This is an interesting question to be asking at this point. I want to end this course with you taking a stand on this issue. Based on your current understanding of story and your now evolving personal definition, it is time for you to decide whether any of this has actually changed your mind and whether any of it translates into any modification of behavior.
Here are a few final things to consider.
My continued work into instructional design has led me to conclude that, while most students love a good story, they seem to lack a fundamental understanding of the story invention process. Research into narrative epistemology supports my belief that developing a skill for creating stories can directly correlate with a child’s general cognitive abilities, and academic performance.
Renowned educators like Dr. Ruby Payne and Reuven Feuerstein have long supported the notion that that story is at the heart of improved academic performance and can have a significant positive effect especially on those from traditionally under-served communities. When Israel was first formed as a country it took in thousands of children from all over, many from what is now known as third world countries. Feuerstein’s work in the Kibbutz in Israel was able to demonstrate a causal relationship between the lack of development of story structure and academic failures. For those with a casual language register, story is episodic and random, very often omitting consequences and cause and effect. Consequently, if a student has not had access to a formal story structure with cause and effect, consequence and sequence, and is in an environment with no formal routine and structure, then that student does not know how to plan. The lack of planning capabilities has significant ramifications in the learning cycle.
According to Feuerstein:
- If a student cannot plan, he or she cannot predict
- If a student cannot predict, he or she cannot identify cause and effect
- If a student cannot identify cause and effect, he or she cannot identify consequences
- If a student cannot identify consequences, he or she cannot control impulsiveness
- If a student cannot control impulsiveness, he or she most often demonstrates learning disabilities, and even worse, may even have an inclination to criminal behavior.
We have been focusing our efforts on relating story to academic success. But we have also touched upon the value of story in non-academic environments when we brought into the picture Biz and Rick Stone (not related). Perhaps it is time to take one more pass at looking at story in non-academic settings.
- Next, here is an interesting article in Harvard Business Review
- Business Storytelling
- The Power of Business storytelling
- Storying will be #1 business skill for next five years (blog)
If you Google story and business you will find hundreds if not thousands of links on your own. The point is this: story has an applicability is just about every venture where you want to sell something, change folks opinions, and or get them to learn something (which IMHO is totally related). So, if you are trying to make this work for you in a non-academic setting, feel free to dig deeper into this subject as i am sure it will be worth your time.
This course has been chock full of readings and links. We cannot leave this context without providing you one last set of readings. This is a draft of a book chapter on narrative and instructional design that we have in press. It summarizes much of what we have been discussing all semester plus a few new ideas about how story can become a learning engine. The final version will have some changes but it does provide you a summary of the important contexts we tried to relate this course.
Link to file: https://emeclasses.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/The-Narrative-Imperative.pdf
Throughout this semester we have presented tons of evidence about the power of story as an academic tool and one to help individuals sort out, recall, and learn things. We have provided the story schema, which has five essential elements (what I refer to as ‘must haves’) that make story a learning tool and storying as a process and not a thing.
It is your job to take a stand on this issue:
- Prepare a one-two page ‘white paper’ in which you state your ideas on story, about its power as a motivator, a cognitive/teaching tool (whether it is for academia, K-12, and/or business and industry use).
- Include some investigation in the literature to back up your ideas. Be sure to site those resources using APA7 format.
- State as clearly as possible what your plans are to incorporate this newly found knowledge into action for your teaching, your work or your business.
Combine your notes about both readings into one white paper. If you care to you also may create a presentation using slides.
Submit this in the drop box set up in Canvas for this assignment.