Ontario Teachers' Manuals: HistoryOntario. Department of Education
History
Ontario Teachers' Manuals: History
Ontario. Department of Education
History -- Study and teaching
1. Memory depends on attention; we must observe attentively what we wish
to remember. In history, attention may be secured by making the lessons
interesting through the skill of the teacher in presenting the matter
vividly to the pupils; also by using means to make history real instead
of having it a mere mass of meaningless words. (See p. 34.)
2. Facts that we wish to remember should be grouped, or studied in
relation to other facts with which they are vitally connected. The facts
of history should be presented to the class in their relation of cause
and effect, or associated with some larger centre of interest; in other
words, pupils must understand, in some degree, what they are asked to
remember. (See pp. 92, 97.)
3. If we increase the number of connections for facts, we are more
likely to remember them. It is largely for this reason that history
should be taught with correlated subjects, such as geography,
literature, science (inventions), etc. For example, the story of the
Spanish Armada is remembered better if we have read _Westward Ho!_ and
the story of the Renaissance is made clearer and is therefore remembered
better, if we connect with it the inventions of printing, gunpowder, and
the mariner's compass. (See p. 121.)
4. Repetition is necessary to memory. Facts or groups of facts must be
repeated to be remembered. This is the purpose of the drills which are
necessary to good teaching, but are only a part of it. Reviews are not
to be considered merely as repetitions, but should be treated more as
aids to better understanding. (See p. 31.)
CHAPTER III
CORRELATION OF SUBJECTS
HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY
These subjects are very intimately related, and each should be used in
teaching the other. Geography, which is often called one of the "eyes of
history," may be used in the teaching of this subject in two ways. In
the first place, an account of an historical event lacks, to a certain
degree, reality in the minds of the pupils if they do not know something
of the place where it occurred. Accordingly, in studying or teaching
history, reference should be constantly made to the map to give a local
setting to the story. The voyage of Columbus, the operations of Wolfe,
the coming of the Loyalists, are made more real if they are traced out
on the map, and are therefore better understood and remembered by the
pupils. For this purpose, it is better, in most cases, to use an outline
map, which may be sketched on the black-board by the teacher or the
pupils, because on the ordinary wall maps there are so many names and so
much detail that the attention may be distracted. Many of the details on
the map are, moreover, more modern than the events that are to be
illustrated, so that wrong impressions may be given.
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