Contemporary Witnesses and the Promotion of Historical Thinking: A Randomized Controlled Trial in History Lessons

• In Event: Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: Increasing Engagement Through Designed Learning Environments

Abstract

Although history plays an important role in the curricula of western democracies, there is a lack of controlled studies which systematically analyze the effectiveness of learning arrangements in history lessons. The aim of the submitted study was to investigate the effectiveness of contemporary witness interviews in history lessons by comparing the effects of three instruction treatments (interview of a live witness, video and transcription of an interview) in a sample of 30 classes in addition to a control group of 8 classes. The students were randomly assigned to the four groups. In essence, students in the live-group show more interest, but there is also the tendency that they learn less in terms of history thinking as well as topic-related knowledge.

Authors

• Christiane Barbara Bertram, Universitat Tubingen

• Wolfgang Wagner, Universitat Tubingen

• Ulrich Trautwein, University of Tubingen