How can historical disciplines help a STEM student?
(features of conducting practical classes)

Kudina Yuliya Igorevna assistant professor of the Center of Social Sciences and Humanities, ITMO University 191023, Russia, Saint Petersburg, Lomonosov str., 9, office 1514 kudina.yulia.itmo@gmail.com

Munzhukova Svetlana Igorevna senior lecturer of the Center of Social Sciences and Humanities, ITMO University 191023, Russia, Saint Petersburg, Lomonosov str., 9, office 1514 svetlana.munzhukova@gmail.com

In any technical university, in the first courses, it is proposed to choose one or more disciplines from the humanities block, which necessarily includes historical ones. Students who dreamed of listening to lectures only within the framework of their specialty are again faced with the history of Russia. They are a priori adjusted to the fact that they will pass all the same things that happened at school, and hope to get a credit or an exam with as little effort as possible. The teacher finds himself in a difficult situation – he needs to interest students and help them master skills that may be useful in the future.

All disciplines of the humanities module "History" are problem courses and consist of lectures and practical classes. At lectures, students are given a theoretical basis on the topics of classes, as a rule, according to the chronological principle. Practical classes to a greater extent involve the active work of students. Here the teacher has a large field for creativity: you can analyze individual aspects of the course by topic, use modern technologies to revitalize the educational process and add gamification elements. It is about this type of classes that we will talk in this article, focusing in detail on the principles of the organization of the educational process and interesting formats that meet the needs of modern students.

1. The basic principles of organizing practical classes:

Individualization of training

The individualization of training in this course implies the freedom of students to choose the types of educational work. During the semester, students are invited to choose tasks to set the required number of points, among them: writing an essay, making a report, participating in debates and discussion meetings, creating infographics. Individual-oriented training allows students to learn how to plan work, develop their activity and independence to achieve the maximum realization of their personal potential ^[1].

Using digital methods

Recently, the process of digitalization of education has been actively underway. Scientific papers are regularly published on this topic, for example, considerable attention is paid to this problem in articles by Kozlova N.S. and Kozlov R.S. ^[2], Mazneva Yu.A. ^[3] and Semenova L.M. ^[4].

The use of modern digital technologies greatly simplifies the process of working with students. As part of this course, it is very convenient to use Google or Yandex services (disks, documents, tables, forms), and for quick communication with students – Telegram chat.

It is convenient to upload all course materials to the stream folder on Google or Yandex disk so that students have constant access to the basic reference manuals recommended on the course, the teacher's requirements and materials for each lesson. To record students for performances, you can use Google or Yandex tables to which they are given access. When creating such a file, it is important to protect from editing those columns and rows that should not be modified.

The creation of a common Telegram chat group allows you to quickly send important information, at the same time students can ask questions in real time. This simplifies the work of the teacher, since, firstly, there is no need to answer the same question from several students, and, secondly, answers and recommendations become available to all students. At the same time, there is always an opportunity to write to the teacher personally. In addition, it is convenient to build group and individual feedback in Telegram.

The presence of clear rules of work on the course

Since this course is conducted mainly by first-year students, the establishment of clear rules facilitates work, and also contributes to the creation of a friendly atmosphere that will allow each student to express their opinion. The rules can be announced by a list, or they can be worked out together with students. The second option implies greater involvement of students in the work and the ability to adjust the rules, taking into account their requests.

Transparency of task evaluation criteria

At the very beginning of the course, the teacher talks about the forms of work in practical classes, as well as about the requirements for completing tasks and criteria for their evaluation. This part should be made as transparent as possible so that students clearly understand what is required of them, how to fulfill these requirements step by step, and what grade they will receive in the end. The clearer the evaluation criteria are and the more clearly they are presented, the less likely there is a misunderstanding. Meanwhile, the student-teacher conflict most often develops precisely on the basis of the student's disagreement with the assessment ^[5-7]. It is important to pay special attention to this. It is optimal to present the evaluation criteria in the form of a diagram or table, since students of technical fields perceive this form of information presentation better.

Timely and correct organization of feedback

Properly organized feedback increases the effectiveness of the educational process, helps students cope with difficulties while completing tasks, shows the growth points of students. Also, the use of feedback increases the comfort of learning: students do not have to worry whether they have understood the task correctly, since there is always an opportunity to clarify the information, as well as to find out in advance what grade they can count on and how to improve it.

Feedback is needed not only for students, but also for the teacher. With its help, you can find out what difficulties students faced, which tasks seemed more useful to them, and what aroused their greatest interest. This allows you to build teaching on the course taking into account the requests of students.

Feedback should be organized throughout the course, for all types of tasks and be both synchronous and asynchronous; group and individual; oral and written (via e-mail, Telegram chat). It is convenient to use Google and Yandex forms to collect feedback.

2. Work formats:

Reading and discussion of reports

The format of presentation of reports, abstracts or messages is suitable for thematic practical classes. The main task of such work is to learn how to plan, summarize and systematize the collected material, as well as formulate your thoughts. In order for the student to acquire the necessary skills and knowledge, preparatory work should be carried out qualitatively: tell about what historical sources are, where to look for them, how to determine the reliability of the source, how to analyze the information contained in the source. It is important that students understand what the publication of historical sources looks like, what peer-reviewed journals are, and what scientific monographs are. It is necessary to introduce students to the concept of "plagiarism". Unfortunately, many first-year students do not fully understand the essence of this phenomenon, and they think that if they use several sources at the same time, copying whole paragraphs and even pages from them, then such work is not plagiarism. But this is not the case. It is necessary to clarify in advance the requirements for the level of tasks provided, including the possible volume of citations, in order to prevent blind copying of other people's works. This knowledge will be useful not only for the successful completion of the course on the history of Russia, but will also serve the purpose of forming critical thinking among students, will allow them to identify false information and analyze data.

Making a presentation in front of an audience develops the skill of public speaking, which is so important in a career, as it helps to convey your ideas, successfully speak at meetings, negotiate, and also contributes to solving other various professional tasks. It is necessary that students tell the prepared topic based on presentations, presenting information mainly in diagrams with imaginative accompaniment. Such a presentation is better absorbed by other students and causes them more interest. It is not allowed to read from a sheet. Instead, you can invite students to prepare theses on which they will rely during their presentation.

In order to involve the largest number of students in the work, you can invite them to evaluate each other's reports in Google or Yandex forms. In order for students not to hesitate to write comments, it is advisable to disable the collection of email addresses so that the voting is completely anonymous. Before the lesson, the teacher creates a survey form for each speaker, where students can evaluate the oral and visual components of the speech (see Appendix 1). 

During the presentation, the teacher corrects the speaker's mistakes, and also, if necessary, supplements their answer. The report is followed by a discussion where all students can ask clarifying questions. At the end of the lesson, the teacher gives impersonal feedback on the speeches: invites students to pay attention to the strengths of the speakers, and also points out mistakes.

After the lesson, the teacher sends feedback to the speaker personally. It consists of a detailed analysis of strengths and weaknesses, as well as a screenshot of the comments of classmates in Google or Yandex form. Excessive criticism can demotivate students, therefore, when forming feedback, it is advisable to adhere to the "hamburger" principle: first pay attention to the strengths of the speaker, then give criticism, noting what could be improved, and at the end give an overall positive assessment of the performance.

When this format of work was used, many students noted that the feedback was very useful for them.

Essay

Students are invited to write an essay about visiting a museum or theater on the topic of the training course. The teacher offers a list of exhibitions and theatrical performances (see Appendix 2), but the student has the right to choose his own version, having previously agreed upon it.

The volume of the text is small – 3-4 pages. In the essay, students should not only reflect the overall impression of what they saw, but also, in the case of a visit to the museum, note the authenticity of the exhibits; evaluate the presentation of the material (location of the exhibits, labeling, ease of navigation, quality of lighting); briefly convey the content and overall impression of the exhibition, and in the case of a theatrical performance, describe the history of creation the works and the historical context that formed the basis of the play. For example, when describing the opera "Khovanshchina", one should tell about the historical events of 1682-1689.

This type of task serves the intellectual and cultural development of young people, and also encourages them to carefully consider the museum's exposition, forcing them to pay attention to the presentation of the material. Perhaps some of the students in the future will work on creating virtual exhibitions or cooperate with museums when updating expositions, and such a review will contribute to a more successful implementation of the project.

Debates

Let's consider this form of work on a concrete example. The lesson on the topic "Civil War" is good to conduct in the format of "debates". This will help consolidate the knowledge gained at the lecture on this topic, information about the main participants in the Civil War, to form skills of group communication and reasoned discussion of political issues.

Students are invited to plunge into 1919, at a time when the scales have not yet swung in the direction of either white or red movement.

The students are divided into three parts: the "white" team and the "red" team, as well as the audience, who will ask questions to the teams and determine the winners. The "Reds" and "whites" should try to convince the audience of their rightness in order to score more points during the debate.

The debate consists of three rounds. The competition is preceded by the presentation stage of the teams: "red" and "white" talk about their leaders, showing on the map on which fronts they acted. "Viewers" vote for the team whose answer they liked the most and seemed the most meaningful.

The first round is devoted to the issue of power: each of the teams tells what kind of state structure they see for Russia in the future, and what are its advantages. The audience listens attentively, asks clarifying questions and notes which system of the future structure of the state seemed to them more viable. The most active students from the audience who asked interesting questions also receive points for participation.

The second round gives an idea of the attitude of each of the parties to the issue of private property, namely, whether land redistribution is necessary, and if necessary, what projects existed, what are their advantages and disadvantages. After listening to the answers of the teams, the "viewers" are invited not only to choose the team whose answer in their opinion was more exhaustive, but also to note who they would vote for if they were in the place of a peasant from a community in central Russia or in the place of a city dweller who recently moved from the village to the city and opened a small shop. Such a statement of the question will allow students to understand that different groups of the population perceived certain political programs differently.

The third round is aimed at studying the tactics of the struggle of various participants in the Civil War. It will examine the principles of recruitment of the armed forces (universal conscription / voluntary order of enlistment in the army), their disadvantages and advantages; cooperation with foreign governments, as well as attitudes to terror. At the end of the round, the "audience" votes for the team whose performance seemed more convincing, and the attitude to the intervention is clearer.

At the end of the lesson, the results of the Civil War should be discussed and the winning team should be determined, each of the participants of which receives additional points.

The form of debates is very well suited for conducting classes on this topic, however, it requires careful preparation, both on the part of the teacher and on the part of the students, only in this case it will be possible to qualitatively consider all the key issues on this topic, discuss controversial points and meet the timing.

Classes in the form of "debates" usually take place very vividly and cause a wide response from students, feedback on the lesson, shows positive reactions of students.

Lesson-discussion

Let's take this format as an example of a practical lesson on historical memory. It examines modern options for popularizing history that students may encounter in everyday life outside of the history course, such as: historical films, museums, historical lectures, quests on historical events and even comics. It is important to teach students to take a critical approach to the analysis of any works of art and entertainment related to historical topics. 

It is suggested to start the lesson with a story about what collective memory is and what tools of commemoration exist: we are talking about holidays, monuments, museum expositions, historical films, literature, etc. During the lesson, you can focus on 3-4 of any of them, giving a task to individual students or groups of students, tell them in detail about each. For example, one group prepares a story about historical films by taking several films shot at different times about one historical figure or event in which he or she is viewed from different points of view. Students watch films, highlight the main points in the formation of the image of a figure or event, read reviews, and talk about how and why the assessment of a particular historical figure or event has changed over time. Another group is preparing a story about monuments, for example, in St. Petersburg. Within the framework of this block, you can talk about various projects, in particular, about the project of the Russian Military Historical Society "Places of Memory".

A lively response among students causes discussion and study of historical comics. Some of them can be taken from the Comics Library in St. Petersburg, something can be found on the Internet, and give students the opportunity to look through historical comics right in class. As an example, the comic Survilo ^[11], dedicated to the siege of Leningrad, can be cited. In it, the artist and writer Olga Lavrentieva tells about the fate of her 93-year-old grandmother, who survived the blockade, based on her stories.

Infographics

At the last practical lesson, you can hold a competition for the best infographics. Visuality plays a big role in the modern world. Visual information is perceived much better than text information. In this regard, students are offered not only classical formats of practical classes, such as making a report and writing an essay, but also creating infographics. Students are offered a list of topics from which they can choose any and prepare an infographic on it. The work is preceded by a short story by the teacher about the types of infographics (visualization of the article, timeline, flowchart, diagram, comparison, map, etc.). About the types of infographics and in general about this type of visual tasks, much is said in the articles by Laikova Ya.V. ^[12], Zheltukhina M.R. and Donskova L.A. ^[13], Podguzova D.A. ^[14], Makhrova M.M. ^[15], Simakova S.I. and Enbaeva A.P. ^[16].

Students independently study the topic, choose the most appropriate type of infographics, then use various Internet resources to create its visual design and, finally, present their project to classmates. Infographics should be bright, visual and as informative as possible, therefore, when preparing a project, it is necessary to rely on historical sources and reference books of statistical data. During the presentation, in addition to the actual story on the topic, students need to give a brief explanation of the historical context that formed the basis of the infographic, as well as explain the author's concept. Such a presentation will help students acquire the skill of self-presentation, which is important for interviews and resume writing.

Students send their work to the teacher by email in advance so that they can correct mistakes. On the eve of the competition, the teacher creates a single Google or Yandex form for interviewing students to identify the winners in the competition. Infographics are evaluated by their content, visibility, design and originality. At the end there is a section in which students give feedback on the process of creating infographics: describe their impressions of the task, as well as the difficulties they encountered.

Most of the students noted that it was very exciting to complete the task. Many wrote that they liked not only the process of working on infographics, but it was also interesting to listen to their classmates talk about their projects. Since there were a significant number of applicants, 5-7 minutes were allocated for each performance, but many requests were received to increase this time.

Based on the feedback received from students, it can be concluded that the use of various formats of the lesson allows students to increase their interest in history, promotes confidence during speeches in front of an audience, and also improves students' communication skills, in particular teamwork skills. Students willingly gave feedback on the course and were pleased with the variety of lesson formats, the choice of tasks, as well as the creation of projects at the intersection of disciplines, for example, infographics. The formats of work indicated in the article can be applied more widely in other disciplines of the humanities.  

Recently, interest in history has greatly increased. In the 2023-2024 academic year, an updated course "History of Russia" in the amount of at least 144 hours is being introduced in all Russian universities for students of non-historical specialties. This innovation will allow, on the one hand, to examine complex historical processes in more detail with students, referring to different sources, on the other hand, to pay more attention to interdisciplinary projects, some of which are described in this article.

History as a science not only tells about the past, but also allows you to better understand the essence of events and processes taking place at the present time, forms the horizons and skills of critical thinking. In this regard, it is important to draw attention to the discipline of even the most disinterested students, which is possible when using a variety of methods of conducting classes. The methods and formats of work indicated in the article can be applied within the framework of the new course, as well as more widely in other disciplines of the humanities.

Appendix 1

Example of a Google form for mutual evaluation of reports

Appendix 2

Essay topics

Palace-museum, palace-house. Imperial residences of St. Petersburg:

1. Peterhof – reflection of Peter I's dreams
2. Catherine Palace (Pushkin)
3. Priory Palace – residence of the knights
4. Peterhof Farm Palace – Alexander II's family island
5. Alexander Palace. The chambers of Nicholas I and Alexander III
6. Alexander III's chambers in the Gatchina Palace

Private history in the museum exhibition:

1. Museum of A.A. Akhmatova. A story about the life of the poetess through her works
2. Museum-dacha of the artist P.P. Chistyakov
3. The museum-apartment of F.I. Chaliapin
4. Memorial Museum-apartment of N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov
5. Apartment museums of writers (A.A. Blok, F.M. Dostoevsky, Pushkin House – literary address of St. Petersburg)
6. Modern Literary Museum – 1 ? rooms of I. Brodsky

Modern technologies in the museum exposition:

1. Museum of the History of Money in Russia (Peter and Paul Fortress)
2. Museum of Railways of Russia
3. Museum of Political History of Russia
4. Museum of the History of the First World War in the Military Chamber (Pushkin)
5. The universe of water. The underground world of St. Petersburg
6. Central Naval Museum

The life of society in the prism of the museum space:

1. Museum "History of St. Petersburg – Petrograd"
2. Museum "Raznochinny Petersburg"
3. Theater Museum 
4. Museum of Architectural Art Ceramics "Keramarch"
5. Museum of the Defense and Blockade of Leningrad
6. "Missing in the newsreel" – exposition dedicated to the Great Patriotic War (Lenfilm)

Historical plots in musical and dramatic works:

1. Historical plots in Russian opera (M.I. Glinka "Life for the Tsar", A.P. Borodin "Prince Igor", M.P. Mussorgsky "Khovanshchina")
2. Classics of writers on the dramatic stage (A.S. Griboyedov "Woe from Wit", N.V. Gogol "Inspector", F.M. Dostoevsky "Demons", L.N. Tolstoy "War and Peace", A.P. Chekhov "Cherry Orchard")
3. The History of Russian Ballet (P.I. Tchaikovsky "Swan Lake", I.F. Stravinsky "Petrushka", one-act ballets by M.M. Fokin)