History

PGCE History

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 three most recent publications, very wide ranging and up to date on subject curriculum, pedagogy and assessment.  These feature most heavily on the subject session reading list:

  • 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.
  • Priggs,C. et al (eds) (2025) Secondary history in action. Hachette Learning.

Christine Counsell provides an excellent summary of the evolution of the history curriculum in schools, and the debates that surround it, in this book, which is free to download:

These texts are a little older, but still relevant.  Chris Runeckles’ book is less wide-ranging but addresses some key priorities in a very accessible style:

  • Haydn, T. and Stephen, A. (5th edition, 2021) Learning to teach history in the secondary school.
  • 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:

In 2023* Ofsted published a summary of their inspection findings into the teaching of history, which is again useful.  It can be downloaded at:

*NB – these were both published before the introduction of the new Ofsted framework in 2025.

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 highly 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
  • 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:

Principles of Instruction: Research-Based Strategies That All Teachers Should Know, by Barak Rosenshine; American Educator Vol. 36, No. 1, Spring 2012, AFT

There are lots of popular works relating cognitive science to the classroom.  Here are three starter texts:

  • Jones, K. (2019) Retrieval practice. Research and resources for every classroom. John Catt (she has since published follow-ups)
  • Sherrington, T. (2019) Rosenshine’s principles in action. John Catt.
  • Sherrington, T. & Caviglioli, O. (2020) Teaching walkthrus. 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 £36.   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:

https://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/history

 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:

  1. What content is specified for teaching in the current National Curriculum (2014)?  What disciplinary concepts does it also specify?  How does is prepare pupils for the GCSE syllabi that follow?
  2. 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?
  3. ASSESSMENT. What does progression look like in history?  How can we assess the subject most effectively?