Aug.
22-23 CONFERENCE SHOWCASES 'REACTING TO THE
PAST' -- TEACHING METHOD DEVELOPED BY PROFESSOR
MARK CARNES THAT REINVENTS HISTORY
Innovative method of teaching uses historical
games to immerse students in the historic settings
and conflicts that sparked classic texts
New York, NY, August 15, 2001 - Barnard Professor
of History Mark Carnes describes his innovative
course, Reacting to the Past - History as
Hypothesis, now in its sixth year, as: "A
new pedagogy, where students assume adult roles
in wrenching human dramas." Since 1995, Reacting
to the Past has been offered in Barnard's
noted interdisciplinary First-Year Seminar program.
Barnard
College will host a special conference, August
22-23 to explore new initiatives in general
education targeted to first-year students and
to showcase its pedagogical experiment, Reacting
to the Past. The conference, which will
be chaired by Carnes, is the first attempt to
disseminate the Reacting pedagogy and to share
it with others who have a special interest in
and commitment to teaching first-year students.
The
idea for Reacting to the Past grew out
of Professor Carnes' belief that the traditional
general education course, in which a faculty
member leads students in discussion of important
texts, failed to stimulate engagement with the
material. He conceived of teaching those materials
by embedding them in complex role-playing games,
set in the past. In Reacting, students
run the classes. During the games students write
persuasive speeches and essays, argue and debate
the issues at the center of the texts and the
period under study, while the professor remains
in the background, answering questions and ensuring
the historical credibility of discussions. What
started as an experiment has developed into
an entirely new pedagogy.
The
course now consists of six games: Democracy
at the Threshold - Athens in 403 B.C.; Confucianism
and the Succession Crisis of the Wan-Li Emperor
- The Forbidden City in 1587 A.D.; The Trial
of Anne Hutchinson-Massachusetts Bay Colony
in 1637; Rousseau, Burke and the Revolution
in France, 1791; Freud, Jung and the Nature
of the Unconscious; and Defining a Nation: Gandhi
and the Fate of the Indian Subcontinent - India
in 1945. During the past six years, it has received
on-going support from the Fund for the Improvement
of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE) of the United
States Education Department.
David
Denby, author of Great Books, conducted
a month-long assessment of the course and said
in his evaluation: "The first and perhaps most
important thing to say about their [students]
response is that they are highly engaged all
the time -- aroused, amused, talkative. In a
word, they are happy...no one could withdraw,
even if she wanted to do so. The structure of
the course forces them all to stay active. The
students talk to one another outside of class;
they meet in groups for strategy meetings, sometimes
staying up as late as 4 a.m. to do so.
"I think this is a brilliant and well-developed
pedagogical experiment which has met with obvious
success," he concluded.
The
most exciting component in the development of
the course has been the enthusiasm from the
students. Carnes said: "Students regard the
pedagogy as their own, since during the past
six years, they have pushed the concept of Reacting
into new, exciting directions." Commenting on
the excitement generated by the course, History
Professor Herbert Sloan, director of the First-Year
Seminar program, said: "Reacting is different.
Something is going on. Nobody ever skips class,
nobody ever dozes off."
Karissa
Chen '03 said: "I will remember the history
I learned in this class forever, as opposed
to reading and memorizing a textbook and then
forgetting it once the exam is over." Other
students also like the independence in learning
that the class offers. "It gets to the point
where you forget the teacher is even there,"
said Violet Durollari '02. "There is no professor
taking charge or controlling - you have to do
it yourself. Like in life, there is no one there
to hold your hand."
Carnes,
Ann Whitney Olin Professor of History, has been
teaching history at Barnard College since 1982.
His most recent book is titled Novel History:
Historians and Novelists Confront America's
Past (and Each Other) (Simon and Schuster,
2001), which examines the accuracy of historical
novels. Novel History is the sequel to
Carnes' 1995 book Past Imperfect: History
According to the Movies (Henry Holt, 1996),
which The New York Times praised as "incisive
and witty." He was co-editor of the American
National Biography (Oxford University Press,
1999), the 25-million-word project, which The
Times of London described as "the most ambitious
American logistical project since putting a
man on the moon." He is also co-author, with
John A. Garraty, of the popular text, The
American Nation. Carnes received his Ph.D.
from Columbia University and his B.A. from Harvard
College.
A
special brochure for Reacting to the Past
was conceived of and written by the students
who have attended the course. Video snippets
of the course can also be seen at the website:
http://beatl.barnard.columbia.edu/reacting.htm.
Those interested in the conference on August
22-23, please contact the Office of Public Affairs
at 212-854-7907.
Contact:
Petra Tuomi, Public Affairs, 212-854-7907
Laya Saludo, Public Affairs Intern, 212-854-2037
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