We would like to present a co-authored lecture in which Csaba Jancsák, Ágnes Képiró and Eszter Szőnyi are participating. Our research team - Oral History and History Education Research Group (OHERG) of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences - was founded in 2016 at the University of Szeged supported by Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

According to our credo “research-based” education development is essential, as well as to embalm historical thinking and the collective historical memory (Megill 1994, Seixas, 2016). Similarly to other Central-Eastern European countries, several historical events of the 20th century, such as the Holocaust and the events of Hungarian Revolution 1956, are unspoken today in Hungary and rarely discussed in depth in education, which causes lots of frustration to the students and teachers. In the present project, we argue that digital materials should be incorporated into History teaching, which is especially important in the age of digital generation (Keating & Sheldon 2011, Levtis & Barton 2011, Jancsák 2018). Our research explores the application of digital materials, using video testimonies in formal education,  and their impact on the attitudes of the students.

The Holocaust and the Revolution and War of Independence of 1956 are proved to be challenging topics in teaching History. This might be because these things happened not so long ago and they have not been processing completely. Video interviews can show these more interactively while textbooks might seem outdated (Bage 1999, Csapó 2003).

The focus of the project is to develop educational materials, explore the application of digital materials, using video testimonies of survivors and eyewitnesses in formal education and to measure their impact on attitudes of students. After founding our group we set up a network of partner schools and we recruited middle-school and high school history teachers, who started developing testimony-based lessons: in the 18 partner schools, with 18 partner teacher (those who synergic developed lessons and tested in classroom history teaching). Our educational materials are developed by partner teachers and colleagues of the research group who have long practice it the field of history education. The contents of the lessons were revised by university instructors historian specialized in the field and experts in teaching methodology. From the spring of 2018 experimental data collection started in lessons. During data collection, both qualitative and quantitative studies were conducted in our partner schools. In the first phase of the study, we had partner schools introducing the topic through video interviews and questionnaires were administered among the students. In this study was conducted in two classes in each school: one was built around video interviews (A) and the control group was a traditional “textbook-driven” lesson (B). We conducted student a “pre” questionnaire in both classes one week prior to the lesson and a “post” questionnaire after the lesson. Focus group interviews were also conducted with the students of both A and B lessons. The impact of the lessons on the students’ opinions and value orientation was examined in the data collected through the pre- and post-questionnaires, and group interviews.

According to our hypothesis lessons applying video interviews help realize the pedagogical objectives of history teaching (a deeper understanding of the teaching material) and the non-formal educational goals of history teaching (helping students reach more informed opinions, developing historical empathy, sensitizing towards social values such as empathy, tolerance and responsibility). According to our results, the same goals seem to be less efficiently realized in the case of lessons not using video interviews but only textbooks. The results of our research were increasing the didactical aims of History education via the collaboration of researchers and partner teachers and also the collaboration of teachers and students. The impact of video interview lessons are stronger and cause more positive results than the non-formal lessons value-transfer processes.

Bage, Grant (1999): Narrative Matters – Teaching and Learning History through Story. London, Falmer Press. Csapó, Benő (2003): Oktatás az információs társadalom számára. [Education for information society.] Magyar Tudomány 49. évf. 12. sz. 1478–1485. Jancsák, Csaba (2018): Szemtanúkkal készült videointerjúk alkalmazása valamint hozzáadott értéke a történelem és állampolgári ismeretek tanításában. In. Bánréti, Zoltán et.al. [ed.]: Results and perspectives. Budapest: Hungarian Academy of Sciences – Belvedere Meridionale. 13–19. Keating, Jenny & Sheldon, Nicola (2011): History in Education: Trends and Themes in History Teaching. In Davies, Ian [ed.]: Debates in History Teaching. London, Routledge. Kojanitz, László (2011): A forrásfeldolgozástól a kutatásalapú tanulásig. [From source analysis to research-based learning.] Történelemtanítás. On-line történelemdidaktikai folyóirat. [Online history didactics periodical] (47.) 2.4. szám http://www.folyoirat.tortenelemtanitas.hu/2012/01/kojanitz-laszlo-a-forrasfeldolgozastol-a-kutatasalapu-tanulasig-02-04-05/ Levstik, Linda S. – Barton, Keith C. (2011): Doing History: Investigating with Children in Elementary and Middle School. London, Routledge. Megill, A. (1994): Jörn Rüsen’s Theory of Historiography: Between Modernism and Rhetoric of Inquiry. History and Theory 31, no. 1 (1994): 39-60. DOI: 10.2307/2505651 Seixas, P. (2016) A History/Memory Matrix for History Education, Public History Weekly, 4,6 https://public-history-weekly.degruyter.com/4-2016-6/a-historymemory-matrix-for-history-education