Commonly Used Resources

6.3.1 Textbooks

The textbooks for the senior secondary History curriculum cover only the Compulsory Part of the curriculum. Teachers should refer to the following documents in selecting textbooks for their students:

 Recommended Textbook List

 Guiding Principles for Quality Textbooks

 Notes on Selection of Textbooks and Learning Materials for Use in Schools

(http://edb.gov.hk/; then > Curriculum Development > Resources and Support > Textbook Information

)

Teachers should also consider the following points when using textbooks as teaching resources:

 Textbooks are the basic resource in the history classroom, but they should not be the only learning and teaching resource used. However good a textbook is, it will not be sufficient for effective learning.

 Textbooks should be regarded as learning tools, not as the curriculum itself. Teachers should exercise their expertise to select, trim down or enrich the content and suggested learning/teaching activities to achieve the aims, objectives and learning outcomes of the curriculum. As no set of textbooks can be tailor-made for all schools or students, teachers need to adapt the content of textbooks according to the ability and needs of their students.

 Generally, textbooks cannot adequately foster awareness of core concepts and promote enquiry among students. Good history teaching uses textbooks as a source of information,

not as a means of transmitting all the information students need.

 Ideally, teachers should refer to books from more than one series, and allow students to see how the same topics are handled differently by different writers, thus illustrating the extent to which the study of history is an interpretation of sources.

6.3.2 Source materials

The use of historical sources, primary and secondary, can help to stimulate curiosity and empathy by providing concrete examples and a sense of reality in the learning of history.

Primary sources, which are produced at the time of the event or period under investigation, include personal sources such as: letters, diaries, personal narratives, photographs, memoirs, and oral history; official sources such as newspapers, public and government publications and archives, speeches, and court records; and artefacts such as grave stones, buildings, tools and household implements. Secondary sources, produced after the period or event being investigated, include later newspaper accounts, biographies, documentaries, commentaries and encyclopaedias – which provide an overview and different interpretations of events or issues.

In choosing the source materials to be used, teachers should consider not only their availability and accessibility but also their authenticity and validity. Students should be led to see the difference between a “source” and a piece of “evidence”, and understand that a source becomes evidence only when it is corroborated by other sources and can be used to answer a question about the past. They should learn to analyse sources to find out whether they contain evidence relevant to their particular historical enquiry.

6.3.3 Technology and web-based resources

The massive increase in the quantity of information available today has led to new approaches to teaching and learning. Teachers can act as facilitators of learning by helping students to search for information and work on it in some way, in order to turn it into knowledge.

Technology promotes learning by:

 providing audio-visual aids for understanding difficult concepts;

 providing access to information from a wide range of sources and processing large quantities of information;

 allowing students to work at their own pace, including the use of specially designed

software;

 enhancing interaction among the learners, resources and teachers;

 providing platforms for collaboration among learners and teachers

 facilitating the acquisition of information, and the development of critical thinking and knowledge-building, especially with suitable guidance.

6.3.4 Audio-visual aids

Audio-visual resources are valuable teaching aids for stimulating an interest in learning by breaking the monotony of “chalk and talk”, promoting historical enquiry and empathy, and broadening students’ perspectives in the study of history. Carefully selected audio-visual items can help to highlight specific issues and bring new insights and perspectives into classroom discussion. The appropriate use of pictures, maps, music, cassette tapes, films, slides and videos can enrich students’ learning experience by creating a multi-media learning environment and enable teachers to make the past more real for students.

6.3.5 Community resources

A spirit of partnership is necessary among the many parties who can contribute in different ways to helping our students learn effectively. Some examples of the specific roles of various relevant parties are suggested below.

Parents

Parents play a vital role in students’ learning by helping to connect what has been learned at school with their daily-life experiences. They provide relevant resources through family activities such as museum visits and excursions to historical relics. Also, oral accounts by parents of their experience, sentiments and views on historical developments in which they were involved are always an invaluable source for students to develop their empathetic thinking and historical insights.

Other government departments and non-government organisations

Various institutions offer help in history education by sharing their resources. For example, museums, the Antiquities and Monuments Office, the Public Records Office and the Hong Kong Institute for the Promotion of Chinese Culture are all willing to share their expertise with teachers and students and provide sources for historical investigation. These organisations can help students to see the link between classroom learning and everyday life

experiences, and how they can apply what they learn in History to real-life situations.