79 replies to this topic

[kitty_cat]

hi!

i am just about to leave y9 and ive taken G.C.S.E history. t my school they tell you wat assesments you get in class and the 2 corsework projects for he next two years its great!

yer most people like the modern history because there are quite alot of people who lived though WWII and it is eayser to relate to!

[crispycake18]

About 90% of my year took History GCSE, not because of the syllabus but because we had the best teacher in the school teaching us the subject. If you build up to GCSE with strong subjects which appeal or enable kids to intereact, you'll get them onboard. Although topic choice is important, A good teacher can teach anything to a willing group of Year ten/elevens and get them interested. For GCSE I've done Medicine through time and Germany 1919-1939, the latter being quite interesting (despite my Paper 1 being on Nazi germany which made up less than half of the syllabus), the former being in all honesty not very interesting at all, more modern history will get kids more interested. I did the toubles in Ireland for my coursework, and we all got into it because we could see the effects of it all around us on the television and papers. Giving kids a subject they can get involved in and feel affects/has affected them will entice more people to History GCSE

[xxcbzxx]

Through ppts i think

[jynx07]

I really enjoyed studying my standard grade (gcse) history. We did modern british history, including housing, shipbuilding, women(suffragettes) etc. We then did the rise of Nazism and the end of the war. I love doing British history because when you read books on the subject you understand them better than ones on say...the Spanish civil war where the author uses spanish when talking. I also love british history because it affects us, we can see the results of history right now. The world wars are also brilliant topics.

[jynx07]

I live in Scotland so ive just completed my Standard Grades (pretty much equivalent to GCSE). For Standard Grade History we studied WW1, American Civil War and a big topic of Scottish History...all about the Farming and everything in Scotland....I am actually English and moved up to Scotland 2 years ago...unfortunately I never studied scottish history down in the south of england and so i was very behind in the scottish topic, somehow i managed to scrape a Standard Grade level 1 (same as A* ).

This year im taking my Higher's (A-Levels) and we are studing Appeasement and the Road to War, Spanish Civil War and A Big British Topic which involves alot of English topics...(so the scots study english history, why cant the english study some Scottish history?)

I think for GCSE there should be some sort of history of scotland, especially if anyone is planning on moving to scotland, because i had a really hard time last year catching up on 3 years worth of scottish history!

I have to say I agree, having studied near enough the same topics for my highers. I think they should teach a bit about the u.k. Mind you he scotts can't talk, we don't learn much irish or welsh history do we?

[Crazy-Fish]

How about the really ancient civilizations? Greeks, Romans and Egyptians. Possibly, this could link to modern day technology and ideas. We study Roman life for Latin, and it is really fascinating.

Oh, and did the Egyptians really have street lamps? And were they electric? I know it sounds stupid but it could have been primitive electric from a lemon or something. . .

[MrJohnDClare]

And were they electric?

No - but they did develop steam power (Hero of Alexandria)

[Crazy-Fish]

Thankyou.

[lindajohn123]

I would agree that we only seem to study English and European history and although I think that we need the chance to learn about other cultures/countries/continents.

[superhat2]

As a student currently studying G.C.S.E. History on the W.J.E.C. Syllabus B, I would state that the history course is far from adequate in developing students' general historical knowledge and understanding of the core issues surrounding history. At the moment I am studying the history of sport, leisure and tourism in Wales and the wider world. To all this seems a pointless and disinteresting task. Sport, leisure and Tourism has no place on any G.C.S.E. History syllabus as almost all in my class understand the history of Sport, Leisure and Tourism without being taught it.

The other aspects of the G.C.S.E. in my school are Medicine through time and Weimar Germany 1919 - 1945. The Medicine area is an awful excuse for a through time project as it doesn't even begin at the beginning. Instead it chooses to skip a couple of millennia and begin the quest for knowledge in 1345. However I have a more serious objection with the curriculum than this, the Medicine paper as with Sport, Leisure and Toursim should not be there in the first place! Having a deep understanding of medical history is not needed by anyone, not even those aiming to apply to medical school. It is a topic that should be incorporated into a general paper which I believe must be introduced.

This general paper would solve the problem of the history curriculum being to narrow by broadening students' historical horizons. European History, Eastern History and British History could be combined in this one paper that would stretch candidates to their limits. The paper would take two parts one concentrating on History from the Renaissance backwards and the other from the Renaissance forwards. Any aspects of the history of the period could appear in the paper meaning the student would have to be prepared for questions on a number of topics. Students would therefore be required to know the essential events of each period and be able to draw on these other factors to help answer a question they may know the little about. It encourages them to construct a historical argument, come to conclusions and most importantly understand history as an interwoven topic and not just a serious of events in order. Of course the study of a single in depth topic should remain, but all extra papers be combined into a general paper that sorts the men from the boys!

As a student in my final year of G.C.S.E studies I understand this may not be possible to implement, but it should be seriously considered for A Level if unworkable at G.C.S.E. History is a tapestry what is currently being taught is a mere thread.

[MrJohnDClare]

What a useful an interesting post - and I tend to agree with a lot of what you say.

All I would suggest you consider is:
1. I think the idea is to teach the pupils SKILLS which they will then be able to apply to ANY topic.
2. Given that, it doesn't really matter WHAT you study - so you might as well study topics which you hope pupils will enjoy.

Now I happen to think that - taught properly - serious academic topics can be made truly interesting .. more interesting, actually, than shallow flim-flam, because they can be made to address important, exacting issues.
But even I can understand the argument tht a class of tough Key Stage 4 boys will be more interested to study the History of Sport than the Terms of the Treaty of Versailles.

[emma4eva]

At the moment there are lots of people discussing what students should and shouldn't study for GCSE History. It is part of plans to improve what is offered to Year 10 and Year 11 students in the future.

However, I'm really interested to know what students of today feel.

If you are currently doing your GCSEs - what do you think? What would you like to study? What would improve GCSE History?

If you are planning to take GCSE, or even didn't opt to take it - what do you think - what do you think would encourage more people to take history?

Any sensible, well explained suggestions are welcome. In fact, I don't even know why I said that - all good history students make sensible, explained suggestions don't they!

I am not interested in modern history - post 1901.

[Kitty-]

All I would suggest you consider is:
1. I think the idea is to teach the pupils SKILLS which they will then be able to apply to ANY topic.
2. Given that, it doesn't really matter WHAT you study - so you might as well study topics which you hope pupils will enjoy.

I agree
I take history outside timetable, so I'm taking one more GCSE than normal, and I have had litrally one lesson with my history teacher this year. In that lesson he taught me how to answer the questins (part A-D on exam papers) and how to apply it to answers. When I walked into my mock GCSE I though 'I don't know any of this, I've been studying everything else, apart from this.' So I looked at the sources and just used the guidlines my teacher gave me, and easy as anything I got an A. My teacher says I would have gotten an A* if I could use my own knowledge on part D, but as I hadn't studied it I couldn't.

I think that war history is a good thing to learn in year ten, because when your older your going to have your own say in politics, and may even try to be a political leader yourself, so it's good to know whats happened in the past. We don't want another Hitler again!

I also can't wait to do my Jack the Ripper coursework, I think it's really good to know about how are legal system came about and how much it has changed. It's also good if your looking into a career in sciences, expecailly forensics. It shows just how much forensic science has changed and just how much we need to appreciate (hope that's spelt right!) it.
Also I like Jack the Ripper, it's such a cool topic, and it's definatly one that I'd expect the boys would be into.

[Cyfer]

Sorry I'm only 13 at the moment but i would like to do History for GCSE, although i would prefer if there was a course on the medieval to Renaissance period? I'm absolutely obsessed with warfare before the coming of modern guns. (up to 1750?) (maybe 1779 since that was the last use of trebuchet even they had lots of cannons [English in Gibraltar])

[R.L.M.]

At the moment there are lots of people discussing what students should and shouldn't study for GCSE History. It is part of plans to improve what is offered to Year 10 and Year 11 students in the future.

However, I'm really interested to know what students of today feel.

If you are currently doing your GCSEs - what do you think? What would you like to study? What would improve GCSE History?

If you are planning to take GCSE, or even didn't opt to take it - what do you think - what do you think would encourage more people to take history?

Any sensible, well explained suggestions are welcome. In fact, I don't even know why I said that - all good history students make sensible, explained suggestions don't they!

i am currently doing my GSCE'S and i have picked history but all we do is filll in sheeets i would like to learn in a active way prestions,drama , DVD.s and debarts