What can Narrative contribute to Students’ Understanding of Scientific Concepts, e.g. Evolution Theory?

This paper focuses on the role of a so-called ‘narrative mode of thought’ (Bruner 1996) for meaning making in the science classroom. We present results from a study in lower secondary school (age 12-13 ys.), exploring how students make sense of adaptation phenomena. Text analysis, combined with stud...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Jörg Zabel, Harald Gropengiesser
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: European Teacher Education Network 2015-12-01
Series:JETEN
Subjects:
Online Access:https://etenjournal.com/2020/02/07/what-can-narrative-contribute-to-students-understanding-of-scientific-concepts-e-g-evolution-theory/
Description
Summary:This paper focuses on the role of a so-called ‘narrative mode of thought’ (Bruner 1996) for meaning making in the science classroom. We present results from a study in lower secondary school (age 12-13 ys.), exploring how students make sense of adaptation phenomena. Text analysis, combined with student interviews, revealed students’ conceptions and their individual methods of making sense of adaptation phenomena. The data suggest that the narrative paradigm is appropriate to investigate and to strengthen individual and emotional aspects of understanding science. However, the evidence also puts into question too generalized assumptions on the two ‘modes of thought’.
ISSN:2183-2234