We are pleased to announce the return of History UK’s Pedagogy Forum. A new series of online discussions about different aspects of teaching and learning will resume in July 2025, with various events planned for the 2025-26 academic year. As before, we hope the Forum will offer opportunities for critical reflection and collaboration, functioning as a space in which diverse insights, experiences, and points of good practice can be shared.
- Undertaking and Publishing Pedagogical Research (4-5.30pm, Wednesday 16 July 2025)
- What are History lectures for? (1-2.30pm, Wednesday 17 September 2025)
- Piloting the Responsible and Effective Use of AI in Undergraduate History Teaching (1-2.30pm, Wednesday 5th November 2025)
Our events will cover some planned topics, but – particularly in this incredibly challenging moment – we want this to be an open and collaborative space to chat about teaching (something we don’t always get many other opportunities to do!). Therefore, we would like future events to include more informal discussions around particular themes, and are especially keen to hear from you what kinds of things you would like to talk and hear from colleagues about!
Please email Dr Simon Peplow (simon.peplow@warwick.ac.uk) and/or Dr Sarah Jones (sarah.jones@bristol.ac.uk) with ideas and suggestions for themes you would like to discuss in future Forum events.
Undertaking and Publishing Pedagogical Research (4-5.30pm, Wednesday 16 July 2025)
Online via Teams. Free event – booking required: https://buytickets.at/historyukpedagogyforum/1746495
This forum aims to provide insights and experience on aspects of undertaking and publishing pedagogical research for history colleagues in HE. This will include advice and top tips and examples of projects undertaken. There will be plenty of opportunity for discussion and to ask questions at the end of the forum. We will be joined by Professor Arthur Chapman, Dr Manuela Williams and Professor Gary Mills.
Arthur Chapman is Professor of History Education and IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society, and has extensive experience of publishing pedagogic research in history education over the last twenty years and, also, of editing such work, as, first, an editor of the Historical Association’s journal for teachers Teaching History, and, second, as the editor of various peer-reviewed research journals and publications, including, currently, the History Education Research Journal and the International Review of History Education.
Manuela Williams is Principal Teaching Fellow in History at the University of Strathclyde. She has developed a strand of pedagogical scholarship activities that have focussed on widening access in higher education looking at the experience of transition through and out of university, graduate employability and inclusive pedagogy (curriculum and assessment design). She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and has been an active contributor to various History UK projects.
Gary Mills is Professor of History Education at the University of Nottingham, where for many years he led the History PGCE course. His research interests are centred on the teaching of the Holocaust and other genocides including the use of photographs and the use of testimony in classrooms and museum settings. He has collaborated on a number of funded projects and published on these themes.
What are History lectures for? (1-2.30pm, Wednesday 17 September 2025)
Online via Teams. Free event – booking required: https://buytickets.at/historyukpedagogyforum/1746509
For some time, the place and value of lectures in university teaching has been questioned. Particularly given the additional pressures and challenges students now face, attendance at in-person lectures may be one element of workloads that are less prioritised than other commitments. Dwindling attendance is not the only concern. Lectures have been criticised for being antithetical to active learning, that teaching should not simply be about the dissemination of knowledge, and concerns that demands for lectures to be recorded for subsequent viewing further limits attendance and raises issues of copyright/lecturers’ words being taken out of context. Are lectures simply a means of delivering content, or do they serve a deeper pedagogical function in shaping historical thinking, critical analysis, and academic community? This forum will consider how lectures can be reimagined – or replaced? – to meet the evolving needs of students and the discipline.
Piloting the Responsible and Effective Use of AI in Undergraduate History Teaching (1-2.30pm, Wednesday 5th November 2025)
Online via Teams. Free event – booking required: https://buytickets.at/historyukpedagogyforum/1746524
While much of the discussion around generative AI has been focused on the potential rise and issues of academic misconduct, this forum aims to highlight the ways that it can be used and utilised to develop students’ experiences and skills. We will discuss a project exploring how generative AI can be used in undergraduate History teaching. This has involved surveying students and staff about the use of generative AI in university work, as well as trials of seminar activities using generative AI. We will be joined by Professor Henrice Altink, co-lead of the project, who will talk about the project, its findings, and challenges faced. There will be plenty of opportunity for discussion and to ask questions.