1. Teach through historical enquiries.

Enquiries are the most effective subject pedagogy in history, not least because when well drafted, they make pupils think. You will notice that all the lessons on the site deliberately have as their focus a puzzling key question. These not only cover important content, they also help pupils to develop worthwhile historical skills and conceptual understanding.

Taught well, they should also help pupils to realise that history is a construct from evidence and that not all questions can be answered with certainty. To achieve this, try this device. Instead of giving lots of information/evidence all at once, drip feed it in, making sure that some of it is contradictory, if you can. That way pupils are constantly adjusting their thinking. Try to use phrases such as ‘Now what if I were to tell you..?’ to create those moments of tension in the classroom

And finally,

Subscribers only: You need to be logged in to view this content in full. Please Login or register
Share