Teaching history at Key Stage 3

The most popular section of this part of the site is probably going to be the 100 great  teaching ideas.  You will be delighted with the range and depth of the ideas here - the best of the 1000s of lessons I have seen and planned with imaginative teachers.  It is important that the site offers these cameos of best practice, but there is a danger that it might become tips for teachers.  To prevent this from happening, I hope you will spend time looking at the section called the Teaching Process which gives a theoretical underpinning to this whole section and drives many of the outstanding lessons.  What follows below is a simple description of what you'll find under each heading.

The Teaching process

A clear and highly usable antidote to the spurious three-part lesson which places emphasis on pupils making their own meaning and changing their views as they encounter alternative perspectives.

What makes an outstanding lesson? 

This rises above OFSTED generic criteria and offers a history-specific gloss.

Teaching Significance

Lots of groundbreaking new ideas as well as bringing together and exemplifying the best advice of Rob Philips, Christine Counsell and Hartington.

Fit for purpose strategies

It is all very well having great ideas but it is knowing when to use a certain idea, and why, that makes the difference.  Here the criteria for what to use when are explored.  As you will see with the outstanding lessons, great care is taken to select a strategy that has a deep impact on learning because pupils are engaged in a particular way of thinking.

100 great ideas

There is nothing sacred about the number. There are about 93 at present but I hope this will rise to well into triple figures as soon as new approaches are seen to be effective.  All teachers need to have as wide a repertoire of ideas as possible from which to make their selection. You'll find some cracking ideas here that are new to you as well as those you have not used for a while.

Teaching enquiry

This is included as a separate section to reflect the fact that it is given greater prominence in the new curriculum for 2008, as well as the fact that pupils are rarely given enough opportunities to ask their own questions or carry out their own lines of enquiry.

Teaching interpretations

We all ought to have this licked by now but practice is still variable.  I have found it taught both brilliantly and badly.  If it is not understood by departments then pupils rarely develop their own independent understanding of this central concept.  In my mind there is a very close correlation between good teaching of interpretations and successful departments.

Teaching chronology

The latest research which is published on the QCA website has taken our thinking much further on this sadly neglected aspect of history teaching.  This section of the site offers lots of imaginative approaches to complement what you are already doing.

Teaching using ICT and film

With the arrival of digital video and easy editing software, it is unsurprising that the site looks at ICT and film together.  Whether it is Y11 making Podcasts for revision, or Y7 drawing conclusions from a database, this site offers lots of examples of good practice.  More importantly, it steers you in the direction of people such as Ben Walsh who have done so much to raise teachers' expectations about what can be achieved with ICT.

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