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Assessment of students' uses of evidence
Teaching History article
Drawing on her research into students' evidential reasoning, Elisabeth Pickles explores the possibilities for how such reasoning might be assessed. Existing exam mark schemes focus too heavily on generic processes involved in the analysis of source material and insufficiently on the historical validity of reasoning and conclusions produced. Approaching the...
Assessment of students' uses of evidence
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My Favourite History Place: Bulguksa Temple, Korea
Historian feature
Set among the forested Toham mountains in southeast Korea, Bulguksa (Bulguk Temple, the Temple of the Buddha Land), was founded during the Silla Dynasty (57 BC–AD 935). The history of this 1,300 year old sacred site reflects the long and sometimes turbulent history of Buddhism and its heritage in Korea, up to its...
My Favourite History Place: Bulguksa Temple, Korea
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Update: New approaches to the study of ancient history
Historian feature
This regular ‘update’ feature in The Historian looks at the latest developments in the study of various aspects of history. Here Steve Illingworth considers how scholars of ancient worlds have broadened their geographical approach in recent years, so that there is now greater diversity and less Euro-centricity in the subject matter being explored. The...
Update: New approaches to the study of ancient history
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Integrating heritage education and public history at school
Teaching History article
As a busy teacher of history and part-time doctoral student exploring history, heritage and identity, Joris thought a lot about heritage, students’ understanding of heritage and how such ideas could best be brought into the history classroom. Meanwhile, he discovered that the buildings next to his school were about to...
Integrating heritage education and public history at school
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Pull-out posters: Primary History 96
Earthrise; Finding some of the great trees of the United Kingdom
Poster 1: ‘Earthrise’, taken on 24 December 1968, by Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders
Poster 2: Finding some of the great trees of the United Kingdom
Pull-out posters: Primary History 96
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Drama and role play
Primary History article
Drama and Role Play are powerful teaching approaches for language development. The themed edition of Primary History 48, Spring 2008 History, Drama and the Classroom provides a comprehensive introduction and detailed guidance to language development through roleplay and drama. PH 48 contains numerous case-studies illuminating a full range of approaches.
Case-Study...
Drama and role play
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Artificial Intelligence (AI) in primary history – take CARE!
Primary History article
Teaching has embraced many revolutionary changes before: the photocopier, the calculator, the internet, even the smartboard! The Assistant Director-General of UNESCO (2023) though feels that these could pale into insignificance when compared to the rise of AI. This article looks at ways in which Generative AI might be used by...
Artificial Intelligence (AI) in primary history – take CARE!
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Primary History summer resource 2024: the Ancient Greeks
Primary member resource
Our free summer resource for 2024 is intended to enhance your subject knowledge about Ancient Greece.
The first article looks at an individual Greek, Pytheas. Often Greece is taught largely as an insular place of city states, but the reality is that Greece was heavily involved in trade and they...
Primary History summer resource 2024: the Ancient Greeks
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Pull-out posters: Primary History 95
Deaf Londoners in the 1660s
Everywhere you look in history you can find deaf people and sign languages.
Pull-out posters: Primary History 95
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Using the back cover image: Windmill Hill
Primary History feature
The back cover image is a reconstruction of prehistoric life based on the English Heritage site Windmill Hill. Such images are of great value to the teacher in bringing the distant past to life, and in deepening pupil understanding of its historical significance. Using these sorts of illustrations can help...
Using the back cover image: Windmill Hill
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My Favourite History Place: Burton Agnes Hall
Historian article
David Hockney’s landscape paintings of the Yorkshire Wolds in the 1990s alerted people to the peculiar beauty of the East Riding but the region remains strangely unknown and unvisited, especially the small, scattered villages inland from the coast. Yet the village of Burton Agnes, on the road between Driffield and Bridlington,...
My Favourite History Place: Burton Agnes Hall
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Archaeology - An approach to teaching history at Key Stage 2. Curriculum history
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
Alongside modern University buildings, at Beckett Park, (part of Leeds Metropolitan University), there is evidence of a monastic grange, a seventeenth century farmhouse, and an eighteenth century mansion which was extended in Victorian Times. The Beckett Park Archaeology Project was established in...
Archaeology - An approach to teaching history at Key Stage 2. Curriculum history
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Look Back - But Not in Anger? A Manchester Boyhood
Article
The following is an extract from A Manchester Boyhood, the recently-published autobiography of Professor Donald Read, a past-president of the Historical Association. His book seeks to set his personal experience during the nineteen-thirties and forties within the troubled history of the time. His opinions, some of which may be found...
Look Back - But Not in Anger? A Manchester Boyhood
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Pull-out posters: Primary History 94
One aspect of teaching Benin that can never be ignored – the incredible bronzes
Posters 1 and 2: The incredible Benin bronzes
Pull-out posters: Primary History 94
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Teaching The Indus Valley Civilisation in the 21st Century
Primary History article
This article discusses how mathematical concepts, literacy requirements and other areas of the curriculum can be harnessed to promote meaningful historical enquiry and understanding. This is especially so for a history topic which lends itself to enquiry based learning, scrutiny of every little clue, and speculation about the very many...
Teaching The Indus Valley Civilisation in the 21st Century
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A cuisine fit for wartime: history and practices of Ukrainian cooking
Historian article
Olena Braichenko examines the most common dishes of Ukrainian cuisine, describing the culinary traditions of the indigenous people of Ukraine – the Crimean Tatars. She explains how the Soviet past influenced the gastronomic culture of Ukrainians and what peculiarities of Ukrainian culinary behaviour contribute to stability and survival in the...
A cuisine fit for wartime: history and practices of Ukrainian cooking
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How much has the weather mattered in British history?
Primary History article
Tim Lomas has considered the effect that weather has had on shaping Britain. He explores how weather conditions and human actions have affected these islands and the communities living here. He suggests three potential areas of investigation. First, he looks at how weather changes might affect crop failure and so...
How much has the weather mattered in British history?
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Linking history and science: how climate affected settlement
Primary History article
Karin Doull looks at how previous civilisations were affected by natural climate change, often precipitated by volcanic eruptions. She suggests that any investigation into ancient civilisations should consider how physical geography contributed to the initial settlement and development. She argues that we should also look at what might have contributed to...
Linking history and science: how climate affected settlement
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Using public records to explore local history
Historian feature
Local history has the power to bring different groups within our communities together – learning about the history of your street, village, town or city is something that anyone can take an interest in, regardless of how long they have lived there.
Researching local records to find out about an area...
Using public records to explore local history
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Local Authority Housing
Classic Pamphlet
Local authority housing has been a distinctive feature of the British housing system throughout the twentieth century. This pamphlet outlines the development of local authority housing in Britain from its origins in the late nineteenth century to the present day, focusing on the ways in which policy changes have affected...
Local Authority Housing
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Pull-out posters: Primary History 93
Coronations
Poster 1: What continuities and change can you see in coronations from the distant to recent past?
Poster 2: Some objects used or presented at a coronation
Pull-out posters: Primary History 93
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How local history can bridge the gap...
Primary History article
A year on from the 2021 Development Matters and it is now much clearer how the changes in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) curriculum, with its emphasis on the role of communities, place, space and histories, has provided greater support for teachers and children to make the transition from the Understanding the...
How local history can bridge the gap...
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British Women in the Nineteenth Century
Classic Pamphlet
A short pamphlet surveying the historical record of rather more than half the population of Britain over a period of a hundred years must of necessity be sketchy and incomplete. The great interest in history of women which has arisen in the last few decades has produced a great deal...
British Women in the Nineteenth Century
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Learning history outside the classroom in an age of climate crisis
Teaching History article
Helen Snelson has long been an enthusiastic advocate for learning history outside the classroom. In recent years, as the extent of the climate crisis has become ever more apparent, she has been rethinking her approach to teaching within and about the historic environment. In this article, written in consultation with Adrian Gonzalez, she focuses...
Learning history outside the classroom in an age of climate crisis
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A team-taught conspiracy: Year 8 are caught up in a genuine historical debate
Teaching History article
Are top sets always our top priority? Of course, we know that every child matters (should that now have capital letters?) but those of us who teach in an ability-setted context also know that a bottom set left unable to access the curriculum is likely to pose bigger problems than...
A team-taught conspiracy: Year 8 are caught up in a genuine historical debate
