Chemistry Takes Center Stage: Stories and Narratives as Tools for Instruction

Abstract

Chemistry provides a constant interplay among the macroscopic, molecular, and atomistic views of matter requiring chemical educators to devise effective strategies for merging these attributes. Often, educators are challenged on how to progress towards conducive and active learning where students can see vividly through the lens of conceptual understanding. Chemistry has stories to tell; through narratives, we can convey meaning and create synchrony with the world. This viewpoint offers a glimpse into the utility of narrative thinking and storytelling as instructional tools to enable students’ conceptual understanding of chemistry. A non-exhaustive outlook on learning difficulties is given along with critical aspects of how active narration touches on human psychological perception and, thus, embeds instructions by synchronizing concepts with the world.