History

Course summary

History is a dynamic, contested, evidence-based discipline that involves an exciting engagement with the past. It is a rigorous intellectual discipline, focused around key historical concepts such as change, causation and significance. It is also an interpretive discipline, allowing opportunity for engagement with multiple perspectives and a plurality of opinions. A world history course, with heavy emphasis on the 20th century, the Rugby IB diploma course is based on a comparative and multi-perspective approach. It involves the study of a variety of types of history, including political, economic, social and cultural, and provides a balance of structure and flexibility. In the classroom emphasis is placed on seminar-style discussion and presentation. A premium is placed on developing the skills of critical thinking, and on developing an understanding of multiple interpretations of history. All sets are taught by experts in their particular field, but students are expected to carry out their own extensive research based on specialist reading, library research and intelligent use of podcast and internet sources. The periods on offer may vary according to staff availability and interests and the following is based on anticipated interests of IB historians.