Humanities

Making history relevant

An active approach that makes history come alive for primary children

In a very packed literacy and numeracy focused school day, the ‘other stuff’ can get almost forgotten in the gallop to the exams post. Other subjects such as history may be joined with geography or have an afternoon slot of 40 minutes every other week. Professor of Outdoor Learning, Helen Bilton and Dr Richard Harris from Reading University acknowledge the difficulties, but think it is all the more reason to help children develop a love of the subject by getting them out of the classroom.

The Silk Roads

A new history of the world

In The Silk Roads, Oxford-based historian Peter Frankopan has written a world history that is worthy of such a “big idea”. This is reading on a grand scale . . . . .

in Holiday reads / Humanities / reviews 0 comments

International or postcolonial?

Kyle Kopsick considers that we need to think hard about our global values and examine what we teach and how we teach it using the challenging perspective of postcolonialism. What? Read on!

in Global Community / Humanities / platform 0 comments

Analytical thinking and writing

Teaching analytical thinking and writing for Linear A Level and IB Diploma

This two day course, run in association with Infinite Learning, Dubai examines a consistent and repeating methodology for developing Year 12 & 13 students as independent learners, capable of writing, speaking and thinking under pressure, ready to leave school successfully.

in Assessment / Humanities / learning & teaching / Secondary 0 comments

Philosophical Teaching

A pedagogy for the 21st Century

Roger Sutcliffe, who is a trainer with Sapere, the UK based organisation supporting Philosophy for Children (P4C) looks at how developing the right habits of mind in the classroom can infuse teaching with new meaning and energy.

in Humanities / International Baccalaureate / learning & teaching 0 comments

Slow Education

Deeper Learning

Slow Education aims “to make time in the classroom for creative teaching and learning”. Mike Grenier, one of the movement’s leading advocates, explains the ideas that are reaching a growing number of classrooms around the world.

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Philosophy for children

Philosophically speaking: P4C

Philosophy for Children – P4C – is attracting the attention of an increasing number of international schools around the world. One organisation supporting the programme is the British based charity, SAPERE (Society for the Advancement of Philosophical Enquiry and Reflection in Education). ITM recently spoke to SAPERE CEO, Bob House, about their latest international initiative.

in Humanities / learning & teaching / Primary / Secondary 0 comments

Can your senior students think and write under pressure?

Five steps to help students develop the planning habit

How many times have you made the comment “It is important to plan your work” at the end of a Grade 11 or 12 (Year 12 & 13) essay? A student who writes without planning often shows that he or she “knows things” but, frustratingly, they have not “used what they know” to write a relevant answer. Here Andy Homden suggests five steps to help students develop “the planning habit” in order to write more effectively.

in Assessment / Humanities / learning & teaching 2 comments

The essential skill of analytical thinking

Is analytical thinking undervalued? Andy Homden thinks so. Without it, critical thinking is so much more difficult, if not impossible, to teach. Here he explains why.

in Humanities / Language / learning & teaching / Secondary 0 comments

Developing independent academic skills, Part 3

Building a body of knowledge

The idea of building a memorised body of knowledge has become unfashionable. If we are living in the Knowledge Economy, the knowledge is at our fingertips and accessed on-line. The cloud, it is said, has changed everything: what children are learning at school now will be outdated by the time they leave university, so why bother? Progressive thinkers would regard the learning of more factual knowledge as less important than the development of transferable skills, creativity and critical thinking.

in Humanities / learning & teaching / Secondary 0 comments

Developing independent academic skills, 1

Learning independently, linear assessment and language

Why is the ability to learn independently so important? Andy Homden suggests that unless students learn to think for themselves, take the initiative and display the kind of self–discipline that gets things done, they will neither fulfill their potential nor be ready for the expectations of higher education and the world of employment. But – they have to be shown how.

in Humanities / learning & teaching / Secondary 0 comments

Developing independent academic skills, 2

Writing independently

The importance of knowing how

Students become independent learners when they know how to do things, but the ability to master increasingly complex tasks at secondary level, takes both time and practice under the right kind of supervision. Planning and then writing an informed and relevant academic answer using properly marshalled evidence in the form of an essay is such a task.

in Humanities / learning & teaching / Secondary 0 comments