Progression and Assessment (A-level)

Although the formal examination structures of AS and A-level examinations tend to dominate teachers’ thinking about students’ progress and how it is assessed, there is still a need to plan carefully to support students’ transition from GCSE to A level, helping them make sense of the more extensive demands made of them at this level.  The materials in this section help teachers to think about appropriate models of progression at this stage. They explore the use of formative assessment strategies, including self and peer assessment, and the ways in which teachers can develop students’ ideas about high-quality historical argument and their knowledge of how to construct and evaluate them. 

Planning (A-level)

This section includes a range of articles concerned with planning on different scales for post-16 teaching. They deal with planning in relation to specific topics and in response to particular kinds of challenge at this level and with questions about the most appropriate kinds of curriculum structure to support the development and retention of knowledge over two-year courses

Independent Study

Material in this section focuses specifically on ways of equipping and guiding students as they undertake the independent investigation that is a current requirement of all A-level specifications. Many teachers who have explored this issue in their own practice have concluded that they need to pay more attention to it in their work with younger students, gradually building their capacity to identify and frame worthwhile historical questions. This section therefore includes examples of related work at earlier stages, intended to develop students’ capacity to engage in more independent investigation.

Transition to HE

The materials in this section include teachers’ and students’ guides to history at university level and to the applications and interview processes involved. Other resources, some of which have been written from the perspective of higher education, reflect on the demands of a history degree and the ideas about history held by many first-year undergraduates, will help you to consider the nature of your curriculum and the ways in which particular approaches to A-level study may most effectively prepare students for further academic study of history – and, indeed, for different forms of assessment.