Bring Teachers In
Holding courses, focussed on teachers’ immediate needs, in a museum or heritage site brings teachers into the site when they would not otherwise attend a course solely on using the site itself.
At Segedunum in 2006 and Bede’s World in 2007 we attracted over 40 teachers to a day’s course. I led the morning, delivering a course on active learning, and then staff from local museums took over, delivering a carousel of activities, showcasing opportunities for learning at their sites. This is one model for a day’s course but others are possible and can be planned in conjunction with the site or museum.
What kind of courses can I provide?
I can run day or half-day CPD courses on Active Learning techniques for:
- primary teachers of history
- secondary history teachers
- teaching history at A level
The exact activities I use can be tailored to the nature of the site or museum, focussing on particular periods or topics.
KS3 History Course at Segedunum - An Example
This morning session introduced a range of active learning techniques in History:
- Guided role-plays – 1066: could it have happened differently?
- Creating communities: the Dissolution of the Monasteries
- Creating Mysteries: the Mystery of the Skeletons in the Field
- Living graphs and washing lines: how do we use them?
- Active Learning: Principles and benefits
We also built in a series of key points about good practice in museum and site-work e.g.
- Make sure you place the site in context, geographically and/or chronologically
- How can you make sure pupils have a sense of the people who lived here or used these objects?
- Integrating a visit into a scheme of work
- The benefits of being selective in what you see and do
- Using sites to develop conceptual understanding as well as content knowledge
The afternoon session was led by a range of contributors from museums in the region, tackling topics such as objects-handling sessions, using documents and other aspects of site work.
Feedback from Delegates
'Fantastic input on active learning - looking forward to trying some of his ideas'
'Inspirational. very thought provoking. Best training for a while.'
'Excellent. Ian Dawson was outstanding. I can take great ideas back [to school] to move my department on.'
'Loved the Ian Dawson bit - loads of great ideas.'
A great interactive presentation.'
