The Making of Historical Role Playing Games in Secondary and Tertiary Education: An Experience of International Cooperation Between History Teachers

This article presents an analysis of an experience of international cooperation between Italian and Brazilian history teachers in the development of a teaching practice consisting of the production and playing of a type of historical Role Playing Game (RPG) by the students of the history class. After developing an analysis of the theoretical background on games and education, an on task research, with a series of activities, was undertaken in two different settings: history classes in a public secondary school in Italy; and history teaching classes in a public university in Brazil. The results include challenges and possibilities of the use of historical accurate RPG in History teaching, in different contexts, contributing to practices of participatory education, active learning and peer instruction. The critical use of RPG as a teaching practice can innovate and improve the teaching of History and the development of historical consciousness with adolescent and young adult students.