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Past Forward: Interpretations of History
Article
The internet revolution has accentuated the need for critical thinking about different interpretations of the past and has also generated a huge and exciting range of possibilities in terms of web-based sources and interpretations. Most teachers are now familiar with the many excellent websites that are designed to support school...
Past Forward: Interpretations of History
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Thematic GCSE Content
GCSE Resources
The helpful guide below sets out links to a range of podcasts, articles and pamphlets that will provide subject knowledge guidance that you may find useful for all of the identified thematic topics of the GCSE specifications. In addition there are also links to helpful articles dealing with bigger picture...
Thematic GCSE Content
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Enrichment Opportunities
Briefing Pack
Background
History can be used to enrich students' experience of education in many ways. Everything has a history and links can be made with, and support given to most other subjects. Opportunities can be provided to classes, whole year groups, across year groups, or to individuals. Enrichment can be as...
Enrichment Opportunities
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Triumphs Show: ‘The Strands of Memory’
Teaching History feature
In 2014, a group of French pupils from Lycée Léopold Sédar Senghor in Évreux was due to meet a British Second World War veteran, Eric Rackham, to hear him talk about his war experiences. Sadly, he passed away before the planned meeting. Paradoxically, this failed meeting led to the development...
Triumphs Show: ‘The Strands of Memory’
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Communities of inquiry: creating the conditions for meaningful collaboration
Teaching History article
When Will Bailey-Watson (a history ITE tutor) and Charlie Crouch (a history PhD student) worked together to improve a history undergraduate course at their university, they realised that the benefits of collaboration between teachers and historians can flow both ways. In this article they offer an account of how they sought...
Communities of inquiry: creating the conditions for meaningful collaboration
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The mechanics of history: interpretations and claim construction processes
Teaching History article
Holly Hiscox was concerned that many of her A-level students – asked to evaluate three different historical interpretations for their non-examined assessment task – still tended to hold unhelpful misconceptions about the nature of interpretations. In this article she explains how she created an introductory scheme of work to help them understand...
The mechanics of history: interpretations and claim construction processes
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Recorded webinar: Dealing with the issues from lockdown in the history classroom
Webinar
In the last 12 months students have all missed significant chunks of school and importantly a significant chunk of history lessons. In this special one-off webinar, some members of the HA secondary committee discuss the main issues we face as history teachers and offer some potential solutions. What does catch...
Recorded webinar: Dealing with the issues from lockdown in the history classroom
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Film: What's the wisdom on... Enquiry questions (Part 2)
Your Virtual History Department Meeting
We’ve been talking to our secondary school members and we know how difficult life is for teachers in the current circumstances, so we wanted to lend a helping hand.
'What’s the wisdom on…' is a new and already popular feature in our secondary journal Teaching History and provides the perfect stimulus for a...
Film: What's the wisdom on... Enquiry questions (Part 2)
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Film: What's the wisdom on... Enquiry questions (Part 1)
Your Virtual History Department Meeting
We’ve been talking to our secondary school members and we know how difficult life is for teachers in the current circumstances, so we wanted to lend a helping hand.
'What’s the wisdom on…' is a new and already popular feature in our secondary journal Teaching History and provides the perfect stimulus for a...
Film: What's the wisdom on... Enquiry questions (Part 1)
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Film: What's the wisdom on... Historical Interpretations
Your Virtual History Department Meeting
We’ve been talking to our secondary school members and we know how difficult life is for teachers in the current circumstances, so we wanted to lend a helping hand.
'What’s the wisdom on…' is a new and already popular feature in our secondary journal Teaching History and provides the perfect stimulus for a...
Film: What's the wisdom on... Historical Interpretations
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Nurturing aspirations for Oxbridge
Teaching History article
An exploration of the impact of university preparation classes on sixth-form historians
Frustrated by the low numbers of students from her comprehensive state school who expressed any interest in applying to Oxford or Cambridge to study history, Lucy Hemsley set out to explore ways in which she might both inspire...
Nurturing aspirations for Oxbridge
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Tracking the health of history in England’s secondary schools
Teaching History article
In 2009 the Historical Association conducted the first of what has become an annual survey of history teachers in England. Its aim was to get beyond bare statistics relating to subject uptake and examination success to examine the reality of history teaching across all kinds of schools and to map...
Tracking the health of history in England’s secondary schools
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Driving Your Discussion
Article
Welcome to Driving Your Discussion – a new resource from the Historical Association's Secondary Committee.
The resource takes the form of a series of discussion cards to support teacher collaboration by guiding critical reflection on topical themes such as curriculum design, assessment, inclusion, and pedagogy. Each discussion card offers structured prompts,...
Driving Your Discussion
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Year 8 and interpretations of the First World War
Teaching History article
Dan Smith was concerned that his pupils were drawing on over-simplified generalisations about different periods of the past when they were considering why interpretations change over time. This led him to consider how pupils’ contextual knowledge and chronological fluency might be used more explicitly in order to avoid weak generalisations...
Year 8 and interpretations of the First World War
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Teaching & Assessing Historical Understanding
Teaching of History Series No.63
The purpose of this pamphlet is to broach several issues relating to a child's understanding of some key concepts in History. These are:
Cause and consequence.
Time concepts, i.e. change, continuity, development, progression and regression.
Evidence.
Significance.
Similarity and difference.
Under each of these headings, consideration will be given to: ...
Teaching & Assessing Historical Understanding
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Developing effective collaboration between schools and universities
Teaching History article
Sarah Longair launched a collaborative project between school history teachers and university historians in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. In this article, Longair and her teacher colleagues, Kerry Milligan and Emma McKenna, share how they used online collaboration to develop a flexible and practical approach to school–university collaboration, and...
Developing effective collaboration between schools and universities
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Film: What's the wisdom on... Extended Writing
Article
'What’s the wisdom on…' is a popular feature in our secondary journal Teaching History and provides the perfect stimulus for a department meeting. 'What’s the wisdom on…' provides history teachers with an overview of the ‘story so far’ of many years of practice-based professional thinking about a particular aspect of history teaching.
To...
Film: What's the wisdom on... Extended Writing
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Dialogue, engagement and generative interaction in the history classroom
Teaching History article
Michael Bird has a long-standing interest in the power of classroom dialogue, not only as a means of elicting students’ prior knowledge or checking their understanding of new ideas and information, but also as a powerful tool for generating new knowledge through a collective process of meaning-making. In this article, he...
Dialogue, engagement and generative interaction in the history classroom
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Recorded webinar: History teachers as teachers of reading
Developing confident readers and writers in the history classroom and beyond
Students and teachers can perceive literacy, particularly the challenges of extended reading and writing, to be a barrier to enjoyment of and success in history. Repeated lockdowns over the past two years have, despite teachers’ most creative and dedicated responses to remote learning, made it even harder to help children...
Recorded webinar: History teachers as teachers of reading
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New, Novice or Nervous? 156: Analysing interpretations
Teaching History feature
This page is for those new to the published writings of history teachers. Every problem you wrestle with, other teachers have wrestled with too. Quick fixes don't exist. But if you discover others' writing, you'll soon find - and want to join - something better: an international conversation in which others...
New, Novice or Nervous? 156: Analysing interpretations
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Film: What's the wisdom on... Extended Reading
Your Virtual History Department Meeting
'What’s the wisdom on…' is a popular feature in our secondary journal Teaching History and provides the perfect stimulus for a department meeting. 'What’s the wisdom on…' provides history teachers with an overview of the ‘story so far’ of many years of practice-based professional thinking about a particular aspect of history teaching.
To...
Film: What's the wisdom on... Extended Reading
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Recorded webinar: History for All - Approaches from the Special Sector
History for all series
Whilst many teachers in mainstream schools now have useful links with primary coordinators and have a working knowledge of how the curriculum is approached and implemented in Key Stages 1&2, few colleagues have contact with special schools and the expertise which our colleagues in special education can share with us...
Recorded webinar: History for All - Approaches from the Special Sector
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Film: Curriculum and progression in history and Ofsted’s work with schools
Article
Tim Jenner, the Ofsted Subject Lead for History, gave a clear and informative keynote session at the Historical Association 2021 virtual annual conference which not only gave a clear picture of what a deep dive in history might involve, but also dispelled myths about what Ofsted would and would not expect to see during a...
Film: Curriculum and progression in history and Ofsted’s work with schools
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Film: What's the wisdom on... Consequence
Your Virtual History Department Meeting
'What’s the wisdom on…' is a popular feature in our secondary journal Teaching History and provides the perfect stimulus for a department meeting. 'What’s the wisdom on…' provides history teachers with an overview of the ‘story so far’ of many years of practice-based professional thinking about a particular aspect of history teaching.
To...
Film: What's the wisdom on... Consequence
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Recorded webinar: Supporting less able students in your GCSE classroom
History for all series
In this webinar recording aimed primarily at beginning teachers, Sally Burnham looks at practical strategies to help motivate and support our lower attainers in the history classroom, particularly at GCSE. She explores ways to help students develop secure knowledge, recall that knowledge and use the knowledge effectively so that all students can access...
Recorded webinar: Supporting less able students in your GCSE classroom
