Professional learning : history teachers in the making

How can experienced history teachers help both beginning teachers and other members of the history department to develop and improve their practice?

How do history departments improve and develop? What is distinctive about history teaching and learning?

Recent research has placed emphasis on both the continuum of teacher learning from initial training to continuing professional development and the importance of subject knowledge in classroom effectiveness.

This innovative book draws these issues together: it examines the nature of professional learning throughout teaching careers, grounded in the culture, research and practice of one school subject.

It begins by examining history student teacher learning, focusing on practical strategies for school based mentoring in history.

The second section examines the nature of history teacher development in the first year of teaching whilst the third links individual and department development explicitly to classroom effectiveness.

Throughout, the book draws on practical classroom experience and recent research, providing both specific case study examples and generalisable arguments.