Making history current

History just got more current. This year, Reacting to the Past classes at GCSU offer students a new way to learning history by role-playing events in history and interacting with historical figures in role-playing games.

Reacting to the Past classes originated in Barnard College by Dr. Mark Carnes and was developed originally to get students more engaged in classical text such as Plato’s “The Republic,” Confucius’ “Analects” and Rousseau’s “The Contract.” These role-playing pedagogy classes were brought to GCSU in hopes of providing students an opportunity to understand the texts and be engaged with it.

“The reason that we try and introduce these games to campus is because they are proven to be dangerously engaging because they are reading very critically to find their characters’ interest and learning about the historical period and issues in a way in which information is retained. These classes are a perfect pedagogy for a liberal arts college such as GCSU,” Director of the Honors Program Dr. Steve Elliot-Gower said.

The reacting games identify and focus on a critical moment in history, such as the French Revolution, and assigns students a role of a historical person in that moment in history. The classes prepare the students for their roles in the games by listening to lectures, background readings and critical questions which the students have to debate and decide the answer. The three games that are going on during the Fall 2010 semester are the French Revolution, Crisis in Athenian Democracy and Henry VII and Reformation of Parliament.

“(In the game), a team may win that did not win in history. I think that it is a good teaching point because it gets students to critically analyze why that particular team won and how it could have impacted history. These games also give students a deep connection to the past in a way that they never could by listening to lectures and taking notes,” said Deborah Vess professor of history and interdisciplinary studies.

The French Culture and Civilization class taught by Peggy Schaller is unique in the fact that is conducted almost entirely in French and challenges students to push beyond the limits of the language barrier in the classroom

“Students are often intimidated by the game because of the language aspect where they will be debating, writing and reading all in French. However, this is benefits the students because it allows them to become immersed in the culture,” Schaller said. “Students have been pushed to think critically about why history happened and be forced to take on personas and opinions that they may necessarily not agree on in order to effectively portray their characters.”

By engaging and interacting with historical time periods and figures in history through Reacting to the Past classes, there is a hope that students will leave the class retaining the information they learned and developing an appreciation for the knowledge they received.

Posted by Lauren Corcino on Nov 5 2010. Filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.