Teaching the French Revolution through fictional sources

Abstract

This dissertation studies the use fictional secondary sources in the teaching of history. The from 3 Junior lyceum syllabus was used to create a number of lesson plans on the French revolution. These lesson plans use :fictional secondary sources such as historical novels, films, drama and songs. A theoretic background on the use of fiction in history teaching can be found in the literature review. There is a discussion on imagination in history teaching and how children can be made to feel the past with the use of historical fiction. In this way through the use of fiction students can be motivated and the subject is rendered more interesting. A short survey was also carried out with three history teachers who evaluated the teaching of history through fiction as advocated by this dissertation. The different views of the teachers were very helpful in seeing the potential as well as disadvantages of teaching in this way.