ABSTRACT
This exercise uses optical illusions and aspects of psychology to help pupils explore not only what they learn, but also how they come to an understanding of concepts in history. The activity is based around the sorts of images used in gestalt psychology and their application to the study of the subjectivity of some (or all) social knowledge. The use of such images is not new. It is generally employed to make pupils aware of the potential for seeing things through another lens. Native American and White settlers, for instance, had radically different interpretations of the expansion of the United States across North America in the nineteenth century because they came from different starting points, e.g. different opening assumptions about whether land could be fenced in and owned by governments or private individuals. Mere awareness of ‘different ways of seeing’ can be a useful trigger for a better understanding of History at any level, even Key Stage 3.
