Within this assignment, I will explore the concepts within the Humanities subjects in order to teach them effectively, enhancing my professional development.
The initial starting point to developing a sense of the Humanities and their importance is to gain a definition of what underpins these subjects. Taylor (no date: online) states ‘A concept is a classifier, something that helps us make sense of a very complex world’, this in itself suggesting its importance, as it is explicit that children need to be aware of the world they live in to prevent ignorance. Taba (1962, cited in Hoodless et al, 2009) acknowledges that key concepts allow main ideas to be portrayed through the Humanities subjects, providing opportunities for children to enhance their learning and development.
A key concept within History is Continuity and Change, these existing alongside each other (Levesque, 2008 cited in Martin, no date: online). Department of Education and Science, (1999) suggested that children can only grasp an understanding of the past when they are aware of ‘change’ and that some things are the same (continuity) but realising that not everything is as it was, thus providing a crucial role in historic thinking (Pappas, 2010). These concepts within history allow children to develop a sense of the changes, comparing ‘similarities and differences’
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Learning is made relevant to children’s local environment and by comparing and contrasting their lives to the lives of others makes learning easier to comprehend, as they will be able to learn from hands-on experience, therefore leading me to believe this is the best decision to make, with the children’s best interests at heart. As it is evident that the teaching of historical continuity and change is explicitly concerned with place (Dean,