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benarscott.bsky.social @benarscott.bsky.social · Jul 8

Their lives allow you to cover stories about the Civil Rights march, the campaign in the UK, terrorist/liberation symbolism, the brutal realities of sectarian violence and re-radicalisation. Probably a project for next year.

benarscott.bsky.social @benarscott.bsky.social · Jul 8

I don't yet, but I think I've just come up with a question that could unlock it: What do the Price sisters reveal about the Troubles? I used to teach the troubles at GCSE and have wanted to find a way in to teach it at KS3. Then I heard about the Price sisters on @empirepoduk.bsky.social

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benarscott.bsky.social @benarscott.bsky.social · Apr 6

Be definitely great to discuss all of this in person. I'm currently a maybe on the HA. I'm hoping to but have to sort out a clash with work first.

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benarscott.bsky.social @benarscott.bsky.social · Apr 6

Totally. I guess sometimes I think it is a future enquiry that might make pupils critically reflect on a narrative that was used in a earlier enquiry. For example when an enquiry scale-switches, it can be used to make pupils question the incompleteness of an earlier narrative.

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Reposted

Alex Ford @apf102.bsky.social · Apr 4

Just finished Ben Arscott’s piece on unpacking the enquiry puzzle in TH198.

Found myself nodding at a few bits: the difficulty on setting a good EQ and the need to focus carefully on the pupil experience.

However I would like to raise some points in the spirit of critical debate /1

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benarscott.bsky.social @benarscott.bsky.social · Apr 5

Finally, I also completely take on board your point about the problems of treating narrative solely as a tool for knowledge transmission. That wasn't an intended message or the article as I also think getting pupils to recognise the limited or contested nature of some stories is crucial. 7/

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benarscott.bsky.social @benarscott.bsky.social · Apr 5

...more successful when I've been pretty prescriptive about what substantive knowledge I wanted to emphasise. However, I don't think this has to be the case for every enquiry. 6/

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benarscott.bsky.social @benarscott.bsky.social · Apr 5

I wonder if an area of disagreement is the extent to which the teacher should be curating the substantive knowledge "journey" that pupils undertake. I've predominantly been working with KS2 and KS3 and with those phases I've found the process of inducting pupils into disciplinary debates... 5/

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benarscott.bsky.social @benarscott.bsky.social · Apr 5

I think all three could be legitimate formulations of enquiry questions, however often the maze-like questions might get the balance right between rigour and sense of achievable challenge (with the caveat that the maze would need to have multiple end points). 4/

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benarscott.bsky.social @benarscott.bsky.social · Apr 5

Since writing the first draft of that TH article I've been exploring in training how the maze and jungle path metaphors could also sit alongside an open field metaphor, i.e. a question which provides a much looser sense of puzzle but allows pupils to go in many different directions. 3/

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benarscott.bsky.social @benarscott.bsky.social · Apr 5

I definitely don't think there should ever only be one end goal and agree that would treating historical enquiry as a kind of simulation for pupils rather than a genuine intellectual process where pupils are wrestling with the disciplinary dimensions of the question. 2/

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benarscott.bsky.social @benarscott.bsky.social · Apr 5

Thanks for engaging with the article so thoroughly Alex. I think you make a good point about the inadequacies of the maze metaphor in terms of what it implies about putting limits on the journeys pupils could pursue within an enquiry and assuming there is only one legitimate end goal. 1/

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benarscott.bsky.social @benarscott.bsky.social · Mar 29

Very much looking forward to reading your article too!

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benarscott.bsky.social @benarscott.bsky.social · Dec 12

I don't have a link but I have created an adapted enquiry that I could share. If you DM your email I can send over the files.

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benarscott.bsky.social @benarscott.bsky.social · Dec 11

Have you seen Helen Snelson the York subject community's enquiry on "What mattered to people in the seventeenth century?" We're trialling it this year and it feels like such an exciting way to explore the upheaval without overwhelming pupils with the high politics.

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benarscott.bsky.social @benarscott.bsky.social · Nov 24

Ecumenical councils: the peer-review of the fourth century?

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benarscott.bsky.social @benarscott.bsky.social · Nov 18

This might seem obtuse, but we can teach some exam technique about how to answer source questions at GCSE. This will look more like a transferable skill, but its success will still depend on some luck without pupils having good period knowledge.

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benarscott.bsky.social @benarscott.bsky.social · Nov 18

I think we probably can't teach a transferable skill of source analysis. We can expose pupils to lots of different types of sources in a given period and this might give pupils enough knowledge to say something sensible about an unseen source. But I think this will boil down to what they know.

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benarscott.bsky.social @benarscott.bsky.social · Nov 18

Or maybe not articulate it as 'skills" at all? Pupils can develop knowledge of the specific source and of context of that source. Then a pupil can say intelligent things about that source. However that doesn't mean they have any transferable skill for interacting with a source from another period

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Summer Turner @summerturner.bsky.social · Nov 15

Do you remember when we stopped using levels and for a while lots of schools went mad creating even worse versions of levels but with colours and bizarre labels, and measuring things that shouldn’t be measured? Seems a fitting time to mention that happened.

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benarscott.bsky.social @benarscott.bsky.social · Nov 15

Wow, that graph tells a very impressive story. Well done to all involved!

benarscott.bsky.social @benarscott.bsky.social · Nov 15

Totally agree. Unless the metric is uniting the teaching profession. It's been a surreal experience in the last few years thinking Ofsted were mainly a force for good in highlighting the value of curriculum. It'll be reassuring to return to simpler times where we can all see them as the enemy...

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benarscott.bsky.social @benarscott.bsky.social · Oct 31

Me too. I've been trying to write an EYFS-friendly version of Sophia Duleep Singh's story today which has been a joy.

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benarscott.bsky.social @benarscott.bsky.social · Oct 31

This is brilliant Nikki. I think it's great how your theme of rebellious Norfolk opens up so many interesting avenues. I can also confirm Pablo Fanque is getting his own Y1 enquiry in history.

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benarscott.bsky.social @benarscott.bsky.social · Oct 18

Such an important point made so pithily: "Resist common headings across subjects". So much unnecessary confusion is caused across the sector by a desire for neat and consistent ways to capture and present curricula.

Christine Counsell @counsellc.bsky.social · Oct 18

My @schoolsweek.bsky.social piece on curriculum reviews. If we learn from 35 yrs of them, we might avoid the ever-recurring problems. But without strong subject-curricular training, espec for senior/system leaders, the finest rubric will still feed old distortions.
schoolsweek.co.uk/what-a-natio...

Four ways the Francis review can succeed where others failed

In the first instalment of our new series, Chirstine Counsell draws lessons from 35 years of attempted reform

schoolsweek.co.uk

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