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Explore the evolving UK education landscape post-consultation, prepare for GCSE reforms, and enhance historical teaching strategies for a coherent, engaging curriculum.
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Teaching the unteachable? Planning for the new Key Stage 3 Barbara Hibbert and Andrew Wrenn SSAT 17th May 2013
Where are we now? • Draft curriculum published in February • Discussions led by HA and other learned bodies as well as other campaigns • Consultation closed 16th April • No response yet • Hope to have a final version by late summer
Where are we going? • June 2013: consultation on reform of GCSEs • Sept 2013: first teaching of ‘strengthened’ GCSE history; national curriculum ‘disapplied’ • Aug 2014: first results for linear GCSEs • Sept 2014: first teaching of new NC KS1-3; specifications for new GCSEs, A levels and AS with schools? • Sept 2015: first teaching of new GCSEs, new standalone AS, new linear A levels.
What have NC proposals got to do with you? • What happens with new GCSE specifications will be key driver of what needs to be taught at KS3 • Transition between phases and sectors of education happens • Pupils do need a ‘useable map of the past’. Do they get that from current programmes of study? • Both opportunities and problems
A quick focus on the aims • know and understand the story of these islands: how the British people shaped this nation and how Britain influenced the world • know and understand British history as a coherent, chronological narrative, from the story of the first settlers in these islands to the development of the institutions which govern our lives today • know and understand the broad outlines of European and world history: the growth and decline of ancient civilisations; the expansion and dissolution of empires; the achievements and follies of mankind
Aims continued • gain and deploy a historically-grounded understanding of abstract terms such as ‘empire’, ‘civilisation’, ‘parliament’ and ‘peasantry’ • understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance, and use them to make connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends, frame historically-valid questions and create their own structured accounts, including written narratives and analyses • understand how evidence is used rigorously to make historical claims, and discern how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constructed • gain historical perspective by placing their growing knowledge into different contexts, understanding the connections between local, regional, national and international history; between cultural, economic, military, political, religious and social history; and between short- and long-term timescales.
How can you fit it all in? • KS3 has 20 topics and 62 sub bullet points. • How much time will you have to deliver this? • How long is KS3 in your school? • Are your KS3 teachers history specialists? • Will the content help to fulfil the stated aims?
Why focus on enquiries? • The wording of an enquiry frames the learning for a number of lessons – moving away from the ‘tyranny of the lesson’ • The strongest are those with a clear conceptual framework • This is NOT about ‘skills’ but about knitting together learning • Allows for constant revisiting of knowledge and addition of new knowledge – this means more demanding content can be absorbed
How would you formulate an enquiry question for each of these concepts using the content proposed? • Cause and Consequence • Similarity and Diversity • Change and Continuity • Historical Significance • Evidence • Interpretations
Interpretations • Should we be proud of the British Empire? • Why do opinions of Victoria’s Empire keep changing?
Similarity and Difference • Who fought on the Western Front? • How different were the attitudes of the rulers and the ruled in the British Empire?
Causes and Consequences • Why was universal suffrage introduced? • Why did Britain’s role in the world change after the Second World War?
Change and Continuity • Which reform has done the most to change life in Britain in the 20th century? • How close was Britain to revolution between 1789 and 1832?
Significance • Why do we still remember the Peace talks of 1919? • How should Winston Churchill be remembered?
Evidence • Why is it hard to decide whether Edwardian Britain was a Golden Age? • What can the Great Exhibition of 1851 tell us about Victorian Britain?