Articles and Discussions
This unit contains a wide range of articles and discussions, some on major issues such as story-telling and the value of creativity for teachers, while others tackle smaller but important issues such as why we need to ask more questions that assume the answers will be uncertain.
The resources in this unit are grouped as follows:
(All on this page)
1. Essentials – no matter what teaching techniques you’re using!
2. Tackling specific learning and teaching problems
3. Tackling specific teaching techniques
4. Broader issues linked to teaching
5. My long-term reflections on the experience of teaching
1. Essentials:
No matter what teaching techniques you’re using!
These articles are listed elsewhere on the site in the section on Curriculum Planning but the issues they address play such an important part in all teaching that I’m repeating them!
An introduction to ‘Takeaways’:
And their central role in planning at KS3
I found identifying the ‘takeaways’ – the specific knowledge and understandings I wanted students to remember – fundamentally important in planning lessons, units of works, across KS3 as a whole and at exam level. This article lays out the basic ideas.
Read about takeaways HERE …
The crucial importance of identifying students’ misconceptions
This article 'The assumptions that strangle students’ understanding of the Middle Ages' explains why it’s essential to identify misconceptions and plan teaching to challenge them – one of the most important steps in improving students historical learning about all topics and periods.
Read the article HERE …
Why I think it’s important to teach history:
A personal view
Written in 2021, this article looks back on over 40 years of involvement in history education, discussing what students can learn about their world and their lives from studying history.
Download the article HERE …
2. Tackling specific learning and teaching problems
Are All History Books the Same, Miss?
Helping students identify different types of history books
Many A level students can struggle to realise that history are very different e.g. books written for a popular audience and those written for academic use. This resource provides a model you can adapt to help students find their way through different types of books and develop their ability to work independently.
Read more HERE …
Timelines, Time Stories and Developing Students’ Confidence
at A level and GCSE
How to help students gain an effective overview of an exam unit before going onto study in detail – it’s hard to overestimate the importance of this for building students’ confidence at the outset of their work.
Read more HERE …
Asking questions about uncertainty in the classroom
Too many questions are framed as if the answers are certain and so only confirming students’ preconception that History is a subject that’s about facts and certainties. This short note suggests question stems that help students accept that uncertainty is central to studying history.
Read more HERE …
Helping students think about the provenance of sources
Many students can struggle to use provenance to comment effectively on the value of sources – this short note suggests a way of improving students’ work on provenance.
Read more HERE …
Why do we always do ‘why?’ first?
A very brief discussion of the value of exploring the causes of an event at the end, rather than the beginning, of teaching about that event.
Read more HERE …
Ian Coulson’s ‘handy’ guide to medieval architecture
If you ever want to teach anyone – students, your own children, friends or passing strangers – about how to recognise the different arches in medieval buildings then you need to read this!
Read more HERE …
3. Tackling specific teaching techniques
Stories in the Classroom
An introduction to the uses of stories in history teaching, focussing on the purposes of using stories and on different forms of story-telling – with lots of examples.
Download the PDF HERE …
Helping students learn with simple physical activities
This article, published in Practical Histories in 2021, discusses four simple ‘physical’ activities which involve movement in the classroom and which can have a major impact on students’ understanding.
Download the PDF HERE …
Thinking from the Inside: How active learning can deepen understanding of attitudes and reactions to the Norman Conquest
This article, co-written with Dale Banham, was published in Teaching History in 2002. While it focusses on one specific activity its broader arguments about the nature of teaching and learning are much more generally applicable and underpin many of the core approaches of the activities on this website.
Download the PDF HERE …
‘Not the white tights again!’
Role-play in History teaching at degree level
An article that appeared in Teaching History as long ago as 1989 (yes, I know you weren’t born then!) that describes some of my early ventures in using structured role-plays and other methods.
Download the PDF HERE …
A more intimate relationship with the past:
Can researching your family history help make you a better history teacher?
I discovered sadly late how much impact evidence from my own family’s history could have in the classroom – that personal connection with the past can really communicate with students. This article explores some examples of family history illuminating curriculum topics.
Read more HERE …
Using personal and family histories in the classroom:
Some examples
A second set of ideas for using family history in the classroom – some minor overlaps with the article above as they were written a number of years apart.
Read more HERE …
Fieldwork in history teaching and learning in universities
Published in The practice of university history teaching in 2000.
Download the PDF HERE …
4. Broader issues linked to teaching
Open Evenings
Emma Boustead discusses how to capture the Imagination of Y6.
Read more HERE …
Kindness
Lesley Munro discusses her experience of bringing random acts of kindness to school and classroom.
Read more HERE …
KS3 Themes
Notes, ideas and suggestions about planning and teaching KS3 History.
See more HERE …
And finally …
5. My Long-term Reflections on the Experience of Teaching
A Happy Choice:
How history teaching grew on me and made me smile
I didn’t feel a born teacher when I started my PGCE and I made a very slow start. There were moments of real doubt but slowly I realised I’d made the right choice thanks to students, colleagues and the problem-solving nature of teaching
Download the article HERE …
Forty Years On:
What’s been so compelling about history teaching?
A look back at the stages through which I learned to be a history teacher – from starting with ‘just’ a love of history to discovering the importance of teaching about how we study history to focussing on how students learn and on developing my own creativity.
Read the article HERE …
Developing Creativity as a Teacher
Creativity is an important part of teaching, stimulating and confidence-boosting for teachers themselves and, even more importantly, enabling us to respond more effectively to the problems that students have.
Download the article HERE …
A Letter to My History Teacher
This adaptation of a real letter, written over 50 years after I left school, explains why one teacher was so important to me and may offers thoughts to new teachers about the potential impact of their teaching.
Download the letter HERE …