No abstract

Historical empathy can be helpful when learning history. However, we do not know what students do when completing an empathy-task or how they perceive this type of task. In the explorative study presented in this article, we recognized different types of empathy-tasks, we saw students showing cognitive as well as affective elements in their responses on an empathy task, and we learned that students think that empathy-tasks are mainly useful to remember facts. Students also mentioned comparing the past with the present and imagining other people's lives as goals of empathy-tasks.

The past is not in the classroom to observe and study. Thus, creating a lively and understandable image of a past period or situation is an achievement to be learned. A variety of tasks can be used to stimulate students to create an image of the past. In this experimental study, 151 grade 9 students (14-16 years old) participated by completing a drawing task or a writing task on the Roman Forum in Ancient Rome. Their products were compared. Additionally, the students' perceptions of the tasks were explored by means of a questionnaire and an interview. The findings show that the written products contained more information elements than the drawings. However, in terms of the historical plausibility of the product, the drawn products and written products were comparable. Students who made a drawing reported higher situational interest than students who wrote a text.