January 2004
Reacting to the Past
|
Barnard College was chosen as the 2004 Hesburgh Award winner for it's innovative education program, Reacting to the Past, which challenges students through intense role-playing games to debate the ideas and politics of great figures from the past, such as Socrates and Gandhi.
Founded in 1995 by Mark C. Carnes, Barnard Professor of History, Reacting to the Past began as a way of breathing new life into Barnard's first-year general education seminar. Carnes had grown dismayed by his students' failure to engage with important historical texts, and reconfigured his seminar as a series of elaborate month-long role-playing games whose rules replicate pivotal historical moments. During the games, students were assigned roles dealing with turning points in history, such as Athens' defeat following the Peloponnesian War and India's attainment of independence in 1945.
The program was such a success on campus that more than a dozen Barnard faculty members adopted it for their own first-year seminars. Evaluations of the program concluded that Reacting students were found to have acquired considerably stronger speaking skills and a heightened ability to empathize with different cultures and peoples. In addition, Reacting students experienced a statistically significant increase in grade-point average in subsequent years.
"I found that the program generates an astonishing intensity that spills into the dorms after class," said Carnes. "It appeals to the students' imagination while challenging them emotionally and intellectually."
The success of Reacting to the Past isn't going unnoticed by Barnard College's peers either. Over the last two years faculty and administrators at colleges nationwide have adopted the program for their students as well. In fact, Reacting to the Past has become so popular that colleges in Connecticut, Georgia, Iowa, Massachusetts, New York and Texas have formed a consortium with Barnard to share ideas and results.
Two institutions were selected to receive Theodore M. Hesburgh Certificates of Excellence for meritorious faculty development programs. They include:
