Newswise — This fall, Jeffrey Hyson, Ph.D., assistant professor of history at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia, will transform his freshman Western Civilization I classes into fascinating games. Hyson, a.k.a. the Gamemaster, will employ an innovative pedagogy developed at Barnard College called Reacting to the Past.
"Most history courses teach only what happened," Hyson says, "but a Reacting class is unique. It immerses students in the historical record through extended role-playing games, which presume that individuals play a significant role in history."
During the semester, students will enter two radically different worlds. The course will begin with the Athens game, which takes place in 403 B.C. They will role-play individual characters from a rabble of democrats and oligarchs of the Athenian Assembly, and will learn about the forces that shaped that particular historical moment by studying primary sources.
Later in the term, the class will play the Anne Hutchinson game, which is set in 1637 Boston and focuses on struggles over theology, authority and community among the Massachusetts Bay Puritans.
"In both games, students will speak, discuss and write entirely in character for weeks at a time, forging alliances and developing strategies to achieve their victory objectives," says Hyson. "Evaluations from other Reacting courses indicate that students often become deeply invested in the games, studying texts and contexts more intently than they would in traditional lecture classes."
Hyson adds, "The Reacting pedagogy is great for first-year courses because it challenges students to become active learners, to develop both creative and critical thinking, to improve their written and oral communication skills and to work cooperatively with their classmates."
Saint Joseph's is a member of the consortium of 40 colleges and universities that helped develop the pedagogy, and is the only university in the Philadelphia area to offer courses using the games. The 2009 spring semester marked the first time the course was offered at SJU.
To read more about Reacting to the Past, access
http://www.sju.edu/news/archives/changing_history_051109.html
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