History - key historical ideas with evidence
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Achievement Standards 90210, 90466 and 90655
History teachers need to clarify for students the communication of key historical ideas in Achievement Standards 90210, 90466 and 90655.
The two main issues of concern are:
- The nature of key historical ideas, and
- Whether students are required to identify key historical ideas as well as communicate them.
The nature of key historical ideas
Explanatory Note 3 of AS90210 states that key ideas are "generalisations derived from evidence within an historical context." The Explanatory Note for AS90466 states that historical ideas "could be concepts or generalisations derived from within the historical context of the study" such as nationalism, urbanisation and an event such as an assassination. In Explanatory Note 4 of AS90655 key historical ideas may include, for example, social class and religion.
As a definition of key historical ideas, the EN for AS90210 comes closest to providing clarity. The examples provided in the explanatory notes of the other two standards need further explanation. As an example, "social class", stated or identified in isolation, does not provide a "key idea", only a possible context for a key idea.
An example of a key idea based on social class would be,
"Social class was an important factor in Victorian England."
An example of a key idea based on nationalism would be,
"Nationalism was an important motivating force for the North Vietnamese during the 1960s."
From these examples of key ideas, it can be seen that when a student simply highlights the word, "nationalism", a key idea is not being identified. The whole sentence that expresses an idea would need to be highlighted before an idea becomes apparent. It is true that "nationalism" may imply a wide range of possible understandings, but the understandings need to be explicit, not implied, to show that a student has an understanding and can express that understanding in a key idea.
Most commonly, a key idea appears as the topic sentence of a well-constructed paragraph. In such a paragraph, the rest of the paragraph will be expanding on the key idea and providing evidence that supports the key idea/topic sentence. That supporting evidence is the other part of the requirement of the first achievement criterion of the three achievement standards under discussion.
The following paragraph begins with a topic sentence that states a key idea and the rest of the paragraph provides supporting evidence for the key idea:
The British were keen to find ways to break the Western Front deadlock. Superior sea power seemed to be the answer. The First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, suggested several ways to use British naval resources. One of these was an assault on the Dardanelles.
It is also possible that a key idea can be identified in a different way. If, for example, the paragraph above had a heading, "British Search for a Solution to the Western Front Deadlock", then the heading itself contains a relevant key idea. The rest of the paragraph then needs to expand on the nature of the British search (such as by describing the attack on Turkey). A heading of only, "British Search", has insufficient depth for the communication of a key idea.
Students commonly write history paragraphs that contain few, if any, key ideas. Such writing is what the achievement standards describe as "narrative", which is insufficient to gain credit for these three achievement standards. The extent to which there is a mixture of narrative on one hand, and key ideas with supporting evidence on the other, is what teachers need to take into account.
The following student's description contains narrative only, NOT key ideas with supporting evidence:
At around 12.17 pm on Easter Monday last week, a group of men were seen gathering on top of Thomas's Hill in Phoenix Park for a game of football. This seemed a perfectly innocent activity until one of them took the sentry guarding the Magazine Fort (a British Army arsenal) by surprise and disarmed him.
The group of men then charged inside the Fort, stealing as many weapons as they could find. The soldiers inside the guardroom were made to raise their hands and face the wall, while one rebel placed a bag of gelignite against the wall of the explosives storeroom and set the fuses alight. Everyone was ordered to evacuate the building.
Some of the men then sped away on bicycles, while other rebels left in a in a horse-drawn hansom cab as a resounding thud marked the start of a rebellion that ...
The intention of the requirement to provide key ideas with supporting evidence is to ensure that students gain some understanding from the history they are studying, that they are seeing "the big picture", or the "so what" of history. Providing key ideas and supporting evidence will require students to process the evidence they have found, thus ensuring their understanding and helping to prevent mindless copying of sources. At Levels 2 and 3 (90466 and 90655) the requirement to demonstrate understanding is included in the first assessment criterion along with key ideas and supporting evidence.
Whether students are required to identify key historical ideas as well as communicate them.
There is some confusion as to whether students need to identify key historical ideas as well as communicate them.
In AS90210, the first assessment criterion at Excellence level requires students to "Identify a range of relevant key ideas that thoroughly covers the context ..." but Explanatory Note 3 states, "Key ideas are generalisations derived from evidence within an historical context. Narrative by itself is insufficient, that is, telling what happened in an historical event is not by itself identifying a relevant key idea."
In AS90466, the first assessment criterion at Merit and Excellence levels requires students to "Communicate clearly a range of relevant key historical ideas ..." But Explanatory Note 3 states, "Communicate clearly means explicitly identify key historical ideas , for example through headings, subheadings, topic sentences, or through appended explanations".
In AS90655 the first assessment criterion states, "Communicate explicitly and succinctly a comprehensive range of relevant key historical ideas ..." and Explanatory Note 3 states "Communicate explicitly means the communication of an idea clearly and precisely."
From this, it may be deduced that:
- the first assessment criterion of AS90210 requires students to identify (not just communicate) key ideas but Explanatory Note 3 suggests that communication is the means to be used to "identify" key ideas
- Explanatory Note 3 of AS90466 clarifies the necessity to identify (not just communicate) key ideas, though the first assessment criterion does not state this specifically
- AS90655 does not appear to require the specific identification of key ideas, either in the first assessment criterion or in the Explanatory Notes.
Whether students need to identify the key ideas they are communicating is somewhat ambiguous. A sensible solution is to allow a continuation of the current common practice for each of these achievement standards. Students must not be denied credit for these standards on the grounds of their failure to identify , specifically, key ideas and supporting evidence. They do, however, still need to communicate key ideas and support each key idea with evidence.
Some students attempt to identify key ideas, but do so incorrectly. Elsewhere in the student's evidence, however, key ideas may have been communicated successfully, though the student has not recognised this. In these cases, credit may still be awarded.