Stian Reimers
Narrative is a powerful tool for organising and communicating ideas between individuals: It is immediately relatable, engaging, and helps scaffold knowledge. Educators have used stories to help students see the relevance of the material they are studying, to keep attention and motivation high, and to help create a more personal, reflective learning experience. This talk examines the way in which stories can enhance interactive experiences, from escape rooms to VR challenges.
The session starts with a brief overview of the use of narrative in teaching, some key examples from different disciplines and eras, and some basic theory of narrative pedagogy. It quickly moves on to two hypothetical vignettes in which interactive activities might be used: A set of small-group escape-room style puzzle activities used to help students get to know each other during induction, and VR-based training of clinical skills. In each there is the option for a traditional approach – students try to solve all the puzzles as quickly as possible to reach a final goal; students see a recorded virtual interaction between a clinician and service user – or one in which a narrative is embedded – where solving each puzzle reveals more of an underlying mystery to be solved, or where an recorded interaction is part of a journey that one of the characters goes on. The relative merits of each approach will be discussed. As a coda it will also discuss my recent use of OpenAI’s ChatGPT API to allow students to use natural language to navigate through a web-based narrative. The final section looks at the potential ways in which narrative can create more memorable and immersive learning experiences, drawing on insights gained from a masterclass run by the theatre group Punchdrunk, and looks for attendees’ own ideas about how stories can support student learning in their own disciplines.
Introduction, overview of history, theory and research (5 minutes) Two vignettes, showing the differences between structurally identical narrative and non-narrative activities (10 minutes) Application, looking at ways to use narrative in own teaching (5 minutes) Learning outcomes:
– Attendees will be able to define and characterise ‘narrative’ as a concept, and report the way in which it has been used
– Attendees will be able to critically evaluate the use of narrative in learning activities
– Attendees will be able to apply some of the ideas around narrative to their own teaching design and practice
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Open in new tab References
Bruner, J. (1991) The narrative construction of reality. Critical Inquiry, 18, 1, 1-21
Frid, I., Öhlén, J. & Bergbom, I. (2000) On the use of narratives in nursing research. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 32, 3, 695-703
Gold, J. & Holman, D. (2001) Let me tell you a story: an evaluation of the use of storytelling and argument analysis in management education. Career Development International, 6, 7, 384-395
