General Issues in History Teaching
This section discusses general aspects of history teaching which are not Key Stage specific.
There is no logic to the development of this section, other than that, over the years I've become interested in particular issues at particular moments – and written about them!
Helping students understand more about studying history
Two discussions:
• one on the broader picture of the process of studying history HERE …
• the other on helping students identify different types of history books (Updated 2019) HERE …
A More Intimate Relationship with the Past
Can researching your family history help make you a better history teacher?
Read this article summarising ten things I’ve learned from my family history since 1830 that would have been useful to me in teaching.
Ian Coulson’s ‘Handy’ Guide to Medieval Architecture
A brilliantly simple idea
… how to use the fingers of one hand to explain and remember Norman, Early English, Decorated and Perpendicular styles
Helping Students Think about the Provenance of Sources
A couple of ideas putting analysis of the source before what it says.
Music in the History Classroom
Neil Bates enthuses about the value of music in the classroom and provides examples from his own classes.
Bringing random acts of kindness to schools and classrooms
It may not be History but this feels like a really important addition to the site – perhaps the most important of the year.
Asking questions that explicitly suggest answers will be uncertain
A short discussion of how the nature of questions can help challenge one of students’ most important misconceptions.
Flipped Learning and Independent Study – a 1970s forerunner?
A quick description of how we tried to give students more independence in A level studying – all of forty years ago.
40 Years On
What's been so compelling about history teaching? An exploration with the help of Sam’s Magic Triangle.
Fieldwork:
Using the Historic Environment
A fieldwork discussion and a case study:
• Reviewing the use of fieldwork and trips in History courses HERE …
• Goodrich Castle – a fieldwork case study HERE …
Using Personal & Family Histories
in the Classroom
A variety of suggestions for ways to use your own histories to motivate students and deepen their understandings.
Open Evenings
So how do you make History attractive to Year 6 children looking round your school? Here's one idea that certainly fits the bill in ‘Capturing Imagination’
Help for Non-UK Readers
Help for non-UK readers – a translation of English educational terms in use on this website
And also …
Other general issues which you can find via the navigation tabs at the top of every webpage are:
• Teaching Medieval History in Schools
• Articles