Addressing misconceptions in primary history

A pupil misunderstanding their history is obviously a serious impediment to their historical development. Misconceptions are generally more serious, and a subject leader should be much more aware of these, at both at individual pupil level and the wider class and key stage level.

Ironically, teachers devote a large amount of time to how pupils learn and progress, but this guide from Tim Lomas is in many ways about how pupils do not learn and what gets in the way of a smooth path to historical consciousness. He looks at three key areas of misconceptions: confused core knowledge, poor conceptual understanding and an inadequate grasp of the historical process of enquiry. He looks at how to identify them and developing a policy to address them.

Tim Lomas has spent most of his career in history education as a teacher, senior manager, inspector, author, trainer, curriculum developer and principal examiner. He has served on national committees including advising governments and other organisations. His last full-time post was as a principal education inspector. Dr Lomas is currently the Honorary Secretary of the HA as well as a member of its Executive, Primary, Secondary and Branches Committees. He has extensive experience of training and producing resources for primary and secondary schools. His historical interests range widely but include assessment, curriculum management and local history.

This resource is part of the HA primary subject leaders’ area, available exclusively to Corporate primary members.