Supporting beginning teachers to understand and utilise substantive and disciplinary historical concepts

This chapter explains why mentors should avoid making assumptions about beginning teachers' understanding of the role of substantive (first-order) and disciplinary (second-order) conceptual knowledge in the teaching of history. The first section of the chapter outlines some models that can be used to develop beginning teachers' understanding of how to teach some of the complex substantive concepts which are an important part of the history curriculum. The second section turns to consider the nature of the second-order concepts: cause and consequence, change and continuity, similarity and difference, evidential enquiry, significance and interpretation. It also explores how disciplinary knowledge has been understood and articulated in international contexts. Each of the second-order concepts is analysed from the perspective of what a beginning teacher needs to know to develop effective enquiries which incorporate meaningful disciplinary thinking. The chapter also suggests some of the most effective texts and pedagogical examples which mentors can draw upon to scaffold mentees' ability to address conceptual understanding in their teaching.