Teaching History With Movies: Maybe not Such a Hot Idea
By: Keith
Movies are powerfully influential on young minds (reference Joseph Goebbels). Thus, it might surprise you, knowing what we do about movies playing loose with historical facts, that teachers, history teachers no less, are using them in the classroom to help teach history. But, it’s not as bad as you might think. Some teachers believe that by showing popular, historically based movies to their kids that the kids will gain a more vivid appreciation for the history they learn in textbooks (which frequently conflict with the movie versions of the same events). These history teachers are partially right – probably not the good part of partially, but partially none the less. A couple of guys from the University of Washington did a study on how students learn history with movies. Here are the findings in summary:
“We found that when information in the film was consistent with information in the text, watching the film clips increased correct recall by about 50 percent relative to reading the text alone,” explains Andrew Butler, a psychology doctoral student in Arts & Sciences.
“In contrast, when information in the film directly contradicted the text, people often falsely recalled the misinformation portrayed in the film, sometimes as much as 50 percent of the time.”
In other words, kids will remember the movie version of history before a textbook version whether the movies is accurate or not. But, not all is lost. An article in Scientific American Mind further explained the research to add that if a teacher warns the kids ahead of time about each part of the movie that is inaccurate, that the kids will be able to pick out those instances and correctly recall the textbook version of events. But, it only works if the teacher is extremely specific ahead of time. He must say something like “Watch for this scene where Marie Antoinette is standing on the balcony and how the crowd reacts to her. It is inaccurate because… .” The teacher makes all the difference. A teacher who assigns a textbook and a movie and expects the kids to pick fact from fiction might as well have just assigned the movie. But a proactive teacher who warns his kids about what is wrong ahead of time will have students who gain the benefit of visualization and who learn historic facts. It’s all in the teacher – not surprisingly.
Experiment: Teach the true history of a significant world even. Watch the movie version of that even at home with the kids and see who can pick out the most inaccuracies.
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It’s even more insidious than historical movies. Did you see what Slate did?
http://www.slate.com/id/2254054
.-= Paradox13VA´s last blog .."I know the Democratic Party sucks." =-.
Jeez, no. I didn’t know about that Slate experiment. But it’s pretty funny
. I’m not sure I’d want to be tested because I’d be made an ass out of as well. I guess it just goes to show how easy it is to manipulate human beings with images. Thanks!
Forget movies and textbooks, pass out Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader to make learning fun!
Mom: I’ve learned more in the bathroom than I ever did in school. That’s an awesome title. Write a book!
Yeah, I can see how this is could be a problem. If we let movies teach our kids we’ll have a whole generation thinking that the German’s bombed Pearl Harbor
.-= PJ Mullen´s last blog ..I’m in love with another woman =-.
PJ: Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? NO! HAHAHA
By the way, Congratulations on your new addition!
Movies are very effective for language learning. I used to watch some movies over and over to improve my English. Many phrases and words were memorized by heart. Ahem, I am not proud of some words or expressions, but that’s not the point. you can use Hollywood for good deed.
.-= Tavus´s last blog ..Project-New Food Introduction =-.
Tavus: that’s true. I used TV to learn Spanish (among other things) and my wife watched movies to learn English. Hollywood isn’t so bad, it’s just that they keep messing up the history bits
This is why my parents wouldn’t allow me to see “JFK” when it came out. They didn’t want me to decide Oliver Stone’s version of history was what actually happened.
Muskrat: You know, now that you mention it that’s an excellent example. I remember watching JFK and not knowing anything about JFK at the time. I wound up thinking the Oliver Stone version was the truth. It took me until college to learn that Oliver Stone is a bone head! HA