A Methodology for Analyzing Science Stories

Abstract

While the evidence for the effectiveness of the use of stories in science teaching and learning is strengthening in current research and literature, the intervention itself, namely, the science story, still suffers from a lack of definition and conception. The purpose of this paper is to determine the amount of narrative relative to non-narrative material in existing so-called stories for science education and to ascertain whether they are, indeed, stories, with the essential story elements present. The examples presented illustrate the wide range of writing that claims to be “story.” The general indiscriminate use of the term “story” presents a problem in the field of research and in the implementation of teaching methods. Without an instrument like the story construct presented in this paper, it would be impossible to determine whether a text even qualifies as a science story. With a standardized instrument that is defined by a number of fixed criteria, it is possible to analyze and, to a large extent, rate writing claiming to be science stories; however, in the absence of a standardized construct, there is an insufficient basis for comparison among studies in the use of science stories in future research.