7.2 How can we help trainees understand the mis/preconceptions that pupils have about history?

How can we help trainees understand the mis/preconceptions that pupils have about history?
The mere fact that trainees are graduates supposes that they are good at history and have experienced considerable success in their academic careers. It can therefore be difficult for them to understand what exactly an 11 year old finds difficult about chronology or causation. Research (Burn, Hagger, Mutton and Everton, 2000) shows that trainee teachers, far from being overwhelmingly concerned about themselves early in their practice, do show considerable attention to pupil learning. However the sophistication with which they understand how pupils learn is limited by their lack of experience and awareness of what pupils already think. Trainees who have been interviewed for this project expressed surprise at the problems pupils face with seemingly straightforward ideas like time and causation.

The challenge here is enabling trainees to see history from the perspective of pupils. The first step is getting the trainees to see what misconceptions pupils may hold, e.g. people in the past were stupid for believing in witches, or primary evidence is superior to secondary evidence because the person was there. Once these conceptions have been identified, the trainees then need to think how pupils can be moved forward.

Activity 7.2.1 Using what pupils have learned