Story-based Approach Research Articles

An Insight into developmental changes in reasoning skills among Indian Preschoolers: A cross-sectional study using a story-based approach

Background: Considering the importance of exploring the development of reasoning skills during preschool period and the suitability of using a culturally linguistically relevant story-based approach for the same, the present research intended to profile the reasoning skills in typically developing Indian preschool children between 36 and 72 months using a story-based approach. The specific objectives were to develop explanation, prediction, and inference based reasoning tasks around a story and assess the reasoning skills in typically developing Indian preschool children using the same. Method: Reasoning tasks across explanation, prediction, and inference domains were developed based on a story and evaluated for its psychometric properties. The developed tasks were then administered to 63 typically developing Indian preschool children attending English medium schools in Mangalore. The preschoolers were equally divided into three age groups, and the responses obtained across the age groups were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. Results: The developed tasks were confirmed to have good psychometric properties like content validity and reliability. The age comparisons of reasoning abilities using one-way ANOVA suggested an increase in reasoning abilities with age during the preschool period. The qualitative analysis further suggested that with increasing age, the nature of reasoning changed from content-based reasoning to reasoning based on prior knowledge which was integrated with the story content. Conclusion: The study describes reasoning skill development using a story-based task in Indian preschoolers. The study findings further provide clinical and educational implications to assess and foster reasoning abilities among preschoolers.

An Insight into developmental changes in reasoning skills among Indian Preschoolers: A cross-sectional study using a story-based approach

Background: Considering the importance of exploring the development of reasoning skills during preschool period and the suitability of using a culturally linguistically relevant story-based approach for the same, the present research intended to profile the reasoning skills in typically developing Indian preschool children between 36 and 72 months using a story-based approach. The specific objectives were to determine the test-retest and inter-rater reliability of reasoning tasks within an existing story-based cognitive-communicative assessment tool and to use this tool to assess the reasoning skills of typically developing Indian preschool children. Method: Reasoning tasks across explanation, prediction and inference domains were evaluated for its psychometric properties and administered to 63 typically developing Indian preschool children attending English medium schools in Mangalore. The preschoolers were equally divided into three age groups. The responses obtained across the age groups were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. Results: The developed tasks were confirmed to have good psychometric properties like test-retest and inter-rater reliability. The age comparisons of reasoning abilities using one-way ANOVA suggested an increase in reasoning abilities with age during the preschool period. The qualitative analysis further suggested that with increasing age, the nature of reasoning changed from content-based reasoning to reasoning based on prior knowledge which was integrated with the story content. Conclusion: The study describes reasoning skill development using a story-based task in Indian preschoolers. The study findings further provide clinical and educational implications to assess and foster reasoning abilities among preschoolers.

IMPROVING THE EIGHTH GRADERS’ SKILL IN WRITING PERSONAL ESSAY THROUGH STORY-BASED APPROACH

Abstract: The problem faced is that most of the students were demotivated in writing English, and they used to write limited sentences because they were struggling in both grammar and looking for ideas. Story-based approach is a hilarious strategy by using many stories that can be applied to build the students’ grammatical mastery as well as in improving their writing skill for personal essay in the form of a recount text. This current study aims to solve the problems and explain how the story- based approach applied. The research design employed is a classroom action research. The participants of this study are 32 students of 8B in SMPN 18 Malang. The data were collected from preliminary study, writing test, observation, interview, and field notes. The result indicated that the students’ writing skill of personal essays improves through this strategy. It was proven from the uplift of the mean score from preliminary study (47.00) to writing test (77.00). The writing test score has achieved the target score (70.00). A story-based approach contributes the students’ writing skill as well as grammatical mastery learning strategy, and it can also be applied for young learners and college students.

Investigating the Use of Bed-Time Stories and Moodle in EFL Classes: Attitudes, Benefits and Challenges

This study scrutinizes the effectiveness and the feasibility of an EFL story-based textbook supported by a Moodle platform in Moroccan high schools. Along with the use of Moodle as the learning management system, this study uses a story-based approach in foreign language teaching/learning. Before designing this story-based textbook, the researcher investigated the Moroccan EFL context to be more practical and the textbook stands on a solid ground by having an added value not just being repetitive. Therefore, a quantitative study was conducted to collect up-to-date data and see (a) whether stories are already used or not in Moroccan EFL classes (b) the benefits and challenges, if any, stories can have according to these teachers (c) some of the most challenging obstacles behind not using stories in Moroccan EFL classrooms. To answer these questions, a questionnaire was administered to 100 EFL teachers from Casablanca. The data collected through the questionnaire revealed that most informants appreciated the use of stories in EFL classes. Additionally, most of them perceive the story-based approach as a useful tool to help students develop language skills. To conclude, these findings suggest that stories help in boosting students’ motivation, retention, and thus developing language proficiency. The findings also provided some solutions to teachers’ common challenges while using stories.

Forgiveness Education from an Aristotelian Realist Perspective: Can We Determine a Good Forgiveness Education Program?

If there is no Essence of forgiveness that cuts across many religious and philosophical traditions, forgiveness psychology becomes a cultural product with no implications beyond our confined time and space. In this article, we discuss forgiveness as a moral virtue from an Aristotelian realist perspective. We first attempt to define the Essence of forgiveness that centers on beneficence that develops within and flows to others for their good. We also discuss essential components of forgiveness that should be well captured in a good forgiveness education program. Then, we present two approaches to forgiveness education, the process- and story-based approaches, and show how they provide good applications of the Essence of forgiveness with specific qualities that cannot be reduced to its parts or confused with its Accidents or Properties. Finally, we provide practical implications with a focus on how cultural applications of the approaches presented are compatible with an Aristotelian realist view of forgiveness and, in fact, enrich the practice of forgiveness.

Using Science Fiction and Design Thinking in Workshops to Share Research Results With Low-Income, Marginalized Communities

We worked with low-income participants in interactive, storytelling-based community workshops to discuss results from a scientific project related to harmful algal blooms. We used two story-based workshop formats—a science-fiction story and a personal-research-account story. In this Research Note, we reflect on two main topics: a comparison between the two story-based approaches and work with marginalized participants. With our reflections, our aim is to help inform future efforts that wish to incorporate science fiction approaches and/or work with marginalized populations in science communication.

Sailing to save the planet? Media-produced narratives of Greta Thunberg’s trip to the UN Climate Summit in German print newspapers

Narratives and stories are important communication tools and as such essential subjects of social geography. This paper analyses the retelling of Greta Thunberg’s sailing trip across the Atlantic to the Climate Action Summit in New York in 2019 in leading German newspapers and magazines and how her intentions are transformed through this reporting into different narratives. The research mainly focuses on examining the influence of space and place, as geographical research has revealed that spatial determinants are crucial in risk communication and knowledge generation on climate change but have yet to be studied considering stories. The paper, therefore, extends the story-based approach from communication sciences by geographical research on the role of space and place in action-based stories. Therefore, the Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) is used to decode the spatial environment in narratives as an active element that shapes the narrative, and the way characters can (inter)act within these settings. The paper further develops the NPF framework through a geographical lens by focusing particularly on the selection options of spaces for social interactions and affective bonds. Thus, it becomes evident how spatial contexts and environments shape the interactions between individuals and crucially influence the types of narratives that emerge.

Etuaptmumk (Two-Eyed Seeing) in Nature’s Way-Our Way: braiding physical literacy and risky play through Indigenous games, activities, cultural connections, and traditional teachings

Growing philosophical and empirical evidence shows that physical literacy and risky play enriches movement opportunities, while also fostering increased physical activity, wholistic health, and wellness across the lifespan. However, physical literacy and risky play have typically been theorized and practiced from a western worldview. In response, Nature’s Way-Our Way is an initiative designed to ground physical literacy and risky play in Indigenous games, activities, cultural connections, and traditional teachings, as enacted in Early Childhood Education Centres across Saskatchewan, Canada. This article explores Nature’s Way-Our Way’s theoretical underpinnings of Etuaptmumk (Two-Eyed Seeing), adopted to braid together the strengths of Indigenous Knowledges with western knowledge through practices of Indigenous métissage (land and story-based approaches to curriculum informed by relationality). Providing examples of culturally rooted resources, this article shows how the Nature’ s Way-Our Way initiative supports Indigenous self-determination and sovereignty to foster increased physical activity, wholistic health, and wellness across the lifespan.

An Insight into developmental changes in reasoning skills among Indian Preschoolers: A cross-sectional study using a story-based approach

Background: Considering the importance of exploring the development of reasoning skills during preschool period and the suitability of using a culturally linguistically relevant story-based approach for the same, the present research intended to profile the reasoning skills in typically developing Indian preschool children between 36 and 72 months using a story-based approach. The specific objectives were to develop explanation, prediction, and inference based reasoning tasks around a story and assess the reasoning skills in typically developing Indian preschool children using the same. Method: Reasoning tasks across explanation, prediction, and inference domains were developed based on a story and evaluated for its psychometric properties. The developed tasks were then administered to 63 typically developing Indian preschool children attending English medium schools in Mangalore. The preschoolers were equally divided into three age groups, and the responses obtained across the age groups were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. Results: The developed tasks were confirmed to have good psychometric properties like content validity and reliability. The age comparisons of reasoning abilities using one-way ANOVA suggested an increase in reasoning abilities with age during the preschool period. The qualitative analysis further suggested that with increasing age, the nature of reasoning changed from content-based reasoning to reasoning based on prior knowledge which was integrated with the story content. Conclusion: The study describes reasoning skill development using a story-based task in Indian preschoolers. The study findings further provide clinical and educational implications to assess and foster reasoning abilities among preschoolers.

A Design Studio on Fantastic Space

This essay investigates the creative approaches of how body–space relations can be enhanced in a design studio through the exploration of fantastic spaces. ‘Fantastic’ is defined as an ‘open work’ with reference to modern literature and a ‘fantastic space’ as an inventive ground that is neither real nor unreal, standing as a paraxial region. This essay analyses a first-year design studio on Fantastic Space; it considers how the content was explored by students, what they designed, and the diverse design approaches that emerged. In the studio, students analysed the spaces and characters of Hayao Miyazaki’s animated film, Spirited Away (2001) and reassembled the narrative of the animation by using architectural tools to prepare two- and three-dimensional representations of their designs. Focusing on body–space relations, the studio employed a critical approach to anthropocentrism and discussed human and non-human agencies within a body–space context. In its pursuit to challenge traditional dynamics of spatial representation, the project encouraged creating experimental works inspired by the unlimited potential interpretations of Miyazaki’s fantastic world. A content analysis of the designs of 156 students using both qualitative and quantitative methods was applied to analyse students’ conceptual and spatialproductions. The analysis reveals three key design strategies to categorise the students’ projects: character-based, space-based, and story-based approaches. The unique and overlapping qualities of these approaches were determined by reviewing the time–space and body–space relationships represented in the students’ projects. In this way, the imaginative, diverse re-imaginings of their designs reveal the value of using fantastic spaces to encourage high student engagement and creative studio results.

Critical thinking in the preschool classroom - A systematic literature review

Critical thinking is acknowledged as a 21st century skill that allows humans to make considered and informed decisions based on the information available to them. Studies exploring critical thinking during the early years are of particular significance because they enable researchers to refine a general view of critical thinking and situate it in the context of young children. Current opinion regarding critical thinking is founded on years of international research in various fields, including primary and secondary education, higher education institutions and industry. This paper reports on a systematic literature review of 25 empirical studies which address various ways of teaching for thinking focusing on children attending early years services. The review aims to gain insights that lead towards a definition of critical thinking in an early years context. To this end, research conducted during 2015–2021 is examined for characteristics of critical thinking in early childhood and teaching strategies developed to support thinking in the early years' classroom. The methodology draws from the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA). Despite the small number of articles sourced which address the review questions, there was a reasonable weight of evidence to suggest the most common characteristics of critical thinking explored in young children are reasoning skills and problem solving. The findings suggest effective mediators in drawing out critical thinking skills include (1) classroom interactions including dialogue and questioning techniques, (2) the use of thinking language, and (3) story-based approaches. The cases in which critical thinking are investigated in early years environments were surprisingly few. The paper concludes with a summary of the implications of the findings for the future of learning and teaching and recommendations relevant to advancing teaching for thinking with young children.

Tell me a story, professor! The effect of historical science stories on academic achievement and motivation in a physics class

ABSTRACT Background Achieving the targeted of university physics courses and improving student motivation requires varying types of instructional design. One alternative approach to the traditional lecture format involves the use of historical science stories, which are narratives that present episodes from the life of a scientist, as well as characterizing the nature of science, providing students with a historical perspective of the subject being taught and helping them to comprehend and retain the concept. Purpose The purpose of our study was to investigate the effect of using historical science stories (HSS) on the academic achievement and motivation of future teachers. Design and methods A pretest-posttest research design compared two classrooms: one that included the story-based history of science in the teaching the topic of free fall movement and one that did not. Sample A total of 35 preservice science teachers (17 in the experimental group and 18 in the control group) participated in the study. The results showed that the preservice teachers in the experimental group performed better than those in the control group. Results The use of the historical science story-based approach also promoted the motivation of the participants. Analysis of the data revealed that the intervention had a statistically significant effect on the academic achievement of the student teachers. On the other hand, although the motivation scores in the experimental group increased, this increase was not found to be statistically significant. Conclusions The findings of this study support the use of historical science stories to improve academic achievement in higher education. The conclusions reached here may enable teacher educators to introduce historical events in a similar environment to support better comprehension of physics.

Burdens of Proof

This chapter provides a brief introduction to the scholarly conversation concerning burdens of persuasion. An adequate account of burdens must first explain what case-related facts the burden draws upon to produce outcomes. I review a variety of answers to this question, including probability threshold, likelihood ratio, belief function, weight-of-evidence, explanatory, and story-based approaches. I then identify several key questions that theories must answer with respect to inputs and show that the best answer on any given question must depend on whether the theory is advanced as a psychological, doctrinal, or normative account. The remainder of the chapter considers varying methods of transforming these inputs into case outcomes, including fixed thresholds, variable thresholds, multi-stepped, and continuous approaches. With respect to these choices, the problem of describing current practices is much easier, but the normative debates are harder to resolve.

Working together: a story-based approach

Working together: a story-based approach

Place, Displacement and Belonging: The Story of Abdi

ABSTRACT In traditional geopolitical discourses, an individual’s very being is routinely tied to and predicated upon the sanctity of the individual’s nation-state. The global refugee regime operates upon this assumption and regulates those who have been forcibly displaced from their homelands. Feminist geopolitics offers a way to see beyond the rigid boundaries of nation-states and attend to the embodied, lived, intimate and everyday experiences of people and their situated realities in any given time/space intersection. In this article, I explore questions of place and displacement through the story of one man’s journey from his village in Somalia to his eventual resettlement in Tucson, Arizona. Through Abdi’s story, this article seeks to contribute to geographic understanding of the immanence of place to self as it relates to displacement and forced mobility. Abdi’s story and his journey from Migwa to Tucson illustrate the nomad potential of his connection and disconnection to various places he has inhabited. His story and lived experience provide a nuanced example of the context of human relations with the places they inhabit and how these relations are much more fluid and porous than that assumed in the model of the ‘geographical self’- the self that is deeply rooted in and defined by places. This story-based approach reclaims human agency in the dyadic connection between place and self and centers individual experience in a geographic study of forced mobility and displacement.

Peer-Led Surgical Safety Learning Among Medical Students Using a Novel Story-Based Approach

IntroductionEven though medical students are important for the future of the overall healthcare system, they are often overlooked as valuable participants in safeguarding patient safety. Moreover, surgical safety is a critical topic that deserves to be addressed thoroughly during medical education, as part of the broader topic of patient safety. To maximize students’ engagement and to enhance their interest in patient safety and healthcare quality, it is imperative to explore and innovate stirring and interactive methods of learning. Through this paper, we present a unique narrative novel story-based, peer-led surgical safety teaching session organized by medical student representatives of Middle East's first student-led patient safety initiative and attended by medical students from various academic years.MethodsA 1-hour case-based interactive learning session on surgical safety was developed, based on the World Health Organization (WHO) patient safety curriculum for medical schools. The session was peer-led at Alfaisal University College of Medicine, Riyadh and participation was voluntary. Learning objectives included surgical safety checklist, human factors, complexity of healthcare, students’ critical role in safety and open disclosure. The session included a verbal “story-telling” segment, followed by a didactic segment where learning objectives were covered. Attendees were continuously engaged throughout the session with the help of verbal inquiries. Pre-test and post-test questionnaires were distributed to assess participants' knowledge, awareness and perceptions regarding surgical safety and other objectives covered in the session.ResultsA total of 75 students participated in the session, consisting of 57.3% females and 42.7% males. Responses to the pre-test and post-test were analyzed and compared. Most students who attended the session reported that it was of value to them - with more than 90% of students considering the session either valuable or highly valuable. After the session, more students (10.67%, p = 0.10) were correctly able to identify that the initial reaction in healthcare is often individual blame (Q.1). Additionally, more students (30.63%, p < 0.001) were able to correctly identify the implementation of the WHO surgical safety checklist as the major factor that has contributed to the reduction of errors in healthcare (Q.2). Students’ responses also indicated that after attending the session a higher number (16%, p = 0.01) correctly identified that most errors linked to surgery were potentially preventable (Q.3).ConclusionStudents are inherently willing to learn and engage in interactive learning. It was encouraging to see medical students show interest in this important patient safety topic, which also encourages similar future peer-learning initiatives. As reported, narrative story-based peer-assisted learning is an effective way to engage medical students in the cause of patient safety and should be utilized to further their knowledge and awareness regarding critical healthcare safety areas such as surgical safety, medication safety and infection control and instill a sense of responsibility in these future physicians.

A Story-Based Approach to Teach Foreign Languages: The Case of English

A Story-Based Approach to Teach Foreign Languages: The Case of English

The Power in Stories That Cannot Be Replaced

This paper is based upon research that included interviews with 61 experts across Manitoba, including police, First Nations and other political leaders, government and non-government service providers and sex trafficking survivors, who collectively represent over 1,000 years of experience combatting victimization in the sex industry. It describes a researcher’s experience taking a qualitative, story-based approach to investigating the modern social problem of sex-trafficking. Based on his thesis, “Modern Day Slavery and the Sex Industry: Raising the Voices of Survivors and Collaborators While Confronting Sex Trafficking and Exploitation in Manitoba” the author highlights the power that the stories hold, emphasizing how no other method of research would be quite as effective. The power of the stories told simply cannot be replaced.

Typhoid Mary: A Story-Based Approach to the Teaching of Epidemiological Concepts

Understanding Koch's postulates, including how they are used to study the spread of disease within a population, is central to the teaching of microbiology. These concepts are often presented and discussed with little or no historical background, and as a result students fail to appreciate how the field has developed from past to present. We designed a lesson based on the story of Typhoid Mary to engage students in the learning and application of Koch's postulates in the field of epidemiology and provide insight into the interplay between scientists and the public as illustrated by this episode. The lesson uses an interrupted story technique in which students watch a documentary about Typhoid Mary, with pauses to discuss the events and engage in a role-play to reenact Mary's trial. The purpose is to improve student understanding of central concepts and to foster a deeper understanding of issues associated with the nature of science (NOS), such as how the process of science is influenced by culture and society (and vice versa). This lesson plan was created for a college-level microbiology course for non-majors, but can be easily modified for use in high school settings.

The impact of story: measuring the impact of story for organisational change

Purpose The role of dialogue has recently been identified as being important in generating impact in organisations, but the purposeful use of narrative or story-based approaches to effect organisational change and service improvement is still relatively innovative. The purpose of this paper is to document and examine two projects in health and social care settings which aim to generate organisational development and service improvement. Design/methodology/approach The paper evaluates and compares two case studies of story-based organisational development and service improvement projects in the UK. This involved developing an appropriate evaluation framework and assessing the impacts in each case using semi-structured interviews and thematic content analysis. Findings This paper reports the diversity of impacts and outcomes that were generated by the projects. Specifically, it is argued that there is a strong indication that story-based projects best achieve their objectives when clearly linked to key organisational strategic drivers or pathways, as evidenced by robust evaluation. Practical implications This paper recommends that researchers and practitioners, working with story-based methods, design credible and robust evaluative practices, in order to evidence how their work supports organisations to meet current sector challenges. The paper recommends a flexible evaluation framework for evaluating story-based projects in the workplace. Originality/value This paper offers new evidence and insight into the impacts and outcomes of using story-based approaches, and a new evaluation framework for these sorts of projects.