Very interesting post, thank you. I did my O Levels in the early 1980s at a school that generally wasn’t known for innovative teaching methods. My history teacher, though, seemed way ahead of his time, using some of the techniques you mention here to create an environment where we felt curious, included, empowered, a bit grown up. This teacher encouraged conversation and we, as you mention above as key, enjoyed being historians with him. We also laughed a lot; his classes were fun. I left school with some qualifications but not nearly enough to even think about university, and in any case had no interest in continuing in formal education at that time. But this teacher’s classes had inspired an interest in history that never left me, and I never forgot how his lessons made me feel - they had made me want to participate in learning when other lessons at school had kept me on the outside, feeling like I was no more than an observer. Throughout the following few decades I felt that I had unfinished business with learning, so in 2019 I did something about it, going to Birkbeck College to do a History BA and then MA, and later this year I start on the MPhil/PhD programme there. I directly attribute my love of learning today to this 1980s history teacher and his innovative (for the era and school) teaching methods. Forty years on he continues to shape my life. I wish I could find him and tell him the difference he made.
Very interesting post, thank you. I did my O Levels in the early 1980s at a school that generally wasn’t known for innovative teaching methods. My history teacher, though, seemed way ahead of his time, using some of the techniques you mention here to create an environment where we felt curious, included, empowered, a bit grown up. This teacher encouraged conversation and we, as you mention above as key, enjoyed being historians with him. We also laughed a lot; his classes were fun. I left school with some qualifications but not nearly enough to even think about university, and in any case had no interest in continuing in formal education at that time. But this teacher’s classes had inspired an interest in history that never left me, and I never forgot how his lessons made me feel - they had made me want to participate in learning when other lessons at school had kept me on the outside, feeling like I was no more than an observer. Throughout the following few decades I felt that I had unfinished business with learning, so in 2019 I did something about it, going to Birkbeck College to do a History BA and then MA, and later this year I start on the MPhil/PhD programme there. I directly attribute my love of learning today to this 1980s history teacher and his innovative (for the era and school) teaching methods. Forty years on he continues to shape my life. I wish I could find him and tell him the difference he made.