ThinkingHistory
Celebrating the creativity, variety, challenge and craft of history teaching
This site contains a wide range of articles on curriculum planning, chronological understanding, the nature of enquiry and numerous other topics, as well as over 200 detailed teaching resources – structured role-plays, decision-making activities, living graphs and other techniques which incorporate physical and visual activity into learning. Experience shows these techniques demand far more of students in concentration and depth of thinking and lead to deeper knowledge and understanding than lessons ‘delivered’ to circumscribed templates.
The common threads linking these resources and articles are curiosity about learning, creativity in seeking solutions and a belief in the importance of making the complex accessible and being constantly responsive to individual students’ needs. History teaching is in essence a problem-solving activity – the central problem being how to help students learn effectively – and I hope this site helps teachers solve some of those problems.
Ian Dawson: author and editor of this website
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Latest on the Site
Latest in History Education
The most important questions to ask history students of all ages:
identifying students’ metanarratives and preconceptions HERE …This is more practical than it may sound! It’s intended primarily for Early Careers Teachers and is concerned with the core importance of establishing what ideas students have about crucial aspects of learning History so that misconceptions can be addressed and re-thought.
The Pleasures of Belonging to the History Teaching Community HERE …
Looking back at why being part of the History teaching community has been so enjoyable, a pleasure that I hope those new to teaching will come to share.
Also see a longer list of ‘Recent Articles, Resources and Other Information’ HERE …
Latest Redmayn Chapters
Chapter 13: (recently revised) What did Elizabeth Redmayn do all day? HERE …
Why was Elizabeth’s daily life probably very busy?
Also find all the Redmayn chapters and my introduction HERE …
The Sections of the Website: Introducing the different sections of this website HERE …
The worst thing about being a deputy head was that I had to pretend
other subjects mattered as much as history. They don’t. (Ian Luff)