What Happens When Students Take Over the Class with Mark Carnes

What really happened in 1945?
Explore how students grapple with historical events and figures to understand their distinctness and uniqueness. In this episode of Heterodox Out Loud, host John Tomasi interviews Professor Mark Carnes of Barnard College. Professor Carnes talks about his innovative approach to teaching history, which he calls "reacting to the past." He explains how this method challenges traditional teaching by immersing students in historical contexts through Live-Action Role-Playing (LARP).
Professor Carnes shares the components of this approach, its impact on students' engagement, the complexity of character roles, and the unique insights it generates. By making history come alive in a way that traditional teaching methods may not achieve, "reacting to the past" provides a unique and engaging way to learn about the past.
In This Episode:
• Teaching history through role-playing games
• Engaging students in historical complexities
• Adoption of live-action role-playing games
• Connecting with historical figures through gameplay
• The transformative power of immersive learning
Find out more about The Reacting Consortium here: reactingconsortium.org/
Find out more about Mark here: barnard.edu/profiles/mark-c-c...
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About Mark:
Mark Carnes received his B.A. from Harvard and Ph.D. from Columbia. For the first half of his career, he was a very conventional historian, General Editor of the 17-million-word American National Biography (Oxford), and author or editor of dozens of books on American history. But around the turn of the century, he pioneered the Reacting to the Past program, where students played complex games set in the past, their roles informed by important texts. He has co-authored six games in the Reacting series, published by the University of North Carolina Press, and is the author of Minds on Fire: How Role-Immersion Games Transform College (Harvard, 2014). He teaches at Barnard College, Columbia University.

[@donaldrose7543]

After teaching at a service academy and a small, denominational liberal arts college I tried the RTTP pedagogy about 10 years ago. Now it is the highlight of the year for everyone involved. More engagement with texts, ideas, and perspectives than anything else I have tried. I was fortunate enough to be able to meet Mark Carnes at an RTTP conference a few years ago and was able to thank him for his generosity in making this available to everyone (and for rejuvenating my teaching). American higher education is in deep trouble but this is a promising element.

[@bertpowers7064]

We read Shakespeare in college as a class and in every class different people read the parts of the characters. It was eye opening and you felt really involved in the characters and the play. Our teacher was an outside the box thinker that I will never forget.

[@psychnstatstutor]

Fantastic! I'm full of ideas now for working with students in a group context

[@user-ks3ol3lw3b]

When you have to get students to play-act in class for them to pay attention, you know there's something wrong. Either the students just can't imagine caring about the content, or the content isn't worthy over coverage. I was a high school grad/blue collar worker who read literature/history/science for pleasure until I went to college in my 30s. When I did, I rushed to the library after class to get the extra reading - I wanted to be there. These kids are in college because someone told them for years that they would inevitably go to college. They never had a choice, and so, classes are boring. And thus the need to put lipstick on the pedagogical pig.

[@nuqwestr]

"Empathy" without boundaries is self-destructive and not the same as Epistemic Humility. Dr. Carnes just expressed the core issue without knowing it, and is perhaps a vector for this flawed policy.

[@nuqwestr]

John, attended art history lecture in college 1972, the professor talked for 30 minutes on Fragonard's, Girl on a Swing. I can still see the picture in my mind's eye, and even the lecture hall. Dr. Carnes is seeking to "activate" curiosity. Not sure that is an appropriate goal, as we've experienced the outcome of that method. Why "activate" a Narcissist?

[@dansantospirito5310]

Dungeons and dragons.