Tag: concepts

beginning teacher, disciplinary knowledge, historical interpretations, historical scholarship, teacher knowledge, teaching and learning ideas, teaching history

Smartphones and Mirrors: using presentisms constructively in the classroom.

Here, Jessie Phillips, History Teacher at Sawston Village College, takes her thinking about presentism in the history classroom further. She points out that this tendency to interpret the past through present values and concepts is used by historians as a conceptual scaffold. She challenges us to think about how presentism can help pupils make their own meanings out of history. She builds on David Armitage’s … Continue reading Smartphones and Mirrors: using presentisms constructively in the classroom.

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disciplinary knowledge, KS3, sources and evidence, substantive knowledge

Saints and lice- unravelling the medieval past

Jessie Phillips, History Teacher at Sawston Village College, shares work that relates to cultural history/perspective but with a particular focus on the medieval. Her overarching ideas are based on Wineburg’s conception of finding the ‘familiar within the strange’ and the ‘strange within the familiar’ and using this approach she unravels the attitudes, ideas and values of people in the past. She also explores (very carefully) … Continue reading Saints and lice- unravelling the medieval past

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GCSE and A level, historical scholarship, KS3, sources and evidence, substantive knowledge, substantive knowledge, teacher knowledge, teaching and learning ideas, teaching history

Enriching history in a time of Covid

History teachers have pulled off incredible feats since the start of 2021 and are pulling together to get better at helping pupils to get better at history despite the ongoing pandemic disruption. #disthist has been useful for gathering ideas into one place in the twittersphere, the @histassoc remote learning hubs are available and @TMHistoryIcons held a really well-timed distance learning day that was so supportive. … Continue reading Enriching history in a time of Covid

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CPD, curriculum and planning, disciplinary knowledge, diversity and inclusion, substantive knowledge, teacher knowledge, teaching and learning ideas

Reflections on the HA Conference 2020

Thanks to Gemma Hargraves (@History_Girls) for writing here about here takeaways from the HA Conference. The conference sessions will be online until 4th January 2021, so there is still time to catch-up on other sessions once the rush of term is ended. Now is actually a great time to learn We’re all tired, busy adapting to blended learning, and facing various COVID related challenges… but … Continue reading Reflections on the HA Conference 2020

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beginning teacher, CPD, disciplinary knowledge, teacher knowledge

Teaching History for beginners… Disciplinary Concepts

Helen Snelson, Chair of HA Secondary Committee and PGCE History Tutor at the University of York, writes about the HA’s upcoming webinar for beginning teachers and support to teach the disiciplinary concepts. David Ingledew, Head of Secondary ITE at the University of Hertfordshire, and myself have recorded a short intro to disciplinary concepts in the history classroom for beginning teachers. You can find it here. … Continue reading Teaching History for beginners… Disciplinary Concepts

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curriculum and planning, disciplinary knowledge, teacher knowledge

Inspiration about the most controversial of concepts: Empathy

Thanks to Dan Nuttall, who teaches history at Holy Cross College in Bury, for this blogpost. Dan continues our series where colleagues share how past Teaching History articles have made them think and encourage us to revisit them for ourselves.  Recently, I noticed that a decades-old debate between history educators had resurfaced on Twitter. The debate concerned whether it was appropriate or not to ask … Continue reading Inspiration about the most controversial of concepts: Empathy

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curriculum and planning, GCSE and A level, teaching and learning ideas

Supporting the development of students’ schema: a wish list for students arriving for their first year of A Levels

Thanks to Heather Sherman of York College for this blogpost. Heather teaches in an FE College and every year she meets new students from many schools as they embark on their two years of A Level study. Heather writes supportively as to how teachers of students at Key Stage 4 can help with the transition to Key Stage 5. Despite the pressures of the exam … Continue reading Supporting the development of students’ schema: a wish list for students arriving for their first year of A Levels

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beginning teacher, GCSE and A level, teaching and learning ideas

Lessons learned: how are we changing our teaching in light of the first cohort of GCSE results?

In this blogpost a very experienced history teacher shares with us how her department are reshaping KS3 in the light of the first 1-9 GCSE results.  Once we had completed the mammoth two-year task of planning and teaching for the new History GCSE we awaited the results with nervous apprehension. Had we understood the spec? Had we used teaching techniques that had helped our students … Continue reading Lessons learned: how are we changing our teaching in light of the first cohort of GCSE results?

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GCSE and A level, KS3, substantive knowledge, teaching and learning ideas

Substantive concepts: ‘Left-wing? Right-wing? Do you mean like in hockey, miss?’

This week a post to help teach tricky concepts at GCSE… Left-wing and right-wing are not easy concepts for GCSE students. Every year I make my students laugh by pacing from side-to-side of my classroom being the political positions on an imaginary political line from left to right. I am not good at impersonations, but I try to put politicians on the line in a … Continue reading Substantive concepts: ‘Left-wing? Right-wing? Do you mean like in hockey, miss?’

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display materials, teaching and learning resources

The Process of History display

The Historical Association has regional twilight meetings for teachers. Inspired by hearing Ian Dawson at the Northern History Forum, Huntington History Department has created this beautiful display and is happy to share it with everyone: Process of History Display Why not go to one of the up and coming HA events? Click here to find out more about CPD that is low cost and high impact. As well … Continue reading The Process of History display

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