2017/18 Undergraduate Module Catalogue

HIST3388 Teaching & Learning in Early Modern England: Skill, Knowledge, and Education

40 creditsClass Size: 16

Module manager: Dr John Gallagher
Email: J.Gallagher1@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun) View Timetable

Year running 2017/18

This module is not approved as a discovery module

Module summary

This course explores the social and cultural history of early modern England through the history of education and skill. The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries saw enormous changes in the educational culture of early modern England. On the streets of London and provincial towns, fencing-schools run by immigrant swordsmen jostled for space with private academies teaching writing and accounting to apprentices or trainee merchants. Would-be learners could choose between private tuition in singing, dancing, or languages; new academies teaching pastrywork or embroidery; and coffee-house lectures in experimental science. At the same time, England witnessed an explosion of printed how-to books and instructional literature, feeding a desire of for knowledge and skills among an increasingly literate public. Education was central to the great questions and changes of the early modern period: in this module, we will explore the relationship between education and religion, gender, labour, state formation, social hierarchies, and social mobility. We'll be working closely with early modern texts, from manuscript household recipe books to printed how-to guides, and with early modern objects in museum collections (some hands-on source seminars will take place in the Brotherton Library's Special Collections). Through studying practices and experiences of education and training - from first steps in literacy to the apprenticeships of boys and girls, and from household education in cooking and crafts to educational travel and the Grand Tour - you will consider new ways of thinking about the social and cultural history of early modern England. This course will encourage new approaches and new answers to the question of whether early modern England witnessed an 'educational revolution'.

Objectives

The objectives of this module are:
- to develop an in-depth knowledge of the place of education in the social and cultural history of early modern England
- to explore the relationship between histories of education and social, political, and cultural change
- to work closely and carefully with primary materials (print, manuscript, and objects)
- to develop an understanding of the historiography of education, training, and skill, as well as understanding how they fit into broader narratives of social and cultural history in early modern England
- to develop presentation and writing skills alongside other transferable and subject-specific skills

Learning outcomes
On completion of this module, students will be able to
- demonstrate a grasp of the history of education, knowledge, and skill in early modern England
- relate developments in the history of education to wider historical changes in the period
- work with printed books and manuscripts from the early modern period
- consult special collections in libraries and archives
- use electronic resources including Early English Books Online, the English Broadside Ballad Archive, the Map of Early Modern London, and the Burney Collection of 17th- and 18th-Century Newspapers
- present arguments orally, in writing, and in poster form.

Skills outcomes
- independent research skills
- use of online resources
- skill in handling and using primary sources in archives & museums
- oral presentation skills
- writing skills
- research skills

Syllabus

1. Introduction: an educational revolution?
2. Learning to read
3. The reformation of teaching: religious education
4. Inside the early modern classroom
5. Universities and their discontents
6. Calls for change: educational reform proposals, 1500-1700
7. Learning on the job I : apprenticeship and training
8. Learning on the job II: mercantile education
9. Household education I: cookery and medicine (visit to Brotherton Library to consult manuscript recipe-books)
10. Household education II: craft, skill, and the material culture of education
11. Martial education: soldiers and sailors
12. Education, poverty, and social mobility
13. ‘A learned Woman is thought to be a Comet’: women in education
14. Becoming a gentleman: manners and skills
15. Educational travel (Brotherton Library session)
16. Embodied education: training the body
17. Teach yourself: the early modern how-to book (Brotherton Library session)
18. Private schools and the educational economy
19. Looking for teachers in early modern England
20. Dissenting academies and religious education after 1660
21. Science and technology: knowledge and secrets
22. Conclusions

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
Workshop	4	1.00	4.00
Seminar	22	2.00	44.00
Private study hours			352.00
Total Contact hours			48.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			400.00

Private study

Students will be expected to read primary source extracts and secondary literature in advance of the seminars, as well as pursuing independent reading and research to prepare for class discussion, presentations, and assessments. They will be encouraged to use online resources like Early English Books Online, the Burney Collection of 17th- and 18th-Century Newspapers, and online museum and archive collections in order to build up individual 'source portfolios' for classroom discussion and revision purposes. Students will contribute VLE posts, research and write an assessed essay, and research and present two short in-class presentations during the module.

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

Students' class contributions and VLE contributions will be assessed continuously and feedback offered where necessary. Individual and group tutorials will be offered to students.

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Essay	4,000 words due by 12 noon on Monday of exam week 2, semester 1	40.00
Presentation	Verbal presentation, format to be determined by tutor	10.00
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)		50.00

Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated

Exams

Exam type	Exam duration	% of formal assessment
Unseen exam	3 hr 00 mins	50.00
Total percentage (Assessment Exams)		50.00

Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 26/02/2018

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