[Roy Huggins]

Hi Guys,

Imagine that you had been given an opportunity to rewrite or review National Curriculum History, what advice would you give to QCA?

Would you include more British content?
Would you want to see more flexability?
Would you want to cover topics like German or Italian Unification?
How would you ajust or change the attainment target for history?

What do you like to see kept in the orders for history or taken out?

Kind Regards

Roy

This post has been edited by rhuggins: 27 September 2005 - 06:16 PM

[caldwell]

rhuggins, on Sep 27 2005, 07:15 PM, said:

Hi Guys,

Imagine that you had been given an opportunity to rewrite or review National Curriculum History, what advice would you give to QCA?

Would you include more British content?
Would you want to see more flexability?
Would you want to cover topics like German or Italian Unification?
How would you ajust or change the attainment target for history?

What do you like to see kept in the orders for history or taken out?

Kind Regards

Roy

I think it is hard to pick just one thing! I would like to rate them in order. There are so many difficulties with the NC
Caldwell

This post has been edited by caldwell: 27 September 2005 - 06:21 PM

[caldwell]

Hi
My preferred order would be :-

1 more flexibility
2 Better transition to GCSE
3 Make History a core subject [ who am I kidding ]


The content issue would be solved through flexibility. Nowadays we should teach History to meet the requirements of 'the modern world'. We need a local , national and international perspective.
Perhaps a general overview with a few 'to die for' interesting project suitable events.

We have slightly differnet constraints in N.I. and have to deal with conflict in society . But that is a different issue!!!
Caldwell

This post has been edited by caldwell: 27 September 2005 - 06:38 PM

[Ed Waller]

Note with sadness that 'Junk the whole NC' isn't an option.

So I guess that pushes me towards flexibility. I think also we could get away with MUCH less British History.

Perhaps it would be good to include a parallel history (eg Germany, esp if it's retained at GCSE), and there should be scope to cover more of China, Japan, Indian sub-continent and South America.

The AT must have been written by a committee. Five parts, interconnected... Adjustment? How about something like:

1 know what a source is

2 answer question from a source

3 answer question using multiple sources

4 put a source in context

5 consider the reliability of a source

6 use sources to construct an historical narrative

7 use sources to construct an historical narrative that answers a question

8 research sources to construct an historical narrative that answers a question

This would be much more like 'doing history', has the benefit of being simple to understand and would require (albeit not specifically mentioned) most of the concepts of the current version (sounds like a SMART target to me!)

[Roy Huggins]

Hi Ed,

I like your idea on the AT for history. What sort of altrnative courses would you include in the orders for history?

What do you think to the idea of creating more flexability, but stopping schools from repeating content at KS4?

I personally feel that we are in danger of creating a generation of bad historians who only know about the 20th Century? I am having to compete at KS4 and KS5 with schools who have done Era of the Second World War all the way through. This doesn't equip them if they want to take the subject further as a leisure interest or a even degree.

What do people think to the idea of building a local history module aimed at cresting a local shared identity? Great for citizenship? Or is it over done at primary?

Does anyone know how much time Primary schools actually spend teaching history at KS2 or 1?

Roy







Roy

This post has been edited by rhuggins: 27 September 2005 - 06:50 PM

[MrsB]

Good poll Roy,

I have to say I am generally ok with the NC content - there is a lot of flexibility if you look for it - it's often the textbooks that limit us and take us down a particular path.

I also don't have a problem with British content, this is Britain afterall and even withing this umbrella there is the opportunity to explore multicultural aspects eg: soldiers in 1st ww

Regarding GCSE, we can build in GCSE style questions early on by asking yr 7s to extract information from sources, explain how they are useful. Many KS3 students will also experience plenty of opportunities for extended writing.

Core subjects - some people hate history . . . I hated and was bloody glad I didn't have to study it!

BUT

I will confess, I have never ever got to grips with the assessment - the levels are virtually impossible to break down and allow so little progression over the 3 years.

[Roy Huggins]

If you intersted my department a really cool learning ladder using a break down of the levels. Its great for use with AFL activities.

Roy

This post has been edited by rhuggins: 27 September 2005 - 07:19 PM

[MrsB]

I would be interested Roy,

[AdamCrawte]

I voted for more flexibility, however this may not be a problem that the powers that be can solve. There are loads of things that would be really cool to teach instead of the usual French Revolution or Black Peoples of America, but there aren't any resources available on the market as they are not cost effective to the big publishers. I hear the people who say make your own but there is only a certain amount of time in the day.

More flexibility goes for GCSE and A Level as well

[JohnDClare]

AdamCrawte, on Sep 27 2005, 09:03 PM, said:

I voted for more flexibility

I must be getting old! I voted for leave it as it is - and them found to me horror that I was the only one!

Yet ... think about it.
How can you want more flexibility?
The exisitng National Curriculum can easily be tweaked so that you can teach WHAT you want, WHEN you want to now! I have always virtually igmored it and done as I liked; it's easy enough to 'find' where it fits in if anyone questions you.
The Assessment levels are clear, work fairly well in practice, and there has been loads of work done translating them into pupil speak.
Why do you want to change - unless you WANT some govt-imposed group to come along and decided for you. Do you really want to have to rewrite all your schemes of work AGAIN!!!!
Leave well alone and do as you like, I say.

Quote

There are loads of things that would be really cool to teach instead of the usual French Revolution or Black Peoples of America, but there aren't any resources available on the market as they are not cost effective to the big publishers.

I don;t think you mean more 'flexibility here - I think you mean breadth of choice (heaven! I'm sounding like Tony Blair !) But that's not a NC thing, that's a Publishers thing. It would change if the NC put different topics/areas as its lead topics - but then all the publishers would produce that and nothing else.
As I've said before: we live in a capitalist society - live with it!

Quote

I hear the people who say make your own but there is only a certain amount of time in the day.

Yes, but sites like Andrew's offer an alternative to make your own - share your own.
Perhaps, also, someone who has retired could post materials on the web as a hobby!
What is really needed here is a goverment-sposoered sponsoring scheme

Quote

More flexibility goes for GCSE and A Level as well

Hear hear

[Dan Lyndon]

I agree with John D - why bother changing it when you can virtually ignore it as it is! The only change I would ontroduce is more multicultural British history ie scrap Black peoples of the Americas and bring in black peoples of Britain

[Ed Waller]

rhuggins, on Sep 27 2005, 07:49 PM, said:

I like your idea on the AT for history. What sort of altrnative courses would you include in the orders for history?

Thanks for that Roy,

Alternative courses, maybe something on the 'opening' of Japan 1868 and the course it followed for the next 100 years. The origins of civilization - comparative study of Egypt, Greece and Rome. Or for that matter a comparative history of Judaism, Christianity and Islam (and others?), to add the citizenship flag to the course. The Ming and Manchu dynasties of China.

More thematic courses - women in history, black history (both perhaps obviously?), oral history, the labouring classes (to quote EPT). These could easily include a number of focal points relavant to the school, the teacher, the student, the locality.

I can see that these might also be difficult to resource in the same way we resource current NC courses. Hence more collaboration (via this site, SHP conf etc). In deepest darkest Southampton we are almost finished on a collaborative project focusing on 'Leadership through time'. If we can do it here among a handful of HoDs...

rhuggins, on Sep 27 2005, 07:49 PM, said:

What do you think to the idea of creating more flexability, but stopping schools from repeating content at KS4?

I think one might get shot by one's broader colleagues for suggesting such a thing, but I can see the merits in it. If we use KS3 to develop historical skills, it would be a good opportunity to apply them to a new set of information. Not sure how this might be 'policed'.

rhuggins, on Sep 27 2005, 07:49 PM, said:

I personally feel that we are in danger of creating a generation of bad historians who only know about the 20th Century? I am having to compete at KS4 and KS5 with schools who have done Era of the Second World War all the way through. This doesn't equip them if they want to take the subject further as a leisure interest or a even degree.

In some ways the issue here is that it gets pretty focused on a select and narrow band of 20th century knowledge - such is the exam requirement. Never quite sure how much notice Unis take of GCSE or A level content. It's a bit like the approach common in the secondary sector towards the primary sector "we do it properly here", when in reality it's just different. Certainly students today (and even when I taught at Uni five years ago) don't seem to have a 'big picture' within which they can 'map' their studies.


I hope people are still awake and haven't fallen asleep during this post.

[Roy Huggins]

Thanks Ed some excellent ideas.

Roy

[Lindsay_Merrony]

NC AT's for History.

1. Be safe

2. Be creative

3. You ask questions that the teacher doesn't know the answer to.

4. Enjoy

[Carole Faithorn]

JohnDClare, on Sep 27 2005, 09:39 PM, said:

.....
Perhaps, also, someone who has retired could post materials on the web as a hobby!

So .... how much longer will we all have to wait John?

I did have an idea that when I retired I'd perhaps do something like that, but (as I think many people who are retired will tell you) it's just great to be able to do all those things that you wished you had time for when you were working. Maybe you'll feel differently. Let's hope so!