Latest Module Specifications
Current Academic Year 2025 - 2026
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Description This module provides students with an introduction to the disciplinary areas of history education and geography education, the pedagogical implementation of these areas in the primary classroom, and the structure of history education and geography education as discrete and integrated disciplines within the Irish Primary Curriculum. In this module, the students will undertake a blended learning pathway which explores the theoretical, empirical and practical dimensions of learning in the areas of history education and geography education as part of Social Environmental Education. The students will explore the nature of history and geography as disciplines and the theoretical underpinnings of geography education (including geographical inquiry and working as a geographer) and history education (including historical enquiry and the work of the historian). The students will explore the latest research evidence regarding the effective teaching of geography and history within the primary classroom. The students will experience and reflect on the pedagogical approaches to support geography education and history education in primary classrooms and explore the resources, planning approaches and assessment strategies which underpin these. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Learning Outcomes 1. Critically reflect on and develop their professional identity and agency as teachers of history, geography and social and environmental education (SEE) 2. Interrogate their pre-existing conceptual and pedagogical knowledge of history and geography 3. Identify links, themes and areas in geography and history for meaningful integration in social and environmental education 4. Engage with and reflect on signature pedagogies for teaching, learning and assessment in history and geography 5. Draw on and discuss relevant literature from key studies in history and geography to develop student’s knowledge, skills and attitudes. 6. Plan, source and develop appropriate and creative geography and history resources, learning activities and lessons to develop all children’s thinking and progression of understanding, knowledge, skills and attitudes. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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All module information is indicative and subject to change. For further information,students are advised to refer to the University's Marks and Standards and Programme Specific Regulations at: http://www.dcu.ie/registry/examinations/index.shtml |
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Indicative Content and Learning Activities
Social and environmental education (SEE) SEE The SEE element involves a range of seminars focused on the Social, Environmental and Education curriculum which comprises History and Geography. Students will consider the importance of developing children’s conceptual understanding in these subject areas and are invited to reflect on their own experiences of learning in SEE with a view to developing their expertise in teaching and learning. The module is designed as a set of two learning pathways, one in Geography and one in History. Both pathways will include in-class, face-to face (F2F) seminars and asynchronous, online seminars also. In the F2F seminars, innovative, inclusive and creative classroom pedagogies in Geography and History Education are modelled and reflected upon. In the asynchronous seminars, students will be provided with opportunities to engage in problem and inquiry-based learning as a vehicle to explore and investigate historical and geographical ideas as well as developing their own content knowledge. Examples of these from a variety of classrooms are shared. Within their assignments they will also reflect on research on geography education and history education in primary schools. GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION The geography element of the module is designed to enable students to reflect upon and challenge their own interpretations and experiences of primary school geography and to examine and reconstruct this in light of the primary curriculum and recent research on effective approaches to teaching and learning in geography education. Here, students are afforded opportunities to reflect upon and negotiate their own professional identities in light of their own experiences in the geography F2F seminars, the asynchronous seminars, and the associated course materials. Throughout the geography element of the module, students will develop their pedagogical content knowledge pertaining to teaching and learning in geography education in the context of the current and new primary geography curricula. The geography element of the module places a strong emphasis on, and demonstrates, key geographical skills including mapping, graphicacy, observing, questioning and investigating and communicating and key pedagogical approaches including fieldwork and outdoor learning, inquiry, story and playful pedagogy. Connections are made to foundational studies, linking key educational theorists such as Vygotsky, Dewey and Piaget with students engaging in hands-on, constructivist, inquiry-based activities throughout. Examples of classroom practice in which children carry out child-led, geographical investigations are shared with the students. Students are exposed to a range of resources to facilitate inclusive geographical education at primary level such as the use of photographs, videos, digital and paper maps (map making and map reading), books, websites, written accounts and atlases. Students are supported and scaffolded in planning, resourcing and preparation for professional placement and beyond. This includes sourcing and creating resources, designing inclusive learning activities and identifying the wider learning community of the school such as local action groups. Many aspects of global citizenship education are embedded within and permeate the course such as positioning children as active citizens within their locality and education for sustainability. HISTORY EDUCATION Throughout the course, students will challenge their own assumptions about the teaching of history and develop an understanding of the nature of history. They will be introduced to historical enquiry as a key pedagogical approach to teaching history through workshops focused on active learning strategies. The course content draws on a range of inclusive resources such as visual, documentary, oral and physical evidence and how these can be used to develop and execute enquiry-based learning approaches. Creative, enquiry-led planning and assessment strategies will be exemplified in each of the seminars to allow students engage successfully with the teaching of history on school placement and in junior primary classroom. Key themes in history education, such as disciplinary literacy will be explored in activity-based workshops. Students will also be introduced to a History Enquiry Framework (HEF) to enable them to embed issues relating to global citizenship, social justice and sustainability into their history planning and teaching. Over the course students will also engage with activities to develop historical thinking concepts such as: multiple perspectives, time and chronology, change and continuity and historical empathy. Through engagement in the seminars, readings, tasks and reflections, students will develop their confidence and competence in teaching history and developing children’s historical learning. The use of ICT and digital resources suitable for the teaching of history will complement the content of the course. n/a Books/Book Chapters/Journal Articles/ Online Resources Levstik, Linda S, and Keith C Barton. Doing History : Investigating with Children in Elementary and Middle Schools / Linda S. Levstik, Keith C. Barton. Sixth edition. New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2023. Cooper, Hilary. Teaching History Creatively / Edited by Hilary Cooper. London: Routledge, 2013. Dolan, A.M. (2020) Powerful Primary Geography A Toolkit for 21st-Century Learning. London: Routledge. Pickford, T., Garner, W., and Jackson, E. (2013), Primary Humanities: Learning through Enquiry, Sage London Pike, S. 2016, Learning Primary Geography: Ideas and Inspirations from Classrooms, 1st edition Ed., Routledge Abingdon Catling, S. and Willy, T. 2018, Understanding and teaching primary geography, SAGE London NCCA 1999, Primary School Curriculum: History - Teacher's Guidelines, The Stationery Office Dublin NCCA 1999, Primary School Curriculum: History, The Stationery Office Dublin NCCA 1999,, Primary School Curriculum: Geography - Teacher's Guidelines, The Stationery Office Dublin NCCA 1999, Primary School Curriculum: Geography , The Stationery Office Dublin Ní Cassaithe, C., Waldron, F., & Dooley, T. 2022, “We can’t really know cos we weren’t really there”: Identifying Irish primary children’s bottleneck beliefs about history, Historical Encounters https://doi.org/10.52289/hej9.105 Pike, S., Ní Cassaithe, C., McGuirk, N., Usher, J., Mallon, B. and Whelan, P. (2023) Literature Review to Inform the Primary Curriculum for Social and Environmental Education (Geography and History Education), National Council for Curriculum and Assessment Usher, J. (2023) 'I hate when we learn off the mountains and rivers because I don’t need to know where they all are on a blank map?!' Irish Pupils’ Attitudes Towards, and Preferred Methods of Learning, Primary Geography Education. Irish Educational Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/03323315.2023.2196257 Vella, Y. (2001). Extending primary children’s thinking through the use of artefacts. History Education Research Journal, 1(2), 44-54. Waldron, F. (2003). Irish primary children's perceptions of history. Irish Educational Studies, 22(2), 63-89. Websites: https://maps.scoilnet.ie/ https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalo g/11100/how-students-learn-history-in-th e-classroom NCCA (2023) Social and Environmental Education: A Review of Research and Scholarship in Geography, History and Education about Religions and Beliefs in the Context of the Redeveloped Irish Primary School Curriculum https://ncca.ie/media/6401/literature-review-for-social-and-environmental-education.pdf | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Indicative Reading List Books:
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Other Resources None | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||