When your pupils use terms such as 'king' and 'Parliament,' what image do they have in their head? Do they know what they are talking about at all? Do they have a nuanced, period-specific vision of what these terms mean in the context of their current historical studies, and of how these substantive concepts might have shifted in meaning? This is…

Determined to do justice to the complexity of the seventeenth century, as a messy but crucial period in British history, and to develop their pupils' disciplinary understanding of how and why interpretations of the past are constructed, Dan Keates and his department set out to exploit the rich seam of interpretations of Cromwell. The quest to…

The "Australian Curriculum: History" has emerged out of a neoliberal federal education policy landscape. This is a policy landscape where pragmatic and performative, rather than pedagogic concerns are clearly foregrounded, and this has implications for curriculum development and implementation. A useful way to conceptualise the features,…

Research in learning technologies has often focused on the affordances of single technologies such as pcs, smartphones or interactive whiteboards. However, in most learning environments technologies do not stand alone but are embedded in activity structures and webs of materials that make up the learning activity. This is specifically relevant…

Struck by what he saw as the complexity, artistry and cognitive achievement of historians' narrative accounts, Robin Kemp decided to explore ways of teaching his pupils to write narrative and to analyse the role of such writing in developing various kinds of historical thinking. Working with Year 8 and Year 10 he designed a research project that…

This report evaluates the second year of the MacMagic program at Davidson Middle School in San Rafael, California. The program uses Macintosh computers, video cameras, tape recorders, and other related technology in a team teaching environment to enhance thinking and learning in an integrated English, history, and multimedia course. Children from…

Fifty-four standardized tests and subtests are examined, including achievement batteries, specific domain tests, and criterion-referenced tests. Individual test items are examined for their relationship to curriculum objectives developed by the Ministry of Education, Ontario for grades 7, 8, 9, and 10. The objectives are examined in four subject…