Teaching as Storytelling
Introduction – My Pedagogical Framework
John Hattie is somewhat famous in pedagogical for having “6 key findings”[1]. Upon reading these, I realised that they cannot truly be viewed in isolation as they each describe a single aspect of a much richer whole, a field which already exists and is extremely well-developed. That field is literature, and from this perspective, I view the education process as the sharing of a story. In the following essay I will explain how this educational framework intersects with many aspects of pedagogy and psychology, how it has influenced my practice, and the successes, failures, pros and cons of the approach.
The philosophers René Descartes and Bertrand Russell both suggested that the development of our beliefs is highly dependent upon our current perspective[2]. Friedrich Nietzsche went further, claiming that our beliefs are not fundamentally based in reason or evidence at all. We simply believe whatever we want and post-justify it however we can[3]. Whatever the cause, modern psychology suggests that humans do indeed think in this manner. One theory suggests that our thinking minds are structured as “belief networks”[4]; a network of links between ideas.
Due to the evolutionary benefit of having networks formed of true information, the network of beliefs we currently have is naturally assumed to be true. As such, if we are presented with a belief that does not “fit” into our current network, even if it is true and our existing network has errors, we respond with a deep, uncomfortable struggle called “cognitive dissonance”[5]. It is extremely difficult for humans to restructure their existing belief systems to support a new belief that doesn’t fit, and so we often see people digging in their heels and refusing to even engage with new ideas that contradict their existing beliefs[6].
Yet, when an idea does fit into the existing set, it appears almost obvious. Trivial, in hindsight, as though we should’ve already known it. It slots right into the network, like the missing piece of a jigsaw puzzle…and exactly like a story in which the final act addresses all the major themes and ties up all the loose ends. This is what Hattie has discovered in his pedagogy, and how I endeavour to structure my teaching. However, as a HE educator, I do not meet my students until they are at least 18 years old, and approximately 31% of students are over 25[7]. They have likely already formed strong belief systems about the world around them and indeed, about my subject itself: physics. I can only hope that what they have been taught so far, or exposed to online[8,9], has not given them incorrect information that I have to unpick!
As a physicist, my field contains a logical series of evidence-based ideas. The Universe as we understand it is based on non-contradictory, internally consistent rules and as such, I can present the development of those ideas as the backbone of a coherent story. In fact, this is true of most fields of study, which is perhaps the reason that an educational narrative structure has been codified in the BOPPPS framework[10]. BOPPPS, in an abstract interpretation, instructs us to create an educational unit like a new chapter in a book. We bridge-in from the previous chapter, use the first paragraph/page set the tone of the chapter, use continuous feedback to keep the reader with us, and then summarise the themes of that chapter at the end, ready for the next.
That a narrative structure can aid in information recall and development is well-known[11], and perhaps the most famous practitioner of this idea is Derren Brown, who has publicly utilised the Method of Loci, or a “Mind Palace”[12]. To recall…well, anything, he imagines himself walking along a familiar path and, in his mind, ties locations on the path to things he wants to remember. Thus he doesn’t recall a disconnected set of random things but rather walks a path of narrative links between ideas; a story. For my students and myself, our own experienced reality is the path, and physics is the set of ideas we need to remember. Sometimes, I show them the structure of my own story / mind palace. More often, I help them to build their own stories through discussion, and conceptual & mathematical development. Here we see the behavioural[13,14] and constructivist[15,16] approaches to learning are also based in fundamental psychology.
While Pavlov showed that classical conditioning can work on animals, the noted linguist and political commentator Noam Chomsky gave a criticism of the application of pure behaviourism to humans, noting that the higher cognitive ability and rationalist abilities of humans[17] (as opposed to the empiricist focus of behaviourism) makes human learning significantly more complex[18]. A framework implying and justifying their unification in a social model was presented by Albert Bandura in 1977[19], and thus for a large student cohort, I aim for a constructivist approach to storytelling where possible in my practice, but with behaviourist methods interspersed for necessity. From a literary perspective, this is similar to the narrative mechanisms available in the “Dungeons & Dragons” (D&D) interactive storytelling format[20,21]. D&D is a story presented as an interactive game, and games too incorporate the BOPPPS framework; levels replace educational chunks to give a feeling of structure, continuation, and completion. It is no coincidence that gamification is now so heavily relied on, as it incorporates all key aspects of pedagogical success[22]. Of course in physics there eventually is a correct answer just as in D&D there is an overarching story to be told. Hence, narrative flexibility is not infinite but limited, even within the constructivist approach. This necessitates behavioural aspects to teaching.
While constructivism is universally praised in HE, my analysis highlights a key flaw with the pure constructivist approach to learning, and in the self-reflection view of assessment[23]. Time constraints are placed on the overall HE sector and this is only getting worse[24], and so constructivism implicitly assumes students are sufficiently motivated to go and do some work themselves. So, while constructive learning methods may be better for the self-motivated individual, I believe that the assumption that constructivism is better for the cohort[25] is invalid, as it often fails to take into account the environment in which learning takes place. As such, there needs to be a balance between knowledge given directly, and knowledge incentivised for the students to learn themselves.
Combining these ideas, I frame my teaching as follows. I provide students with the backbone of the story of physics, the key plot points, through a combination of constructivist and behavioural approaches. I then enable them, through guided collaboration, social learning opportunities and active methods, to fill in the metaphorical imagery and mathematical detail connecting these key ideas themselves. My role as an educator, then, a unique storyteller, is to flesh out the story I’m telling. After all, stories are not simply a list of key narrative points; they are wrapped up in wonder, mystery, action and excitement. It is my job to provide these, and luckily, according to student feedback, I’m doing ok at this so far.
Case Studies
Circular motion, accessibility, and inclusivity in teaching
In my sessions I get my students involved in live demos, and I also use stick figure characters in slides. Like my students, these figures have a variety of ethnicities and genders. Using the literary analogue of inclusivity, I’m trying to enable the students to insert themselves into the story as “audience surrogates”. My colleagues have highlighted this as a positive thing, suggesting that I create a feeling that “we are in this together”.
Circular motion is a difficult topic in 1st Year, yet it occurred to me that unlike the other students, wheelchair users would have direct, empirical experience of the intricacies of circular motion thanks to their daily mobility. As such, I used a wheelchair in examples rather than the standard bicycle. On reflection this was clearly the correct thing to do. It’s a perfect example but also, to be able to represent all flavours of people and include all potential students as audience surrogate at some point during the course felt appropriate. The cohort also appeared to enjoy the example as, even though they had no direct experience, the structure of a wheelchair addresses many relevant concepts being put to practical use in a simple manner. Going forward, I’d like to empirically determine whether or not direct inclusivity actually increases learning at the individual level, just as being audience surrogate increases empathy with a literary situation.
The Linux operating system (OS) and metaphor in teaching
Due to the specificity of computer systems, there is relatively little variation in how one can describe what is happening as they function. To teach the use of Linux then, rather than allowing my BSc/MSc students a pure constructivist approach, I used behaviourism, albeit with active components. Using the literary analogue of metaphorical interpretation, I explained to my students that the Linux file system looks like a tree. There is a root and from the root you can move along branches. Each branch is a folder, each leaf is a file. We can even say that a different computer is a different tree, and a different OS is a different species. I gave them my metaphor; I didn’t allow them to construct their own.
From my previous experience learning Linux as an undergraduate, I recall that physics students tend to want to understand everything about it when practically, to physicists, Linux is more of a tool. It is therefore less about cognitive skill acquisition and more about gaining affective skills[26]. This approach still feels odd to me, as in my physics practice I provide the key narrative points and allow the students to actively fill in the gaps. I only share my metaphors either in comparison to their own, or to guide the students when they are unable to construct their own understanding. My metaphors are like stepping stones for the students, towards their own constructivist conceptual understanding. Here, however, I bypass the cognitive understanding and jump straight into the affective usage of Linux; I provide a metaphor for them to replace their own cognitive understanding. This is philosophically interesting, as I am effectively attempting to insert part of my own belief network into theirs and hoping it will fit, rather than letting theirs grow naturally. Indeed, mine should fit, because this truly is an accurate representation of Linux. If it doesn’t fit, it is the students who are incorrect. No room for interpretation here!
The result of this approach is that if my metaphor lands, students immediately understand and start asking me for the Linux commands to “move along a branch” (change folders), “grow new branches” (make folders) and other such valid metaphorical parallels relating to Linux. If my metaphor doesn’t land, however, I am met with cognitive dissonance. Students ask why they can’t just think of it “like Windows”, question my knowledge, and other such attempts to preserve their current understanding / belief network. I think that to alleviate this issue, I need to consider the BOPPPS framework again; use pre-assessment to understand where the students currently are in their understanding, and work towards my metaphor from there. They need an intermediate narrative, a bridge, an interlude, to move from their current understanding to the metaphor I wish to provide them with.
I believe there to be sufficient overlap between my metaphor and the structure of Linux to justify continuation of this behavioural approach going forward. However, I will extend it to compensate for the cognitive difficulties some of my students had in accepting the metaphor. Further, I will also be on the lookout for a better metaphor. But I maintain that due to the specificity of computer systems, I will not use a constructivist approach in teaching this, even when teaching to an entire cohort as I will be next semester.
Conclusions
I believe that the storytelling framework codifies everything necessary to teaching practice as I understand it so far, and additionally, equates “teacher” and “storyteller”, emphasising the uniqueness of the delivery method rather than the content. However, every story has those who don’t enjoy it. They don’t relate to the themes or meanings involved, the presentation, the structure. Many of my own students choose to do physics not for the joy of understanding the universe, but rather because they want a good job. I find this extremely hard to empathise with, and while I will always try to instil some of my joy into my students, I nevertheless have to find practical reasons why physics is the way it is. Luckily, just as with law, language, literature itself, or any human endeavour, physics was developed within the human experience. As such there is always a historical example, a practical reason why physics is like it is. As my practice moves forward, I will continue with this framework, and try to tell the story of physics in a way that is accessible to all.
Bibliograhpy
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