Resources for Teachers
This section of the RHS Teaching Portal is for History teachers of any level in Higher Education and is designed to incorporate new ideas and fresh perspectives on pedagogical practices.
These include materials and strategies for:
- decolonising the curriculum
- ‘pandemic pedagogies’
- designing and enhancing the curriculum
- improving learning and teaching
- reflecting on postgraduate supervision and collaborative doctoral awards.
Posts cover topics from well-established in-class/ synchronous activities such as the lecture, seminar and research-rich teaching, to initiatives in formative and summative assessment, inclusion, compassion-focused pedagogy and quality assurance.
We also offer information that will be useful for those thinking about engaging in their own pedagogic research – methodological approaches; research ethics; research networks and communities of practice; and where to publish.
We warmly welcome ideas and exemplars for inclusion across the board, from undergraduate to postgraduate studies. If you wish to propose an article, please Contact Us.
Browse the Resources
Finding Women’s History in Schools – challenges for the curriculum review
Women's and gender history are well-established and vibrant fields of research. In schools, by contrast, the presence of women is far more limited, especially for those teaching and studying the pre-modern period. In this post, Natasha Hodgson considers...
History and Sustainability: Learning together with ICT students
In this post, Laura Harrison describes her recent project at the University of the West of England to introduce History content to undergraduate courses in Information, Communications and Technology (ICT). As Laura notes, historians think long and hard...
STUDENT NUMBERS FOR HISTORY A-LEVELS, GCSEs, AND SCOTTISH ADVANCED HIGHER, HIGHER AND NATIONAL 5 EXAMS, 2024
August is exam results season in the UK. In 2024, A-Level results, for students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, were released on 15 August. They followed the 2024 results for Scottish Higher, Advanced Higher and National 5 exams published on 6...
New directions for History teaching: insights from the RHS Teaching fellowships 2023-24
Launched in 2023, the Royal Historical Society's Jinty Nelson Teaching Fellowships support historians in UK Higher Education who wish to introduce new approaches to their teaching. Fellowships may also support those seeking to undertake a short study of an...
Towards a creative antifascist pedagogy: zine-making in the classroom
In this post, Amy King discusses her innovative teaching methods on far-right political groups, past and present. Amy's undergraduate modules explore the themes of this topic, the ways in which far-right ideologies are distributed, and limitations in use of...
History Students’ Use of Gen-AI
What do History students think of Gen AI? Over the past academic year, Neville Morley has been working with History and Ancient History students at the University of Exeter to better understand their experience of, and attitude to, GenAI for their studies In...
Gen AI, History and Historians
In this post Dr Adam Budd, Secretary for Education on the RHS Council, introduces our panel discussion on ‘AI, History and Historians’, which took place on Wednesday 17 July. Adam's post, written before the event was held, discusses the opportunities this event...
A Balanced Argument? Communicating the Power of Argument to History Undergraduates
In March 2024, the Royal Historical Society visited historians at the Universities of York and York St John. The event included a panel discussion on the subject of communicating History to different audiences. In this post, Dr Elizabeth Goodwin (York St John)...
Generative AI, History and Historians, a reading guide
There are few bigger, and more pressing, topics today than the current and future impact of Generative AI. Nowhere is this more evident than in Higher Education. The opportunities and challenges of GenAI are relevant to all those engaged in teaching and...
Teaching Soviet History from the Borderlands: A Case Study of Belarus and Ukraine
How can we 'decolonise the curriculum' when it comes to the history of the Soviet Union? How do we decentralise our historical approach to former-Soviet states? In this post Natalya Chernyshova discusses the importance of these questions for modern historians...
Student numbers for History A-Levels and Scottish Highers, 2023
The 2023 A-Level results, for students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, were released on 17 August 2023. They follow the 2023 results for Scottish Highers, published on 8 August. Both sets of data allow for observations on the uptake and relative...
Teaching the early modern Islamic World
In July 2022, Peter Good received one of two Jinty Nelson Teaching Awards given annually by the Royal Historical Society. In this post, for the Society's 'Teaching Portal', Peter reflects on his classroom practice, and how he seeks to communicate the histories...
Studying history in a secure environment: legacies, challenges, opportunities
In July, Rosalind Crone was awarded this year's Royal Historical Society's Innovation in Teaching Prize, for the creation of Exploring the History of Prisoner Education, an open online course for the Open University which launched in October 2022. The 8-session...
New to Teaching History 2022: An Interactive Workshop, Part 8 – ‘Assessment and Feedback in History’
In September 2022 the Royal Historical Society, in partnership with History UK, organised an interactive workshop hosted by Professor Jamie Wood (Lincoln). This workshop aimed to open discussions on the challenges and opportunities of teaching History at UK...
New to Teaching History 2022: An Interactive Workshop, Part 7 – ‘Coordinating Large Classes in History’
In September 2022 the Royal Historical Society, in partnership with History UK, hosted 'New to Teaching, 2022': an online Workshop in which 8 university lecturers provided seminars for those new to teaching History in UK Higher Education. The Workshop explored...
New to Teaching History 2022: An Interactive Workshop, Part 6 – ‘Creativity in History Curricula’
In September 2022 the Royal Historical Society, in partnership with History UK, organised an interactive workshop hosted by Professor Jamie Wood (Lincoln). This workshop aimed to open discussions on the challenges and opportunities of teaching History at UK...
New to Teaching History 2022: An Interactive Workshop, Part 5 – ‘Module Design and Delivery: Challenges and Opportunities’
In September 2022 the Royal Historical Society, in partnership with History UK, organised an interactive workshop hosted by Professor Jamie Wood (Lincoln). This workshop aimed to open discussions on the challenges and opportunities of teaching History at UK...
New to Teaching History 2022: An Interactive Workshop, Part 4 – ‘Online Teaching in History’
In September 2022 the Royal Historical Society, in partnership with History UK, organised an interactive workshop hosted by Professor Jamie Wood (Lincoln). This workshop aimed to open discussions on the challenges and opportunities of teaching History at UK...
New to Teaching History 2022: An Interactive Workshop, Part 3 – ‘Small Group Teaching in History’
In September 2022 the Royal Historical Society, in partnership with History UK, organised an interactive workshop hosted by Professor Jamie Wood (Lincoln). This workshop aimed to open discussions on the challenges and opportunities of teaching History at UK...
New to Teaching History 2022: An Interactive Workshop, Part 2 – ‘The History Lecture’
In September 2022 the Royal Historical Society, in partnership with History UK, organised an interactive workshop hosted by Professor Jamie Wood (Lincoln). This workshop aimed to open discussions on the challenges and opportunities of teaching History at UK...
UKRI Open Access Policy for the Arts and Humanities: FAQs
In August 2021 UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) announced its future policy regarding Open Access publishing. UKRI is the overarching body responsible for government research strategy and funding for universities in the UK. It brings together the...
Data Protection and Historical Research: The Basics
Recent data protection laws, implemented across Europe in 2018, have implications for academic researchers. The Royal Historical Society recently published a set of guidelines to help researchers navigate the legal requirements around data protection. Here, Dr...
Ethics in the Classroom Setting
History is about opinion, judgement and (often) getting beyond monolithic assumptions about ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. At the same time, the classroom should be a safe and ethical place for the exchange of views and a space that is marked by respect, sensitivity and...
Teaching Materials for Low-Tech Online Teaching: Online Discussion Groups
Teaching in most HEIs next academic year will be conducted with at least some Covid-19-related restrictions in place. In this second post for the Teaching Portal considering low-tech materials for online teaching, Dr Mary Morrissey, Associate Professor in Early Modern...
Small Group Teaching in a Large Class: ‘Understanding History’
In this post Dr Marcus Collins, Senior Lecturer in Cultural History at the University of Loughborough, shares his knowledge and experience of teaching the course 'Understanding History', a compulsory module for second-year undergraduates which aims to develop the...
Supervising PhD Students: A Collaborative Approach
In July 2018, Professor Julie Anderson, Professor of Modern History at the University of Kent, was the first winner of the Royal Historical Society’s Jinty Nelson Award for Inspirational Teaching and Supervision in History. Here she provides an account of her...
Bridging ‘Digital Divides’ in Virtual Teaching
We should not assume that others interact with the digital world in the same way as we do ourselves. In this post Dr Andrew Smith and Dr Mary Morrissey consider the challenges that many students encounter when required to engage with online teaching. As noted by...
The Anatomy of a Thesis
In this post, historian Dr Andrew Foster provides research students with a general guide about the main elements of writing up a PhD thesis. The advice Dr Foster gives is based on years of discussions with research students in seminars and workshops about the...
Climate in the History Curriculum
In September, Amanda Power spoke to the RHS Education Policy Committee about putting climate into the history curriculum. In this post for the RHS blog, which draws on that presentation, she considers how we might develop history curricula to integrate climate, and...
Gender-Neutral Pronouns
Using correct pronouns for non-binary and trans people is a simple indication of acknowledgement and respect. Gendered appearance does not reliably tell you about a person’s gender. Checking which pronouns to use, and then doing so consistently, is an easy way to...
The Bibliography of British and Irish History (BBIH): A Guide for Teachers and Students
The Bibliography of British and Irish History (known as ‘BBIH’) is the most comprehensive and up-to-date record of what’s been published in British and Irish history. It currently includes records of 620,000 books, journal articles, edited collections, book chapters...