Some examples of significance
questions
Taken from Lomas, T. (1989) Teaching and
assessing historical understanding, London, Historical Association:
43-5.
With younger pupils:
- What was the most important reason why
Alfred hid from the Danes?
- Which of these do you think was the most
important thing that happened to the village after the opening of the railway?
......
- Which are the 5 most important reasons why
many Victorian children died young?
- Which of these do you think was not
important in helping the Duke to decide to build the castle on this
site?
- In two sentences, what do you think are
the two most important points about the Vikings?
- Do you think that Spain would have
defeated England if a ruler weaker than Elizabeth had been on the
throne?
- Could things still have gone wrong for the
king even after the death of Wat Tyler?
With older pupils:
- Which of these do you think made the most
important contribution to the development of medicine in the eighteenth
century? .....
- What was the importance of Mundella's Act
to nineteenth century education?
- What was the most important
cause/consequence of the Crusades?
- If killing people is wrong, why was it
important to declare war on Germany in 1914?
- Why might the achievements of Ancient Rome
be seen as more important to Britain than those of Ancient Egypt?
- Put the following sixteenth century events
in what you consider as their order of importance, giving reasons for your
choice.
- Why were the consequences of the Irish
Easter Rebellion so great, considering that it was a failed rising?
- Why can 1485 be described as a turning
point?
- What might have happened if the Jacobites
had not been defeated at Culloden?
- Describe the main features of Inca
civilisation in no more than 200 words.
(Lomas's book also gives good examples of the
sorts of questions one might frame when exploring cause and consequence, time,
evidence, and similarity and difference)
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