History Teaching

The project "Learning and teaching about the history of Europe in the 20th century"

The handbook " Teaching 20th-century European history"

The handbook deals with ways and means of approaching the 20th century. It is not about what to teach but how to teach. It draws on innovative ideas and case studies of good practice across Europe, and its principal aims are to:
- encourage teachers to introduce a wider European dimension in teaching the events which have shaped Europe;
- provide a wide range of teaching ideas and illustrative material;
- provide practical advice on how to make use of more innovative teaching and learning.

  • Divided into three parts, the first part focuses on mainstream historical themes and topics, such as the rise of totalitarianism, economic depression, glasnost and perestroika, etc. These topics were chosen on the basis of the scope that they represent for being explored, not only politically, but also for their rich cultural, economic, and social aspects to be exploited.
  • The second part focuses on different pedagogical issues facing history teachers today, such as:

- handling controversial issues, particularly relating to national or group identity, treatment of minorities, etc., why they need to be taught and practical advice in the classroom;
- reading visual archive material, including propaganda;
- developing an effective search strategy and search skills for investigating history websites.

  • The third section focuses on different sources for teaching the 20th century. Short evaluative guides are given for evaluating sources and the difficulties involved in using them, including getting students to conduct their own enquiries using such sources. Particular attention has been paid to oral history, television, contemporary written sources, and a checklist of questions for evaluating history textbooks and new technologies dealing with history, particularly the Internet has been included.

English version - Download the document

It is also available in PDF format in the following languages

Albanian "Mėsimdhėnia e Historisė Evropiane e shekullit tė 20-tė"
Bosnian "Kako predavati historiju Evrope 20. vijeka"
Croatian "Nastava Europske Povijesti 20. Stokjeća"
German "Die Europäische Geschichte des 20. Jahrhunderts im Unterricht"
Greek "Η ΔΙΔΑΣΚΑΛΙΑ ΤΗΣ ΕΥΡΩΠΑΪΚΗΣ ΙΣΤΟΡΙΑΣ ΤΟΥ 20ΟΥ ΑΙΩΝΑ"
Russian "Роберт Страдлинг Преподавание истории Европы ХХ века"
Serbian "NASTAVA EVROPSKE ISTORIJE DVADESETOG VEKA"
Slovak "Vyučovanie európskej histórie dvadsiateho storočia"
Ukrainian "Викладання історії Європи ХХ століття"

Link to ISBN publication
The ISBN publication is available in English, French, German and Croatian