Module HIST1702: Making History

Department: History

HIST1702: Making History

Prerequisites

• None

Corequisites

• None

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None

Aims

• To introduce students to the practice of reading, researching, and writing history by examining the ways in which historians shape knowledge in particular areas.
• To introduce students to a range and variety of historical approaches.
• To provide a grounding in the key explanatory and interpretative skills expected at later stages of the programme.
• To enhance progression from Level 1 to Level 2, and in particular to provide a foundation for work on the Level 2 core module ‘Conversations with History’.
• To foster student independence through research-led teaching.

Content

• This module will enable students to develop more advanced study skills through working in a small, intensive seminar requiring extensive reading, discussion, and writing about problems of historical approaches in connection with defined historical themes and primary sources.
• Each student will sign up to a particular strand in which particular research questions relating to particular periods and places will be considered.
• The module will include plenary lectures delivered by staff providing students with an orientation in academic and historical practice and historiography; staff-directed seminars specific to each strand considering the research questions defined by historians and the ways in which those historians have attempted to address these questions, including their approaches to primary source material; student-directed seminars requiring students to present aspects of their work-in-progress while they are developing their long independent projects, in which they explore research questions and provide critical analysis of approaches to these questions.

Learning Outcomes

• An understanding of what is meant by a historical research question.
• A critical understanding of the approaches developed by historians to research questions within the particular themes explored in each strand.
• An understanding of the ways in which work on primary sources relates to approaches to research questions.
• An awareness and understanding of the role of historians in shaping historical knowledge and understanding.

• Defining the research questions addressed by historians.
• Exploring the ways in which historians address historical problems, going beyond the simple accumulation of knowledge.
• Identifying and critiquing conflicting historical interpretations.
• Planning and writing a long, independent research project.
• Discussing and explaining ideas in a small-group context.

• The ability to employ sophisticated reading skills to gather, sift, process, synthesise, and critically evaluate information from a variety of sources (print, digital, material, aural, visual, audio-visual, etc.).
• The ability to communicate ideas and information orally and in writing, and to devise and sustain coherent and cogent arguments.
• The ability to write and think under pressure, manage time, and work to deadlines.
• The ability to make effective use of information and communications technology.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• Student learning is facilitated by a combination of the following teaching methods:
• Lectures provide students with a guided introduction, supported by examples and recommended reading, to academic and historical practice and historiography, and are designed to ensure a common element to the module across the various strands.
• Seminars allow students to present and critically reflect upon the acquired subject-specific knowledge, methodologies, and theories, and to identify and debate a range of issues and differing opinions. The seminar is the forum in which students are given the opportunity to communicate ideas, jointly exploring themes and arguments. Seminars are structured to develop understanding and designed to maximise student participation building on prior independent preparation. Seminars give students the opportunity to develop oral communication skills, encourage critical and tolerant approaches to reasoned argument and historical discussion, build the ability to marshal historical evidence, and facilitate development of the ability to summarise historical arguments, think in a rapidly changing environment, and communicate in a persuasive and articulate manner, whilst recognising the value of working with others.
• Assessment: Three summative pieces of writing make up the assessment for this module: a skills-based assignment (maximum of 1,000 words); a primary source commentary (maximum of 1,000 words); and an independent research project (maximum of 4,000 words) with an oral presentation (5-10 minutes).
• These assessments are designed to encourage students to reflect specifically on the range of materials used in writing history. They will also develop the writing and thinking skills required at Level 1 and later in the programme.
• The skills-based assignment will require students to apply their module-specific learning to one or more aspects of historical practice, such as identifying the key research questions behind a major work of historical scholarship, or reconstructing or critiquing the foundations of a historiographical debate through its scholarly apparatus. They will need to be aware of the research problems being engaged with, and hence the existing shape of the field; specific themes and arguments; questions of use of evidence; and distinctive methodologies.
• The primary source commentary will enable students to demonstrate understanding of a range of aspects of source criticism, including identification of the context of the source, as well as of its provenance; explanation and interpretation of its content, and ability to summarise it; awareness of its limitations and problems.
• The independent research project will bring together the specific skills studied as part of the core module with the subject matter of the strand. Questions will be designed by students in consultation with the tutor, preferably in a specific seminar. In addition, students will give a summative oral presentation on an aspect of their independent research. This will aid oral communication skills and make a formative contribution to the project.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

Formative work will be done in and as preparation for seminars, including work such as short oral presentations, contributions to discussion in class and on discussion boards, or short pieces of written work as determined by strand tutors, aimed at helping students develop concise note-taking skills and the ability to identify and communicate the central ideas behind historical scholarship. There will also be formative benefits from the summatively assessed skills-based assignment and primary source commentary, which lead up to the independent research project.

■ Students who do not attend monitored activities shown under Teaching Methods and Learning Hours, or who fail to complete the summative or formative assessment(s) specified above, may be subject to the Academic Progress procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University.