Is seeing believing? On the educational use of mainstream historical films in the history classroom

© 2016, Wochenschau Verland. All rights reserved. Historical films constitute an important source of knowledge about the past and of historical representations among young people. Students, however, often consider them as mirrors of the past instead of constructed representations. Therefore, it is very important to get students acquainted with audio-visual grammar, by analysing and questioning films in a critical way, in order to foster their historical and critical thinking skills. This paper examines how students and teachers in Flanders perceive historical films, and how teachers use them educationally in their classroom practice. Secondly, based on an extensive literature study and on our own analyses of historical films, it presents a model, distinguishing eight layers in historical films that can be discerned and are worthwhile to question, to foster students' historical thinking skills.