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Becoming a history teacher

A few years ago I designed an on-line PGCE module on History Methods and I'm grateful that Queen's University Belfast have given permission to make the resources more widely available.

I've posted the video lectures on YouTube and added the links and some of the supporting resources here so that anyone who wants to think about history teaching can access them.

This was my first attempt at an on-line course so it's far from perfect, but I thought it was (potentially) useful to share it, and definitely of no use to anyone if it just stayed on my PC. If you have thoughts about how to improve this section then please drop me a line.

You may also want to visit...

The History ITT (HITT) site run by the Historical Association is an excellent place to visit

On-line resources

Plan of the materials

There is a short handbook with the overview, rationale and suggested readings. There are also some suggested tasks to link to each lecture and some assessment tasks I used. You may not want to use these, but it explains some of the links I make in the lectures.

For those people too impatient to listen through the videos, I have also linked to the PowerPoint files, so you can just download them and skim the material.

Lecture 1: Thinking about history and history education

This is the introduction to the module and it is broken up into 4 chunks

1-1 Thinking about history

1-2 Thinking about history education

1-3 The overview of the module structure and main themes

1-4 My thoughts on the week's reading by Seixas (2000) and a task

PowerPoints: 1-1 1-2 1-3 1-4

Lecture 2: Chronology, causation and significance

This lecture explores these three core concepts in teaching history as ways of establishing connections and relationships between what we teach.

2-1 Chronology

2-2 Causation

2-3 Significance

2-4 My thoughts on the week's reading by Lee & Shemilt and a task

PowerPoints: 2-1 2-2 2-3 2-4

Lecture 3: Evidence and enquiry

This lecture considers the ways in which we use evidence, how children build their understanding of this area and what teachers can do to promote learning.

3-1 Thinking about evidence and enquiry

3-2 Teaching about evidence and enquiry

3-3 My thoughts on the week's reading by Phillips (2002) & LeCocq (2000) and a task

PowerPoints: 3-1 3-2 3-3

Lecture 4: Empathy and imagination

This lecture argues that empathy has an important part to play in developing genuine historical understanding but that it requires much more than simple imagination.

4-1 Thinking about empathy and imagination

4-2 Teaching about empathy and imagination

4-3 My thoughts on the week's reading by Cunningham (2004) & Endacott & Brooks (2013) and a task

Here are some simple examples of activities that prompt student to exercise historical empathy: e.g.1a; e.g. 1b; e.g. 2.

PowerPoints: 4-1 4-2 4-3

Lecture 5: Interpretation and narrative

This lecture returns to some of the themes in 1-1 and considers how historians produce narratives and interpretations, which in turn require further interpretation. We consider some practical teaching strategies for critiquing and proucing narratives.

5-1 Thinking about interpretation and narrative

5-2 Teaching about interpretation and narrative

5-3 My thoughts on the week's reading by Haydn (2001) & Foster (2011) and a task

PowerPoints: 5-1 5-2 5-3

Lecture 6: Assessment

Having considered some core principles underpinning effective history teaching, the rest of the course turns to more specific aspects of practice. In this lecture on assessment, the main focus is on generic issues relating to assessment and part 3 considers how history teachers plan for effective assessment in their teaching.

6-1 Thinking about summative assessment

6-2 Thinking about formative assessment

6-3 Planning for meaningful assessment in history

PowerPoints: 6-1 6-2 6-3

Lecture 7: Games, simulations and activities

In this lecture I consider some practical strategies for enlivening the classroom. I wanted to outline some strategies that are fun and engaging but also focus on depth and rigour. In the first part I list some activities and in the second part I outline some connections to learning theory.

7-1 Games and simulations 15 activities

7-2 Some ideas from learning theory connected to games and simulations

I always enjoyed adapting simple board games for the classroom and I have included some examples of teaching resources I have written to accompany this lecture. Here is a very simple Connect 4 game for revising the features of motte and bailey castles (board, cards); a snakes and ladders game for thinking about medieval beliefs (board, cards 1 and cards 2) and my favourite medieval farming game (instructions, score card, spinner 1 and spinner 2).

PowerPoints: 7-1 7-2

Lecture 8: Action Research & Impact

In the original course we had an assignment to demonstrate the impact of your teaching. The first part of the lecture is a generic introduction to action research, the second part looks at an example of history action research (Brush & Saye, 2008) and the third part is the introduction to the assignment, with some tips for applying this in practice.

8-1 Using action research to secure impact

8-2 An example of history education action research

8-3 Planning your own impact study

PowerPoints: 8-1 8-2 8-3

Lecture 9: Sites and objects

One of the distinctive features of history pedagogy is the potential for handling artefacts or visiting historical sites. Part 1 considers some of the ideas being developed by museum educators, and how these complement the task of the history teacher. Part 2 considers trips to areas / sites other than museums. Part 3 runs through some basic stages to help with planning.

9-1 Museums, objects and interpretations

9-2 Place and space

9-3 Preparing for site visits

PowerPoints: 9-1 9-2 9-3

Lecture 10: Debating history

In this lecture I discuss the reasons why we might use debates in the history classroom, the various forms of debate we might use at differet times, and consider some of the practical issues teachers need to think about.

10-1 The purpose of using debate in history

10-2 Forms of debate

10-3 Teaching and assessing debate

PowerPoints: 10-1 10-2 10-3

Lecture 11: Textbooks

In this lecture I consider some of the research on textbooks and how teachers can use them.

11-1 Thinking about text books in history

11-2 Using text books

PowerPoints: 11-1 11-2

Lecture 12: Teaching sensitive and controversial history

In this session we consider guidance on how history teachers can engage productively with controversial and sensitive subjects. We focus on how such issues can be dealt with to enhance children’s understanding of the value of history, and so that children benefit from an historical perspective being taken in relation to these issues.

12-1 Teaching controversial history

12-2 Patriotism and history teaching

PowerPoints: 12-1 12-2

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