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An essential teaching companion offering practical strategies for enhancing learning for all teachers of history in higher education.
The study of the eighteenth century has been a growth area in university research and teaching in recent decades. Although widely taught in history departments, the eighteenth century also presents challenges, including new students’ unfamiliarity with the period, the theoretical and interdisciplinary nature of the critical writings, and extensive online source material requiring digital skills for its evaluation.
Focusing on pedagogical innovation and current developments in the discipline, this collection of essays reflects on how we teach the history of the long eighteenth century, exploring current subfields such as histories of material culture, the senses, gender, crime and empire. It presents practical case studies showcasing how novel teaching methods can be employed in the classroom that promote active learning and invite students to think critically about the nature of their discipline. Methods covered include decolonising the curriculum, digital history, transferable skills, engaging with objects, working in non-classroom settings and multisensory approaches.
Grounded in real academic practice, this is a valuable guide for all history educators, whether specialising in the eighteenth century or beyond.
‘The skills imparted by an undergraduate history degree are both timeless and constantly changing. This volume brings together seven innovative examples of how historians of the 18th century are changing pedagogy to meet the challenge of teaching with objects and texts – real, digital and sensational – online and in person. It is essential reading for anyone who thinks seriously about history and how we teach it.’
— Tim Hitchcock, Professor Emeritus of Digital History, University of Sussex, UK
Innovations in Teaching History: Eighteenth-Century Studies in Higher Education consists of collected contributions from nine UK and Australian-based specialists of Britain’s “long eighteenth century” (1688–1832). Given these geographical and temporal origins, the question arises: Should this book find a wider readership with the audience of the AHR? The answer is a resounding yes. When allowances for the educational terminology unique to the UK are made, readers will find that the lessons offered here have a wide and general application … Perhaps the most truly innovative thing about this volume concerns the conditions of its commercial availability. The authors are offering it under a Creative Commons license, and for free! There is really no excuse, then, for scholars of all areas not to seek out this useful collection.
—Timothy Jenks, East Carolina University, North Carolina, USA
Published amidst serious questions around learning and teaching, student engagement, and the ‘value’ of the humanities, this edited collection … proves highly timely, drawing attention to an often forgotten, less overtly distinct, period of historical study. … This volume offers an important and useful space to find innovative teaching and learning practices, many of which could be usefully applied across all historical teaching practices. This makes Innovations in Teaching History a timely publication that should be at the top of any list of reading materials, not just for scholars teaching the eighteenth century but those teaching history in any capacity.
— Rachel Bynoth, Bath Spa University, Bath, UK
- Introduction
Ruth Larsen, Alice Marples and Matthew McCormack - Part I Digital History
- 1 Letting Students Loose in the Archive: Reflections on Teaching “At the Court of King George: Exploring the Royal Archives” at King’s College London
Arthur Burns and Oliver Walton - 2 Introducing Australian Students to British History and Research Methods Via Digital Sources
Simon Burrows and Rebekah Ward - Part II History in the Classroom
- 3 Sensational Pedagogy: Teaching the Sensory Eighteenth Century
William Tullett - 4 Let’s Talk About Sex: “BAD” Approaches to Teaching the Histories of Gender and Sexualities
Ruth Larsen - 5 Engaging Students with Political History: Citizenship in the (Very) Long Eighteenth Century
Matthew McCormack - Part III Material Culture and Museum Collections
- 6 Beyond “Great White Men”: Teaching Histories of Science, Empire and Heritage through Collections Alice Marples
- 7 Teaching Eighteenth-Century Classical Reception through University Museum Collections
Lenia Kouneni