Press Release: Bringing History to Life

Thirty-seven years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, encounters with eyewitnesses in history classes help students develop a better understanding of how to engage with different perspectives and learn more about the period of German-German transformation following 1989. In many cases, videos offer an excellent alternative to in-person visits. For this to be successful, however, an appropriate pedagogical framework is needed. These are the findings of the largest experimental field study to date on the impact of interviews with eyewitnesses in history classes, conducted by the “Historical Learning” research group at the Hector Research Institute of Education Sciences and Psychology at the University of Tübingen in cooperation with the Center for School Quality and Teacher Education in Baden-Württemberg (ZSL).

Without historical knowledge, it is difficult to understand and contextualize current controversies, such as the recent media discussion about the reunification of East and West. History lessons featuring eyewitnesses promise a personal, vivid approach to this end. Yet the method has its pitfalls: such a visit can overwhelm young people emotionally, causing learning outcomes to suffer. A previous study showed that, after a visit from eyewitnesses, students were less able to understand that these individuals always recount events from their own perspective than students who worked with videos in class.

Educational Framework: Two Key Factors for Learning Success

To minimize the risk of emotional overwhelm and support learning, the Tübingen research group, in collaboration with the ZSL, focused on two key elements when designing the lesson:

• Everyday accounts instead of intense emotions: The young people listened to accounts of everyday life rather than dramatic descriptions.
• Two people with different perspectives: A West German perspective was always contrasted with an East German one. The aim was to make it clear that there is no “single truth” about the past, but rather that different perspectives coexist.

The new study is based on a scientific investigation in which 50 teachers from 41 schools throughout Baden-Württemberg participated, involving a total of more than 1,300 students. The researchers compared three conditions: Through random assignment, teachers either taught a specially developed 9th-grade unit featuring eyewitnesses on the topic of the period of transformation after 1989, with an in-person visit; or they taught the unit using professionally produced videos featuring statements from the same individuals. The third group, serving as the control group, taught the regular curriculum without interviewing eyewitnesses.