This book describes and exemplifies strategies for teaching history across the 11-19 age range in rigorous and enjoyable ways. It illustrates active learning approaches embedded in pupil-led enquiries, through detailed case studies which involve students in planning and carrying out historical enquiries, creating accounts and presenting them to audiences, in ways that develop increasingly sophisticated historical thinking. The case studies took place in a number of different localities and show how practising teachers worked with pupils during each year from Y6/7 to Y 13 to initiate, plan and implement enquiries and to present their findings in a variety of ways. Each case study is a practical example which teachers can use as a model and modify for their own contexts, showing how independent learning linked to group collaboration and peer assessment can enhance learning. Social constructivist theories of learning applied to historical thinking underpin the book, with particular emphasis on links between personalised and collaborative learning and e-learning.

Effective Australian history education has never been more important for the development of critically aware and thoughtful young people. History fosters important skills in reasoning, historical consciousness and empathy; and an appreciation of history is crucial to the development of students' understanding of the very nature of our society. This edited collection comprises contributions from leading historians, educators and practising teachers, and surveys Australian history teaching today, from the development of the national curriculum to fostering historical thinking and promoting effective engagement in the history classroom. The book begins with an analysis of the principles underlying the drafting of the national curriculum and features insights from the writers of the curriculum themselves. It focuses on the curriculum from primary- and secondary-school teaching perspectives. Part 2 examines the teaching of historical expertise including historical thinking and value formation, as well as productive assessment and the important role social history can play in the classroom. Part 3 concentrates on specific approaches to history teaching including teacher talk; the use of historical fiction and film; digital technology and the internet; as well as museums as a teaching medium. Part 4 analyses key aspects of Australian history teaching including Indigenous perspectives, teaching citizenship and assisting the pre-service teacher in their transition to becoming a professional. Rich with insights into historical skills, historical concepts and critical thinking, as well as practical guidance on translating principles into engaging classroom approaches, this is an essential reference for both pre-service and in-service history teachers and educators.

Nearly all history teachers are interested in how new technology might be used to improve teaching and learning in history. However, not all history departments have had the time, expertise and guidance which would enable them to fully explore the wide range of ways in which ICT might help them to teach their subject more effectively. This much-needed collection offers practical guidance and examples of the ways in which new technology can enhance pupil engagement in the subject, impact on knowledge retention, get pupils learning outside the history classroom, and help them to work collaboratively using a range of Web 2.0 applications. The chapters, written by experienced practitioners and experts in the field of history education and ICT, explore topics such as: how to design web interactivities for your pupils what can you accomplish with a wiki how to get going in digital video editing what to do with the VLE? making best use of the interactive whiteboard designing effective pupil webquests digital storytelling in history making full use of major history websites using social media. Using New Technologies to Enhance Teaching and Learning in History is essential reading for all trainee, newly qualified and experienced teachers of history. It addresses many of the problems, barriers and dangers which new technology can pose, but it also clearly explains and exemplifies the wide range of ways in which ICT can be used to radically improve the quality of pupils' experience of learning history.

This book provides a comprehensive and radical guide to the challenges facing history and history teaching in contemporary schools

Teaching History 11-18 is a comprehensive introduction to teaching. learning and assessing history in secondary schools. Drawing on cutting edge research and practice, it draws together recent thinking in teaching and learning in history, teaching and learning in secondary education more generally and classroom-based research to provide a radical re-thinking of the practices of teaching and learning about the past at the beginning of the twenty-first century. At the core of the book is a focus on diversity and its implications: the diversity of classrooms in English schools, cultural diversity and pluralism in accounts of the past, and the diversity of pedagogic and communicative strategies at the disposal of teachers. The book is realistic about the challenges: a precarious place in the curriculum, pupil disaffection, bitter ideological debates about the purpose, place and status of history, but offers a forward-looking rationale for the centrality of the past in debates about identity, social cohesion and persona and social education.

In 1908 the most incredible naval arms race in history began. Flush with cash from rubber and coffee, Brazil decided to order three of the latest, greatest category of warship available – the dreadnought battleship. One Brazilian dreadnought by itself could defeat the combined gunnery of every other warship of all the other South American nations. Brazil's decision triggered its neighbour Argentina to order its own brace of dreadnoughts, which in turn forced Chile (which had fought boundary disputes with Argentina) to order some. In the process, the South American dreadnought mania drove the three participants nearly into insolvency, led to the bankruptcy of a major shipyard, and triggered a chain of events which led Turkey to declare war on Great Britain. It also produced several groundbreaking dreadnought designs and one of the world's first aircraft carriers.