2019 Volume 90 Pages 37-48
An important consideration for social studies and history lessons (which are positioned as a part of social studies with the objective of “cultivating civic qualities through social awareness”) is that they allow students to depict history themselves while remaining grounded in the results of historical research. This study develops and clarifies the effectiveness of teaching materials that use gaming simulation as the underlying lesson methodology for this type of history lesson. To verify this, we conducted a lesson using two differing methodologies with identical content and then attempted to clarify the qualitative difference in the teaching materials by comparing the results.
As a result of the verification, we confirmed the existence of qualitative differences in historical awareness acquired by learners due to the differences in teaching method and found that the gaming simulation teaching materials made it possible for learners to grasp the history from the perspective of historical subjects, allowing them to depict that history with greater proficiency.
The results of the study show that gaming simulation is a method that enables “dialogue with the future as it was seen by the people in the past,” one that we were able to position as something that expands and carries on the methods of “vicarious experience” which is an effective methodology in conventional history lessons.
