This is the first in a series of weekly blog posts in which I show how a journal article or book has inspired me to improve my teaching practice. Each post ends with a practical resource or activity. Today I show how an article by Nick Dennis (2016) inspired me to improve my planning of assessment activities, a year in advance,…
Category: History Education Blog
From dinner with Simon Schama and tea with Michael Gove to designing independent enquiries with Year 9
How can we help pupils succeed at independent historical enquiry, without them getting lost enroute? Some scene setting: Meeting Mr Gove and brandishing a candlestick A few years ago I was lucky enough to attend a conference called ‘The Future of the Past’. It was held in a big ‘Mr-White-with-the-candlestick-in-the-dining-room’ type manor house, and was funded by a…
Does revision always mean reduction?
‘Which one was Canning Miss?’ ‘He was the Tory Prime Minister in 1827.’ ‘Oh.’ [Frowns]. ‘He’s the one who had the duel with Castlereagh – the one who completely missed.’ ‘Oh yeah! Him! He was the liberal one who the old fashioned ones didn’t like, wasn’t he? The bloke who liked Catholics?’ My Year 12…
“Your brain is like a forest”: being transparent with pupils about ‘desirable difficulties’ in learning information
It’s revision season in our school. We have some excellent resources on ‘active revision strategies’, and we’ve taken the principles of a ‘knowledge-rich curriculum’ seriously. I personally have learnt a lot from Christodoulou’s excellent book ‘Seven Myths About Education‘ (2014). Yet what we are perhaps lacking in is enough transparency about the importance of struggling when revising for…
How to lose a game in school
“In a competition, the winners and losers both lose” – The Dalai Lama. I have created many history-related games for use in the classroom, including two published in the journal Teaching History (issues 149 and 154). I look forward to the point in the Scheme of Work when I can use the games with the students,…
An overview enquiry of the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries through the lens of change and continuity in British fashion
Since turning thirty, I have replaced triathlon with gardening, late night bars with late night milk bottles, and Radio 1 with Radio 4’s Women’s Hour. Whilst listening to the latter, I was particularly struck by a feature on ‘Shaping the Body: 400 Years of Fashion, Food and Life’, which was based on an exhibition at…
The impact of personality in the classroom
What is the impact of personality on teaching? Does personality matter when it comes to teacher effectiveness? Should I try to change any elements of my personality in order to be a better teacher? To begin my short study on personality, I began with a rather dated American study by F. Tyler, which had the promising…
