being_ambitious_with_the_causes_of_the_first_world_war

introduction An idea of causation is central to historical understanding. But what does this mean for students? As history teachers, we try to explain why events happened. Yet for children, it is often their mastery of terms such as long term, short term,... More

introduction An idea of causation is central to historical understanding. But what does this mean for students? As history teachers, we try to explain why events happened. Yet for children, it is often their mastery of terms such as long term, short term, trigger or spark and their ability to produce a hierarchy of causes that is seen as good evidence of their skill in handling second order concepts such as causation. 1 Some teachers will even shoot straight to a convenient Level Description on the basis of such an ‘assessment’! It seems sometimes that we do not go beyond the labelling stage on causation and miss opportunities to construct something meaningful for the students. This is not to suggest that knowing your trigger from your long term cause is not useful. However, we can easily fall back on terminology at the expense of hard and hopefully more fulfilling thought. This article offers some ways by which causation can be made meaningful and vital in the lower secondary sch Less