For the last two years I have taught on two of the history department’s gateway courses which introduce first year undergraduate students to new periods of history. These courses introduce students to ancient and medieval history which are rarely covered in the national curriculum, particularly at GCSE and A Level. As a result much of their knowledge on these periods of history either come from their own research, or more often from popular culture. As a result we often have to illustrate the flaws in many of their preconceptions and introduce them to new important aspects of history in order to better improve their understanding.
The ‘Threshold Concept’, as described by Land, Meyer and Smith, is when the learner’s conception of a discipline, or their actions within it, are changed as a result of learning a core concept (Land, Meyer, and Smith, 2008). Several previous studies have applied this principal to the fields of computer science, engineering, and economics (Ashwin, 2008 ; Baillie and Johnson, 2008 ; Shinners-Kennedy, 2008). I feel a similar application of this principle to history, particularly ancient and medieval history, could also prove to be successful.
To use the ‘Threshold Concept’ to its full ability requires good curriculum design, however there are several aspects of this that I feel should be used by seminar tutors (O’Neill, 2015). In my seminars I have had to illustrate several key points which are necessary to understanding ancient history, in particular the nature of the sources. A key example of this came in our seminar on Alexander the Great (356-323 BC). One of the key historians of this period was Arrian (86-160 AD) who was writing over 400 years after the events. The source analysis students are taught at secondary school emphasises four aspects: who wrote the source, where was the source written, when was the source written, and why was the source written. As a result many students would simply dismiss this source as being ‘unreliable’, however such an assertion would suggest there is such a thing as a ‘reliable’ source. Students have to learn the value of each source on its own merit due to the lack of sources in the ancient and medieval period.
The use of the ‘threshold concept’ can be very effective and at times necessary to better understand aspects of history. Though seminar tutors can illustrate this through many different activities good curriculum design is required to best exploit this principle.
Bibliography:
Land, R., Meyer, J. H. F., and Smith, J., ed., Threshold Concepts within the Disciplines (Rotterdam: Sense Publishers, 2008)
Ashwin, A., ‘Threshold Concept Acquisition in Economics for the 14-19 Age Group’, in Land, Meyer, and Smith, 173-184
Baillie, C. and Johnson, A., ‘A Threshold Model for Attitudes in First Year Engineering Students’, in Land, Meyer, and Smith, 129-142
Shinners-Kennedy, D., ‘The Everydayness of Threshold Concepts: ‘State’ as an Example from Computer Science’, in Land, Meyer, and Smith, 119-128
O’Neill, G., Curriculum Design in Higher Education: Theory to Practice (Dublin: UCD Teaching & Learning, 2015)
Using film in teaching modern history is not a particularly original concept, but nonetheless it is one I have attempted to incorporate in my teaching at Royal Holloway and which I aim to continue using in the future. Partly this is an attempt to bring my own methodological interest in the use of cultural sources into the classroom. Equally, however, the use of film material can have distinctive pedagogical benefits for teaching history (especially, perhaps, “difficult history”: see Stoddard, Marcus & Hicks 2017). In particular, I would suggest that well-chosen film material can prompt class discussions based around thought encouragement (Golding 2011: 361-68), in which students are not just asked to provide information and opinions but also to think critically about why the material they have been presented with has led them to make certain interpretations about the subject matter.
I have tried two different uses of film in the classroom thus far. On one occasion (in 2016/17 at another institution) I used a scene from the 2001 film Conspiracy, a dramatic re-enactment of the Wannsee Conference, but this was too realistic (being based directly on the minutes of the meeting depicted) and thus offered little room for students to think critically about the material. On this basis, in my most recent term’s teaching at Royal Holloway I showed students a montage sequence from Sergei Eisenstein’s 1928 film October, one of the definitive revolutionary films to be made in early Soviet Russia. This was partially successful, in that the sequence led into a good discussion about both the justifications provided for the October 1917 revolution and the way in which these justifications remained important in asserting Bolshevik control of Russia in the early Soviet period. In two of my three groups, however, this discussion required a significant amount of explanation from me in order to develop. This was partly because of a slightly unexpected lack of knowledge on the part of the students (which is always a potential issue) but also stemmed from the fact that this choice of film was perhaps over-ambitious, in that Eisenstein’s montage technique was less accessible to students without any film theory knowledge than I anticipated. This prevented the discussion progressing fully towards the ultimate critical thinking aim I had intended, as students struggled to explain why the specific sequence I showed them had led them to the conclusions that they reached.
Ultimately then, whilst I remain convinced that film can be a valuable tool for use in history seminars, my experiments with this thus far have not been fully successful. Whilst my use of Eisenstein proved more beneficial to the students than my previous use of film in the classroom, I feel this latest use of film nonetheless illustrated that I need to think carefully about how best to use film to prompt critical thinking in my future teaching.
Bibliography
Golding, Clinton. “Educating for Critical Thinking: Thought-Encouraging Questions in a Community of Inquiry”. Higher Education Research & Development. Vol. 30, No. 3 (2011): 357-70.
Stoddard, Jeremy, Alan S. Marcus & David Hicks. “Using Film to Teach Difficult Histories”. In Teaching Difficult History Through Film. Edited by Stoddard, Marcus & Hicks, 3-16. Abingdon: Routledge, 2017.
Benjamin Bland (Dept. of History)
I think this is a really interesting aspect to consider. I have also used film clips and film trailers in some of my seminars and find that they are often quite good at setting the scene or being critiqued by the students for their inaccuracy. The Da Vinci Code’s view on the rise of Christianity springs to mind. I agree with your conclusions and I think it is important for us as teachers to consider the effectiveness of our classroom tools.
Robin Shields (History Department)
I teach two seminars on Rome to Renaissance, a course for first year undergraduates, covering a thousand years of history (500AD – 1500AD). The seminars are predicated on a rather traditional practice: primary source analysis (i.e. I hand out source extracts to the students, they read them, think critically about them, and share their ideas with the rest of the class). This practice is, of course, essential. But like any practice it can grow stale if used again and again in the same way (Oldfield, 11). I therefore sought to make it more enjoyable and engaging by implementing an experiential learning technique: role-play (Mills and Alexander, 29; Frederick, 107-08; Lean, Moizer, Towler and Abbey, 228).
During a class on Monks and Monasteries I got the students to separate into three groups. Each group had to pretend to be a monastic order, with group 1 being Cistercians, group 2 being Carthusians and group 3 being Cluniacs. Their task was to develop a collaborative ‘sales-pitch’, which would sell their way of life to both myself and the rest of the class. To help each group develop their presentation, I handed out relevant source extracts (i.e. the Cistercians received extracts about Cistercians, the Carthusians about Carthusians, etc). I then instructed the groups to go through their sources, highlight things that they thought would ‘sell well’, and incorporate them into their sales-pitches. Once the students had got their presentations ready, I got them to perform them at the front of the class, and at the end we voted on which monastic community we would join. The Cluniacs won.
Role-play was, I think, an effective way of getting the students to engage with primary sources and helped make the seminar seem ‘fresh’. It also got the students to work collaboratively and feel comfortable sharing ideas. However, I am wary of implementing it too often. It can get ‘out of control’, and therefore needs to be managed carefully (Frederick, 107-08). Also, there is a risk that some students may deem it unacademic and would dislike its frequent use (Lean, Moizer, Towler and Abbey, 232). Nevertheless, based on the success of this class, I am sure I will use it again in my practice.
Daniel Edwards
References
Frederick, Peter J. “Motivating Students by Active Learning in the History Classroom.” In The Practice of University History Teaching, edited by Alan Booth and Paul Hyland, 101-11. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000.
Lean, Jonathan, Jonathan Moizer, Michael Towler and Caroline Abbey. “Simulation and Games: Use and Barriers in Higher Education.” Active Learning in Higher Education 7:3 (2006): 227-242.
Mills, David and Patrick Alexander. Small Group Teaching: A Toolkit for Learning. York: The Higher Education Academy, 2013.
Oldfield, Paul. “Active Learning in History Seminars.” Learning and Teaching in Action 7:2 (2008): 9-14.
This sounds excellent, in that you have clearly used role-play to demystify a topic not just as a substitute for class discussion. It also sounds like a good way to fully integrate source analysis into class. It’s clearly a technique that has to be carefully managed but definitely can be an excellent (active) learning tool. One could even be more ambitious and ask students to prepare for role-plays between classes, encouraging them to put in some of their own research as well.
Benjamin Bland (Dept. of History)
-Livi Dee
Whilst teaching this term I have been reflecting on the ‘knowledge’ and ‘comprehension’ section of Bloom’s Taxonomy and how this is applicable to teaching first year historians in my department. According to Bloom, this “involved the recall of specifics and universals, the recall of methods and processes, or the recall of a pattern, structure, or setting.” and ‘a type of understanding or apprehension such that the individual knows what is being communicated and can make use of the material or idea being communicated without necessarily relating it to other material or seeing its fullest implications” (Bloom, 1956).
I felt that because first year seminars in my course are an hour, there was often a rush to head straight to the assigned text or source, which I noticed often left students overwhelmed, unengaged, and often unwilling to contribute in such a rushed, cold atmosphere. To combat this, I created a tailored ‘warm-up’ task to capitalise on Bloom’s ideas about knowledge and comprehension, and my own fears that students were not comfortable enough to contribute. These took several forms, including working in pairs to arrange household inventories chronologically, deciphering some Tudor English, or guessing the identity of animals from medieval bestiaries.
I found that these methods were incredibly successful. They allowed students to discuss their knowledge in pairs or small groups before confronted with questions, so they could share their own interpretations of the reading and fill gaps in their knowledge. I was then able to test their comprehension by assessing how well they had managed to complete the task based on that knowledge. After the task, the students were usually more comfortable answering questions, and were vocal about their experience of the task which meant I could push them to contribute to some of the seminar questions.
References
Bloom’s Taxonomy, originally in Benjamin S. Bloom, Taxonomy of Educational Objectives Book 1: Cognitive Domain New York: Longman, 1956. 201.
Also applicable (and useful!) is the Vanderbilt Centre for Learning summary of the original and modern taxonomy (Patricia Armstrong, “Bloom’s Taxonomy” accessed 31 May 2017. https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/
Thanks for sharing this, Livi. I completely agree with you about the importance of ‘warm-up’ tasks. They help ‘break the ice’ and, as you say, allow one to gage the comprehension and depth of knowledge of the students. I sometimes start a class with a quiz about basic facts/concepts, which seems to work well. We also sometimes do a brainstorm about a topic. I like the tasks you mentioned though, especially the palaeography one. It seems like a good way of bringing the past to life and I will, I think, incorporate it into my practice.
Thanks Livi I’ll definitely try this, sounds like a great idea to make students feel more comfortable to contribute in class. To help first year students get to know each other you could also pair them up for this task at random – though as you say an hour isn’t a long time at all!
I think this is a very useful technique and one which has a wide variety of applications! I will certainly be trying this out in some of my teaching sessions, especially when it comes to starting on a research project – I think it will really help students start to learn and warm up to the material - Debbie Phillips
After having had read Stephen Brookfield's chapter "Lecturing Creatively" in The Skillful Teacher (2006), I found some inspiration in the suggestion of introducing brief periods of silence in lectures where the lecture was broken down into several chunks. This statement made quite an impression on me: Teachers need to learn the very hard lesson that silence does not represent a vacuum in learning or indicate complete disengagement. Understandably, silence does feel awkward. One would think the lecturer is stumbling but one musn't take that view. I have given presentations and seen fit to allow myself some pause to regain my composure. I have done this in the knowledge that I’m still in command of the situation and won't lose my audience so soon. If anything, I also appreciate that my audience are going to need a break to process things and refocus their attention as I give new information. This proposal considers the current structure of contact hours in the History department of a one hour lecture followed by a one hour seminar for each module's weekly topic during the term.
As defensive as I may be of the current way of doing things in my department, I think periods of silence is a novel yet comfortable proposal that is worth a trial. This proposal would not be exactly the same as Brookfield's, my approach would be a gentle one that does not break down the lecture into more than two chunks. What my department could try out is a brief three minute period of silence halfway into the lecture. Students would have an easier time preparing their notes and spending a bit of time thinking about what the teacher has just explained. Reflecting on my own experiences as a taught student not actually that long ago, I certainly would have appreciated getting time to take a short break and get in order the notes I had just typed before restarting. One can see how this may particularly benefit students who do not speak English as their first language or for some other reason may require a little extra time to take down and take in notes.
The other element of Brookfield's idea I would consider is using the time to ask questions. It might be argued though, should I consider this element, that there would be less point in having subsequent group seminars. That is by no means the case. With my idea the lecture is not being transformed into a session of whiteboard work, paperwork and across the class debate with students constantly speaking. The teacher still has plenty of time to give their academic perspective before the students dissent. A little early engagement by asking some questions may in fact invigorate the subsequent seminar with lively and healthy debate. The lecture will not be when this debate happens. Students just need the opportunity to process what the lecturer is saying before using the seminars to dissent.
Blaise (History)
What a positively alarming but very important notion! I myself stand in total dread and fear of those long silences in lectures, especially if you have just asked a question and no one is answering, but it is good to know that the idea that silence is OK: it gives students and the teacher time to reflect and gather themselves. As lecturers, we should not fear the silences. I must try and remember this in future! I just thought I'd mention with regard to creating some early engagement by asking some questions that I use interactive polling tools such as PollEverywhere, Socrative, which we all used in the inSTIL introductory session, and also Mentimeter (one of my personal favourites!) I use these tools to mitigate the "silence issue" (as I call it!) but on reflection of your post, perhaps I should see these as tools to create early engagement with the topic you talk about, not as a silence buster!
- Leanne Workman
What a wonderful point! I was always a hater of silence! However, after having some feedback from students and reading your post, I do understand now how vital it is for both sides in a lecture. What a nice idea to add some short silent breaks <silent minutes> (like the minute paper) after an important/ demanding part of a lecture in order to give to both sides the opportunity to reconstruct their thoughts and enjoy the learning process. I will try it! Would be really nice, though, to have feedback from different expertise and find out the effectiveness in both hard and soft science. What do you think?
MsLavaLava (Earth Sciences)
- Zosia Edwards
I teach on a medieval history course for first year students, which covers a broad range of topics spanning the thousand or so years from the fall of Rome to the Renaissance. Many of these topics are completely new for students, and even the seemingly familiar can differ deceptively from students expectations. When approaching the topic of medieval London, most students believe they know exactly what 'London' is. This assumed knowledge is often based on their perceptions of the modern day city. However, London has expanded exponentially in the past six hundred years. It has developed from a relatively small settlement of c. 40,000 people contained largely within the Roman walls into the vast conurbation with a population of around 8.6 million. Consequently, any preconceived notions of size and space must be thrown out the window before students can understand medieval London on its own terms. I wanted to challenge these notions head on, and used a map to encourage students to think about the modern city in a more medieval way.
I had the idea of using a modern map to accomplish this. My rationale was that this would tie in with a session about maps on a course about historical sources which most of my students study. Additionally, medievalist historians - including those working on medieval London - are increasingly using mapping techniques, GIS and topographical data in their research. This exercise therefore offers an introduction to the idea that maps and spatial information can play an exciting role in historical research and study. Finally, maps are visually appealing, and are a familiar information source which most people use in their day to day lives: I wanted to encourage students to approach them in a new way, and by asking them to think critically about the histories of the spaces in which they live their lives.
I created a hand out with a modern A to Z map to give to the students, covering the area of the medieval city of London. I asked them to look at the street names and the landmarks, and asked them to identify anything medieval. I gave them about seven minutes to work in pairs to do this, and then asked them to tell me what they had come up with. The students identified a number of different streets with medieval street names, along with medieval landmarks, some of which had been mentioned in the lecture. I then used some of these street names as a way of thinking about various aspects of social, economic and religious life in the medieval city. For instance, Threadneedle Street and Poultry led to a discussion of manufacturing and commercial life in the city; Crutched Friars and St Swithin's Lane led to a consideration of religious life in the city, and Giltspur Street and Knightrider street were useful for thinking about jousting, and leisure activities in the city.
I think this exercise worked well as a way of getting students to engage with the concept of medieval London. Each student was asked to contribute something they had observed from the map, and each was able to do so incisively. Students asked questions about the names of particular streets, and interacted extensively with the map hand outs, by circling relevant street names and taking notes during the discussion. They continued to participate actively throughout the rest of the class. I think this worked well as a memorable introductory activity, which encouraged students to think about London, modern and medieval, in a new way.
References
Amy Hillier and Anne Kelly Knowles, eds, Placing History: How Maps, Spatial Data, and GIS Are Changing Historical Scholarship (Redlands, California: ESRI Press, 2008)
Keith D. Lilley, ed., Mapping Medieval Geographies: Geographical Encounters in the Latin West and Beyond, 300-1600 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014)
This sounds like an interesting idea which shakes up the students’ preconceptions about London in a fun and engaging way: rather than just showing them an old map, you bring history home to them with a modern one. I have recently been wondering whether handouts are ever useful – in my own experience as a student I just remember getting loads of pieces of paper of quotations without any apparent purpose – but this seems like a great idea with a very specific point which directly relates to the goals of the class, engaging the students and encouraging them to think more carefully about the city. I think it gives a good example of how a handout can be used effectively and I’ll try to follow it in my own teaching in the future.
-- Scott Shepherd
This idea was an excellent use of materials to not only engage the students in thinking about the realities of medieval London but a resource that complimented other sections of the course and in line with research techniques utilised in the area. I think the combination of pair work, visual aids and wider group discussion speaks to a variety of learning styles, benefitting a range of students. The national archives have some great resources for teaching, especially around ‘document analysis’ - including maps (see here) there might be some other things you can use (after adaptation) going forward. I will definitely be trying this technique/use of document analysis in my legal seminars going forward as it is a creative way to teach and engage the students without inundating them with yet more detailed scholarly reading/case materials.
- Charlotte van der Westhuizen
I love this Zosia! I think these kinds of tasks can be so beneficial in breaking down any barriers to learning and asking students to think without the fear that they don't know enough to do so. In courses that cover such a broad range of history, it is so crucial to find ways to make these subjects accessible to those who don't have prior knowledge. I also used the National Archives to find resources for similar warm-up tasks, including these resources for introductions into palaeography.
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/palaeography/
-Livi Dee