What has storytelling got to do with learning? Part 1

“You may have noticed that the books you really love are bound together by a secret thread. You know very well what is the common quality that makes you love them, though you cannot put it into words: but most of your friends do not see it at all, and often wonder why, liking this, you should also like that."

The Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis

Lately I have been thinking a lot about how important storytelling is to the learning process, and perhaps because it is on my mind, I keep finding different variations of this theme everywhere.

I saw shades of it in this review of Malcolm Gladwell's new book, "David and Goliath," which argues that Gladwell ticks off academics because he is a storyteller rather than a scientist.  I see it in the controversy that erupted online over David Dobbs' Aeon article,  "Die, Selfish Gene, Die," which calls for re-examination of the "selfish gene story" as the primary way of imagining and explaining the current findings in evolutionary biology.  I saw it in the commentaries on the 50 year anniversaries of the deaths of C.S. Lewis and John F. Kennedy which discuss their importance through the lens of the narratives we have created about their lives and about their deaths since 1963.

I see it a lot in recent theories and practices coming out of psychology and neuroscience, such as:

• Cognitive Neuroscientist Michael Gazzaniga explaining how our brain organizes memories into plausible stories in this three-and-a-half minute video, "Your Storytelling Brain" from Big Think.
• Psychiatrist and author, Dr. Dan Siegel, explaining how helping children to form a narrative about emotional events can calm them down by connecting both sides of the brain (kidsinthehouse).
• Dr. Daniel Kaheman describing how "our remembering self is a storyteller," and how this impacts our sense of happiness, in his TedTalk, The riddle of experience vs. memory

I'll come back and try to connect some of these themes and ideas in a later post. (Maybe I'll try to weave them into a narrative!)  But first, let me tell you about some storytelling that I've witnessed a little bit closer to home...

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If you are looking for a good book to read over the holidays, you really should check out this new novel by my friend, Sharon Skretting.  Not sure if it is your style? You can try a few chapters for free and see if you like it.  I think you just might.  

But whether this story is your kind of thing or not, I think that you should pay attention to what Sharon was trying to do if you are interested in how people learn.  

You see, besides being a talented writer, Sharon is a veteran elementary school teacher, and a very good one.  She wrote this novel while teaching full-time, and she shared each of the chapters with her class as she was writing them.  I can assure you that the class absolutely ate it up!  Of course, her students learned a lot of skills and techniques for writing and a lot about the art of storytelling from their teacher's example and from participating in that process. That is quite an accomplishment.  But Sharon's goal was even more ambitious.   She also thought:

Sharon Skretting

"What if I were to write a novel that uses the curriculum as the plot and allows the students to use the story to connect the concepts they must learn?  Of course the story must  exciting and engaging literature first, but also curriculum centered."

It is no small feat to create a novel which stands on its own merits as an entertaining story but which also embeds curriculum outcomes and weaves them in naturally.  But if you get a chance to check out Sharon's Quest Teaching blog, you'll find that she wants to do even more than that.  She also wants to show you how to use her novel to teach those outcomes and how to create engaging quests for you students. You'll find that "Quest Teaching" is more than just a blog name or a "brand;" it is a unique pedagogical method.  And you will discover that she is passionate about spreading that method.

At the core of her Quest Teaching method is the idea that narratives create connections.  They help the reader to make connections with characters and concepts.  They help students to make connections with each other and with people and cultures around the world.  To reinforce these connections, Sharon uses diverse teaching strategies such as projects, group activities, technology, and arts integration, but it is the story that helps to tie it all together.

Of course, there is nothing new about using literature to teach concepts or about doing group work or using project-based teaching.  Sharon acknowledges the importance of using tried and true methodologies.  But there is something unique about the way this story was specifically created to weave those elements together, and there is something special about the way the novel gives a meaning or purpose to the learning by making it a "quest."  Sharon had tried to do that sort of thing in the past but could only take the idea so far without a book specifically written with that purpose in mind.  Since she couldn't find a novel that met that criteria, she decided to write it herself.  It has been such a success that she is already working on a sequel!

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I learned something too, from talking to Sharon and watching her work through the process.  It was tough, at first, for her to explain to me what she was doing and why, but I could tell that she really needed to talk it through.  As the year, and the novel, progressed, so did her vision of what she was trying to accomplish.  I got to hear the "story" of her Quest Teaching philosophy develop alongside the creation of "The Jewel of Peru."  It may have been a different kind of  storytelling than the novel she was writing, but it was just as much about the formation of a coherent narrative.  And you know what?  I was captured by her enthusiasm and got caught up in that narrative.  That is why I had to share it here on my blog.  A good story can do that to you.

In case you are wondering, no - I haven't finished reading her novel yet.  I have lots of excuses: I have been busy; I wanted to wait until I had my (signed) paperback version; I already know how it ends (she had to run it past someone!); I had a blog post or two to finish.  You know the excuses.  But Christmas holidays are coming, and soon I'll have the time to sit down with a good book or two, and I know just which book to start with!

What does neuroscience have to do with classroom teaching?

Recently I was interviewed by a local t.v. personality on the topic of, "How a student's brain works." I am reluctant to mention it, because in the interview I was nervous and tongue-tied and gave vague, drawn-out answers.  I'd like to blame it on the fact that I had expected to be interviewed about a different topic and had to try to think of something meaningful to say on the spot, but my family and friends will tell you that vague, drawn-out answers are actually pretty common for me.  I'd much rather take a week or two to compose an essay on a topic like that than to respond orally off the cuff!

Don't worry, dear reader - I wouldn't dare inflict any such essay on you (at least not today; I don't have the time for anything like that).  If you are interested in the topics mentioned in that interview, however, I have several suggestions for where you might go to look.

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University of Lethbridge

The interview began with a discussion of the Masters of Education Inclusive Education and Neuroscience program in which I am currently enrolled.  This program is a new and innovative collaboration between the University of Lethbridge Education Department and the Department of Neuroscience.  That 3-year program is wrapping up this spring, but it looks like a new, fresh cohort will begin this summer. (If you are interested in applying for it, you'd better hurry, though; the deadline is today, Dec. 1, 2013!).  It has been a rewarding experience, but one that has challenged me as much as anything I've ever done (including first year teaching and parenting teenagers).

The best part of doing this MEd degree has been the wonderful cohort of classmates whom I got to know and who helped to encourage me through those tough times.  One of them has a fantastic blog that you really ought to read if the topics on my blog interest you (in fact, go there now and check it out.  Really - go now!) If you are interested in inclusive education, you should also check out the Inclusive Education Toolbox put together by another classmate.  I talked a bit about the cohort in the interview, but unfortunately they cut that part out.

Of course, you don't have to enroll in a Masters program to start learning about the brain.  There are are a number of great resources available online.  One free online course worth looking at is the Neuroscience & the Classroom from Annenberg Learner (thanks to another classmate for the link).

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One reason that I was interested in applying for the Inclusive Education and Neuroscience program initially was the that the U of L was home to the highly regarded Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience.  Here is one of the "rock star" founders of that facility, Dr. Bryan Kolb, giving a talk which more clearly and elaborately explains the point I was making in the interview about the effect of experience on the brain:

It is a fascinating presentation, if you can spare the hour to watch it.  Many people are shocked to hear his description of the effects of pre-natal experiences and even pre-conception experiences (i.e. experiences of the parents prior to conceiving a child) on later brain function of the offspring.  Dr. Kolb also goes on to show how these experiences clearly effect later academic performance.  Teachers, however, may be disappointed that the content of this talk does not quite match the title, since very little of it has to do with the classroom until about the 50 minute mark.  At that point, Dr. Kolb does briefly give some reasons why neuroscience is important in education.  Those reasons are to:

1. debunk myths
2. provide knowledge about brain development and function,
3. provide informed solutions to practical issues

These are good reasons, and the examples he provides are interesting ones, if somewhat too brief.  Although Dr. Kolb was not one of my instructors, his colleague Dr. Rob Sutherland made most of the same points and we were able to look at them in greater detail.  Even so, I will admit that it was often still difficult for my classmates and me to make the connections between the neuroscience discoveries and classroom practices, especially at first.

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Where I really started to "get it" was in reflecting upon the courses from the education department where it became clear that the knowledge and ideas from our neuroscience classes were the foundation for understanding pretty much everything else.  They were critical for understanding different conditions that affected student learning and behaviour, such as Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia, and Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder.  They were very important in understanding emotional and behavioural challenges and and the effects of trauma, neglect, or addiction. They were, in fact, the key to understanding motivation, memory, and attention in all children.

As I learned about the assortment of neurological factors that could come into play, the number of different forces which could influence them, the complexity of possible interactions, and the range of possible outcomes, however, I began to understand why it was so difficult to jump directly from neuroscience studies to recommendations for classroom practices.  It became clear to me that there was tremendous diversity in student needs and abilities, and that no single set of teaching techniques could be effective for all.  Instead, I became convinced of the need for teaching which was flexible and responsive to student differences.

You may detect a similar progression of ideas and understanding in this presentation by Dr. David Rose of the CAST (Center for Applied Special Technology):

It was in the materials from CAST that I first began to see a direct connection between the neuroscience and effective classroom practices.  They describe 3 broad categories of brain networks: the recognition networks which receive and analyze information (the "what" of learning); the strategic networks which plan and execute actions (the "how" of learning); and the affective networks which evaluate and set priorities (the "why" of learning). They then translated this understanding into guidelines for designing curriculum which accommodate for differences in these 3 networks by encouraging multiple means of representation, of action or expression, and of engagement.  They refer to this educational approach as Universal Design for Learning or UDL.

It was through UDL that I began to more fully understand and appreciate student neurological diversity in terms of difference rather than deficit.  Rather than relying on research to find some "perfect" strategy which would work for the highest number of students, or on neuroscience to tell me how to "fix" student differences, I began to see it as a means of better understanding the various different ways that students learn so that I can plan more inclusive and responsive instruction.  I began to recognize that the "average learner" was a myth, and that variability was a potential advantage:

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Of course, I never said anything quite so meaningful or profound in my little 3 minute t.v. interview.  I said something about the promise of diversity and needing to change the way we look at things.  I paused and stumbled over words while trying to think of what to say next.  Of course, now that I've studied a bit of neuroscience, I've got a pretty good idea of what was going on in my brain which resulted in those behaviours.  That knowledge didn't help me to avoid being tongue-tied, but it might help me to understand my students better when I am tempted to put them on the spot by asking them to verbally answer unexpected questions in front of their peers.  And perhaps I might just come up with more flexible ways of allowing them to respond to my questioning.  Maybe I'll let them compose a blog post about it...