Interpretations
The fact that both the National Curriculum in England and the national assessment objectives that frame public examinations at GCSE and A-level include a focus on ‘historical interpretations’ (plural) as well as referring separately to students’ own use of evidence – makes it very clear that there is an important distinction between the disciplinary concepts of ‘evidence’ and ‘interpretations’. While the former is concerned with students’ use of sources to develop their own interpretation of events; the latter is concerned with students’ exploration and explanation of how and why interpretations developed by historians differ from one another. (Both have a critical role to plan in students’ historical learning – and both need to be carefully planned!) Giving students the confidence and the knowledge to handle competing interpretations is undoubtedly challenging, but the materials in this section show how careful planning within and across the key stages (including Key Stage 3) can help students of all ages to engage effectively with interpretations examining the relationship between historians’ accounts (in books and on television) and the particular questions that they have chosen to answer, as well as the sources on which they claim to have drawn. Read more
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'But why then?' Chronological context and historical interpretations
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'Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?'
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A question of attribution: working with ghetto photographs
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Absence and myopia in A-level coursework
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Approaches to planning interpretations-focused enquiries.
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Bringing historical method into the classroom
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Building Key Stage 5 students’ analysis of interpretations
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Creating confident historical readers at A-level
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Cunning Plan 142: Why do historical interpretations change over time?
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Cunning Plan 151: When and for whom has 1688 been 'Glorious'?
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Cunning Plan 161: Magna Carta's legacy
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Cunning Plan 165: Helping lower-attaining students
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Deepening post-16 students' historical engagement with the Holocaust
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Developing sixth-form students' thinking about historical interpretation
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Do we need another hero? Rorke's Drift
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Emotional response or objective enquiry? Using shared stories and a sense of place
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Emotional response or objective enquiry? Using shared stories and a sense of place in the study of interpretations for GCSE
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Exploring the challenges involved in reading and writing historical narrative
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Exploring the relationship between historical significance and historical interpretation
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Film: What's the wisdom on... Historical Interpretations
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