The 8 Mark "Explain the Significance" Question: Health & the People (Q2) (AQA GCSE History)

Summary of Question Two 

• Question Two requires you to identify and explain the significance of a key event, development, person or group both at the time and over time

• This question will require you to use second-order concepts in your answer

• An example of the type of question you may encounter can be seen below:

• In previous years, this question has focused on the following topics in Health and the People:

How to Explain Significance

• Significance is a key second-order concept in history

• Second-order concepts allow you to:

  • Understand history 

  • Have a complex explanation 

• Significance is decided using hindsight

  • Modern historians look at a time period and decide which events or people:

    • Created new ideas

    • Directly changed events at the time

    • Impacted a significant amount of people

    • Had important long-term impacts that can be seen today

  • For the example question, James Simpson has been selected as a significant individual because of his impact on modern anaesthetics

• To understand significance, try visualising the events and people of a period as a set of falling dominoes

  • A significant event, development or person is a domino which changes the direction of all of the dominos that come after it

• Historical significance is often:

  • Subjective

    • Each historian brings their own opinion on what events or people are important

  • Debatable

    • Historians use different evidence to come to their own conclusions about how important an event or a person was in history

• Imagine the set of dominos again

  • A significant development, event or person is a domino that, if taken out of the sequence, stops other dominoes from falling

    • This shows that the development, event or person is vital for causing the events of the period

  • An insignificant development, event or person is a domino that, if taken out of the sequence, does not stop the dominoes from falling

    • This shows that development, event or person did not significantly impact the events of the period

How to Answer an “Explain the Significance of” Question

• When answering an "Explain the Significance of" question, you need to: 

  • Read the question carefully 

  • Include specific and relevant knowledge 

    • For the example question, the significant person that you need own knowledge about is James Simpson

  • Explain how the event, development, person or group impacted the time period

    • In Britain: Health & the People: c1000 to the Present Day course, these could include:

      • Medical practices in different societies

      • The role of religion

      • Individuals like Joseph Lister

      • Institutions like the Royal Society

      • Inventions like antibiotics

• To access Level 4 (7-8 marks), explain that:

  • Significance can change over time

  • A person’s background and experiences affect how they view how significant an event is

“Explain the Significance of” Question Structure

• Your answer should consist of: 

  • Specific relevant knowledge 

  • Complex explanations showing:

    • How a development, event or person impacted the time period 

    • How significance changes over time or due to a person’s background

• Your answers could be written in PEE paragraphs: 

  • P- Make a point about the question

  • E- Include knowledge to support the point you have made

    • Focused on the development, person or event mentioned in the question 

    • Show knowledge to demonstrate significance

  • E- Explain the question

    • Focus on the key demands of the questions 

    • Include a complex explanation showing your understanding of significance

• To achieve full marks, you need to repeat this twice 

Worked Example of a “Explain the Significance” Question