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Junior Cycle History

Junior Cycle History

Junior Cycle History forms part of the new Junior Cycle, which emphasises key skills, student wellbeing, and active learning. History is now taught in a way that encourages students to understand key events and people from the past, build critical skills like analysis, research, and communication and develop a lifelong interest in how history affects the world around them. It’s not just about remembering dates – it’s about thinking like a historian.

Below is a few examples of what students will learn in each year:

1st Year Topics

  • What is History? Understanding time, chronology, and evidence.
  • Working with Sources: Using photographs, letters, artefacts, and oral history.
  • Early Christian Ireland
  • The Middle Ages

Skills focus: Reading sources, basic historical writing, timelines.

2nd Year Topics

  • The Renaissance
  • Age of Exploration
  • Reformation and Religious Change
  • The Plantations in Ireland

Skills focus: Comparing viewpoints, using evidence to support ideas.

3rd Year Topics

  • Ireland in the 19th and 20th centuries
  • World Wars I or II.
  • The Cold War and global change.
  • Historical significance, change and continuity.

Skills focus: Making arguments, evaluating bias, working independently.

 

 

History Classroom-Based Assessments (CBAs)

Unlike traditional exams alone, Junior Cycle includes two CBAs in History, which allow students to show their learning in different ways and accounts for a percentage of their overall grade. They are as follows:

CBA 1: The Past in My Place (2nd Year)

  • It is an inquiry into a local historical place, person, or event.
  • Students carry out a small project, using sources and evidence, and present their findings in a poster, booklet, video, etc.

 

 

CBA 2: A Life in Time (3rd Year)

  • It is a historical investigation into the life of a real person from the past.
  • Students explore the person’s life within a broader historical context.
  • The project can take many forms such as a presentation, story, report etc.

Assessment Task

  • This is after both CBAs are completed.
  • It is a class-based activity that draws on student’s experience of the CBA process and accounts for up to 10% of their overall result in History.

 

Junior Cycle Exam

At the end of 3rd Year students sit a final State Exam in History (common level).