Chapter Two

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The value of learning history

‘There is clearly still a need for teachers to place greater emphasis on developing pupils’ understanding of the distinctive contribution of each subject to their learning; pupils needs to be able to answer the question ‘Why are we doing this?’ M. Biddulph and K. Adey, (2003) The Curriculum Journal, 4(3): 301.

Earlier reading which considers the value of learning history includes:

Collingwood, R.G. (1962) The Idea of History, Oxford: Oxford University Press, particularly Part V, pp. 205–334.

Partington, G. (1980) The Idea of an Historical Education, NFER, especially Chapter 1, ‘Why Teach History in Schools?’.

Thomson, D. (1969) The Aims of History, Thames and Hudson.

And more recently:

Barnes, S. (2002) ‘Revealing the big picture: patterns, shapes and images at KS3’, Teaching History, 107.

Clare, J.D. (1997) ‘History IS important’, Teaching History, 88.

Evans, R.J. (1997) In Defence of History, Granta Books.

QCA (2005) History: Annual Report on Curriculum and Assessment, December, refers to research on pupils’ perceptions of history by Terry Haydn. Haydn provides further support for the contention in the chapter about the need to explain the value of history in language accessible to the pupils. He found that ‘many pupils were unable to give reasons for studying history that reflected the aims and purposes of the subject. Their reasons were often very vague and generally based on fairly inchoate or limited ideas about employment possibilities. Many pupils either did not feel that history was relevant or were unable to articulate why it might be useful,’ (ibid., p. 16).

Riley, M. (1997) ‘Big stories, big pictures: making outlines and overviews interesting’, Teaching History, 88.

Slater, J. (1995) Teaching History in the New Europe, Cassell.

Numeracy

Davies, P., Lynch, D. and Davies, A. (2003) Enlivening Secondary History, Routledge, Section 2, Numerical Data.

DfES (2001) Numeracy Across the Curriculum. www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/keystage3/resput/num_xc_webresources

Phillips, I. (2002) ‘History and Mathematics or History with Mathematics: does it add up?’, Teaching History, 107.

Significance

Chapman, A. (2003) ‘Conceptual awareness through Categorising’, Teaching History, 111.

Counsell, C. (2004) ‘Looking Through a Josephine Butler-Shaped Window: Focussing Pupils’ Thinking on Historical Significance’, Teaching History, 114.

Hammond, K. (2001) ‘From Horror to History: Teaching Pupils to Reflect on Significance’, Teaching History, 104.

Hunt, M. (2000) ‘Teaching historical significance’, Chapter 4 in J. Arthur and R. Phillips, Issues in History Teaching, Routledge, pp. 39–53.

Lomas, T. (1990) Teaching and Assessing Historical Understanding, Historical Association.

Phillips, R. (2002) ‘Historical significance – the forgotten Key Element?’, Teaching History, 106.

Wrenn, A. (2002) ‘Equiano – the voice of silent slaves’, Teaching History, 107.