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Using an anthology of substantial sources at GCSE
Teaching History article
Struck by his GCSE students’ bewildered expressions when studying source extracts, Liam McDonnell decided to adopt a new approach to source analysis. Inspired by the work of other history teachers, McDonnell decided to use an anthology of substantial sources when studying nineteenth-century Whitechapel in London. By revisiting the sources at...
Using an anthology of substantial sources at GCSE
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Teaching History 116: Place
The HA's journal for secondary history teachers
This edition deals with how the purpose of history relates to the purpose of geography or how geography's shaping concepts fit into those of history. How do the two subjects strengthen each other?
06 Sense, Relationship, and Power: Uncommon Views of Place - Liz Taylor (Read article)
14 Cunning Plan: Geography...
Teaching History 116: Place
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Primary History 46: Editorial: History, Citizenship and the Curriculum - A Fit Purpose
Primary History article
Read Primary History 46
In AD 62 an earthquake devastated the town of Pompeii. In AD 1976 Jim Callaghan in his Ruskin speech set off a seismic shock that shook education to its foundations. Almost two decades after the 62 AD Pompeii earthquake’s warning signs the volcanic explosion of Vesuvius...
Primary History 46: Editorial: History, Citizenship and the Curriculum - A Fit Purpose
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Sumerian history through story-telling and expressive movement
Lesson Plan
The Sumerian mystery lesson is based on a story about what people found in one of the royal tombs of Ur dating from about 4000 years ago. (This was in ancient Mesopotamia, near what we now call the Persian Gulf.)
(These resources are attached below)
The story is full of...
Sumerian history through story-telling and expressive movement
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The Invisible Building: St John's in Bridgend
Historian article
Molly Cook, winner of this year's Historical Association Young Historian Local History Award, unravels the mystery of a local icon and tells us about her success in inspiring Bridgend to engage with its fascinating past.
Having worked on previous projects relating to the history of Bridgend and its place in...
The Invisible Building: St John's in Bridgend
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Using museum and heritage sites to promote higher-level learning at KS2
Primary History article
The Key Stage 2 Primary History Curriculum sets ambitious challenges for pupils: "…They should regularly address and sometimes devise historically valid questions about change, cause, similarity and difference, and significance. They should construct informed responses that involve thoughtful selection and organisation of relevant historical information. They should understand how our knowledge...
Using museum and heritage sites to promote higher-level learning at KS2
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Move Me On 194: dealing with students’ current concerns when teaching the history of climate change
Teaching History feature
Move Me On is designed to build critical, informed debate about the character of teacher training, teacher education and professional development. It is also designed to offer practical help to all involved in training new history teachers. Each issue presents a situation in initial teacher education/training with an emphasis upon...
Move Me On 194: dealing with students’ current concerns when teaching the history of climate change
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Knowing what counts in history: historical understanding and the non-specialist teacher
Article
If science graduates think that history teaching is not about questioning, that there is only ‘one answer' in history or that historical facts are unproblematic, does it matter? Should we care? Doug Newton and Lynn Newton argue that it matters very much for the teaching of history. Their article focusses...
Knowing what counts in history: historical understanding and the non-specialist teacher
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Evidence: Theoretical
Links to HA resources for secondary teachers
Getting Year 10 beyond trivial judgements of ‘bias': towards victory in that battle ...
Let's play Supermarket ‘Evidential' Sweep: developing students' awareness of the need to select evidence
Assessment of students' uses of evidence: shifting the focus from processes to historical reasoning
How can students' use of historical evidence be...
Evidence: Theoretical
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Pupil Perceptions and History
E-CPD Resource
A PowerPoint presentation by Alison Kitson dealing with Pupil Perceptions and History.
Pupil Perceptions and History
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The 2014 History National Curriculum: how to get the best from heritage
Primary History article
We all know that site visits are good for children - not least because they give a break from the normal school routine - and there are a plethora of heritage sites both local and national that are able to offer facilities for school visits. But we also know that...
The 2014 History National Curriculum: how to get the best from heritage
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The Historian 157: United States
The magazine of the Historical Association
5 Editorial (Read article - open access)
6 Ending Camelot: the assassination of John F Kennedy – Nicolas Kinloch (Read article)
11 Letters
12 Anti-Americanism in Britain during the Second World War – Kit Kowol (Read article)
17 The portrayal of historians in fiction: people on the edge? – Michael Bender (Read article)...
The Historian 157: United States
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On-demand webinar: New approaches to teaching Britain and transatlantic slavery
Webinar series: Decolonising the secondary history curriculum
Webinar series: Decolonising the secondary history curriculum
Session 5: New approaches to teaching Britain and transatlantic slavery
This 90-minute webinar will delve into the social, economic, and moral implications of this topic. It features an interview with historian Maxine Berg related to her research in this area, before suggesting tools for...
On-demand webinar: New approaches to teaching Britain and transatlantic slavery
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Mudlarking in the Thames: evidence, ecology and enquiry
Teaching History article
Maryam Dorudi arrived at her second PGCE placement school to find many pupils receiving free school meals and speaking English as an additional language. Wanting her students to identify as Londoners and historians, she was drawn into the world of mudlarking and Lara Maiklem. Over the course of eight lessons, she...
Mudlarking in the Thames: evidence, ecology and enquiry
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SHP and 'What is history?'
Article
In the 1970s a new approach to history teaching was developed through the auspices of the Schools Council History Project (SCHP) later named the Schools History Project (SHP). In order to engage pupils (and reverse the perceived danger of a declining uptake of history amongst pupils) the project authors designed...
SHP and 'What is history?'
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Raising the bar: developing meaningful historical consciousness at Key Stage 3
Teaching History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
How can we help pupils make sense of the history that they learn so that the whole adds up to more than the sum of its parts? How can we help pupils develop and sophisticate...
Raising the bar: developing meaningful historical consciousness at Key Stage 3
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Helping Year 9s explore multiple narratives through the history of a house
Teaching History article
A host of histories: helping Year 9s explore multiple narratives through the history of a house
Described by the author Monica Ali as a building that ‘sparks the imagination and sparks conversations', 19 Princelet Street, now a Museum of Diversity and Immigration, captivated the imagination of teacher David Waters. He...
Helping Year 9s explore multiple narratives through the history of a house
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Counterfactual Reasoning: Comparing British and French History
Teaching History article
Year 8 use counterfactual reasoning to explore place and social upheaval in eighteenth-century France and Britain
Two linked motivations inspired Ellen Buxton's research study: she wanted pupils to make connections between British and French history and she wanted to explore the potential of counter-factual reasoning within a causation enquiry. It...
Counterfactual Reasoning: Comparing British and French History
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Eyam: the plague village 1665-66
Historian article
Richard Stone explores the self-sacrifice of a Seventeenth Century village during an epidemic.
History shows us these ‘unprecedented times’ are not that far from previous historical experiences. Lockdown, quarantine, self-isolation, ‘second wave’, ‘third wave’, airborne disease, churches closed; the Covid-19 experience resonates with the plight of the villagers of Eyam, three-and-a-half centuries...
Eyam: the plague village 1665-66
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Teaching History 102: Inspiration and Motivation
The HA's journal for secondary history teachers
Learning to love history: preparation of non-specialist primary school teachers to teach history, Finding voices in the past: exploring identity through the biography of a house, Getting pupils to track their own thinking and much more...
Why Gerry now likes evidential work - Phil Smith (Read article)
Teaching pupils how...
Teaching History 102: Inspiration and Motivation
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Back to basics: using artefacts in the classroom
Primary History article
While most teachers recognise the importance of artefacts in history education, knowing how to use them effectively can often prove more challenging. This article suggests ways to investigate historical objects and provides a framework to support children’s observations.
Why use artefacts?
Artefacts are simply any object used by people in...
Back to basics: using artefacts in the classroom
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Young Historian Awards 2021 – Winners
Annual competition, HA and The Spirit of Normandy Trust
Each year the Historical Association partners with The Spirit of Normandy Trust to award young historians who have shown excellent knowledge and demonstrated historical argument around a subject associated with a series of themes. The competition is divided into age brackets and the entry at secondary level is by essay...
Young Historian Awards 2021 – Winners
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Using different sources to bring a topic to life: The Rebecca Riots
Primary History article
For primary school pupils a key aim of the National Curriculum for history is to understand the method of historical enquiry. Working with original sources is of course central to the whole process and provides a great way to inspire pupils’ experience of the subject. Young pupils, once they have...
Using different sources to bring a topic to life: The Rebecca Riots
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New, Novice or Nervous? 164: Constructing narrative
Teaching History feature: the quick guide to the no-quick-fix
Narrative is shedding its status as the ‘underrated skill’, re-emerging as a requirement of the new GCSE in England. As Counsell has argued, constructing a narrative is ‘no easy option’, however, and asking students to ‘Write an account…’ lacks the comfortable familiarity of ‘Explain why…’ or ‘How far…’. Fortunately, many...
New, Novice or Nervous? 164: Constructing narrative
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The International Journal Volume 10 Number 1
Journal
International Journal of Historical Learning, Teaching and Research Volume 10, Number 1 - Summer 2011. Editorial
Jean Pierre Charland, Marc-Andre Ethier,Jean Francois Cardin History Written on Walls: a study of Quebec High School Students' historical consciousness
Michelle J. Bellino and Robert L. Selman High School Students' Understanding of Personal Betrayal...
The International Journal Volume 10 Number 1
