Sharings at the KBCNL April 2023

These are 4 newsletters in this series of the ‘History Times’ which revolves around the historical period of the Interwar Years from 1918 to 1939. This is a period in between the two Great Wars. The First World War from 1914 to 1918 has commonly been studied in the Secondary School history curriculum in Singapore to illustrate the deep-rooted events during the previous age of empires. Often dubbed ‘the war to end all wars’, a phrase originating from the collection of articles titled ‘The War That Will End War’ by H. G. Wells (1914), students study the events as a context for the Second World War that dates from 1939 to 1945. However, the period that forms the bridge between the two wars has often been overlooked as events insignificant in comparison and thus often glossed over. Despite this, questions are often raised in the classroom about the events during this period. 

This was the rationale behind the design to ensure opportunities for further exploration. With the help of Knowledge Building Principles, students from both schools collaborate to conduct historical exploration which serves to not only explore this void in their content knowledge but also enhancing the regulation of their individual knowledge through collaborative idea improvement. 

Students in the four groups spearheaded the discovery based on their initial collective interests that culminated into researching about the forms of entertainment, development of music, the improvement and propagation of new technologies as well as in the field of a new culture of sports. These four newsletters traced each development in order to highlight the different social experiences of the people during that time.   

Click below to scroll through the different groups’ work and you may pick up some interesting trivia to be learnt from History!