Period Terms and Narrative Thinking

There are many deep and difficult questions concerning the role of narratives in our lives. In an effort to provide answers to these questions, positions can get rather polarized. At one extreme, one finds the view that our lives are, in some sense, lived narratives of which we are the authors; lives are somehow inescapably narrative in structure and bear close similarities to literary narratives. At the other extreme, there are the skeptics, who hold that narrative neither does, nor should, play any significant part in our understanding of our lives, or in living a life.1 Between these two extremes, however, much is possible, and in this article I want to try to outline a realistic role for narrative in the way we think about, and respond to, past and future episodes in our lives. In doing this, I will not claim that this is the only way in which we can think about our past and future; nor will I claim that this is the only way in which we ought to think. In spite of this apparent modesty in aim, though, the role of narrative will turn out to be quite substantial. It is something of a commonplace that much of our lives is taken up with thinking about our past, about how our lives might have gone differently, and about our plans for the future and how things might turn out, and my idea is that much of this thinking is what I call 'narrative thinking.' The term I use for these past and future events is 'non-actual episodes,' and the modest ambitionbut still substantial in contentis to reveal the role of narrative thinking in our engagement with these episodes. To begin with, I will say what I mean by these two terms, first, 'non-actual episodes,' and second, 'narrative thinking.'2 I then go on to discuss how emotions, actual and imagined, can be involved in narrative thinking, and then apply this to narrative th nking in planning, including the roles of counterfactual thinking and thinking about hypothetical imperatives. Finally, I briefly discuss how our engagement with literary narratives can help us to develop and refine narrative thinking about our own lives.

The development of contemporary mobile Internet and new media has ushered in a new paradigm of narrative and communication forms. This paper takes the performance of narrative thinking as an entry point and establishes a framework for narrative thinking design by combining the narrative design process and digital technology. Narrative theme analysis is carried out in text narrative and image narrative. The text narrative is characterized by the LDA theme model for extracting narrative theme features. Then the LSTM model is used to classify the emotion of the extracted narrative theme. The visual features of an image narrative are extracted by a self-attention mechanism, combined with a Net VLAD algorithm for feature aggregation, and a compression excitation context gating unit and classifier are introduced to achieve sentiment classification. For the application of narrative thinking design, the news event of MH370 and the elementary school students of A elementary school in S city are taken as the research objects to explore the content and illustration of narrative thinking. The study shows that narrative thinking design can clarify the news event’s specific emotional expression and visualization illustration. The coefficient of the dream narrative theme is 0.317 in the elementary school students’ narrative theme change. The score of the positive emotion is 0.349±0.205, which is 0.024 points lower than the negative emotion. Using narrative thinking to analyze the content and illustrations can identify specific changes, thus improving the corresponding narrative design.

The vast body of detective stories offer a model of how to integrate two complementary forms of thinking: logic thinking and narrative thinking. This article offers an hypothesis, created by Chesterton, in which Father Brown is a paradigm of the relationship between these two forms. Since the existence of logical thinking tools has been affirmed for more than two thousand years, this article focuses on the existence of narrative thinking tools specifically in the character of Father Brown. Demonstrating the existence of these narrative thinking tools is an important first step toward achieving an integration with logic. This article therefore represents a preview of further studies that are being done as part of the doctoral thesis: How the Existence of Narrative Thinking in Chesterton’s Detective, Father Brown, equipped him to know reality.
 This article proposes that there is room for further study to actually codify these narrative thinking tools; just as Aristotle had done for logic. Also it points to the possibility of a detective model of thinking; especially because detective stories continue to be so popular.

In the realm of Chinese narrative medicine, narrative thinking holds equal significance to evidence-based thinking within clinical practice, making substantial contributions to patient safety and medical quality. Ancient Chinese medical theories advocate forging a narrative bond with patients, urging healthcare practitioners to utilize Dao Shu Jie He (道术结合 integration of Dao and techniques) and Yi Dao Yu Shu (以道驭术 guiding techniques with Dao) during diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation. In this context, Dao (道) in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) corresponds to narrative thinking (叙事思维) while Shu (术) aligns with scientific thinking (科学思维) in evidence-based medicine. This study adopts “narrative Chinese medicine” within the “discourse system of Chinese narrative medicine” as its framework, centering on medical stories that exemplify the application of narrative thinking in ancient Chinese diagnosis and treatment. It delves into the narrative thinking encapsulated in Chinese medicine, such as Guan Wu Qu Xiang (观物取象 observing things and extracting information), Can He Er Xing (参合而行 final examination and decision by integrating the four diagnoses), Xing Shen Bing Zhi (形神并治 body-spirit treatment), Xin Shen Jian Li (心身兼理 mind-body balance) and Bian Zheng Lun Zhi (辨证论治 treatment based on pattern differentiation). The study endeavors to inspire contemporary medical educators and clinicians to acknowledge the value of narrative thinking in TCM and fully incorporate it into daily medical practice.

We hereby focus the study of the Albertian column system, as part of the Digital Alberti project, a research initiative that aims to shed some light on the influence of Alberti on Portuguese architecture. Starting from Alberti’s treatise on architecture, De Re Aedificatoria, and its translation into Portuguese, Da Arte Edificatória, a generative computational model was developed that encodes Alberti’s prescriptions about the elements of the column system, as well as their proportions and shapes. This research complements the elaboration of the corresponding shape grammar on Alberti’s column system. This project is a paradigmatic example of the use of digital technology for understanding architectural tradition. The development of the referred models implied deepening the understanding of Alberti’s rules about the column elements. This in-depth analysis revealed a very coherent hierarchical structure ruling the relationships among the several elements. It also revealed that information was insufficient to inform a formal model of all them, especially the ones showing more complex geometry, such as the corinthian and composite capitals. Therefore, it can be considered that the application of digital technologies allowed to more accurately understand and reproduce Alberti’s guidelines for the art of building. Foca-se o estudo do sistema de coluna Albertiano, no âmbito do projecto Alberti Digital, cuja investigação pretende elucidar sobre a influência de Alberti na arquitetura portuguesa. Partindo do tratado de Alberti sobre arquitetura, De re aedificatoria, e da sua tradução para português, Da Arte Edificatória, foi desenvolvido um modelo computacional generativo que codifica as instruções de Alberti respeitantes aos elementos do sistema de coluna, bem como as suas proporções e formas. A investigação complementa a elaboração da gramática da forma correspondente ao sistema de coluna Albertiano. O projecto é um exemplo paradigmático do uso de tecnologias digitais na compreensão da tradição arquitetónica. O desenvolvimento dos modelos referidos implicou um entendimento aprofundado das regras de Alberti sobre os elementos da coluna. Esta análise revelou uma estrutura hierárquica consistente que rege as relações entre os diversos elementos. Revelou também que, para uma modelação exacta de todos esses elementos, a informação fornecida por Alberti não é suficiente, nomeadamente nos casos mais complexos dos capitéis coríntio e compósito. Considera-se assim que a aplicação de tecnologias digitais permitiram compreender e reproduzir mais exactamente as orientações de Alberti para a arte da construção.

Alberti´s treatise 'De re aedificatoria' (1443-1452) is considered the source of an anthropogenesis of architecture (Choay 2004). The reflexion on this narrative hasn’t yet explained the connection of narrative and architecture disciplines, although frequent allusions to architecture/rhetorical features (Choay 2004) and to the architecture narrativity (Ricoeur 1998), focused on structural semantics approach (Greimas 1995). Recently, 'narrative inquiry' (Clandinin, Connelly 2004) and philosophy of stories (Currie 2010) started an approach centered in structures of knowledge, created an insight to 'narrative ways of knowledge' elevating narrative study’s to an entry tool to grasp reality (Herman 2003). Our focus is that 'narrative thinking' is encoded in Alberti’s 'lineamentum', allowing the translation from non verbal to verbal, and our practice as actants, operating from spatial to experience. In this paper we address the interactions of the disciplines, explain what we know by designing architecture through narrative, grasping fictions as a storyworld inhabited by actants, in order to create inferences and to fill the gap between opposite narrated domains, and to explain how does narrative thinking addresses cognition of 'what isn’t but has been', with examples from written, drawn and built narratives.

이 연구는 고등학생들의 지질 답사 보고서에 나타난 내러티브 텍스트와 Bruner가 제시한 두 가지 사고 양식 - 패러다임적 사고와 내러티브적 사고 그리고 학업 성취도가 어떻게 관련되는 지 살펴보고자 했다. 연구의 주요 목표는 특정한 상황에서 나타난 내러티브 텍스트의 사용여부로 학생들의 내러티브적 사고 경향을 구별하고, 우세한 사고 경향에 따라 인지적 성취 결과에 차이가 나는지 분석하는 것이다. 고등학교 2학년 학생 145명의 지질 답사 보고서의 텍스트 분석과 함께 답사지에 대한 회상 검사, 학업 성취도, 면담을 통하여 양적, 질적 연구를 수행했다. 텍스트 분석 결과, 학생들의 보고서에는 설명적, 논증적 텍스트와 함께 내러티브 텍스트가 상당 수 발견되었는데 이는 야외 답사지에서 학생들이 느끼는 심리적 상황과 지구과학 학습 및 현행 교육과정의 특징과 관련이 있는 것으로 추측된다. 내러티브 텍스트로 보고서의 내용을 재구성한 학생들은 그렇지 않은 학생들에 비하여 3개월 후에 실시한 회상 검사에서 높은 점수를 받았으나, 지구과학 I의 학업 성취도에서는 여학생들의 경우에만 더 높은 성취도가 나타났다. 내러티브 텍스트의 사용 여부로 내러티브적 사고와 패러다임적 사고 경향을 판단할 수 있는지 학생들과의 면담을 병행하여 조사한 결과, 내러티브 텍스트 사용과 사고 경향이 일치하지 않는 학생의 사례가 나타났다. 학습 내용에 따라 내러티브적 사고와 패러다임적 사고를 유연하게 사용할 수 있는 학생은 학습에 성공적이며 학업 성취도에서 좋은 결과를 나타내는 것으로 조사되었다. The purpose of this study is to draw an educational implication by analyzing the context of narrative texts, students' narrative thinking, and their academic achievement. We investigated text types in students' geological field trip reports, the reason why students favors narrative texts, the relationship between narrative texts and their scientific knowledge recall, and the relationship between narrative thought and academic achievement. All students used expository texts, 82% of them expressed argumentative texts, and 36% of them used narrative texts. It is likely that students use more narrative texts because students were in the context of outdoor activity and so, their emotional feelings were more activated than when they are doing lab activities. The academic characteristics of earth science seemed to contribute more narrative texts in students' reports. The post-test revealed that students with narrative texts recalled better than the others. On the other hand, there were no statistically meaningful differences in academic achievement between the two groups. However, we have noted that female students whose reports contain narrative texts achieved significantly higher scores than female students whose reports are without narrative texts. From in-depth interviews, we found that students who properly used both paradigmatic and narrative mode of thought were in a more advantageous position than those who used narrative thought only. It was also found that some narratively thinking students tended to feel uncomfortable with the way of learning or evaluating questions about science. In the future, a complementary approach of narrative and paradigmatic mode of thoughts would be encouraged by understanding students' tendency of thinking.

Chapter 4 concerns narrative thinking about our future, and its role in planning, forming policies, intentions, and making resolutions. The many structural parallels between imagination and memory are discussed, as is the role of our emotions in response to what we imagine in making our plans. Finally, the chapter explores how we can learn from our mistakes, and generally how narrative thinking about our past in emotional terms can inform our narrative thinking about our future.

Recent research indicates that mainstream architectural practice is in a general state of denial about participation and client/user involvement. Within this paper we argue that this general denial is already acquired during architectural education. Given the fact that architects are influenced by this ‘academic experience’ to such an extent that it influences their professional careers, we argue that it is acceptable to look to education for the root cause and potential alleviation of the problem. Framed within phenomenological thinking (Ricoeur) and pragmatic theory (Dewey), we develop narrative thinking as a basic design attitude which combines user based research and moral imagination. We implement narratives in the design studio to (re)connect designer and client/user. Our main objective is to stress the importance of narratives as a sustainable starting point for a real participatory process. Methodologically we link narrative thinking and research by design. More specifically, we develop a design assignment on multigenerational dwelling at our school of architecture. We challenge our students to find ‘real’ client/users, to report about their narratives on the desired use of the multi-generational dwelling and to use these narratives during the entire design process. Most important outcome of our study is growing empathy and enthusiasm among our students towards their client/users. Narrative thinking initiates a participatory design process which brings about positive change and a more daring and less predictable design project in favor of all participants.

How do language instructors fulfill institutional mandates while also nurturing students’ interest? What becomes of this process when it unfolds not in one class meeting but in a series of pedagogical events? Classroom research has suggested the importance of integrating authentic, conversational, and rapport-building talk with instructional practices. What remains unknown but central to classroom practices is the temporal, institutional, and psychological underpinnings this integration entails. This ethnographic study explores the dialectical unfolding of paradigmatic and narrative thinking in a course of domestic U.S. students and international Korean students. Paradigmatic thought is concerned with truth, scientific logic and categorization, which are essential for explaining language features. Narrative thought ‘strives to put its timeless miracles into the particulars of experience, and to locate that experience in time and place.’ Drawing on classroom recordings, participant interviews, and instructional artifacts, the study shows that ordinary materials designated by the institution to underscore paradigmatic thinking were rendered extraordinary when the instructor and students collaboratively transformed them with interpersonally and interculturally meaningful stories across a chain of pedagogical encounters.

Children’s communicative competence is essential and predictive of their success in school. However, in England in recent years we have faced particular challenges inculcating this understanding into primary and early years teachers’ practice. Furthermore, some studies have raised concerns about children’s communicative competence on school entry. One implication of this is it is more difficult for children to make the shift between informal language and a formal mode where the use of narrative skills to process large quantities of talk and produce a coherent response is essential. Therefore, the aim of this research was to investigate how the narrative thinking and ability to communicate of a group of 13 four and five year olds could be developed further, using the Communication Opportunity Group Scheme as an intervention. Results indicate that the overall level of the group’s improvement in narrative thinking and communicative competence was statistically significant. Furthermore, it was found that this progress was more likely to be due to the conditions provided by the scheme than the children’s everyday educational settings.

People's efforts to understand their experiences often take the form of constructing narratives (stories) out of them, and this article offers framework for the motivations that may guide the construction of stories. Evidence about the nature, importance, and pervasiveness of narrative thinking is reviewed. Next, motivations are considered that may guide narrative thought, both in terms of interpersonal manipulation and in terms of wanting to make sense of experiences. Regarding the latter, four needs for meaning are proposed as guiding narrative thought. First, people interpret experiences relative to purposes, which may be either objective goals or subjective fulfillment states. Second, people seek value and justification by constructing stories that depict their actions and intentions as right and good. Third, people seek a sense of efficacy by making stories that contain information about how to exert control. Fourth, people seek a sense of self-worth by making stories that portray themselves as attractive and competent. Within this framework, narratives are effective means of making sense of experiences.

Why do human beings show such a strong preference for thinking in narratives? From a computational perspective, this method of generating inferences appears to be exorbitantly waste- ful. Using students' responses to the fairy tale of Little Red Riding Hood, I argue that narrative comprehension requires the construction of idiosyncratic imagery, but that the cognitive yield is structural and shared. This peculiar method of information processing, I suggest, is the outcome of evolutionary path-dependence. The narrative mode of construal is an expert system taking its input from the display of conscious experience, but producing results that are largely unconscious. Drawing on examples from rhesus play, I argue that the core features of narrative thinking have biological roots in strategy formation. Finally, I return to the fairy tale to illustrate the operation of a series of peculiar design features characteristic of human narrative thinking.

Existing science education that excludes narrative thinking impedes the understanding of the context of workbook content. The object of this research is to develop a storytelling-learning program based on narrative thinking to elevate learners' interest in science and expand their inventive problem-solving abilities. Following an analysis of the current Korean curriculum, eight types of storytelling materials that utilize local content were developed for grades 7-9. The learning program used quest storytelling and was designed such that learning activities such as investigation, discussion, and experimentation were included in the process of solving each quest. Learners experienced an interest in storytelling learning resulting from participation in this storytelling-learning program. Moreover, learners demonstrated inventive problem-solving abilities in the process of completing the stories. During the process of assembling the storytelling materials, the students interacted with enthusiasm and generated ideas. The teachers indicated a positive feedback to the storytelling program as a new attempt to stimulate learners' interests. In the future, with continuous development and application, storytelling-science-learning programs that base science learning on narrative thinking are expected to be successful.

Students perceived as being “less proficient” readers and writers all too often receive language arts instruction that emphasizes decontextualized basic skills. Educators who advocate holistic forms of reading and writing instruction for all students encourage, instead, a consideration of reading and writing as sociocognitive meaning-making activities. This ethnographic study traces the narrative thinking strategies successfully used by adolescents in two self-contained special education classrooms as they made sense of their textbooks and composed original stories based on the subject matter they had been studying. Findings suggest that when students were encouraged to link the content from their textbooks with storied accounts from their own personal lives, they gained the energy and motivation needed for the cognitive demands of reading and writing. In addition, role-playing and composing original texts inspired by structured play also helped students tap into narrative thinking as a way of knowing.