal
The International Journal of Historical Learning, Teaching and Research [IJHLTR] was founded to provide an international medium for reporting on History Education.
Articles in the edition:
Erinc Erdal and Ruken Akar Vural Teaching History through Drama: the ‘Armenian Deportation'
Terry Haydn and Richard Harris Children's ideas about what it means...
The International Journal Volume 8 Number 2
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Write Your Own Historical Fiction competition 2024 – the winners
The HA's writing competition for children aged 10-15 years
Real history contains some of the most fanciful, exciting, worrying and incredible stories – learning about the past can open our eyes to how people have interacted with the world and each other for centuries. It is not surprising that alongside the real history most cultures and traditions have a...
Write Your Own Historical Fiction competition 2024 – the winners
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Young Historian Awards 2026 – the winners
30th September 2026
Researching, writing and presenting ideas about a historical theme or period are skills that can support a young person’s educational development and personal wellbeing throughout their formal education journey.
The Historical Association (led by the Mid-Trent and Mercia HA Branch) in collaboration with the Spirit of Normandy Trust has organised...
Young Historian Awards 2026 – the winners
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Passive receivers or constructive readers?
Teaching History article
Rachel Foster reports here on research that she conducted into how students engage with academic texts. Unhappy with the usual range of texts that students encounter, often truncated and ‘simplified' in the name of accessibility, she designed a scheme of work which sought to find out how her students responded...
Passive receivers or constructive readers?
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The International Journal Volume 12, Number 1
Journal
Editorial
Sweden
Ethical Values and History: a mutual relationship?
Niklas Ammert, Linnaeus University (Kalmar)
Australia
Teaching History Using Feature Films: practitioner acuity and cognitive neuroscientific validation
Debra Donnelly, University of Newcastle
Greece
The Difficult Relationship Between the History of the Present and School History in Greece: cinema as...
The International Journal Volume 12, Number 1
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The return of King John: using depth to strengthen overview in the teaching of political change
Teaching History article
Dale Banham's article in Teaching History 92, ‘Getting ready for the Grand Prix: learning to build a substantiated argument in Year 7' has influenced much debate about extended writing. It has been influential way beyond the history education community. It also raised new questions about the management of historical content....
The return of King John: using depth to strengthen overview in the teaching of political change
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Useful Resources for History Teaching
Useful Resources
The following are lists of those resources which we have found genuinely useful during our NQT year, or which we feel could be used to good effect, whether as sources, interpretations or stimulus materials. The lists are not exhaustive, and are inevitably skewed towards those topics which we have taught....
Useful Resources for History Teaching