TEACHING METHODS IN HISTORY - WORKSHOP

The Workshops, together with formative and orientation Internships, concur to provide the students with helpful knowledge to access the job market. They are based on a participatory and interactive teaching, aiming at strengthening the students' transferable skills: for this reason attendance is strongly recommended. For the same reason the ideal number of participants is limited to 20-25 people. Students must contact the professors with reference to attendance before the beginning of the Workshop. The Workshops don’t have a final exam but the achievement of a qualification ('idoneità', corresponding to 3 credits) which will be granted at the end of the course on the basis of the activity carried out by the students. The students who have attended the course but haven't obtained the qualification can, under exceptional circumstances, obtain it in subsequent exam sessions by making a request to the professor, who will decide on a case by case basis.

The History Didactics Laboratory, structured for students of the master's degree course in History from the Middle Ages to the contemporary age, intends to guide the students in the world of teaching a discipline that is central in the scholastic context for the possibility of declining diversified methods and strategies, of creating interdisciplinary connections, of relating to the present and of dealing with stories in a global and multicultural context, of working on the key competences identified at national and European level for the training of a participant citizen, in able to use critical tools and to keep up-to-date throughout their life.
Being a history teacher is also a considerable challenge in the face of the continuous changes in which the new generations are immersed and which are reflected in the transformations of teaching models, of the relationship that is created in the classroom, of the demand for knowledge that knows how to question the problems of 'today.
The aim of the course, therefore, is to bring the students to measure themselves with the point of view of the teacher and at the same time to experience the distance and the difference of that of students who with their characteristics and contingencies refer to the need for a continuous focus of the didactic action. Far from reiterating a didactic end in itself that objectifies and unifies, the teacher is called to relate to the personal, socio-cultural-economic and gender-related aspects, with diversity declined in all its forms. From this point of view, History, understood as the "science of the different" (Marc Bloch) is in itself the pivotal approach to the polyphonicity of the lived in constant connection with the time line of the world.
Faced with and within complexity, the history teacher has the fundamental task of knowing how to use the times, methods and tools of the discipline to mediate that complexity without making it superficial and mechanical. Here the methodological questions occupy a crucial role in connection with research. The didactic choices, pondered and developed starting from the needs of students and in view of the achievement of skills, do not simply represent a question of style or a modernist tinsel, but the precipitate of a critical reflection that combines history, its teaching , the world of education and that of pupils.
Another objective of the course is therefore to call the students to experiment and experiment, measuring themselves with different situations and methods, elaborating proposals and discussing them in a community of peers.

The main objective is to bring students, who intend to continue their professional career in school, closer to the problems related to the teaching of History in the current context.

1. Knowledge and understanding
- know the most important contributions of historiography and history teaching;
- learn about the legislative reforms that have changed the teaching of history over the years;
- will know the fundamentals of teaching, the main methodologies and technologies, including those aimed at a didactic planning based on skills.

2. Ability to apply knowledge and understanding
- knowing how to use tools and methods of didactic mediation in relation to disciplinary skills and more;
- knowing how to design a learning unit;
- know how to use sources in teaching;
- knowing how to compare and analyze the various history manuals and the way in which history is reconstructed, mediated and narrated;
- know how to apply the main teaching-learning methods in secondary school also with the experimentation of new technologies;
- knowing how to design teaching proposals taking into account the characteristics of the pupils.

3. Judgment skills
- knowing how to formulate and argue simple hypotheses, developing a critical approach to the evaluation of alternative hypotheses in the didactic field;
- knowing how to problematize the relationship between life contexts, generational changes, didactic needs;
- know how to use the fundamentals of the discipline in the organization of didactic activities;
- knowing how to reflect on the harmonization of regulatory requests with educational proposals.

4. Communication skills
- know how to communicate the specificities of historiographical and didactic reflection, using appropriate terminology;
- know how to create effective communication situations in the didactic field;
- know how to interact with peers and the teacher, in a critical and respectful way, in presence and on online platforms.

5. Learning skills
- knowing how to reflect on their own learning processes and also on those of students;
- know how to elaborate the reflections arising from the didactic experiments in individual and group form, sharing them face to face and online;
- know how to critically consult the reference texts and the bibliography contained therein.

No specific prerequisites are required to attend the course.

Consistent with the course schedule, the following topics will be touched upon not only related to the knowledge of some themes, but above all to the effective didactic transposition of the teaching contents.
Lessons, exercises, individual and group experiments will then alternate in order to create teaching proposals.

1. Historical knowledge and historiography: periodizations, overall pictures, legislation, reflections.
2. Perception and self-perception towards the school and the teaching of history.
3. History as a critical tool for understanding the present.
4. Contents, school contexts, teaching strategies: inclusive teaching, traditional teaching, modular teaching, the history laboratory, cooperative learning and other methods.
5. Didactics in the archives and in the library: the "profession" of the historian.
6. The biographical approach and the places between history and memory.
7. Digital teaching and history.
8. The use of images and audiovisuals.
9. The artistic and literary sources in the didactic proposal relating to history.
10. The construction of a learning unit and teaching by skills.

General reference texts:
- E. Monducci, A. Portincasa, Teaching history in secondary school. The historical laboratory and other active practices, UTET Università, Torino 2023
- Elio Monducci (edited by), Teaching history. The historical laboratory and other active practices, UTET University, Turin 2018 (third edition).

The teacher will indicate some specific parts to focus on.

Materials, magazines and essays will be provided by the teacher on Moodle. Between these:
- Marc Bloch, Historical and critical criticism of the testimony in Historians and history, Einaudi, Turin 1997, pp. 11-20.
- Marc Bloch, What to ask of history? in Historians and History, Einaudi, Turin 1997, pp. 34-50 (or Marc Bloch, What to ask of history ?, Castelvecchi, Rome 2014 or 2020).
- Marc Bloch, The war and false news. Ricordi (1914-1915) and reflections (1921), Donzelli, Rome 2014, pp. 89-115.
- The Bulletin of Clio, New series n. 15, June 2021, Utility and uselessness of history (https://www.clio92.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Bollettino15NS_defgiugno2021.pdf ): pp. 8-16; 17-21; 33-38; 39-49; 51-58; 66-73.
- Scholastic and social integration, vol. 17/1, February 2018, Erickson, Trento, pp. 7-34 (https://rivistedigitali.erickson.it/integration-scolastica-sociale/ Archive/vol-17-n-1/).

Recommended reading for the course and for personal training:
- Marc Bloch, Apology of History or Profession of Historian, Einaudi, Turin 2019 (or other editions).
- Edward H. Carr, Six lessons on history, Einaudi, Turin 2000.
- Edgar Morin, The head well done. Reform of teaching and thought reform, Raffaello Cortina, Milan 2000.
- Edgar Morin, The seven knowledge necessary for the education of the future, Raffaello Cortina, Milan 2001.
- Edgar Morin, Teaching to Live. Manifesto to change education, Raffaello Cortina, Milan 2015.
- Tzvetan Todorov, The abuses of memory, Meltemi, Rome 2018.
- Adriano Prosperi, A time without history. The destruction of the past, Einaudi, Turin 2021.

The History Didactics Laboratory does not include a final exam.
The evaluation will be carried out through on-going observation, interaction and participation during the course and as part of group work.
Learning will be verified through the analysis of a didactic proposal that will be prepared after agreement with the teacher and discussed during an oral interview.

The course is organized in
- interactive lessons that analyze theoretical issues;
- analysis of materials provided by the teacher and exercises;
- thematic insights proposed to and by students who in small groups will have to discuss, analyze and report in the classroom the results achieved;
- simulations;
- didactic planning activities and subsequent feedback on the documents.

Italian

oral

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Human capital, health, education" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development