| This research demonstrates the feasibility of using oral history with college and high school students. The oral history movement was traced from its origins as a new source for collecting primary historical evidence to its far wider application as a teaching strategy.;A model for studying the Great Depression was developed. The Hanna "expanding communities of man" curriculum scheme served as the model's core, with oral history as the teaching strategy used to study the Great Depression. The movement away from traditional history and/or social studies was examined, focusing on the dynamics of change within the field.;Students selected for this project included college and high school youth enrolled in social studies or history classes at Illinois State University and Lexington High School. Students were involved in a classroom teaching unit using the model as a way to teach the Great Depression. Students were presented with a number of surveys, tests, and evaluative instruments designed to ascertain how successful oral history was in promoting greater student interest in history, enhancing understanding of selected skills, and making history a more affective or emotional experience by personalizing and humanizing the subject.;From the data collected the author concludes: (1) Oral history can increase interest in history more successfully among college than high school students. (2) Oral history is most effective when students volunteer for the experience. (3) Oral history can sharpen selected skills important in the study of history for some students. (4) Oral history can personalize and humanize history by emphasizing ordinarily neglected themes in textbooks. This process assists students in making history a more affective or emotional experience. (5) Although oral history is not successful for all students, especially those in required classes, it does not harm student attitudes toward history. |
