Being an historian: an investigation into the impact of using online source banks to replicate the research experience of historians in the A-level classroom

This study investigated ways to improve students’ understanding of and engagement with contemporary sources in the history classroom. The study followed an action research model working with two teachers to support A-level history students in completing three different historical enquiries using online source archives, analysing the impact and adapting the structure of the activity each time. The lessons were delivered to a class of year 12 historians consisting of 12 students. Baseline information suggested that students had a weak grasp of the nature of sources and the work of historians, despite success in their GCSE exams. The literature review revealed that there are a number of key heuristics adopted by expert historians when working with contemporary sources. It also showed that these cognitive processes were not beyond the ability of secondary age students. Students’ responses to open-questions on questionnaires and written tasks completed at each iteration did not show them to have developed confident use of the heuristics of experts but did show that their understanding of the way that historians work had shifted considerably and they had moved from Alexander’s (2003) stage of acclimation to competence, progress towards expertise.