Primary worksheets based on historical concepts and skills

Abstract

There is a danger that History, as a school subject, may be viewed as a dull activity by many students. One reason for this image may be the traditional way in which it is often taught, that is, memorisation and regurgitation of dates and facts. The purpose of this dissertation is to illustrate another dimension of the subject, based on the development of historical concepts and the acquisition skills as proposed by the 'New History' approach. Hence, this dissertation outlines in brief the development of this new approach in relation to History teaching, with reference to Britain, where it first originated, as well as to the situation in Malta. Moreover, it discusses the need for the adoption of the 'New History' methods in our Primary schools. A detailed description and analysis of the concepts and skills advocated by the 'New History' is also given. This theoretical framework was then used to construct a set of worksheets targeted at Year 6 students. The main focus of these worksheets was to apply a number of particular historical concepts and skills through a variety of activities. The concepts and skills which were tackled include the concept of time and related skills, especially putting in sequence; the concept of evidence and skills related to the use of source material in class, especially differentiating between primary and secondary sources, analysing a source and detecting bias; the concepts of cause and consequence and similarity and difference/change and continuity, as well as the skills of empathy, extrapolation and historical language.