Approaches and Strategies - Learning and Teaching

Chapter 4 Learning and Teaching

4.2 Approaches and Strategies

The major aims of this curriculum are the construction of historical knowledge, development of historical skills and cultivation of positive values and attitudes. Apart from those disciplinary skills, the curriculum also provides meaningful contexts for the development of generic skills such as critical thinking skills and creativity as well as humanistic qualities, for example caring for the well-being of others and cherishing history and culture.

There are different learning and teaching approaches such as direct instruction, enquiry and co-construction. Teachers should adopt a variety of approaches and strategies to suit the content and focuses of learning, and to address students’ diverse needs.

Among all these approaches, the enquiry approach is highly recommended for the learning and teaching in History (S1-3). Teachers may refer to the enquiry questions and guiding questions of each topic in the curriculum framework and guide students to respond to those questions in order to construct historical knowledge and develop historical skills.

4.2.1 Enquiry learning and Self-directed learning

History is a discipline which may adopt the enquiry approach to help students construct an understanding of individuals and collective groups in relation to time.

Students are required to determine the validity and reliability of evidence in order to analyse and acquire a better understanding of people, events, and ideas in the past. In this learning process, students are offered opportunities to become active learners, applying historical thinking skills and carrying out critical and creative learning.

The enquiry approach is quite different from direct teaching approach. The former is more student-oriented while the latter is more content-based. Most students find it much more enjoyable and challenging to find out what they want to study than just learning facts. For example, they may distinguish facts from opinions, raise questions and build up concepts from reading primary sources, through collaboration instead of working alone or access multiple resources instead of relying on textbooks. These approaches may take more time but they are meaningful learning activities in terms of historical

learning. Moreover, teachers can allow students to write learning journals or other coursework to enhance their writing and organisation skills during the process of enquiry learning. It helps students recollect and reflect on their learning, enhances their writing skills and contribute to self-directed learning. Meanwhile, teachers can provide opportunities for students to refer to good samples and facilitate peer learning. In this process, teachers’ feedback and encouragement are indispensable. Please refer to Appendix 2 for an example of writing learning journals to nurture students’ writing skills and self-directed learning.

When applying enquiry to the learning and teaching of History, the role of teachers and students are learning facilitators and active learners respectively.

As learning facilitators, History teachers should be able to:

- provide guidelines to help students explore enquiry questions;

- set up an engaging environment;

- gather resources to facilitate both interaction and self-learning;

- lead students to explore for more information;

- prompt thinking and accept many possible answers;

- give timely guidance and make a conclusion at the end of the enquiry learning;

- nurture students to develop an objective, balanced and respectful attitude to historical facts in the enquiry process; and

- foster passion, curiosity and interest in learning history.

In the enquiry process, students are active learners instead of mere information receivers. They should:

- apply their prior knowledge to respond to enquiry questions;

- engage actively in learning;

- raise questions and look for appropriate learning tools;

- collaborate closely with others;

- share learning experiences with peers; and

- reflect on learning experiences and evaluate their own learning progress.

Enquiry approach is a way to make history learning interesting and innovative.

Instead of memorising isolated facts, students should be encouraged to think historically about the past. For example, why is it easier for the Europeans to pick up French, Spanish, German and other European languages? How different is the territory of the United States today from the founding of the nation in 1776? Which commonly used names come from Greek myths? How were pyramids built in Ancient Egypt with

the transport and the technology at that time? Why do we use both Arabic numbers and Roman numbers today? A History teacher adopted an enquiry approach in the topic

“Outbreak and Impact of the First World War – Paris Peace Conference and the Treaty of Versailles”. Students took the role of different countries, discussed their respective demands at the Conference and presented their discussion results. The lesson encouraged the students to engage in the enquiry process so that they could actively raise questions and find out answers. History can be revisited from new perspectives as there are too many topics of interest that are related to the daily lives and personal experience of students. Teachers should accept diversified questions and answers and celebrate students’ curiosity and imagination, which are necessary for enquiry learning.

Please refer to Appendix 3 for an example of learning history topics through an enquiry approach.

Some schools have adopted enquiry approach to try out the topics in the revised curriculum. For example, S1 students of a school were asked to find out what impact the ancient Roman civilisation had on our world today. They started their enquiry by comparing the past and present in terms of calendar, architecture, law system, writings and political systems in order to understand the legacy of the ancient Roman civilisation.

S1 students of another school made good use of primary sources such as data from the Report of the Census Office of the Hong Kong Government in 1911 and the GeoInfo Map from Lands Department today to explore more about the major groups and the great clans in early Hong Kong. Moreover, based on the enquiry question “What did people learn from the Second World War?” suggested in the curriculum, a History teacher conducted two S3 lessons on the Holocaust and required students to complete a pre-lesson task, class discussion and a post-lesson task first, and then fill in a graphic organiser including six major elements (what, why, when, who, where and how) (Fig.

4.1). By the end of the lessons, students constructed new knowledge through scaffolding in peer group activities and reflected on how to build a peaceful world.

For more details and exemplars of respective lesson plans and strategies, please make reference to the New inspirations in learning and teaching- New Resource Pack for the Revised Curriculum of Junior Secondary History (Volume 1) published by the Education Bureau (EDB) in 2019.

Fig.4.1 Graphic organiser for the lessons on Holocaust

4.2.2 Source-based learning in history

In the process of historical enquiry, the use of historical sources enables our students to reconstruct the context and situation of a historical problem from multi-dimensional perspectives. When students analyse a historical problem, they need to grasp a variety of historical sources and evaluate the validity of the evidence critically in order to deepen the understanding of and form personal viewpoint towards a historical topic. Hence, historical sources provide the evidence for students to enquire historical problems and form personal judgments. Adopting an enquiry approach in learning with the use of historical sources helps enrich students’ historical imagination and understanding and develop their historical competency. The application of historical sources is indispensable to students’ historical enquiry.

History teachers can design learning activities so that they facilitate the students use of historical sources during the process of enquiry to form answers to historical questions. Teachers may use primary sources as concrete examples in learning and teaching strategies, such as the personal letters, diaries, personal narratives, photographs, memoirs, and oral history; official sources including newspapers, public

and government publications and archives, speeches and court records; and artefacts for example grave stones, buildings, tools and household implements. These primary sources were produced at the time of the event or period under investigation, which help create a sense of reality in learning history and stimulate curiosity and empathy among students. Teachers may also use secondary sources, such as later newspaper accounts, biographies, documentaries, commentaries and encyclopaedias. From these materials that were produced after the period or event under investigation, students can read from them and build a more holistic understanding with various interpretations of the historical event or issue. Under History teacher’s guidance, students can develop the ability to explore historical problems in context through studying first-hand personal narratives with feelings and views towards the event or issue; analysing different interpretations from various secondary sources also helps cultivate the value of respecting different perspectives among students and develop their ability to make impartial and reasonable judgments towards historical problems. In this way, source-based enquiry approach is conducive to forming historical concepts and fostering historical literacy among our students.

Nonetheless, teachers should adapt the historical sources in their learning and teaching strategies in order to enhance the effectiveness of students’ learning in History.

For example, in Topic 8 “Growth and development of Hong Kong up to the late 19^th century”, History teachers should first provide students with the basic facts of the establishment of British rule and system to equip them with appropriate prior knowledge to understand the official documents of the Hong Kong government in the late 19^th century. The use of language in some old historical sources can be very different to our use of language today, hence, teachers can teach students some reading skills so that they can make sense of the content in the sources. Other than the availability and accessibility of the source materials, History teachers should also consider their authenticity and validity. Moreover, historical sources may possibly contain “hidden persuasion” or even biased viewpoints. Teachers should carefully select the source materials and avoid using offensive, racist and sexist materials. Where necessary, teachers may supply alternative information and viewpoints so that students can understand historical issues in a more objective and in-depth manner.

4.2.3 E-learning

Information technology (IT) is changing the learning and teaching process both inside and outside the classroom. With the rapid development of IT, History teachers are now able to arrange visual and audio classes by using computers and the Internet.

Students can view documentary films or relevant video clips in their mobile devices.

They may watch the films again at their own learning pace and respond to the questions posed by teachers, and then share their views with peers via different electronic platforms. IT may promote interactive learning with effective use of pedagogies;

otherwise it may hinder student-to-student interaction and affect learning effectiveness.

In some cases, History teachers observed that it was too quiet in class because students were too engaged in their own tablets to have peer discussion. Thus, when using an e-learning strategy, teachers should adapt the e-learning and teaching strategies so that the learning tasks can be achieved through collaboration instead of individual work. In this way, the impact of e-learning could be enhanced.

To facilitate students to understand the religion and culture of Ancient Egypt, some teachers tried to bring ancient Egyptian architecture, in form of a 3D model of Tutankhamun Tomb, into the classroom. Students were invited to explore this Pharaoh tomb by wearing 3D glasses virtually and respond to quests presented by Augmented Reality (AR) technology. Doors leading to the coffin of Tutankhamun would be unlocked after the completion of these AR quests. This teaching idea was a good attempt to explore the feasibility of integrating history learning with e-learning.

Moreover, e-learning can be conducted beyond the classroom. In trying out the topic “Growth and transformation of Hong Kong in the 20^th century”, two schools collaborated to integrate e-learning with field trips by using an e-learning platform with two functions. The first one was to browse the site(s) using the technology of Virtual Reality (VR) for pre-trip preparation and the other was to locate the hot spots using Global Positioning System (GPS) with specific tasks during the field trips. With the use of this e-learning platform, students were able to locate the tombs of important people such as Ho Tung and Ho Kai in the Hong Kong Cemetery and learn about their contributions to Hong Kong in the 19^th century and early 20^th century. Students finished their tasks on site and submitted their answers and feedback to teachers through the same platform. A field trip to Wong Nai Chung Gap Trail was another good attempt. As part of the pre-trip preparation, students first conducted a virtual site visit with the use of 3D glasses, contemplated some questions about the strategic importance of these sites and then submitted their photos and answers to teachers through the e-learning platform. This method allowed teachers to check students’ understanding of the Battle of Hong Kong during the period of Japanese Occupation.

IT makes it possible for teachers to access various resources from all over the world.

History teachers should use IT to build up a rich data bank of resources for various

purposes such as pre-lesson preparation in the form of flipped classroom and selecting materials for e-learning tasks. Nowadays, quite a number of mobile applications are commonly used for assessing students’ learning progress in class and enhancing their learning interest. These applications are generic and can be used in all subjects. We can make it more subject-specific by exploring the use of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) to create authentic historical contexts for students to experience the site visit or historical trips beyond time and space constraints.

The mobile app on Local Heritage Studies – History Trip Go Easy: Cheung Chau Jiao Festival developed by the Education Bureau (EDB) in 2017, which adopts Augmented Reality (AR) technology, creatively incorporates field trips into the learning and teaching of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) and enhances students’

understanding of ICH. For example, students can experience the Jiao Festival by using AR to visit the festival area on non-festival days and view the composite-scene parade in the streets which are too crowded for field study during the festival days. Moreover, using virtual field trips to study the Cheung Chau Jiao Festival is also a good alternative to conventional field trips when the latter is not feasible due to time and resource constraints, liability and safety concerns, or adverse weather conditions.

This mobile application provides students and teachers with online and offline versions to be used on tablet computers and smartphones. Teachers and students can scan the following QR Code to download this app and/or browse the e-book version by clicking the following link: http://historye-learning.edb.hkedcity.net/.

iOS version Android version

For effective use of e-learning tools in learning and teaching, History teachers should understand their students’ interests, learning styles and ability before integrating IT into their lessons:

 electronic information literacy skills of your students, especially those which involve collaboration and the thoughtful use of historical information;

 prior knowledge of your students to perform the task(s) and their interests to work

individually or in groups;

 students’ ability to respond to and reflect on questions through various media; and

 students’ ability to present and share their ideas using different mobile applications or electronic platforms.

4.2.4 Learning history outside the classroom

History learning may take place beyond the physical setting of a classroom when teachers guide students to conduct observation and enquiries with careful planning and clear expected learning outcomes. Some schools have their own history room and even historical trails in their campus and school history is introduced to the History curriculum for the cultivation of students’ historical literacy. Learning may extend from schools to the community where sites for visits can be carefully chosen to match the learning objectives and contents of the curriculum.

Please refer to Appendix 4 for an example of promoting history learning and cultivating historical literacy through campus facilities.

A wide range of choices for extended learning and field experience help students consolidate what they have learnt in class. Visits to churches, temples, mosques and cemeteries are examples of enriching students’ understanding of different religions and cultures including those of the ethnic minorities in Hong Kong. As such, the focus of observation can be put on the features and styles of buildings and architecture, symbols of religions, rules for followers or rituals and ceremonies, etc. Historical skills and humanistic qualities can be developed through comparison and appreciation of different cultures. In view of limited human resources and time constraint, cross-disciplinary site visits or projects are recommended to enrich students’ knowledge on different levels.

Visits to museum and heritage trails are common outdoor learning activities. When a teacher designs relevant visit activities, the focus should be on specific subject curricular needs and learning points for targeted learning. Exhibition themes should match the curriculum contents and students should be guided to engage in targeted learning. For example, field trips to study heritage buildings and site visits to observe

intangible cultural heritage (ICH) item(s) are all meaningful learning activities for students to see, feel and touch what they could not have done so in class. Teachers may lead students to visit historic sites in Admiralty and Central. Through locating and observing these historic buildings, students can link up these buildings to form a holistic landscape and thereby understand how the British formed the colonial rule in Hong Kong and the present usages of these revitalised historic buildings. Lastly, visiting historic buildings and experiencing ICH directly help nurture students’ care for antiquities and monuments and guide them to take responsibility for cultural conservation and inheritance.

Other than museum visits and preset heritage trails, cemeteries have also been valuable venues for History learning in recent years. Some cemeteries built in the mid-19^th century, such as the Hong Kong Cemetery in Happy Valley and St. Michael Catholic Cemetery, have been important burial grounds of important ethnic minorities who had made contributions to Hong Kong. When leading the students in site investigation, teachers may make use of the designs and inscriptions on the tombstone to and guide students to understand the society and economic conditions in early Hong Kong, the diversification and internationalisation of Hong Kong in the past and the rise of local Chinese leaders and their influence; at the same time, teachers may also teach students to respect the people who had made contributions to Hong Kong in the past and teach them the required etiquette when conducting site visits in cemeteries. With e-learning, teachers may use different mobile applications or electronic platforms to designate investigation checkpoints in the field trip, upload photos, introduce the deceased and set questions for students to practise self-directed learning through mobile applications in the cemetery.

Please refer to Appendix 5 for an example of turning community resources into valuable learning and teaching resources.

Interviews in oral history is another option for history learning outside the classroom. Students can work collaboratively to find evidence not only from documents, artefacts, buildings, cartoons, photographs but also the memories of people who are able to give impressions, feelings and details of a certain period, a particular event or a historical figure of their time. Oral history may start with families, schools, neighbourhood and community.

Careful planning and good preparation are necessary for organising all sorts of learning activities outside the classroom. It is essential to draw students’ attention,

在文檔中 Prepared by the Curriculum Development Council (頁 55-66)