Abstract
The development of historical thinking in students using active methodologies is an unavoidable opportunity to approach key events in the history of humanity, such as the Nuremberg trials. This chapter presents a proposal for gamification in the classroom through role-playing using a card game designed ad hoc in order to develop historical empathy in students. The objectives of this proposal are to determine the responsibilities of individuals and organisations for the execution of the German extermination programme, decide the seriousness of the facts proven through documentation and sources provided, value respect for life and tolerance as the foundations of democracy and human rights, investigate and become aware of the crimes committed by those involved, and value respect for life and tolerance as the foundations of democracy and human rights. This activity introduces students to a controversial topic such as the Nuremberg trials through activities such as the creation of a preliminary commission, the performance of the trial, and a debate.
TopHistorical Thinking And Historical Empathy In The Classroom
Encouraging students’ historical empathy has been a point of convergence for recent research into the development of historical thinking in the classroom (Brooks, 2008; Seixas and Morton, 2012; VanSledright, 2014; Wineburg, 2001). The work by Foster and Yeager (1998) stands out in theoretical reflection on historical empathy. These authors define historical empathy as the “ability to infer from given knowledge an explanation of certain actions” (p. 2) since “historical empathy combines the adductive and logical thinking associated with the use of evidence” with “the inferential and appropriately creative skills that seek to bridge the gap between what is known and what may be inferred from history” (p. 3). Other authors, such as Riley (1998), argue that empathy is nothing more than “a reconstruction of others’ beliefs, values, and goals, any or all of which are not necessarily those of the historical investigator” (p. 33). Finally, Foster (1999) had already highlighted years earlier that the concept of empathy can be addressed by pointing out what it is not. For example, empathy does not require a student to identify with a historical figure since any attempt to do so “ignores the perspective of hindsight and is alien to the principle that historians are contemporary interpreters of past events” (p. 19). Empathy requires “cautious inquiry and close examination of available evidence” (p. 19). It concerns understanding the context and managing to reconstruct the perspective an individual or a group based their decision on at a precise historical moment (Paricio, 2019). Rather than a sentimental issue, it is a question of understanding the historical context to appreciate the actions of those who came before us and not to judge historical facts based on presentism.
Concerning empirical research, authors such as Ashby and Lee (1987) found in their early curricular experiences with historical empathy that students tended from the outset to assume people in the past held the same beliefs, ideas, and values they had in their own time. Other studies documented how students justified past actions that now are found unacceptable by claiming the perpetrators were, in some way, inferior (Lee et al., 1997; Lee and Ashby, 2001). Other research on historical empathy in the classroom has studied it using primary sources, for example (Carril-Merino et al., 2020; Dickinson and Lee, 1978; Shemilt 1987). This is particularly interesting due to the use of resources that are contemporary to the historical moment to understand.
In Spain, several research projects have conducted historical empathy exercises in the classroom using both a cognitive and an affective dimension (Domínguez, 1986, 2015; González et al., 2008; Guillén, 2016; Sáiz, 2013). Multiple educational proposals have also recently been documented to study historical empathy with preservice teachers (Carril-Merino et al., 2018, 2020, 2020b; San Pedro-Veledo and López-Manrique, 2017), thus indicating that this is an emerging line of educational innovation in Spain that will become consolidated.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Controversial Topics: Topics that have served as foundation for irreconcilable arguments. These events or historical figures are very interesting to work on in the classroom as they arouse the interest and participation of students, which, in turn, offers an opportunity for developing participatory and constructive learning proposals in the classroom.
Role-playing Game: An entertaining dynamic in which participants play the role of real or fictitious characters. They interpret models of behaviour that are not their own and acquire first-hand experience of different situations and lessons.
Genocide: A crime that includes any act consisting of serious injury to the physical and/or mental integrity or death of the members of a group as well as intentionally subjecting them to living conditions resulting in their physical, partial, or total destruction. The term was coined by the Polish-Jewish jurist Raphael Lemkin in 1944 after he managed to escape and go into exile in the United States.
Multiperspective: It consists in using as an excellent educational opportunity the existence of multiple stories of the past and the fact that all of them are true and, at the same time, none of them is. It means accepting the subjectivity of historians based on their beliefs, knowledge, interests, values, etc. as a guarantee for a multifaceted and polysemic learning of history in which the multiple versions of a historical event provide a better understanding of it.
Nuremberg Trials: A series of trials held between 20 November 1945 and 1 October 1946 in which the victorious Allies of World War II determined and punished the responsibilities of leaders, officials, organisations and collaborators of the German Third Reich between 1939 and 1945. These trials laid the foundations for a specific international jurisprudence on genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Historical Context: Material, social, political, ideological, and cultural circumstances that condition any historical event or character to be worked on in the classroom. A true understanding of historical events and characters can only be obtained by understanding the specific context of the historical event or character to be studied, such as the socio-economic circumstances of the time or the specific beliefs of certain historical figures.
Holocaust: Systematic persecution and annihilation by the German state between 1933 and 1945 of Jews, Romanies, the disabled, homosexuals, Serbs, Poles, Soviet prisoners of war and political dissidents. The estimation is that this systematic repression took the lives of around five and six million Jews, 250,000 Romanies, 250,000 people with disabilities and three million Poles, etc.
Historical Empathy: Rational understanding, without neglecting emotional aspects, of the beliefs and values of past characters by making appropriate use of the available sources. This skill fosters understanding of actions and social practices that have already taken place, which, as Lee and Ashby point out, favours the understanding of history.