What's new at KS3?
I have no hesitation in saying that the 2008 KS3 PoS creates the potential for developing stronger, more coherent courses which give pupils a greater sense of achievement by the time they complete KS3 History. But then the structure of the new PoS is very much along the lines SHP has been discussing for a number of years and follows on from ideas we contributed to QCA’s work on chronological understanding and discussed in the Time for Chronology? article in Teaching History in 2004.
The PoS offers the chance to keep what’s good (developing pupils’ understanding of concepts and processes, creating challenging enquiry questions in depth investigations, teaching activities that reflect a variety of learning styles) but adds the opportunity to do better – notably to help pupils emerge with a sense of achievement because they can tell a number of thematic stories over time and this, in turn, seems likely to enhance chronological understanding. The PoS also emphasises that you have choice – the flexibility to construct courses in ways that most benefit your pupils. This should restore to teachers a greater sense of involvement in creating courses – an involvement that was much reduced by the first NC in 1991. Of course that doesn’t mean that every school’s course will improve – but the potential is there.
Now for some general comments on the key components of the 2008 PoS.
1. Curriculum Aims and ‘The Importance of History’
The introductory statement is easily skipped over but it’s of major importance in defining what we’re trying to do in History and in putting the pupils’ needs at the forefront of the PoS. It is wonderful to see phrases referring to children’s enjoyment of history, to their curiosity and imagination being fired, to them being able to ask and answer questions of the present by engagement with the past. This is a seriously cheering statement although perhaps you have to be 40 or even older to remember the alternative ‘Gradgrind’ philosophy of history teaching that stalked the corridors of grammar schools in the 1960s and early 70s. I think the big difference is that now we have come to build Programmes of Study around principles based on how children learn rather than around what we want to teach them about historical events and concepts.
But what do you do with the Importance of History statement? Look at it often! Use it as the basis for a department meeting, perhaps once a year when you analyse how effectively you are achieving the variety of aims packed into that page and what could be done better next year.
2. Concepts and Processes
The list of concepts and processes is broadly familiar with the exception of ‘Cultural, ethnic and religious diversity’ which doesn’t immediately look like one of the second-order concepts we are used to. Diversity at first glance looks more like one of the content themes than a second-order concept as it is being discussed in terms of pupils’ understanding how, for example, religious, cultural and ethnic diversities developed and their impacts on the world. The HA has developed guidance material on defining and implementing ideas about diversity which can be found at:
www.history.org.uk/Secondary_Key_Stage_3.asp
If Diversity is a valid second-order concept it will be interesting to see what kind of definitions and sense of progression emerge over the next few years. As a concept ‘Diversity’ could be fundamentally about helping children both to challenge and to use generalizations in History – to appreciate that experiences in time and place have been very different and be able to represent these differences in their own written and oral descriptions of the past. In this sense Diversity is closely linked to the concept of Interpretations because historical interpretations often differ because their creators have focused on diverse people, experiences or sources. It also clearly links to Change and Continuity and Similarity and Difference. However what would progression involve – is it more than the ‘Russian doll’ sense of pupils starting KS3, for example, by identifying diverse experiences among a range of people living in the Roman empire and thereafter exploring a range of increasingly complex contexts up to the stage where they can identify, for example, a diversity of attitudes, interests and behaviours in an individual and how these diversities help build up a complex picture of that individual – often the province of A level analysis but capable of being taught, to some degree, at an earlier stage.
Other concepts have been given greater prominence, notably Interpretations and Significance. Although much of this Concepts and Processes material is familiar in terms of language there is still a great deal to be done to discover how to develop understandings most effectively. There’s also the issue of moving pupils on from explicitly using a concept such as Evidence on its own, to analyse the sources for 1066, for example, to explicitly using a mix of concepts for the purpose of creating a historical account. Perhaps there is more progression in explicitly developing the use of a combination of concepts that in increasing understanding of a concept in isolation. So familiarity doesn’t mean we’ve got them sorted. This is certainly true of the innocuous sounding ‘Chronological understanding’, of which more in another section!
3. Range and Content
The most obvious difference in the PoS is the way that content is defined with the jettisoning of definition by period and its replacement by a series of ‘thematic stories’. This is where much of the potential of the PoS lies, although it doesn’t mean instant revolution in what you cover or how you structure your courses. You will continue to teach the staples – 1066, Magna Carta, Black Death, Civil War etc but in a way that enables pupils to relate them to thematic stories across time. Much fuller discussions of planning and teaching these thematic stories are provided elsewhere in this section but, for the moment, I’ll simply suggest that the division between ‘British History’ and ‘European and World History’ is mildly lunatic, completely unhelpful but happily can be completely ignored. It makes no sense to hive off ‘Conflict and Co-operation’ into a European and World section when any sensible coverage of this story across time involves Britain. Equally it’s plain daft to tell the story of empires or the story of the development of democracy and human rights solely in a British context – they link so well to events in other nations at other times, enabling you to maximise the coherence of your courses and helping children link events across time much more easily. But overall – this definition of content by thematic story may well prove to be a major advance in helping children develop their historical knowledge and understandings and their sense of chronology.
4. Curriculum Opportunities
This is another easily over-looked section of the PoS but again one that needs to be the focus of at least part of a departmental meeting once a year. Each of the five elements has a particular role to play, with the use of ICT being central to helping children develop their sense of achievement in history by being able to tell these thematic stories over time. I say this not because the use of ICT is helpful for stimulating interest or because developing a critical approach to the web is as vital as learning to question the reliability of historical sources but because, well, think about what pupils emerge from KS3 History with in concrete terms. Three sets of notes or books, more or less full of red ink – not items to show off to parents and easily and unregretfully lost. But what if they emerge with just one CD containing their versions of the thematic stories that comprise KS3 History – stories they have contributed to making by writing voiceovers or choosing images. They won’t individually have made them all from scratch but have built them up across the Key Stage from resources provide by teachers. That would be a product there’s much more chance of being proud of.
5. Don’t panic!
You are not expected to provide a new, fully-fledged scheme of work by September 2008. The idea is that you build towards that over the next three years – and even by then you won’t have made all the changes you want to make or are possible to make, especially as there are new GCSE and A level specs to be introduced. The ideal is to map out a broad plan for your new KS3 scheme of work and then work in detail on Year 7 for September 2008 and then revise the broad plan in the light of how it’s going. How fast you go depends on many factors – those new specs, how much support (or the reverse) you get from SMT, what kinds of colleagues you have and how well you work together – not to mention all those domestic issues that take priority over working life. Keep doing what you are already doing well but begin to adapt activities to fit into the new PoS – it could be really exciting!
This Page
Download the articles from Teaching History
Planning the 2008 KS3 PoS
Frameworks, Themes & What's in it for Students?
Integrating depth studies and outlines
England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales
Coming Soon
Ideas, Beliefs etc
Bringing it all together
2yr KS3 Issues