New Toolkit to debunk fake news in history classes

Strasbourg, France | 17 April 2024

The Council of Europe and the European Union have developed a new tool to prepare young people to evaluate content online and in the media, to identify historical distortions, and to think critically about the content they encounter. The “Toolkit for History Classes: Debunking Fake News and Fostering Critical Thinking” comprises 11 online activities helping students analyse different topics, events, figures and processes through historical sources and a multiperspective approach. The tool is accompanied by a free online Training Course for Secondary School Teachers on its practical use in classrooms. It will become available to the wider public in Autumn 2024.

The toolkit will be presented in the framework of the HISTOLAB European Innovation Days in History Education taking place at the headquarters of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg from 3 to 5 April. The conference devoted to History Education will gather over 150 practitioners from European countries and beyond to present and discuss remarkable initiatives and new practices in research, academia, and history teaching. These innovations span a diverse range of educational approaches, from understanding historical narratives through social media posts, to teaching about totalitarian regimes using architecture. The Innovation Days will also offer 9 practical workshops, where participants will be able to discover how teaching can be brought closer to young people, by e.g. using LEGO to teach about democracy, or the medium of Football to teach history.

The Toolkit will be released here

Learn more in our press release.