St. Margaret’s History Department Attends Stanford Workshop on Inquiry-Based Teaching

St. Margaret’s Upper School and Middle School history teachers attended a professional development workshop put on by the Stanford History Education Group earlier this month, picking up skills and tips related to inquiry-based history instruction.

The Stanford History Education Group works with schools to develop curriculum based on historical inquiry—a method of teaching that revolves around asking essential questions, analyzing documents, studying sources and formulating conclusions.

St. Margaret’s history department has moved toward inquiry-based instruction over the last several years, making this professional development opportunity particularly relevant.

“This approach is a shift from the traditional styles of history teaching, which is having students memorize and learn content,” said Simon Fellowes, chair of the history department at St. Margaret’s. “This is getting students to engage with things such as author purpose, author bias, multiple perspectives and how perspectives change over time. It’s really pushing students to a higher level of thinking.”

The SHEG curriculum includes “Reading Like a Historian” which teaches students to investigate historical questions through strategies such as sourcing, contextualizing and corroborating. Instead of memorizing historical facts, students learn to make historical claims backed by documentary evidence.

The St. Margaret’s teachers participated in lectures, group discussions, peer collaboration and sample lessons during the two-day workshop in San Diego.

“It’s much more learning the skills of the historian rather than the historical content,” Mr. Fellowes said. “What this asks students to do is a lot more challenging, but a lot more engaging. It helps them develop reading, writing and thinking skills that will benefit them in college and beyond.”