History

Introduction

PGCE History at CambridgeTalvindar Bhullar (2004-5) looks back at the Cambridge History PGCE after five years of teaching history in London.

‘Without a doubt, the Cambridge PGCE was the best year of my academic career. The course is very challenging and thought provoking and gets the best out of you. The quality of the course leader and all staff attached to the course is superb and you always feel fully supported.

A substantial part of the course is spent in two main placement schools. We were in a school in every single week of the course, even during the short periods when we had sessions in the Faculty of Education. The Cambridge Partnership is made up of diverse schools with fantastic history specialist mentors who fully understand the demands of the Cambridge history PGCE. The advantage of having such an established network of history mentors running the course is that we were encouraged to visit as many Partner history departments as possible to broaden our experience.

The time you spend in the Faculty, in subject sessions, is the perfect complement to the time in the classroom. The sessions are interactive, lively and provoke meaningful debate. As a group you are all in the same position (worrying about subject knowledge or your next lesson!) but this helps you support each other.

One of the biggest advantages was the exposure to teachers and other speakers involved in the cutting edge of history teaching. Our course leader actively sought out a really wide range of contrasting views on history education and made us engage with them all through hearing them speak or reading their work.

I am now Head of History and the whole-school CPD Co-ordinator at Woodbridge High School, a large multicultural comprehensive in London. I think it's especially important that we bring history teaching of the highest quality to those pupils who live in an urban, multicultural environment. The Cambridge history course fully prepares you for a career in the classroom, and especially for classrooms in ever-changing or challenging environments. Five years on I am constantly thinking about ideas that I was introduced to on the course, still read the articles I read then to get inspiration and still keep up with the latest history education debates and research.’

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What does it feel like to be on the history PGCE course?

 In their own words …

history trainees‘Exhausting, challenging, the most intellectually demanding thing I have ever done, harder than my degree, but life-changing, life-enhancing, always inspiring and so much fun. Two things I remember most about university sessions were how they made my brain ache, and lots of helpless laughter.’ (2004-5)

‘I’ve never had to think so hard in all my life. I had no idea there were so many approaches to making history exciting, vibrant and important to young people. (2008-9)

‘I could not have asked for greater quality. Our two course tutors were fully committed to improving and developing my skills as a teacher. The feedback on assignments was exemplary and moved me on... At no time did I feel unsupported in my learning journey’. (2009-10)

‘Most of the time we were in school, and when we weren’t we were trying out practical classroom activities and being led in discussions and debates by tutors who are very experienced classroom teachers of history. Coming out of school from time to time made us see the bigger picture and question the value of everything we were doing.’ (2009-10)

‘I was encouraged to be really creative, so when I wanted to carry out my own research project getting sixth formers reading cutting-edge historical scholarship, my mentor just said, ‘Yes! Go for it!’ My mentor always supported me when I was stuck, tired and running out of steam. (2007-8)

‘Our subject lecturer made us believe we were agents of change. We should question orthodoxies, challenge dumbing down by exam boards, stand up to those who say history isn’t important for the ‘non-academic’ pupil, research new ways of doing things and publish them, generally shout from rooftops … Our tutors made it clear from Day 1 that we should aspire to be future leaders, not passive implementers.’ (2004-5)

‘The camaradarie of the other history trainees was brilliant. It was a privilege to be surrounded by inspirational teachers and a community of like-minded fellow trainees to learn with, all equally passionate about children learning and enjoying history. (2007-8)

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How will I learn to teach history well?History PGCE at the Faculty of Education Cambridge

You will be in schools for most of the course. We get you teaching whole classes and full lessons almost straightaway,  so that you have plenty of real experience to reflect on and talk about, and so that we diagnose your own strengths and weaknesses early. That way, your school-based mentor can work with you to create targets and negotiate your personalised programme to help you improve.

Learning to teach all pupils really well is extremely challenging. You cannot see everything you need to see if you are on your own. So you will talk about your practice with other trainees, with your mentor in school, with course tutors and with other history teachers. You will learn to use supportive criticism from others. You will learn to evaluate your practice by looking at the quality of your pupils’ historical knowledge and historical thinking using different types of assessment and research.

Not all pupils want to learn history. Some don’t see the point. Many love it, but find it extremely hard. They can easily be discouraged. What are you going to do about those problems? A basic ethic of the Cambridge history course is that history is vital for all pupils, so giving up or copping out of teaching the pupils who struggle is not an option. And ‘dumbing down’ is not acceptable either.

There are also other challenges. These can be intellectual, practical or moral: How do I help a pupil to analyse causation? How do I get an under-achieving sixth former to read widely? Can 13-year-olds understand the concept of evidence? Does it matter? What should we prioritise when making tough content choices within limited curriculum time? What kind of historical question is ‘When was the Renaissance?’. Is it the best question for Year 9? How should we handle students' emotional distress or anger when dealing with sensitive and controversial issues in the past?

History teachers do not work in isolation. They are part of a vast professional community containing many determined history teachers trying to solve problems. History teachers have worked for decades to try to make more pupils more knowledgeable about the past and fascinated by its study. That community is also dependent on other, overlapping communities, such as academic historians, education researchers, archaeologists and many others from museums to the British Film Institute to local history societies to international organisations working with history teachers in post-conflict regions of the world. These communities generate debate, ideas and research. To become part of the profession of history teaching is to get to know those debates, and, as soon as possible, to join them.

This is why you will be expected to read a great deal, and also why you will be trained to write rigorously and engagingly. You need not only to produce exciting, high quality resources for your pupils; you must learn to write for a range of other audiences.

You will also observe other history teachers at work, both in your two placement schools and in our other Partnership schools that you will visit as part of your training.

One of the most damaging myths about history teaching in Britain today is that history teachers don’t care about knowledge. The opposite is the case. No matter how many lively, fun approaches you try, your teaching will not acquire rigour, depth, insight and command if you are not steeped in up-to-date knowledge of your topics. A feature of the Cambridge history course is a requirement for trainees to begin a career-long professional habit of reading widely.

A unique entitlement of our course is that all trainees should read and discuss works of historical scholarship by academic historians with their mentors, in school. Our mentors believe in modelling regular reading as part of their professional role.

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What sorts of topics and issues will I explore?

History PGCE at the Faculty of Education Cambridge

This list is only a taste, just enough to show you that it is impossible to classify the course as either ‘progressive’ or ‘traditional’. Such terms are not helpful. Rather, we like to think of the helping new history teachers to learn from the best of the old and the best of the new and to judge what is most effective by critically examining the impact of their own classroom practice.

Long live the essay! The course places strong emphasis on literacy and language, from helping pupils to talk clearly and cogently to helping them to write well-structured and well-argued extended essays. During the 1990s, the subject lecturer, Christine Counsell, did a lot of work getting ‘low-attaining’ pupils to write extended, analytic historical arguments and narratives and this remains a key passion and a central theme of the course. The history classroom is also a place where pupils for whom English is an additional language can become fluent, confident speakers and writers of English.

Understanding how and why people interpret the past differently. From a mural in Northern Ireland to a novel by Hilary Mantel, from a scholarly work by a modern historian to a film by Mel Gibson, human beings construct endless representations of the past. The National Curriculum has included the study of ‘interpretations of history’ since its inception in 1991. You will learn how to help pupils to understand how and why individuals and societies construct and remember the past. From war memorials to a National Trust tea towel to a history textbook in Cyprus, what are all these depictions for? How are they constructed? Why do they differ? And how do we fascinate pupils with such questions?

Saving the chronologically lost. Pupils need frameworks such as narratives and layers of knowledge if they are to find their way around the past, frame good questions, persevere with puzzles and enjoy important debates. The course teaches you how to ensure that pupils build knowledge and to examine how growing knowledge interacts with historical thinking.

How should the conceptual structure of the discipline shape teaching and assessment? What does it mean to assess pupils’ progress in evidential thinking or causal reasoning? Can we do it? Should we do it? How do different history teachers do it? Do pupils get better at history when we focus on these things? What ideas do children have about historical change and continuity? Can we find out? And if so, how can or should this make our teaching better?

What is the relationship between the study of history and the arts? Did 17th century Protestants really hate art? What can Islamic art tell us? How can we use music as an historical source? Was Byrd’s music a lament or a protest? How did the Chartists use songs and poems? How did Civil Rights campaigners experience music? Be prepared: if your cultural and religious history is lousy, you will be packed off with CDs of music by Byrd and Tallis so that you can fill your head with the sound of the sixteenth century. Then you’ve got to work out how to fascinate pupils with it.

What didn’t happen? Counterfactual history has a long tradition in school history classrooms, with much imaginative work published by history teachers who have explored its potential. Could you design a counterfactual game? How do these games build knowledge and curiosity? How do they improve pupils’ causal reasoning?

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How do school and university training interconnect?

History in the classroom, PGCE Faculty of Education trainee and studentsOur team of history mentors works closely with the university personnel to ensure a unified, coherent course. None of the topics above will be explored in isolation from the real world of the classroom. If a topic is raised in university, it will be followed up and experimented with in the classroom or discussed with a school-based mentor who knows exactly what has happened in your university session. Likewise, many university sessions are built around an activity which you will all have carried out in school, so that you can then come together with other history trainees for critical discussion about what happened in your classroom.

‘The Cambridge course is a holistic and individualised approach to teacher-training. The faculty-based subject studies sessions blend demanding historical thinking with fantastic practical tips, and once in school I was raring to go. My school-based mentors were excellent and my training was completely tailored to my own strengths and weaknesses.’ (2007-8)

‘Subject Studies sessions formed the basis of my learning and really stretched my thinking. The quality of discussion was excellent and allowed me to explore issues in depth, and in a friendly setting. The sharing of issues was invaluable in informing my approach to teaching and complemented my professional teaching placement perfectly. (2009-10)

‘It was brilliant that we all had to read certain articles written by other history teachers. So when we came to the sessions we could all debate easily and at a high level. Back in school, my mentor would say, ‘Right what have you read?’ He had always read all the latest articles and was really up-to-date and he would challenge me to find out about research in other schools. So you never felt that university and school were in any way separate.’ (2006-7)

Why would a mentor want to train me?

You will have a weekly hour’s meeting with a mentor, right through the course. At that meeting, your mentor will help you to assess your progress, frame new targets and develop imaginative ‘training activities’ to help you meet those targets. These ‘training activities’ could be anything from trying out an approach with a new class, to researching and planning a new sequence of lessons. In addition, your mentor will support you by observe you teach, give you feedback on your lessons and generally encourage you.

History PGCE at the Faculty of Education CambridgeSo why would a busy history teacher want to devote so much time and energy to training you? Anna Lovewell, who has been mentoring Cambridge trainees for four years (here clad in medieval peasant garb and about to sample a piece of medieval-style bread), explains why:

‘The Cambridge history programme allows trainees to be at the forefront of theory and practice, research and debate about history education. I guide trainees in how to practically experiment with all this within the school setting. I aim to offer an environment of ‘high support’ and ‘high challenge’ where trainees feel able to experiment and be creative without fear of failure. Every trainee teacher is unique and I aim to tailor their course to their individual progress. Indeed one of the things I love about being a mentor is the fact that the mentor-trainee relationship is a two-way process. I frequently learn as much as they do! It is a truly amazing experience for me to be a mentor. It’s another kind of teaching and I love it. I have to think really hard about my own practice and that makes me a better teacher.

Also, I never fail to be delighted by the ingenuity and enthusiasm of the history trainees. Trainees have often left longstanding creative contributions to our schemes of work. In every mentor meeting we get so excited about whatever creative idea the trainee is going to try next. I feel privileged to be able to share a passion for both history and education with trainees and it enables history to stay truly alive and kicking in our department.’

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Who comes on the course?

Trainee teachers at Cambridge come from a wide variety of backgrounds. Here are profiles of five very different trainees: Rachel, Robin, James, Hannah and Helen.

History PGCE at the Faculty of Education Cambridge
Rachel

I worked in publishing for six years before applying to do the PGCE. It was the best decision I could have made. The history PGCE course was the most rewarding year of my working life. Teaching is both an academic and creative discipline and the course gets the balance just right; whilst being very academically rigorous it is also extremely practical. I always came away from both Faculty sessions and mentor meetings buzzing with ideas that I couldn’t wait to get into the classroom and try! The mentoring I received was outstanding. I felt very well supported throughout the course and the mentoring process was a constructive dialogue rather than simply being told what to do.
The course doesn’t try and force you to conform to a single model of a ‘good’ history teacher– whilst you receive a lot of guidance, you are encouraged to think for yourself and develop your own teaching personality in the classroom. The course does so much more than simply train you how to survive in the classroom – it inspires and equips you to participate in and shape debate within the education community. I now work in a comprehensive near Cambridge and have recently become a mentor. I have also now completed my MEd with the Faculty of Education, researching ways of getting Year 9 to read real historical scholarship.

robin trainee experience

Robin

‘After reading history at Cambridge, I found the PGCE course a perfect preparation for life in the classroom. But the course is not just about how to stand in front of a class. It challenged me to think about what studying history really means – probably the first time I had done this, despite my degree and my MPhil.
Fellow trainees, although diverse in ages and backgrounds, were similarly passionate about history and how we could encourage pupils to share our enthusiasm. The ‘theory’ of teaching history was not dryly delivered in lecture halls, but in active sessions that valued our input and ideas. The vast majority of the PGCE, however, was spent within schools where mentors (experienced history teachers) helped develop our teaching. I valued the opportunity this provided to be creative and take calculated risks. In my 1C (an extended research assignment), for instance, I encouraged pupils to write historical narrative, something that goes against the grain of current practice. The course was naturally tiring, but the reward of seeing pupils enthused by my lessons compensated for this! I now teach at County Upper School (a 13-18 comprehensive) in Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk.

PGCE history

James

‘When I was solicitor in Leeds, specialising in corporate tax, I had the opportunity to mentor students at a local comprehensive school. I soon realised I cared more about what I was doing there than I did in my real job. So, I took the plunge and applied for a PGCE in Cambridge. It was one of the best decisions I have ever made. The course was an inspiration: intense, thoroughly enjoyable and intellectually challenging at every stage. I learned more about the nature of History in one year than I had during my entire degree, and I entered the profession confident that I had had the best possible training. An unexpected aspect of teaching has been just how creative it allows you to be, which I love; the job is fun! There is also a fantastic community of history teachers who love their work, relish the chance to work with each other and who generously provide support, advice and career opportunities. Teaching rewards hard work and enthusiasm, allowing you to carve out your own career path. Since leaving, I have developed my career rapidly through writing articles, mentoring trainee teachers or training other teachers and mentors. I have just been appointed Assistant Principal in a new school. This is a photo of me with my son Toby.’

helen
Helen

I wanted to be a teacher since a young age and after reading History at York I decided that Cambridge would be the ideal place to train. The course is rigorous, engaging and never dull. Our course tutors gave exceptional guidance so you never felt alone.
The staff at Cambridge really inspire you to be creative and adventurous so schools love it when Cambridge trainees arrive because we always have lots of enthusiasm. Even after a year of teaching, I still turn to my course notes and reading if I need inspiration or motivation to try something new. As the course is demanding, you quickly build good relationships with your fellow trainees and even now we still meet up for curry.
The Cambridge Partnership has a variety of schools so you’ll experience a range of school systems and teaching styles. My first placement was at Stanground College in Peterborough and I liked it so much that I am now working there!
Teaching is a tiring job and can be stressful but Cambridge trains you well to focus on the history and to ensure students get as much out of your lessons as possible. Every day is different at school and you experiment with such a wide range of mediums and tools, from film to newspapers to creating wikis, that you are always pushing yourself forward.
PGCE history
Hannah

I read History at King’s College London. I wanted a career that would both stretch me intellectually and enable me to interact with people. I haven’t been let down and I’m enjoying the challenge more than I could have imagined.
The Cambridge PGCE was inspiring and challenging. Through the carefully crafted sessions and wonderful support from the course tutors we were able to develop our understanding of the discipline as well as reflect on how best to enable pupils to enjoy the subject. The most rewarding part for me was innovating with ways to encourage pupils to read for pleasure. Seeing the joy on their faces when they had read ‘a real historian’s’ chapter and identified the theme of it was something I shall never forget.
The year is intensive and requires complete dedication, but the rewards more than make up for it. The PGCE prepared me well for the challenges of the NQT year and it felt like a natural progression when I entered my current school. I have relished the opportunity to help pupils to ‘become historians’ this year, encouraging them to design their own enquiries, something which the PGCE gave me the skills and confidence to try.
The course instilled in us the need for peer support and this is another of its strengths. I am still in touch with our group of trainees and we regularly meet up to discuss lessons and reflect together.
This is a photograph of me with Helen. We did the course together and we then completed the MEd together (in our second year of teaching). In 2010 the two of us were invited to give our first workshop for other history teachers at a national conference on history education in Leeds. Nerve-wracking but very exciting!
hannah and helen PGCE

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How does this fit in with the MEd?

Students who successfully complete all examined elements of the PGCE course (without failing any element at the point of examination) are able to register for the second year of the Faculty's MEd course. For such students, the Cambridge PGCE year is equivalent to 50% of the Cambridge Masters course. Trainees complete the second year of the Masters (on a part-time basis) within three years of qualifying.

Most students will follow the Researching Practice MEd course, designed especially for early career teachers. As part of this, there is the option to follow a history elective.

Michael followed the Researching Practice MEd course in 2007-8, after having completed the PGCE course in 2007:

mentoringHaving read History at Cambridge, I began the PGCE course at the Faculty of Education in 2006. The PGCE offered me the balance between practical training and theoretical reflection that I sought, and I enjoyed the analytical focus of the course. This culminated in the research project I conducted in school on how A-Level students progress in their understanding of historical arguments. It was therefore an easy decision for me to continue to the MEd in Researching Practice which I completed during my NQT year. Throughout my PGCE I worked with my in-school mentors who gave me the flexibility I needed to think about how students progress in history and, as a NQT, I was lucky enough to find work in a history department that continued to offer me this support. I was able to find time to read widely for my MEd and produce my thesis.

My research focussed on how my Year 8 students constructed meaning out of the historical concept of “revolution”, which involved keeping lesson observations, studying the students’ work and conducting interviews. My supervisor, colleagues at school and contacts I had made in my PGCE year were all keen to discuss my work, and I left the MEd feeling much more closely linked with the history teaching community, both in Cambridgeshire and beyond. Having caught the research bug, I decided to continue my studies by pursuing a part-time PhD with the Faculty of Education. I have no doubt that both the research project during the PGCE and my MEd thesis have improved my ability to analyse my own teaching and the way my students learn.’

Researching my own practice has also made me a much better mentor. This is a picture of me in a mentor meeting with my trainee teacher, Rob Stark, during March 2010.

Sarah followed the Researching Practice MEd in 2008-9, after having completed the PGCE course in 2006.

‘I did the PGCE course at Cambridge after completing a Masters in Women’s History at London Metropolitan University. Having enjoyed the PGCE so much, I decided to complete my MEd with the Faculty of Education. It is a natural extension of the PGCE course by amalgamating your practice as a teacher, your thinking about historical issues and broader understandings of pedagogical concern. It certainly made me more reflective about my practice. I used story-telling to develop pupils’ chronological understanding and knowledge, and then got pupils to construct stories which made links between 19th century Britain and 19th century India. I analysed these as a way of exploring how story helps pupils to make connections, retain knowledge and make meaning out of complex, otherwise disparate events. My approach encouraged my department to reflect on new ways of structuring the history curriculum.

Throughout the MEd, the support of my history specialist supervisor, colleagues at school and fellow researchers has been immense. It has transformed my approach towards planning and teaching.’

A shortened version of Sarah’s research into using story has been published in Teaching History, 136. You can join the Historical Association and read Teaching History on www.history.org.uk

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Do you have any advice for my application?

Entry onto the history course is extremely competitive. Last year we received 164 applications for 20 places. Early application is essential. Just over a third of those who apply will make it to interview.

The following advice will increase your chances of being called to interview.

For full application details visit our PGCE admissions page.