History
IB History At Open Gate Boarding School
Introduction
At the heart of the IB History course at Open Gate school is the idea that studying history from an international perspective is vital to developing a full and active understanding of our world today. By taking a more global and cross cultural approach to the study of history, students will understand and more thoroughly appreciate historical and cultural diversity. The course will also help students develop and understand their own cultural identity and how and why their experience is different from others.
Students will be encouraged to study events, human behaviour and experiences through critical and analytical eyes. Students will learn to analyze and evaluate the arguments that lay behind the actions of different societies and cultures. Emphasis will be placed on learning new skills of historical hypothesis and improving on those they already have such as investigation, description and interpretation to fully comprehend some of the arguments and ideas of historical enquiry.
With knowledge gained and skills learned students will be able to communicate debate and analyze their own ideas in light of an understanding of other cultures and histories.
Students will cover a number of historical periods and different historical skills through a series of modules of study covering the IB course content.
The most important concept that our students embrace is that every action, every event and every historical controversy has involved two or more argumentative points of view. The importance lies not with their agreeing with a specific side but instead with them understanding the rationale and thought process behind the each conflicting position.
Assessment Criteria
The students in the IB History course are assessed on their ability to fully comprehend and interpret the events that occurred in specific time periods. The extent of their knowledge gained from the specific subject material is based on their interpretations, which are substantiated by facts, written and organized in complete essay format.
Several source based worksheets are completed by the students throughout the year in order to enhance their ability to interpret information from conflicting primary sources in order to form their own personal educated opinions.
Classroom interaction is also a necessary component in the IB History class as it enables all ideas to be introduced and scrutinized in an effort to fully dissect each issue. This interaction comes in the form of class discussions, small group presentations and large group activities which are designed to encourage students to work together in order to reach a common conclusion.
