Engagement with primary sources is a key feature of arts and humanities subjects, particularly classics and ancient history. Recent instructional trends emphasise integrating skills with content, particularly in the first year of higher education. We investigate how successfully first-year university students used a variety of sources in an…

In this article, Robin Conway and Amy Scott show how they made use of online source archives to replicate the experience of an academic historian in the classroom. By changing the way that students approach sources, moving away from both 'fun activities' and formulaic exam preparation towards a more authentic experience, they show how students'…

Engaging with primary researchers during qualitative secondary analysis is a practice much recommended but rarely written about. In this article, I reflect on my experience of crossing an imagined boundary between the discrete textual dataset and its creators, of acknowledging and engaging with those researchers who invested in constructing the…

There is a disconnect for a number of applied design students who utilise drawing from online, published and photographic sources, in the development of design collections. In practice they are engaged with a subject that physically demands the direct use of hands in the making of artefacts, particularly within textile fields. Drawing is at the…

Reviewing the historiography of education provides insights into both the past and present of this growing area of research across the UK and Ireland. In the nineteenth century research reveals a close association with national identities. These were often Whig histories that celebrated the present and emphasised the progressive nature of…

There have been calls for Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education to become more interdisciplinary, reflecting the reality of contemporary research. However, communicating across disciplines is challenging. In this article, I explore what and how students read in the STEM disciplines. I provide an overview of key topics in…

This paper describes the challenges involved in work in progress on the history of British policy in education in occupied Germany, 1945-1949. The problems centre on the range of archival sources, the structural balance of themes and chronology, and the use of appropriate illustrations. It argues that conclusions about the nature of educational…

"Historical thinking" has a central role in the theory and practice of history education. At a minimum, history educators must work with a model of historical thinking if they are to formulate potential progression in students' advance through a school history curriculum, test that progression empirically, and shape instructional…

The Open University (OU) is the UK's largest distance education provider and has a large and growing disabled student population. Disabled user support presents particular challenges for an online library service in the distance learning environment. The OU introduced guidelines for working with non-OU--authored content (external content) in 2011…

Once the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers on October 28, 1914, the fate of the Empire hinged on the outcome of World War I. The Ottomans waged war on multiple fronts: in the Caucasus against Russia, and to defend the Gallipoli Peninsula and the Arab territories against the British and French empires. One hundred years later, we live in a…

It is common practice to invite survivors of the Holocaust to speak about their experiences to pupils in schools and colleges. Systematic reflection on the value of working with survivors of the Holocaust and other genocides and on how to make the most of doing so is rarer, however. In this article Andrew Preston reports how his school has worked…

Professor Sir Godfrey Thomson is one of the key foundational actors in the history of the educational sciences in the UK. At a time when educational studies and the study of educational psychology were very closely linked, in the decades of the mid-twentieth century, Thomson was a crucial figure in education research. He is known for his work on…

In this article we identify the key survey data for examining the issue of equality in the lives of disabled people in the UK. Such data is essential for assessing change in quality of life over time and for the evaluation of the impact of policy initiatives. For each data source we consider definitions, data collection, issue coverage, sample…

This paper is an account of the earliest attempt in Africa to make education available to all within the context of what has been called fundamental education or a mass education programme. The paper draws attention to how the demand for mass education during the Second World War years was met by the British government, which, following what…

A restoration project in Great Britain's Public Record Office marked the 900th anniversary of the Domesday Book, the oldest public record in the United Kingdom. The two volumes of the Domesday Book were rebound and microfilmed, and the microfilm was gold-toned for further protection. Contacts for further information are listed. (MES)