1. Fostering Historical Inquiry in the
Middle Years History Classroom
Dr Catherine Hart
Luther College, Croydon

2. Learning in the middle years
needs to be
RELEVANT

3. • Relevant to policy & curriculum
• Relevant to learners
(VELS - Unit of work – sequence of lessons)

4. Learning in the middle years
needs to be
PURPOSEFUL

6. Supporting conceptual development

7. Concepts

9. Learning in the middle
years needs to be
CLEAR and EXPLICIT

11. Learning in the middle
years needs to be
MANAGEABLE

13. Learning in the middle years
needs to be
LEARNER CENTRED

14. How do learning tasks ENGAGE
learners? What is your ‘hook’?
How do learning tasks cater for
different STUDENT ABILITIES
and LEARNING STYLES?

15. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEdHO7ef
96I

17. A sample year 7 history lesson:
The UNIT context
‘Time Detectives’ unit of work
20-24 lessons (5-6 weeks)
Beginning of year 7
Key inquiry questions:
How do we learn from what others left behind?
What will others learn from us in the future?

18. The VELS context

20. Before SAMPLE lesson:
1. How do we investigate the past? Why is it
important?
2. What is archaeology? What is it not?
3. Why is archaeology important? What do
archaeologists do?
4. The archaeological process - why do it and
how is it done? (LESSON FITS IN HERE)

21. Sample lesson

24. And in the next few lessons…

28. Lesson audit
Relevant?
Purposeful?
Clear and explicit?
Manageable?
Learner centred?

29. What is this?

30. This is the Mercator map (1596).
For most of the 20th century, the
National
Geographic Society, various atlases,
and
classroom wall cartographers used the
Mercator
projection for most world maps.
Cartography: study of maps, making of

31. Do you see any problem with using
this map in the classroom?

32. The Greenland problem
http://www.public.asu.edu/~aarios/resourcebank/maps/page10.html

33. Actual Statistics
Greenland: 2.175 million sq km
Africa: 31 million sq km
Africa is 14 times larger than Greenland!
In fact:
Africa could hold the land
occupied by China, India,
Europe, Argentina, New
Zealand and the continental
United States, with room to
spare!

34. The North compared to the South
Actual statistics
 The North is 49 million sq
km.
 The South is 100 million
sq km.
http://www.petersmap.com/page5.html

35. Europe compared to South
America
Actual statistics
 Europe is 9.8 million sq km.
 South America is 17.9
million sq km.

36. Why does this distortion occur?
Geradus Mercator invented his famous projection in 1596 as
an aid to
navigators. On his map, lines of latitude and longitude
intersect at right
angles and thus the direction of travel - the rhumb line - is
consistent. It is
a cylindrical map, that's why the landforms on this map
become
increasingly distorted the farther you get from the equator.
The distortion
of the Mercator Map increases as you move north and south
from the
equator.
Mercator never intended his map to be used for purposes

37. Why was the Mercator Map used when
the distortion was known?
This was convenient, psychologically and practically, through
the eras of
colonial domination when most of the world powers were
European. It
suited them to maintain an image of the world with Europe at
the centre
and looking much larger than it really was. Was this conscious
or
deliberate? Probably not, as most map users probably never
realised the
Eurocentric bias inherent in their world view.
When there are so many other projections to chose from, why
is it that
today the Mercator projection is still such a widely recognised

38. The Peters Map
A different type of projection is an ‘Equal-Area’ projection.
This shows sizes in proportion while sacrificing true shape.
The Peters Projection (1974) is one type of equal area
map.

39. The Peters map cont.
Here are some facts about the Peters map:
 The Peters Map is an equal area map.
 This new map shows all areas - whether countries,
continents or oceans - according to their actual size.
Accurate comparisons become possible.
 The Peters Map is an equal axis map.
 All North-South lines run vertical on this map. Thus,
geographic points can be seen in their precise directional
relationship.
 The Peters Map shows equal positions.
 All East-West Lines run parallel. Thus the relationship of
any point on the map to its distance from the equator or
the angle of the sun can readily be determined.

40. Comparing the Mercator and the
Peters map
L R
Which one immediately looks more ‘normal’ to you?
Which one is the Mercator map?