Revised GCSE History

This revised GCSE in History is available for first teaching from September 2009. We will make the first awards for this specification in 2011.

This specification gives students opportunities to explore key political, economic and social events that have helped shape today’s institutions, governments and societies.

Students study and evaluate systems of government and learn how the actions of government impact on individuals, groups and society as a whole. They explore the values, attitudes, perceptions and ideologies that have shaped human behaviour, endeavour and achievement in the past. They also study how men and women in the past have interacted with their environments and how the environment has contributed to and shaped historical events.

Through studying this specification, students:

  • develop an understanding of history’s key value and significance for today’s society;
  • develop an awareness of how the past has been represented, interpreted and given significance for different reasons and purposes;
  • acquire an understanding of social, cultural, religious and ethnic diversity;
  • improve as effective and independent learners and as critical and reflective thinkers with curious and enquiring minds;
  • develop the ability to ask relevant and significant questions about the past, to carry out research and evaluate conclusions;
  • acquire an understanding of the nature of historical study, for example that history is concerned with interpretations based on available evidence and that historical interpretations may be provisional;
  • make links and draw comparisons with and/or across different periods and aspects of the past;
  • organise and communicate their historical knowledge and understanding in different ways, argue a case and reach substantiated judgements; and
  • recognise that their historical knowledge and skills help them understand the present and provide them with a basis for their roles as responsible citizens.

 

This specification allows students to develop skills that are transferable and highly valued by employers. It also prepares them for the further study of history at advanced level, or vocational training.