Why is Historical Enquiry important?
This discussion explores why Enquiry is so important for effective learning in History, provides a simple outline of the Enquiry process and discusses the nature of Enquiry questions.
This discussion uses the Sutton Hoo Enquiry as an example.
Why is Historical Enquiry important?
It would be easy to answer this question by saying ‘it’s in the National Curriculum’ but that would doing an injustice to the role of Enquiry in History. Anyone ‘doing’ history, from pupils in primary school to those doing research and writing books, is undertaking enquiries, i.e. aiming to answer questions and deepen their knowledge and understanding. Enquiry is one of the cornerstones of the discipline of History, providing a common thread as children progress and mature from primary to secondary school.
Happily the National Curriculum recognizes the centrality of enquiry in the discipline of History as these extracts from the 2014 National Curriculum document indicate:
Purpose of study
A high-quality history education will … inspire pupils’ curiosity to know more about the past.Teaching should equip pupils to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement.
Aims
[Pupils should] …understand the methods of historical enquiry, including how evidence is used rigorously to make historical claims, and discern how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constructedKS1
They should ask and answer questions, choosing and using parts of stories and other sources to show that they know and understand key features of events.KS2
They should regularly address and sometimes devise historically valid questions ….They should construct informed responses that involve thoughtful selection and organisation of relevant historical information. They should understand how our knowledge of the past is constructed from a range of sources.
KS3
They should pursue historically valid enquiries including some they have framed themselves, and create relevant, structured and evidentially supported accounts in response. They should understand how different types of historical sources are used rigorously to make historical claims ...
It’s therefore important that this Enquiry process is made explicit so that pupils can use it with increasing independence as they mature. It’s equally important that children appreciate that Enquiry is such a common thread in their study of History. One reason children can find History difficult is because they constantly feel they’re starting again. They think each new topic is completely different because it features new names, dates, places etc. This new detail acts as camouflage, preventing pupils realising that they can use what they’ve learned before to help them with a new topic. In contrast the Enquiry process is the same each time, regardless of the historical topic or period, and children gain confidence because they know the steps to take in exploring a new topic. This then helps them realise that what they learned in Y3 is useful in Y5 and even in Y10 and Y12 – they can use what they have learned before.
So what is the process of Enquiry?
My pragmatic definition is along the lines of:
a) look at a source or two
b) ask questions about this material
c) suggest a hypothesis (a possible answer) to your question/s
d) investigate some more source material
e) use this new material to test and build your hypothesis until you reach an answer you are happy with.
This process helps children move from knowing nothing or next to nothing about a topic to having a satisfying grasp of the issues and being able to answer questions about it with confidence – be they informal oral questions or demanding written questions. Pupils can then use this process as a template when faced with new enquiries on other topics.
The short definition above could be debated and occasionally teachers at courses have asserted that this pattern is ‘wrong’ in some way or begins with the ‘wrong’ item. However such theorising seems to get in the way of a broadly useful idea. What’s really important is having a readily comprehensible and communicable sequence of activities that pupils can describe, apply and continue to apply as their History studies continue– and which therefore helps them tackle their History more effectively and more confidently.
Apart from its centrality to the study of History, Enquiry is also important because it can be at the heart of arguments about the value of studying History. Explicit focus on enquiry helps pupils, parents and school management see one of the important benefits of studying history – thinking and planning a way through a problem, asking questions, undertaking research, making judgments, creating effective communication – in short, independent thinking,. This is all the more important given the findings in the research of Richard Harris and Terry Haydn which concludes that ‘large numbers of [pupils] have a limited grasp of the intended purposes of a historical education …’
How ‘big’ is an Enquiry?
‘Enquiries’ are sometimes seen as one-off ‘mystery’ items but this is a complete misconception. An Enquiry can last half a term, a term or even longer. They may begin by focussing on a single discovery or excavation (as at Sutton Hoo for example) but such a mystery enquiry is best seen as a ‘mystery starter’, an intriguing doorway into a much more substantial enquiry.
Again using Sutton Hoo as an example, think of it as the smallest of a series of Russian dolls:
In all these enquiries pupils would follow the same enquiry process, beginning with a little evidence, asking questions and following through the process described above, albeit taking longer over the stages as they examine more material when investigating, for example ‘What did the Anglo-Saxons do for us?’ than when investigating ‘What did they discover at Sutton Hoo?’.
This kind of planning would therefore avoid the danger of a ‘mystery’ being a one-off activity and so having little value because whatever is learned about the process of enquiry isn’t then being re-used and consolidated in the bulk of the course.
It’s also important to point out that, while using sources is an integral part of enquiry, carrying out a lengthy enquiry (such as one into the impact of the Anglo-Saxons on life in Britain) involves the normal range of teaching resources and activities – books, role-plays, extended sources, reading, story etc – all of which are used to provide evidence for building, testing and revising hypotheses. Enquiry is simply a process within which you use your normal activities – it implies nothing particular about the material or activities you use.
And a final point on planning enquiry work across KS2 …
Having a scheme of work full of enthusing enquiry questions is not enough to develop pupil’s understanding of Enquiry if all the posing of questions and structuring of enquiry is done by the teacher. An effective scheme must help pupils build the ability to ask their own questions and plan their own way through enquiries, simultaneously using and developing their understanding of historical enquiry.