Dr Tim Lomas January 2008 tlomas@cfbt

1. EFFECTIVE PRACTICE IN KEY STAGE 3 HISTORY AND HOW THE NEW PROGRAMMES OF STUDY PROVIDES OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE SUBJECTA PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE Dr Tim Lomas January 2008 tlomas@cfbt.com

2. PERSONAL VIEWS: • Changing little is a possibility but probably time limited; • Its not the thin edge of the wedge to integrate the subject or reduce time; • What is accepted as good history has not changed; • It provides an opportunity to update its rationale; • We are in danger of it being seen as for more able pupils; • There is much to be pleased about.

3. 5 ASPECTS WORTH HIGHLIGHTING: • More chronology, sense of period, coherence and what matters; • Diversity at different levels means more caring and a stress on interdependence; • Less tunnel vision through comparing and contrasting; • Multi-level approaches from the personal to the broad themes and different perspectives; • Re-emphasising history beyond the traditional classroom – visits and ICT.

4. WHAT WE NEED TO GET OVER TO THE PUPILS: • History in the round and how it is linked; • What the current world owes to the past; • Respect for humanity through understanding diversity; • How we recover history; • How it has fascination and curiosity through emphasising people; • How its an active experience; • How it links to other subjects; • Some elements are more relevant to particular communities.

5. THE DIMENSIONS OF GOOD HISTORY: • Good, open-ended enquiries and questions; • Knowing what motivates; • How themes help provide the map of the past; • Knowing likely misconceptions and perceptions; • Reinforcing key ideas; • Ensuring variety; • Ensuring personalisation which can involve emotion and controversy; • Understanding progression; • Incorporating the personal, family and local dimension.

6. GOOD INVESTIGATIONS (1): • Nothing useful came out of the Middle Ages did it? • Despite all the odds, how come a French man got the throne of England in 1066? • What were the rows about between Kings, the Church and people in medieval times? • What got in the way of the medieval villagers having a pleasant life? • What were the highs and lows of a family living through Tudor and Stuart times as far as they were concerned?

7. GOOD INVESTIGATIONS (2): • What 10 questions would you most like to ask someone fighting on the Royalist or Parliamentarian side? • Religion seemed to get people so worked up at this time. Would you have done things differently if you had been in charge? • Was it all nasty for ordinary people between 1500 and 1750? • Was it a better place to be alive in 1750 than 1500? • Was the Empire a good thing for everyone?

8. GOOD INVESTIGATIONS (3): • “Good for the pocket but bad for the health”. Prove this statement wrong about the Industrial Revolution; • Did life improve for all people as Victoria got older? • Who do you have more time for – Churchill or Roosevelt? • How would you have made sure that World War I was the “war to end all wars”? • Was World War II worse than World War 1? • Did any good come out of World War II?

9. QUESTIONS THAT WORK: GENERAL (1): • A balance of closed and open but at least 50% “higher order” ones; • Variety; • Pupil and peer questions; • Extended ones; • Questions having a clear purpose; • Requiring different forms of communication. • Take time; • Excite curiosity;

10. QUESTIONS THAT WORK: GENERAL (2): • Involve choices and decisions; • Provoke a response; • Bring out the human dimension; • Deal with real historical situations; • Link content and skill; • Involve some mystery or problem; • Require a relationship with the theme; • Reinforce earlier work through valid comparison; • Build on misconceptions; • Introduce dilemmas and paradoxes;

11. QUESTIONS SHOWN TO WORK (1): • Given this situation, what choices might X have had? • Given these choices, what decision would you have taken? • If this appears to have been the best response, why do you think X took this course of action? • For this group/individual what was the thing (s) that they felt was the most important things in their lives at this particular time? • Why might X not really have understood what Y was doing/believed in? • How much do you think X would have felt immediately after they did ….? How about 6 months later?

12. QUESTIONS SHOWN TO WORK (2): • How far was this “common sense” to X at this time? • What experiences could X look back on to help them decide about ….? • What do you think made these people happy/sad/nervous/proud etc? • How do you think X felt when he took this decision/this happened? • Can you see many ways in which what X did is similar to something you have done/what someone around today has done recently? • Why don’t we know more about what happened? Can you think how we might piece together more clues?

13. QUESTIONS SHOWN TO WORK (3): • In what ways should we respect this person/action? • What 5 things should we remember about this person/event? • How well do you really think you understand this person/event? • What links these people from the past with us today? • Why should we care about these people? • What do you most admire and dislike about these people?

14. QUESTIONS SHOWN TO WORK (4): • This seems to have been the situation. How might someone see it differently? • Are you more likely to have been a friend/enemy of XXX • Which side would you have chosen to be on if you were around at the time? • If someone was transported from this scene to today, what would they make of…..? • Take this family over this period – what do you think made them most concerned (over a long period);

15. QUESTIONS SHOWN TO WORK (5): • From the evidence you have gathered, describe a scene/emotion/family; • 5 things you wish you knew about this topic? • Test this hypothesis – what is your answer/prove that this is true/untrue? • Plan your own investigation; • What prevents us getting as close to these people as we would like?

16. WHAT PUPILS LIKE: GENERAL: • Teaching methods; • Class relationships; • Humour and having fun; • Clear explanation; • Balance; • Class order; • Routines; • Checking of work; • Encouraging success; • Good subject knowledge by the teachers.

17. CONTENT PREFERENCES: • Aspects of the Ancient World; • Aspects of medieval life; • Tudor period; • Victorian period; • Aspects of the twentieth-century world; • Non-European theme but this depended on the theme chosen. Indigenous Americans and black peoples often proved popular; • Conflict; • Most relatively happy about history content at all stages.

18. KEY INFLUENCES: • The enthusiasm of the teacher; • The quality of resources; • The amount of time available especially the opportunities for depth; • An active as opposed to a passive approach to the subject.

19. WHAT ENGAGES PUPILS IN HISTORY? (1): • Looking at people and what they did; • Plenty of variety – especially with resources, activities and methods; • Stories; • Sensational but human content – blood, filth and gore BUT also uplifting tales; • Active and challenging work with sources such as historical pictures, videos; • Links with their own life experiences;

20. WHAT ENGAGES PUPILS IN HISTORY? (2): • Engaging in the historical process particularly practical activities; • Depth work – time to probe and discuss and debate; • Local and family history especially where associated with a visit or questioning people; • Attractive resources including artefacts, ICT, visits and visitors and making models.

21. WHAT PUTS PUPILS OFF HISTORY?: • Simple extraction of information; • Meaningless copying and colouring; • Filling in worksheets; • Unstructured investigations and disorganised work; • Simplistic, closed questions; • Unattractive resources; • Pointless questions; • Too much information; • Unenthusiastic of know-it-all teachers and support staff; • Work not related to their world.

22. AVOIDING ATOMISATION: • Overviews to see the main features, eg. through a family; • Timelines, family trees, dates; • Key/distinctive features; • Thematic approaches especially when revisited and mixed with depth; • Comparisons and contrasts; • Typicality.

23. POSSIBLE THEMES (1): • Empire and colonisation; • Governing the people; • Conflict and cooperation; • Tolerance and respect; • City life and urbanisation; • Poverty and wealth; • Justice;

24. POSSIBLE THEMES (2): • Health; • Religion and the state; • Revolution; • Travel and transport; • The development of the United Kingdom; • Exploitation and control; • The power of individuals.

25. ENQUIRIES BASED ON THEMES: • Rulers and ruled – how have rulers exercised their authority throughout history? • Growth and decline – how far do all societies rise and fall? • Conflict and co-operation – how far has co-operation been more successful than conflict through history? • Empire – have some empires been more successful than others? • Wealth and poverty – how wealthy have past societies been? • Health and medicine – how far have past societies been able to improve the health well-being of their people?

26. MISCONCEPTIONS AND PERCEPTIONS IN HISTORY: • Confused chronology/change – anachronism and no sense of duration; • Inadequate contextual knowledge, confused terminology, difficulty with abstractions and stereotyped views; • Misunderstanding cause and effect, failing to see links and having a simplistic grasp of causation; • Too accepting or too sceptical a view of sources and evidence; • A lack of understanding of the validity and reasons for different interpretations; • Inadequate understanding of human motivation, attitudes and values.

27. COMMAND WORDS (1): 11. Debate, 12. Define, 13. Demonstrate, 14. Describe, 15. Determine, 16. Discuss, 17. Distinguish, 18. Evaluate, 19. Examine, 20. Explain how, 1. Account for, 2. Analyse, 3. Assess, 4. Calculate, 5. Clarify, 6. Compare and contrast, 7. Compose, 8. Comment on, 9. Consider, 10. Criticise,

28. COMMAND WORDS (2): 31. How useful, 32. Illustrate, 33. Interpret, 34. Investigate, 35. Justify, 36. List, 37. Narrate, 38. Outline, 39. Prove, 40. Recall, 21. Explain what, 22. Explain whether, 23. Explain why, 24. Establish, 25. Formulate, 26. Give an account, 27. How far, 28. How reliable, 29. How different, 30. How similar,

29. COMMAND WORDS (3): 41. Relate, 42. Review, 43. State, 44. Summarise, 45. Synthesise, 46. To what extent, 47. Translate, 48. What; 49. When; 50. Where.

30. ATTITUDINAL ISSUES: • Lack of curiosity and interest especially reading; • Not seeing the point of what they are asked to study; • A lack of initiative, eg. with enquiries; • Poor group work; • Surface understanding often hidden by extensive copying/plagiarism; • Avoidance tactics many show especially in relation to higher-order thinking; • Too easily pleased with surface answers; • Poor response to feedback

31. PERSONALISATION AND DIVERSITY: • Does history cater for all children including SEN, YGT and different cultural and ethnic heritages? • Is there respect for identity and diversity? • Is there respect for the past? • Is there a challenging approach to differentiation? • Are performance and attitudes monitored? • Is there emphasis on confidence, self-esteem and enjoyment?

32. RELEVANCE: • Covers issues of concern and significance in the current world; • Makes links with employability; • Links with other areas of the curriculum; • Helps provide an informed entry into adult life; • Focuses on supporting a society at peace with itself.

33. CONTROVERSIAL AND EMOTIVE AREAS: • Who are the British? • The contribution of minorities; • Crusades; • Colonialism and empire; • Slavery; • Ireland; • Migration; • Genocides; • Terminology like “invaders” and “explorers”.

34. ADDRESING EMOTIVE AND CONTROVERSIAL ISSUES: • Ensure complexity is recognised; • Needs to be a whole school issue; • Provide context; • Content and ideas are up-to-date; • Challenge closed thinking and apathy through enquiry and debate.

35. UNDERSTANDING PROGRESSION IN TERMS OF GETTING BETTER AT HISTORY(1): • Being more selective; • More confident use of concepts – reinforced and embedded; • Better use of a structured imagination; • Greater skill at making connections, comparisons and contrasts to assess significance and typicality; • Explain rather than describe; • Summarise and generalise from a growing database of information;

36. UNDERSTANDING PROGRESSION IN TERMS OF GETTING BETTER AT HISTORY(2): • Better at planning, organising and communicating – the historical process; • Increased awareness of uncertainty; • Better emotional intelligence and the affective side – care, concern and respect; • Positive learning attitudes.

37. RECORDING PROGRESS: Class Record Sheet: