Embracing messiness: teaching disciplinary thinking in history

Session 1: Embracing messiness: the case for returning to disciplinary thinking in history classrooms 

In recent years, disciplinary thinking has been somewhat overlooked as the 'what' of curriculum has taken the front seat for many schools. This introductory session will explain the rationale for these webinars and consider some principles for re-thinking our approach with disciplinary thinking. It will encourage colleagues to hold up a mirror to how they approach what is variously called 'second-order concepts', 'disciplinary thinking' or 'historical skills' and suggest some approaches that embrace the complexity of the past without leaving students confused.

This webinar took place in Autumn 2024. The full webinar series is available to access on-demand from April 2025–April 2026.