Dear Student
Welcome to the History PGCE course at Sheffield Hallam University. I hope that you will enjoy studying here with us alongside the work that you will be doing in schools. The PGCE course is an intensive one and each of you will embark upon the course with different strengths and areas to develop. Therefore, we have suggested some things below that you might like to undertake to help you prepare for September.
Useful Preparatory Readings:
One or other of these two general readers is a good starting point and they provide links to other readings. These, and the other books cited here will be available to you via the library once you are enrolled on the course.
These are the two most recent publications, very wide ranging and up to date:
- Fairlamb, A. and Ball, R. (2023) What is history teaching now? A practical handbook for all history teachers and educators. John Catt Educational Ltd.
- Keates, D., Stanford, M. & Goullee, C. (eds) (2025) A practical guide to teaching history in the secondary school.
These are older, but still relevant. Chris Runeckles’ book is less wide-ranging but addresses some key priorities in a very accessible style.
- *Husbands, C., Kitson, A. and Steward, S. (2011) Teaching and Learning History 11 -18 Open University Press
- Runeckles, C. (2018) Making every history lesson count: six principles to support great history teaching. Crown House Publishing Limited.
In 2021 Ofsted published a useful review of key research into history teaching which can be downloaded at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/research-review-series-history/research-review-series-history
In 2023 Ofsted published a summary of their inspection findings into the teaching of history, which is again useful. It can be downloaded at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/subject-report-series-history
Useful Further Reading:
Books
These are very useful, summaries of key research and thinking about effective history teaching by respected history educators:
- Harris, R., Burn, K. and Woolley, M. (eds.) (2013) The Guided Reader to Teaching and Learning History), London: Routledge
- Counsell, C., Burn, K., Chapman, A. (eds.) (2016) Masterclass in History Education: Transforming Teaching and Learning London, Bloomsbury
Older, but useful works by respected history educators:
- Davies, I (ed.) (2011), Debates in History Teaching London: Routledge
- Phillips. I. (2008) Teaching History: Developing as a Reflective Secondary Teacher Sage
- Haydn, T (ed.) (2013) Using New Technologies to Enhance Teaching and Learning in History London: Routledge
- Cooper, H. and Chapman, A. (eds.) (2009) Constructing History 11-19), London: SAGE Publications Limited
- Husbands, C. (1996) What is history teaching? Language, ideas and meaning in learning about the past. Open University Press.
There are lots of practical ‘how to’ books usually authored by classroom practitioners, including:
- Thorne, S. (2018) Becoming an Outstanding History Teacher Routledge, London
- Thomas, E. (2017) 100 Ideas for Secondary Teachers: Outstanding History Lessons Bloomsbury, London
- Tarr, R. (2018) A History Teaching Toolbox: Practical Classroom Strategies Volume 1 & Volume 2
There is currently a lot of interest in cognitive science and its relevance to curriculum design and pedagogy in all subjects, including history. A good starting point to understand this would be Barak Rosenshine’s ‘Principles of instruction’, which is available online at:
There are lots of popular works relating cognitive science to the classroom. Here are three starter texts:
- Sherrington, T. (2019) Rosenshine’s principles in action. John Catt.
- Sherrington, T. & Caviglioli, O. (2020) Teaching walkthrus. John Catt.
- Jones, K. (2019) Retrieval practice. Research and resources for every classroom. John Catt.
Subject association:
The Historical Association is the national organisation providing professional development for historians and teachers, both primary and secondary It does cost. Currently HA are offering one-year online secondary trainee membership for £35. Membership is strongly recommended. All details are at www.history.org.uk
A sort of ‘spin off’ of the HA is One Big History Department, which has an archive of free materials going back to 2017 at https://onebighistorydepartment.com/
Michael Fordham has his own, very useful, website with regular articles uploaded sharing his thoughts on the subject of history teaching at https://clioetcetera.com/
History on Bluesky:
A number of respected history educators can now be followed on Bluesky (but I’m not responsible for any content they may post!). This is a selection:
Rachel Ball – @mrsball.bsky.social
Michael Fordham – @michaelfordham.bsky.social
Alex Fairlamb – @lambhearttea.bsky.social
Elizabeth Carr – @egcarr.bsky.social
Rich Kerridge – @historyrichk.bsky.social
Ian Dawson – @iandawson51.bsky.social
Alex Ford – @apf102.bsky.social
Victoria Crooks – @victoriacrooks.bsky.social
Richard Kennett – @richkhistory.bsky.social
Paula Lobo – @paulalobo.bsky.social
Katie Hall – @katiehall.bsky.social
Fred Oxby – @fredoxby.bsky.social
Will Goodfellow – @willgoodfellow82.bsky.social
Chris Culpin – @cculpin.bsky.social
Catherine Priggs – @catherinepriggs.bsky.social
Emmy Quinn – @mrsquinnhistory.bsky.social
Carmel Bones – @carmelbones.bsky.social
Historical Association – @histassoc.bsky.social
Will Bailey-Watson – @willbaileywatson.bsky.social
Helen Carr – @helenfcarr.bsky.social
Pete Jackson – @petejackson.bsky.social
Hugh Richards – @hughrichards.bsky.social
UCL Centre for Holocaust Education – @uclholocaust.bsky.social
Arthur Chapman – @arthurjchapman.bsky.social
Schools History Project – @1972.bsky.social
Dan Lydon-Cohen – @danlyndon.bsky.social
Christine Counsell – @counsellc.bsky.social
National Curriculum and GCSE Specifications:
You should aim to become familiar with the current National Curriculum, and the GCSE syllabi taught in your placement schools:
- National Curriculum for History (2014) https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-history-programmes-of-study
- AQA specifications for GCSE and A level History https://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/history
- OCR specifications for GCSE and A level History https://www.ocr.org.uk/subjects/history/
- Edexcel specifications for GCSE and A level History https://qualifications.pearson.com/en/subjects/history.html
Weekly Press:
In order to keep up to date with developments in education we recommend that you read the Times Educational Supplement (TES) at https://www.tes.com/ and the Guardian Education supplement at www.theguardian.com/education). We also recommend that you regularly read a broadsheet newspaper.
Some big questions to begin with:
Teachers are responsible for planning, teaching and assessment. So:
- PLANNING What content is specified for teaching in the current National Curriculum (2014)? What disciplinary concepts and skills does it also specify? Are the latter similar to those specified for teaching at GCSE?
- TEACHING. How can we teach history most effectively? How do we ensure that all pupils are able to engage with the subject and are challenged by it?
- ASSESSMENT. What does progression look like in history? How can we assess the subject most effectively?