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Pupils' enjoyment of history: what lessons can teachers learn from their pupils?

Pupils' enjoyment of history: what lessons can teachers learn from their pupils?
Pupils' enjoyment of history: what lessons can teachers learn from their pupils?
The paper explores pupil attitudes towards history as a school subject in England, with a view to developing a better understanding of the factors which influence disaffection or engagement with the subject. The study attempts to identify what pupils like and dislike about how they are taught and what they are taught in history lessons. The study was carried out in 12 secondary schools with pupils aged 11-14. Questionnaires were returned from 1740 pupils and 160 of these were involved in focus group interviews. The findings show that how pupils are taught appears to matter more than what they are taught and identifies teaching approaches that pupils considered to be particularly effective, and teaching approaches that appear to contribute to pupil disaffection and disengagement from the subject. The study also provides insights into the extent to which pupils find history enjoyable compared to other school subjects. Although the study is primarily of interest to history teachers, it may also be of interest to teachers of other subjects who have a concern for the degree of pupil engagement with their subject.
pedagogy, history teaching, disaffection, engagement, active learning, interactive learning
0958-5176
315-333
Harris, Richard
0550d258-245a-4d0f-b366-4a8bc580cda3
Haydn, Terry
bcaa095f-407c-422f-aa1d-f91bbfe19695
Harris, Richard
0550d258-245a-4d0f-b366-4a8bc580cda3
Haydn, Terry
bcaa095f-407c-422f-aa1d-f91bbfe19695

Harris, Richard and Haydn, Terry (2006) Pupils' enjoyment of history: what lessons can teachers learn from their pupils? The Curriculum Journal, 17 (4), 315-333. (doi:10.1080/09585170601072544).

Record type: Article

Abstract

The paper explores pupil attitudes towards history as a school subject in England, with a view to developing a better understanding of the factors which influence disaffection or engagement with the subject. The study attempts to identify what pupils like and dislike about how they are taught and what they are taught in history lessons. The study was carried out in 12 secondary schools with pupils aged 11-14. Questionnaires were returned from 1740 pupils and 160 of these were involved in focus group interviews. The findings show that how pupils are taught appears to matter more than what they are taught and identifies teaching approaches that pupils considered to be particularly effective, and teaching approaches that appear to contribute to pupil disaffection and disengagement from the subject. The study also provides insights into the extent to which pupils find history enjoyable compared to other school subjects. Although the study is primarily of interest to history teachers, it may also be of interest to teachers of other subjects who have a concern for the degree of pupil engagement with their subject.

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More information

Published date: 2006
Keywords: pedagogy, history teaching, disaffection, engagement, active learning, interactive learning

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 42507
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/42507
ISSN: 0958-5176
PURE UUID: 3574d5e2-3678-4485-8c40-a796d435ebb9

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Date deposited: 13 Dec 2006
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 08:49

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Contributors

Author: Richard Harris
Author: Terry Haydn

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