This Teachers’ Guide provides history teachers in Sri Lanka a ready-to-use and step-by-step approach to a place-based learning history lesson. Connecting with their surroundings and communities, allows students to embark on a meaningful learning experience while increasing their historical knowledge about their locale. The Guide presents a breakdown of activities for before, during and after a field trip using the example of Polonnaruwa ancient city.

The resource is available in English, Sinhala and Tamil languages.

This educational resource has been authored by Buddisha Weerasuriya and Eugenie Khatschatrian in the framework of the ‘Histories that Connect – Sri Lanka II‘ project, supported by Strengthening Social Cohesion and Peace in Sri Lanka (SCOPE) programme. SCOPE is co-funded by the European Union and the German Federal Foreign Office and implemented by GIZ in partnership with the Government of Sri Lanka. The content of the teacher guide does not represent the official position of the European Union, the German Federal Foreign Office, GIZ, or the Government of Sri Lanka.

  • Find out what New Students Bring to the Classroom

    As a response to an increase in new students in the Swedish educational system, the Swedish Board of Education tasked a group of schools and universities to find a way to assess what newly arrived students know in order to provide the best possible education for each student, as well as focusing on their strengths rather than their weaknesses. This resulted in the formation of materials for conducting discourse around history for the purpose of assessing the historical competencies of newly arrived students. This is done in the form of a 70-minute conversation between a teacher and a student. The assessment is meant to provide valuable insight into what the students are already familiar with, so that teachers can take this into account when creating lesson plans.