Storyline : A Creative Approach to Learning and Teaching [1 ed.] 9781443894272, 9781443890359

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Storyline

Storyline: A Creative Approach to Learning and Teaching Edited by

Peter J. Mitchell and Marie Jeanne McNaughton

Storyline: A Creative Approach to Learning and Teaching Edited by Peter J. Mitchell and Marie Jeanne McNaughton This book first published 2016 Cambridge Scholars Publishing Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2016 by Peter J. Mitchell, Marie Jeanne McNaughton and contributors All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-4438-9035-9 ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-9035-9

TABLE OF CONTENTS

A Word from the Editors ............................................................................ ix Peter J. Mitchell and Marie Jeanne McNaughton Part I: Placing Storyline in Context Chapter One ................................................................................................. 2 Connecting the Past, Present and the Future: A Story about the Travel of Education through Time Jȩn Torfi Jȩnasson Chapter Two .............................................................................................. 15 Storyline: From Small Beginnings to Storyline International Steve Bell and Sallie Harkness Chapter Three ............................................................................................ 23 Storyline and Motivation María Steingrímsdóttir Chapter Four .............................................................................................. 35 Connecting Multiple Intelligence to Storyline: Opportunities for Every Talent Griet De Baecke and Liliane van Acker Chapter Five .............................................................................................. 42 Sceptical Questions on Storyline and How to Answer Them Ulf Schwänke and Rebecca Plaskitt Part II: Storyline in the Classroom Chapter Six ................................................................................................ 56 Nurturing the Spirit Jeff Creswell

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Chapter Seven............................................................................................ 65 The Birth of a Storyline School Pamela Adamson Chapter Eight ............................................................................................. 77 Global Storylines: The World in the Classroom, the Classroom in the World Marie Jeanne McNaughton and Diana Ellis Chapter Nine.............................................................................................. 97 Learning in the Environment Sallie Harkness Chapter Ten ............................................................................................. 105 Storyline as a Means of Developing Linguistic Creativity Joanna Smogorzewska Chapter Eleven ........................................................................................ 116 Storyline as a Key to Meaningful Learning: Arts and Science Combined in SPACE ME Tone Pernille Østern and Anna-Lena Østern Chapter Twelve ....................................................................................... 136 From Cradle to Grave: A Storyline Topic about Life and Death Björg Eiríksdóttir Chapter Thirteen ...................................................................................... 145 Astrid Lindgren and Emil of Lönneberga: A Book-based Storyline Hanne Jacobsen Chapter Fourteen ..................................................................................... 157 Storyline as a Model for School Change: A Principal’s Perspective Emily Nelsen Part III: Storyline in the Foreign Language Classroom Chapter Fifteen ........................................................................................ 166 Storyline as an Approach to Task-based Language Teaching Doris Kocher

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Chapter Sixteen ....................................................................................... 179 Storyline and Learner Motivation in the University Foreign Language Classroom Peter J. Mitchell, Liudmila A. Mitchell and Svetlana K. Gural Chapter Seventeen ................................................................................... 187 The Storyline Approach and EFL Teaching in Brazilian County Schools Andressa Portella Felipin, Irmgat Nielsen and Simone Schmitt Chapter Eighteen ..................................................................................... 193 Developing Writing Skills in the Young Language Learner Sharon Ahlquist Chapter Nineteen ..................................................................................... 203 Storyline and ICT in Second Language Learning Barbara Blair Part IV: Storyline in Adult Education Chapter Twenty ....................................................................................... 220 The Applicability of the Storyline Approach to Teaching in Adult Education Cecilie Falkenberg Chapter Twenty-One ............................................................................... 241 The Storyline Method of Teaching and Learning: Applications at the University Wendy Emo and Kenneth R. Emo Chapter Twenty-Two............................................................................... 252 Storyline as a Space for Simulated Practice: A Teaching Experiment in Higher Education Birthe Lund, Lone Tang Jørgensen, Helle Pagh Fisker, Henriette Skaarup Gejel Jensen Chapter Twenty-Three............................................................................. 263 Storyline and Pre-Service Teacher Preparation Programmes Olivia Murray

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Chapter Twenty-Four .............................................................................. 275 Starting Storyline Teaching: Effects on Teachers Wendy Emo Editors ..................................................................................................... 287 Contributors ............................................................................................. 288

A WORD FROM THE EDITORS

Story making and storytelling are fundamental human activities. All cultures include stories that explore and communicate traditions, values and universal themes, often through the use of allegory and symbolism. A story can entertain, but it can also inform, illustrate abstract concepts and help to covey the complexity of human action and relationships. It can also be, for example, a medium for developing skills and making connections, a means of social and cultural bonding and of sharing culture and belief systems, or a way of sharing in common human experiences, often by uniting both the cognitive and the affective domains. Moon (2010: 96) states that stories “…can tap into the imagination and emotions and form new and meaningful connections between existing areas of knowledge that can be neglected in conventional practice.” The premise of this book is that the Storyline approach can provide educators and learners with creative, meaningful and powerful educational experiences. The power and potential of stories in learning has been recognised by Storyline practitioners since the 1960s. As can be seen from the scope and variety of contributions to this new Storyline book, educators from across the world continue to employ the pedagogies and strategies of Storyline to complement and extend the educational opportunities they offer to the learners in their care. This book is the result of the extending and crafting of some of the presentations and ideas offered by delegates at the 5th International Storyline Conference in Reykjavik in 2012. The book is divided into four main sections. In Part I the scene is set and Storyline is examined in the context of past and current pedagogical theory and practice. Jón Torfi Jónasson makes connections between the past and present and future of education and suggests that stories, and Storyline in particular, fit with many of the demands of education for the 21st century. Steve Bell and Sallie Harkness trace Storyline from its beginnings in Glasgow schools, and Jordanhill College, to its present and growing international status as a practical yet robust learner-centred approach to education. Further chapters go on to look at addressing learner motivation, active learning and meeting the needs of every learner through the Storyline approach. Finally, Ulf Schwanke and Rebecca Plaskitt address some of the issues raised by Storyline sceptics, and demonstrate that effective pedagogy demands time and effort from both learners and

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teachers. Part II of the book presents a series of examples of how Storyline has been used successfully in a range of learning and teaching situations. Subjects of learning range from nurturing the spirit of the child, to Global Citizenship and Environmental Education, through to Arts, Language and Science, and ending up looking, literally, at matters of life and death. It is clear that there is no aspect of learning that a creative and well-prepared teacher cannot address through Storyline. Part III of the book examines Storyline in the foreign language classroom, starting with Doris Kocher placing Storyline in the context of Task-based Language Teaching. There follow chapters on Storyline in different foreign language teaching contexts from Russia to Brazil, and on Storyline for working on different language skills. Part IV of the book focuses on Storyline in adult education. Cecilie Falkenberg discusses Storyline’s applicability to this area. Subsequent chapters look at Storyline in a variety of adult education contexts. As editors, we hope that you will find the contents of this book both interesting and inspiring. We wish you happy reading, and happy Storyline-ing. Peter J. Mitchell and Marie Jeanne McNaughton

References Moon, J. (2010). Using Story in Higher Education and Professional Development. Oxon, UK: Routledge.

PART I: PLACING STORYLINE IN CONTEXT

CHAPTER ONE CONNECTING THE PAST, PRESENT AND THE FUTURE: A STORY ABOUT THE TRAVEL OF EDUCATION THROUGH TIME JÓN TORFI JÓNASSON

Storylineಧan inspiration Preparing for the keynote at the Storyline conference in Iceland in 2012, I was inspired by the ideas promoted by the Storyline teachers in two ways. Firstly, by the very powerful notion that education is about a holistic understanding of the world, particularly well expressed by the idea of telling a story. Secondly, by the notion that education demands the full co-operation and interaction between the teacher and the student where the former facilitates in an open but disciplined way the education of the latter. Thus I was inspired to tell the following story at the heart of which is education as both an idea and as a practice that fits particularly well with the ideas and practices of Storyline. When looking back at education as an institution throughout the centuries it is very difficult to determine if it has changed much—but this depends of course on what aspects of education we think are important and what we consider to be substantial change. Perhaps everything related to the world, including education, has changed so much that it is practically a waste of time to consider its history—or, on the contrary, it could be that what we think is most essential has not changed very much and therefore we can perhaps adopt some of the aims, form or content of education from previous centuries. For example, given our current emphasis on reading or literacy and the way we organise our classrooms, and given the way we conduct much of modern teaching, it seems that time-honoured aims, content and methods stand the test of time remarkably well. On the other

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hand, when we consider the tremendous advances in the production of knowledge, particularly noticeable in science and technology, and also the open instantaneous access to much of this knowledge in addition to the technological toolboxes opened up by computer technology, it seems that we have little in common with past centuries. In an attempt to discern between the old and the new of our educational edifice I will recount a story of some aspects of the development of Western education through the centuries. At no stage will I, however, apologise for the glaring and constant oversimplification nor for the lack of underpinning and examples, which would hide the thread and the message through tedium and name-dropping. I still think this kind of an account is exceedingly important and may help us to decide what is most valuable in our current conduct of education and how we may intelligently and fruitfully think about the future of education. One of the early Plato dialogues, Menon, opens with the question, put by Menon: “Can you tell me, Socrates, whether virtue is acquired by teaching or by practice; or if neither by teaching nor practice, then whether it comes to man by nature, or in what other way?”

The remainder of this text elaborates on this and related issues from different angles. Several parts of the dialogue inspire reflection on the nature, content and conduct of education. It was certainly accepted by the Greeks that virtue was of highest importance, but the question was, if it could be taught at all, and if so, who would have the credibility or competence to teach it and also when and how. Socrates, worthy of his reputation, shows that the matter is not as simple as it appeared to Menon at first sight, but the general tenor of the discourse was nevertheless that if virtue could be taught, it should be. Their conclusion was that it could not, but the matter did not close then: it has been with us since in many guises. The general question is what can be taught and what is within the purview of education or the school system. Some fundamental questions of education are raised in the dialogue, if only in a general way. Firstly, what content or which values would call for an educational process and, secondly, who might be the teachers and what should be their credentials for making them credible teachers of virtue or whatever they purported to teach. The process of disentangling these issues in the Menon is an example of the best known educational idea of all times, i.e. what is often called the Socratic discourse or method, emphasised by the content of this and other dialogues of Plato, but very pointedly by an example, also in the Menon,

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where Socrates decides to teach the boy slave the exact length of the diagonal of a square. In the process Socrates notes, “Do you observe, Menon, that I am not teaching the boy anything, but only asking him questions...?” It further becomes a very important part of the process to clarify what the learner knows and what he does not in order to produce the preconditions for learning. The underlying idea is that one does not have any reason or motivation to learn something that one already thinks one knows and, as Socrates notes, “But do you suppose that he would ever have enquired into or learned what he fancied that he knew, though he was really ignorant of it, until he had fallen into perplexity under the idea that he did not know, and had desired to know?” A crucial part of the method is to clarify what is known and what is not; the Socratic Method demands a sophisticated discipline. So does all good teaching. In the heyday of ancient Greece there was already a lively discussion about education as an enterprise, in particular due to the endeavour of the Sophists, who offered systematic instruction for payment. This endeavour was criticised by Socrates and Plato, both for the methods being used (which seem to be kindred to what we would now call “traditional” methods of teaching) but also for some of the content that was on offer, such as the teaching of virtue and who would have the capacity for teaching it. A part of the discourse is taken further in the Republic, where Plato suggests a curriculum fit for the leaders of the State, repeatedly emphasising that education may be a necessary precondition for leadership, but by no means a sufficient one. Education does not guarantee the personal attributes that are absolutely essential for a first rate noncorruptible leader. But for all stages of schooling the curriculum suggested in the Republic had clear aims, ranging from the heroic stories and music, intended to mould the personality, to philosophy meant to steer the value judgements of potential leaders from worldly goods to non-material higher aspirations. Note that the discussion is framed in a culture nearly 2500 years older than ours with, inter alia, completely different cultural norms, enormous class and gender differentiation, very different notions of the nature of knowledge and with no established system of education prior to this time. Nevertheless we find a remarkable affinity with the modern issues being discussed and the details of the lines of contention. And some of these need to be reiterated even in the 21st century. What do we expect of education? It is sometimes thought that it has always been taken for granted that education as an enterprise was needed or was a rational undertaking. It is clear from the writings of the Greek

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philosophers that the idea has been around for a long time but it is relatively recently that it has been assumed to be sensible and necessary for everybody. Similarly it is often assumed that the purpose of education has always been clear or uncontested. This is far from the truth and for a long time in educational history the principal tasks of education were taken to be different from what we think is the case today. Again it is sometimes assumed that a system of education catering for all children has always been in place; this is also far from being so, but now it is such an ingrained part of our modern society that instead of asking how we best implement our educational aspirations, we are nearer to asking how we might best utilise our system of education as if its existence or its rudimentary modus operandi could or should not be questioned. We are not expected to question the basic tenets of our system. That is probably why the modern educational debate seems most of the time to be more about method than aims. We note, however, that these are partly related. The debate is sometimes framed by referring to who should be at the centre of education, the teacher (or the instructor) who transmits or delivers the already assembled and digested body of knowledge, or the student (the one who is supposed to learn or understand) who assimilates, extracts, internalises or constructs his own understanding. Having decided which perspective to adopt we can decide how to mould the process of education. Again, with hindsight, it can be inferred that this is a part of a very long-lasting debate. In the Menon Plato argues that the most sensible way of learning is through a reflective discourse where the teacher acts somewhat similarly to a midwife extracting the knowledge hidden in the student’s mind (in keeping with Plato’s theory of knowledge). He was thereby directly criticising the unidirectional dissemination of information and ideas seen to characterise the Sophist method. To all intents and purposes, his was the perspective originally accepted by Christian religious education, especially as expounded by St. Augustine (indeed under some Platonic influence). Later, this was partly contested by the doctrine of Thomas Aquinas, who revived in a formal way the instructional role of the teacher, even in matters of religion, while still retaining the reflection (meditatio) and questioning (disputatio) elements of the process of instruction as a part of his Scholastic method. The student-centred approach was again revived (repeatedly) during the Reformation with the insistence that every child, whether boy or girl, should be able to attain their own understanding and belief through their personal reading of the Bible. Therefore the text had to be in their own language, which they had to learn to read. Thus for the Protestant Christians, represented especially vigorously in Northern Europe, for

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example by the Pietists, reading was a necessary instrument for becoming a true believer and this applied to all, high and low. Furthermore the written guide for achieving these aims was the Catechism, which was structured with questions and answers essentially based on a dialogue, which was intended to facilitate genuine understanding. Thus learning to read was a very important feature of a child- or student-centred approach to learning. Somewhat later than the influence of the Protestant approach to religious education, was the influence of the Enlightenment, which spread throughout Europe and to the Americas, especially in the 18th century and onwards. The choice of the word is of particular significance: knowledge throws light on one’s world, opens up new understanding, new horizons and has the potential to set individuals, communities and even nations free, in the sense that they are not kept at bay simply by their own ignorance. Knowledge throws light on things with the aid of reason and carries the potential of freedom of thought by severing chains of tradition. A very important manifestation of the importance of knowledge was the publication of the Encyclopaedia in the third quarter of the 18th century in France. This emphasis on knowledge with developments of printing gradually made books more available and accessible and underpinned the importance of reading, resonating very well with the Protestant emphasis on reading. But it is very important to note that the philosophers and scientists who inspired and led the 17th and 18th centuries’ thought, saw knowledge and reason as tools for change whether it be related to the political regime or scientific understanding.

The aims of education Throughout its long history, many different aims have been behind the idea of educating people, whether for the elite few or more recently for universal education. It is not the case that it has always been mainly or largely about the skills of reading and writing or amassing huge amounts of information or mastering skills for certain trades or the world of work more generally, even though these have practically always been present, notably in the liberal arts curriculum throughout the centuries. And even as reading and writing were prominent for long periods these were seen as tools for a fairly specific (if changing) purpose. Being able to read, while important, was not a goal in itself but rather a means towards a loftier end: reading Greek and Roman literature and history in order to acquire knowledge for rhetorical proficiency, as in Greek and Roman times; learning to read in order to read the languages of the classics, as

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emphasised by the humanists: reading in order to enjoy the spirit of the classical minds as proposed by the neo-humanists: being able to read in your mother tongue, as emphasised by most protestant denominations, in order to develop your own personal religious belief; or reading to understand the world as advocated by the Enlightenment. This end changed and oscillated between various poles at various times, ranging from being able to argue a case, to becoming a more genuinely human, virtuous, or religious person, and to becoming free as a citizen and a knowledgeable human being. But there are problems with these ideas and not only related to the conceptual and feasible, questions already raised by Plato in the Menon. We will elaborate on two of them. For a variety of religious, ideological and also quite pragmatic reasons, universal secular education was gradually implemented across much of Europe during the 17th and in particular the 18th century. This served the ideas of the Protestant demands for universal literacy and it also served the Enlightenment ideology emphasising education as a means to personal and social freedom. The problem here is that what motivated the authorities was very importantly the idea of social control; the freedom obtained had to be considerably controlled. Benavot and Resnik (2006: 22) propose that there was a “need to shape citizens’ loyalty through the inculcation of ideologies of nationhood” as well as forming an educated elite, similar to what Napoleon had in mind for France at the beginning of the 19th century. It is quite clear that the ideas of universal education were essentially quite elitist, except perhaps for those advanced by the pious Protestants. The other modulating factor is the development of a positivist ideology during the 19th century, which emphasised the importance of factual knowledge on the one hand, and its neutrality on the other. Facts were facts and these carried with them neither value judgements nor implication of application, for example, for political ends. And even though Romanticism and Neo-humanistic ideas in many ways superseded the Enlightenment ideas as characterising the philosophical debate in the 19th century, some version of the latter ideas gradually took control over the system of education. Now, reading and writing became primary goals, practically as ends in themselves, and similarly the acquisition of encyclopaedic knowledge came to the fore: knowledge was the key factor in the education of modern man, preferably knowledge that underpinned traditional values but non-critical and without any socially subversive undertones. New knowledge should be free of values. Throughout its history, there has been a considerable interest in educational change and in a very important sense the battle lines were

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already drawn in the criticism Plato levelled against the Sophists and the remedies, with reference to method, suggested in particular by the Socratic Method. The debate from early times was partly about aims but more concretely about method or approach, with less emphasis on content, even though these are, of course, closely related issues. It is difficult to classify the ideas or pleas for reform, but it seems that many of the ideas of early modernity pressed for moving the content of education from the classical academic world to the real world in which the young lived. The question about emphasis or aims has been present for a long time, where the tendency has always been to move towards the academic, whether this meant classical or liberal knowledge or encyclopaedic knowledge as in later times. Erasmus, like many of the humanists and later the neohumanists, placed emphasis on fostering the human element through classical literature, whereas Montaigne and Vives placed more emphasis on relating education to real life, a note also struck by both Comenius and Rousseau. The latter, in book IV of Emile, emphasises that both personal and social development are very important educational aims. Pestalozzi proposed and organised education that would foster the head, the heart and the hand in his educational endeavours. There was a particularly noteworthy educational development during the latter part of the 18th century, notably in Germany with the establishment of the Realschulen, i.e. schools with practical emphasis. The idea was that general education should have some relation to real life, especially practical industry and not be solely preoccupied with religious, classical or encyclopaedic knowledge. This can be seen as an important step in the direction of moving much of apprentice-based, vocational education into the school system during the 19th century. This may again be seen as the precursor to the later comprehensive ideal of general education, but even more importantly it relates to the idea of ‘human capital’ that was formalised within the field of education during the latter part of the 20th century, even though it had been implicit from much earlier times. These ideas gave the already established and highly developed systems of education a clear aim, an updated raison d’être: that of producing a competent work force. This is somewhat unfair to some of the proponents of kindred ideas; both Dewey and Kerschensteiner were interested in educating good (if critical) citizens who might also be prepared for the world of work. As we move nearer to the 19th century and later into the 20th century, the focus becomes somewhat narrower, more on knowledge and skills, and consequently on the method of transmitting these. Given the culture of the school, moral issues do not perhaps belong there anymore. Grundtvig, a

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devout Danish Christian and a passionate proponent of education, wrote a short piece just before the middle of the 19th century, where he asks if religious belief is really a school subject. Normally the newer ideas do not in fact question the general premises of the skill-based and enlightened general curriculum of the 19th century: the question is how it is inculcated into the children’s minds. There are two sides to this coin, both simultaneously prominent in educational reform writings during the late 19th and 20th centuries. One is what we may call child-centred ideology, i.e. the need to respect the pupil as a person and a learner and to take into account his or her development and interests and physical and social environment. We see this much earlier in the writings of Rousseau, but also in Montessori’s ideas, for example in her ideas on auto-education and particularly clearly in the title of Ellen Key’s (1909) book The Century of the Child and in her emphasis on the personal development of each individual child. The other side relates to the interaction with the child, noting that knowledge or understanding must be built up gradually or constructed through somewhat individual interaction and personal action by the learner. The learner becomes an active participant in developing his or her gradual understanding. This is also emphasised by the problemsolving pedagogy advanced by Dewey and by a host of other reformoriented progressive educators on both sides on the Atlantic. These ideas were in their essence revived in the 1960s also on both sides of the Atlantic, stimulated by Bruner and his associates with ‘new’ curricula and methods. It is remarkable how little vitality and vigour in educational change we have since witnessed at a global level.

The form of education During most of the time under discussion education has been an elitist idea, i.e. something for the few, which makes it perhaps difficult to map the old ideas onto our present insistence of universal high quality education for all. The problem is partly a problem of logistics, because many of the old ideas require a personal teacher or rather a guide or a mentor who interacts on a personal basis with each and every pupil, such as in Rousseau’s Emile. But it may also depend on the view people have on the aims and nature of education. This is not straightforward, however. Even though the aims are related to very personal characteristics or experiences it seems as if very direct and unilateral methods of transmission were sometimes adopted, whether by the Sophists while teaching virtue, by the Church while preaching religion to the masses or by the school systems trying to ensure personal mastery and understanding

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of complex knowledge. And it perhaps worked, for some learners, some of the time. Even in settings where this approach was not tolerated, such as when the Catechism was explicitly established to ensure personal understanding and appropriation of the religious doctrines through an interactive simulation of questions and answers with the guidance and interrogation of both parents and priests, the result seems more often than not to have been very mechanistic rote learning of the texts in question. But the modus operandi of 19th and 20th century education seems to be less of a problem if the aim is largely to transmit facts and then to master skills, such as reading and writing, which facilitate this. It seems that a great deal of such transmission can be accomplished in large classes. Two aspects of this are particularly noteworthy. The first is that it might have been thought that, with the development of the printing press, the character of education might have changed: texts could be read outside the classroom and the class time used more for working on the ideas and understanding in an interactive fashion. This was certainly the idea developed by Aquinas’ four stages of instruction, assuming considerable work to be done by the student outside class and this is, of course, inherent in the idea of student homework where the students were expected to prepare for class. Homework was an important part of schooling where the material was meant to be read outside the classroom. But in spite of the enormous development of printing technology over many centuries, teaching that relied on written text did not change very much. Still, the old idea of using text or the spoken word as a means of preparing for class was revived at the beginning of the 21st century with the so-called “flipped classrooms”, where the student is expected to do some well-defined work outside the classroom, thus enabling the teacher to concentrate on tasks that require some unique guidance or interaction. The second point to note relates to the notion that education is basically about transmission of information. Even if the aims of education are principally related to encyclopaedic knowledge, i.e. to the understanding of ideas and learning facts in the process, it requires the reflective engagement of the pupil and interaction with the environment (in particular the teacher) exactly as proposed by Socrates using the example of the length of the diagonal of the square he demonstrated in the Menon. Thus, even within the narrow confines of encyclopaedic understanding, the individual construction of knowledge afforded by the Socratic Method, or its siblings, is certainly called for.

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Education and the future In a paradoxical sense education is all about preparing for the future but this is notably done by concentrating on the past, i.e. using ideas, methods, content and values from our long-gone or recent history as the basis for what we do within the educational edifice. There are a number of good reasons for this: mainly that we know a lot about the past but happen not to know much about the future, or we convince ourselves that we do not, and we even think that in principle we cannot have such knowledge. But that would not be a fair claim about the future for at least two reasons. One is that the future is, in a sense, already here—a lot of what is going to be important to coming generations has already materialised, perhaps on a limited scale and is often not known to many. This is true for new cultures of work, new types of jobs, new technology, new scientific knowledge, new educational realities and new global challenges, all of which are already with us. The second reason why we know a fair bit about the future is that we can predict quite a lot about how all of these will change and develop in the next decades, even though there are important aspects of the future which we cannot foresee; and we also know that all of them will change considerably and at an increasing rate. The world has changed quite dramatically over the past few decades but will quite definitely change much more in the next few. Partly explicit and partly implicit in the above story of education, is the claim that the current idea that the overarching task of education is the accumulation of important skills and value-free knowledge certainly has its roots in the long history of Western education regaining its dominance to a certain extent during the late 18th century, but mainly during the 19th and 20th centuries. At times, the ideas of social and individual virtues, humanistic, moral or liberal values and the role of education to ensure critical civic attitudes and the freedom of the human spirit seem to be constantly pushed to the side. Among the most important messages of this story is to inspire a very long-term view of education and not to assume that lines drawn in the most recent centuries are necessarily the best guides to the future, either in terms of aims, content, or method. Nor should we assume that having such a solid system of education as our present system certainly is, must mean that it is or should be immutable from any of the three perspectives. In particular, we should ask if some of the previous important reasons given for the task of educating the young, pushed aside by the positivistic, human capital arguments taking centre stage during the recent past, might

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be revived or at least pitted against the information- and skills-based curriculum of the present. In the process of looking towards the future it is important to establish what the immutable features are within the educational edifice. Perhaps there are none. Not even the system of education itself. There were all sorts of pragmatic reasons why a system of (compulsory) education was a sensible step a few centuries back. Three seem to be particularly relevant, here. Firstly, there was the possibility to control the curriculum through a state-administered setup. Secondly, there was the economy of scale; given the size of the task, education would only be affordable with relatively few teachers engaged in educating many children. Thirdly, there was the division of labour, as it would make sense that some people would have the dedication, skills and competence to take on the task of instructing the young. But there are several additional reasons why a system was established. Given the idea of universal education, it makes sense to ensure that every child has the right to a good education irrespective of the parents’ interest or means. It was also sensible to offer facilities for practising education gradually with some specific amenities to ensure that all subjects could be taught in the best circumstances possible. It also made sense to offer children the opportunity to interact with each other socially. But it is a moot question if education was ever meant to provide equality of opportunity as Illich (1976) thought was the intention or whenever that idea came into force. It would be questionable if we, in modern times, turned the argument on its head, claiming that as we now have such a strong and robust system that might, however, have outlived some of its initial reasons for being, so some new reasons must be discovered in order to justify its existence. And even though the system is well equipped and powerful it may not have the capacity to cope with all the tasks we might now want it to tackle. Even when some changes may seem reasonable in the view of changing times, new cultures or new tasks may not be all that easy to engineer. The stronger the traditions, and the more robust the system, the more difficult it is to change it. What can we learn about the future of education from this account? The lessons learned from this story about the development of Western education are perhaps somewhat unexpected and counterintuitive. Given that the ideas about basic human virtues and the ideas about social values many of us cherish are remarkably kindred to what they were some two thousand years ago, and that we may still consider the analysis presented by Socrates and Plato as highly pertinent to our deliberations, we might conclude that the most important ideas about what education is for, might

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not have changed all that much. But the current emphasis on skills, standards and testing tells us otherwise. On the other hand given the enormous changes in everyday cultures, especially with various technological developments over the past few hundred years, and the enormous knowledge explosion during the same period, we might have thought that the content, but especially the methods of educational practice, would have transformed beyond recognition. We would, again, be mistaken. I suggest that the ways in which we conduct education have changed remarkably little, given the opportunities and reasons for change, but the aims of education have changed most, perhaps without very good reasons. Perhaps it should be the other way around. The future invites, affords and sometimes demands quite dramatic changes in the way we conduct and think about education. And the story about the development of educational thinking should urge reconsideration of the aims and methods of education and give us the confidence to re-awaken some of the good ideas from our rich historical past—and to dismiss the lesser ones.

References Benavot, A. and Resnik, J. (2006). Lessons from the Past: A Comparative Socio-Historical Analysis of Primary and Secondary Education. In Cohen, J.E., Bloom, D.E. and Malin, M.B. (eds.). Educating All Children: A Global Agenda. Cambridge, MA: American Academy of Arts and Sciences: MIT Press. Chisick, H. (1981). The limits of reform in the Enlightenment: attitudes toward the education of the lower classes in eighteenth-century France. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and Education. New York: Macmillan Co. Grundtvig, N. F. S. (1836/1909). Er Troen virkelig en Skole-Sag. In Johansen, J. and Begtrup, H. (eds.), Bibliografi over NFS Grundtvigs Skrifter 8, 107-111. Guthrie, W. K. C. (1971). The Sophists. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Illich, I. (1976). Deschooling society. Penguin: Harmondsworth. Key, E. K. S. and Franzos, M. (1909). The Century of the child. New York and London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons. Labaree, D. F. (2010). Someone has to fail: the zero-sum game of public schooling. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Melton, J. V. H. (1988). Absolutism and the eighteenth-century origins of compulsory schooling in Prussia and Austria. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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Montessori, M. (1912/1964). The Montessori method. New York: Schocken Books. Plato (1871). Menon (B. Jowett, Trans.), http://www.ilt.columbia.edu/publications/Projects/digitexts/plato/meno /meno.html Rousseau, J. J. (1762/1991). Emile: Or On education (A. Bloom, Trans.). London: Penguin Books. Tyack, D. and Cuban, L. (1995). Tinkering toward utopia. A century of public school reform. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

CHAPTER TWO STORYLINE: FROM SMALL BEGINNINGS TO STORYLINE INTERNATIONAL STEVE BELL AND SALLIE HARKNESS

Introduction First of all we wish to say how delighted we are that the 5th International Storyline Conference at the University of Iceland has resulted in this book. Most of the following chapters are based on papers presented in Reykjavik in August 2012. Our Icelandic hosts have played a very important part in the development of Storyline and this is an opportunity to thank them for the warmth of their welcome, the efficiency of their planning, and the successful delivery of the recent conference. As readers of this book may not know much about the background and development of the Storyline approach we shall describe this, although more detailed versions can be found in several previous publications and especially in Storyline—Past, Present and Future (Bell, Harkness, and White, 2006) where the history of Storyline and how it is used in many educational settings is described in some depth. Storyline emerged in response to a report titled Primary Education in Scotland (HMSO, 1965). This report recommended major curricular change in Scottish Primary Schools, suggesting more cross-curricular work and recognising that mother-tongue language teaching was basic to all subjects. It emphasised the importance of language in all its forms— listening and speaking, reading and writing. It highlighted the importance of aesthetic subjects in learning and introduced a new area of study entitled “environmental studies”. Child-centred approaches, differentiation and group work were also recommended. Not surprisingly, these innovations were viewed with some apprehension by teaching staff. Teachers who had been trained to follow a highly structured course based

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on textbooks suddenly felt de-skilled. What was this new focus called Environmental Studies that could not be a subject because it was made up of different subjects comprising history, geography and science? Perhaps it was a process or method of teaching? The majority of teachers felt that they needed help in the form of practical models, strategies and approaches which would make them feel more secure and help them implement the new requirements.

Jordanhill College of Education Following the publication of the new curriculum guide there was an obvious demand for support and training from teachers and local education authorities. John A. Smith, at that time Vice Principal of Jordanhill College and also Head of the In-service Department, had the idea to free a small number of members of staff from working with pre-service students in order to work full-time supporting teachers in primary schools (Harrison, and Marker, 1996). In 1967, three lecturers were seconded for this purpose and they were encouraged to spend time identifying schools where new strategies could be developed in order to solve the problems created by the new proposals. The tutors quickly recognised the unique support that gave them the creative freedom to work in this way. At this time, basic primary education in Scotland started for pupils at the age of 5 years and lasted for 7 years. In the early stages, primaries 1 and 2, when children were new to school and just starting to learn to read and write, it was not possible to rely on the use of textbooks. Teachers had to organise more active learning. Also in the 1960s the educational theories of Froebel, Montessori and John Dewey were recognised as important influences on teaching methods. Infant departments were highly regarded as being leaders in the area of creative and progressive education. It was to the early stages that the staff tutors looked for inspiration and support in their search for the best ways to implement the holistic ideas being recommended. Slowly, over a period of years, using the rich expertise of practising teachers and especially those working in the early stages, a way of working and a curricular design began to appear and a busy programme of workshop courses for teaching staff was organised and implemented mainly in schools and the emerging teachers’ centres. During these courses that spanned a three-day period two tutors would work together taking the teachers attending through a topic or theme to demonstrate how to organise cross-curricular work. Topics tended to have their origin in the new environmental studies but they integrated much language work and depended on the expressive arts to explore and record

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pupils’ ideas. The approach departed from the traditional model of transmission of knowledge, instead posing key questions that encouraged pupils to develop thinking skills and to identify and solve problems. An important feature of the approach was the invention of characters—the people involved in the situations imagined by the pupils. In that way the staff tutor topics, as they were called at that time, gave opportunities to consider feelings as well as facts. Many different topics were designed covering a variety of subjects and designed for different stages in the primary school. These were always field tested in schools before being introduced to teacher workshops. Demand for courses and topic material increased and the approach began to spread, not only throughout Scotland, but also in other countries as the staff tutors, Fred Rendell, team leader, Sallie Harkness and Steve Bell, were invited to work in schools operated by the Service Children’s Education Authority. This took them to Army bases in Germany, Gibraltar and Hong Kong. The European Council of International Schools became interested and visits were paid to their schools in Belgium and Switzerland. The Scandinavian school system was early to involve itself in what seemed to be an approach that fitted extremely well into their very creative educational philosophy. Many courses were organised for teachers in Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Sweden, and later Finland. An exchange arrangement between staff at Jordanhill College and the University of Hamburg led to close collaboration between members of the staff tutor team and the IPTS (Institute of Practice and Theory in Schools), the system for teacher training in Schleswig Holstein. Many of the courses there were supported by the British Council. Ulf Schwanke who took part in this exchange later published Die Storyline-Methode (Auer Verlag GmbH, Donauworth, 2005). In 1986 Kathy Fifield, a Fulbright Scholar from Oregon, USA, spent a sabbatical year shadowing Steve Bell to make an in-depth study of the approach. Others followed in Kathy’s footsteps, notably María Steingrímsdottír and Bjorg Eiriksdottír from Iceland where the approach was already being adopted and adapted for young learners by many Icelandic teachers, notably Rosa Eggertsdottír. Jos Letschert, who later became Dr Jos Letschert, Professor of Curriculum Studies at Twente University in the Netherlands, played a very important part in the early development of Storyline, as did his wife Dr Beate Grabbe-Letschert who introduced Storyline to the Teacher Training Institute in Hamburg and had long experience of presenting Storyline courses in Schleswig-Holstein (Letschert, et al, 2006).

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Storyline emerges By this time it was clear that the staff tutor approach to curricular planning used the story structure, with its sequence, setting in time and place, characters and plot, to frame topic planning and to pose questions to which learners could respond with imagination and creativity; undertaking a range of work involving problem solving, practical research and enquiry. This supported further activities such as expressing ideas and knowledge through a wide variety of media—writing, drama, art etc. The story structure provides a supportive and engaging context for meaningful learning geared to the learners’ interests and concerns, as well as supporting the curricular goals of the teacher. Developed initially for use in primary schools, Storyline has been shown to be adaptable to teaching at all stages of learning and in any subject area. Now it is widely used in foreign language teaching and in higher education and teacher training. It has also been linked to simulation exercises in business contexts and has proved to be an effective tool in the training of nurses and in other medical contexts.

Features of Storyline teaching and learning There are a number of features and stages in the planning, teaching and learning of a Storyline. Not every Storyline incorporates every feature, but all adhere to the key principles and pedagogy underpinning the approach. The features include the following: x The teacher starts with what the learners know by asking key questions. x These are open questions that require imaginative and creative thinking. x The questions have a sequence that forms the chapters of a story. x Learners produce their answers in the form of conceptual models or hypotheses. x They then test their hypotheses by questioning and research. x A wide variety of techniques is used to explore and present their ideas including visualisation in two and three dimensions. x Teachers use co-operative learning techniques and appropriate grouping. x Visual work is displayed with care and respect. x Teaching structures are employed which support success. x Pupils’ work is assessed in a relevant and constructive way. x Self and peer evaluation are central to the process.

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Thus, Storyline can be viewed as a shared experience between teacher and pupils, with the pupils able to participate actively in the learning processes.

The European Association for Educational Design (EED) In 1988, during a Workshop Course at Thelamörk School in the north of Iceland directed by Gudmundur Kristmundsson, a meeting was held of topic enthusiasts from Iceland, the Netherlands and Scotland. Jos Letschert, who at that time was responsible for the primary education department in The SLO (Institute of Curriculum Development in the Netherlands), suggested that we should form the European Association for Educational Design in order to promote the Jordanhill staff tutors’ approach. Unfortunately there was a problem! In Denmark the method was known as Den Skotske Metode and in Germany as Die Methode Glasgow. These titles did not convey an understanding of the nature of the approach and so the name ‘Storyline’ was agreed to solve that problem. This title makes it clear that the teacher holds the LINE (the teaching plan) while the learners have ownership of the STORY. At this time also it was decided that a seminar should be organised every 18 months to bring together the leaders of Storyline from their various countries. One of the famous tours in Iceland is named the Golden Circle and this was the name that we chose for our new group. The first meeting of the Golden Circle / EED was hosted by Jos Letschert in his Institute in Enschede in 1989. It was attended by 12 educators from Iceland, Scotland, Denmark and the Netherlands. A mission statement for the EED was designed during a workshop in Denmark led by Kirsten Meldgaard. It read: “The European Association for Educational Design is an organisation supporting the development of the Storyline approach in a critical and innovative way by sharing ongoing research, resources, curriculum development and applications of the method. The Golden Circle is a non-competitive forum for enquiry into theory and practice to promote professionalism and friendship”. To celebrate the millennium, the Golden Circle agreed that it was time for the 1st International Storyline Conference. This was organised by Cecilie Falkenberg, of Laererhojskole Danmark, and was held in Aalborg in 2000. The conference coincided with the publication of Storylinebogen —en handbog for undervisere (Falkenberg and Hakonsson, Kroghs Forlag A/S 2000). Cecilie also organised the 2nd conference in Elsinore, Denmark in 2003. In 2006, Strathclyde University hosted the 3rd event in Glasgow, Scotland. In 2009, Jeff Creswell of Storyline Design in

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collaboration with Portland State University organised the 4th conference and the University of Iceland welcomed Storyliners to Reykjavik for the 5th conference in 2012. In 2015, we returned to Glasgow where our hosts were Glasgow City Council Education Services and the University of Strathclyde. Since that first Golden Circle meeting in the Netherlands there have been 18 seminars in various countries and the EED continued in this form until August 2009. By that time Storyline Design in Oregon, USA, founded by Kathy Fifield and since her untimely death in 1994 led by her close friend and teaching colleague Jeff Creswell, had been involved in organising programmes of courses and especially summer courses, many involving Sallie Harkness and Steve Bell. As mentioned above Jeff Creswell and his colleagues at Portland State University hosted the 4th International Storyline Conference. This was followed by the 16th Golden Circle Seminar when a new title was agreed by the expanding group. No longer could it be called the EUROPEAN association because now Storyline had many followers in the USA and beyond. So it was renamed Storyline International. In August 2012, Jeff Creswell was appointed chairman of Storyline International and he is now responsible for organising future seminars with the help of a small international board. As survivors of the original Jordanhill staff tutor team it gives us great pleasure to know that the small group of 12 educators from 4 countries who met in Holland in 1989 has grown to be 45 representatives from 15 countries and that the seminar now includes teachers from all stages of the school, head teachers, foreign language teachers, lecturers, professors, a medical researcher and a priest.

Masters and doctorates In recent years an increasing number of students have been including Storyline in their research projects for masters and doctoral studies. Early in this field was Bjorg Eiriksdottír who took her Masters at the University of Strathclyde and Mait Adegard with her Masters in the University of London. Also Rosa Eggertsdottír who studied in Cambridge. Rhonda Mitchell-Barrett was awarded her EdD at the University of Durham; Wendy Emo, Minnesota State University, USA, took her doctorate in the University of York, England; Sharon Ahlquist, Kristianstad University, Sweden, studied for her EdD at the University of Leicester, England, and Ifigenia Iliopoulous at the University of Volos, Greece. Several doctoral students in Turkey, Iran and Russia all have work in progress.

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In this respect the increasing number of published papers and books on Storyline has played an important part in recent developments as has the advent of the Internet, enabling speedy responses to enquiries from around the world. Electronic communication has also made it possible to give support to practitioners in distant locations and there are now many websites describing Storyline developments in a variety of countries. First in that field was Storyline Scotland, set up by Steve Bell and Sallie Harkness as a consultancy on the occasion of their early retirement from University of Strathclyde (formerly Jordanhill College of Education). Several colleagues in other countries have chosen to use versions of this name form—Storyline Design (USA), Storyline Sweden, Storyline Iceland, Storyline Turkey, Storyline Slovenia, Storyline Denmark, and Storyline Russia. The establishment of these websites has been vital to the growth of the international Storyline “family”.

Robust yet flexible In her chapter on Learning Theory—Substantiating the Storyline Approach to Teaching (Bell, et al, 2006) Cecilie Falkenberg describes how well Storyline fits the philosophies of major educational thinkers of the 20th century. From Dewey to Vygotsky she quotes relevant theories that support Storyline thinking. Dr Ulf Schwaenke and Lea Gronostay provide more support in the same book with a paper on Constructivism and Storyline. For practitioners this is really encouraging, as it supports the view that Storyline is more than an approach but a firmly founded pedagogy with a sound theoretical base. So, in summary, why do we think that Storyline has continued to flourish? x Storyline has proved to be an effective tool for teachers and learners—it gives structure, meaning and enjoyment through its use of the power of story—a universal, well respected, and workable approach. x It fits well with educational theories and is now supported by research evidence. x The Internet has enabled improved and speedy communication of Storyline ideas and resources. x The Golden Circle Group gives powerful support and the international conferences provide a focus for exchange, debate and development. x Increasing numbers of books and journal articles help support Storyline development worldwide.

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x Experiential learning and personal contact have fostered this “bottom up” development—although often supported by authorities/employers it has never been adopted as “the only way” or imposed upon staff. This has left teachers empowered and free to develop in their own way and to vary their teaching style to meet the needs of different cultures and curricula. x Personal contact and openness have been crucial to this success. Our hope is that Storyline will continue to grow and to be used in many different countries and for a host of educational purposes. We wish you good reading and hope you find that this book supports you in exploring new and exciting ways to bring enjoyment into the job of teaching and learning.

References Bell, S., Harkness, S. and White, G. (eds.) (2006). Storyline: Past, Present and Future. Glasgow: University of Strathclyde. Creswell, J. (1997). Creating Worlds, Constructing Meaning: The Scottish Storyline Method. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Schwanke, U. (2005). Die Storyline-Methode. Donauworth: Auer Verlag GmbH. Falkenberg, C. and Hakonson, E. (2000). Storylinebogen—en handbog for undervisere. Kroghs Forlag A/S. Harrison, M. and Marker, W. (1996). Teaching the Teachers: History of Jordanhill College of Education. Edinburgh: John Donald. Letschert, J.F.M., Grabbe-Letschert, B. and Greven, J. (eds.) (2006). Beyond Storyline: Features Principles and Pedagogical Profundity. Eschede: SLO. Scottish Education Department (1965). Primary Education in Scotland (The Primary Memorandum). Edinburgh: HMSO.

CHAPTER THREE STORYLINE AND MOTIVATION MARÍA STEINGRÍMSDÓTTIR

Introduction We live now in changing societies that will have a considerable influence on our education and our lives in the future. The ever-altering context of our Western societies requires that education change from being a traditional academic exercise towards becoming education that has evolved into dynamic learning processes that do not necessarily take place in schools or educational institutions. These changes have an impact on teachers, learners and schools at all levels. The learner’s position in education is also changing. Learning is no longer primarily understood as a teacher’s responsibility but also as an active process for the learner. It follows that the teacher is no longer seen as being the main source and transmitter of knowledge, but rather as someone who organises the learning environment and students’ activities in order to ensure that learning takes place. In this chapter, views and visions of learning in the 21st century will be addressed and active learning, where students have some autonomy and control over their own learning, will be discussed. The Storyline approach will be viewed as a means of active learning. Here, teachers look back on their own teaching and give examples from Storyline topics where they highlight principles relating to how Storyline motivated their children to be engaged and active learners.

The future of education The British professor David Hargreaves (1998a) has voiced his opinion of the changes from the 20th century to the 21st century. He maintains that we are moving from a society of information and data to a society of knowledge and creativity. Instead of the computer and chip we will need

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our brains and intelligence, instead of data we will need ideas, and instead of calculating we will need to be creative. If that is the vision of tomorrow’s education, schools have to respond and prepare students for working in a new learning and working environment. If students are to be valued and responsible participants in society they have to be aware of their own ways of learning, to be able to look for and handle information, create new knowledge, be independent in their learning, but at the same time flexible and both willing and able to work co-operatively with others (Hargreaves, 1998b; Einarsdottír and Jonsson, 2010). If we follow the reasoning above about the future of education, it is only natural that the questions about education that are being asked at the beginning of this century relate more than anything to the purposes and goals of education. They must also relate to how schools may function in order to provide the necessary education. It seems clear that the goals will become wider than before and will be addressed in a more holistic way, and in a close relationship with the community outside the school. There is more that indicates that human values and moral education will be at the top of the agenda for schooling in the 21st century along with knowledge and skills that include the ability to work independently as well as in teams, and the ability to make and follow decisions. Many of these important values are addressed in the report from UNESCO (1996) on education in the 21st century. The report includes a discussion about a changing world and the greater availability of knowledge. The authors believe that traditional means of teaching are no longer sufficient for preparing young people for survival in the modern world. Instead we must prepare people for lifelong learning. The authors put forward the idea of education resting on four pillars: x Learning to know: providing the cognitive tools required to better comprehend the world and its complexities, and providing an appropriate and adequate foundation for future learning. x Learning to do: providing the skills that would enable individuals to effectively participate in the global economy and society. x Learning to be: providing self-analytical and social skills to enable individuals to develop to their fullest potential psycho-socially, affectively as well as physically, for an all-round “complete” person. x Learning to live together: exposing individuals to the values implicit within human rights, democratic principles, intercultural understanding and respect and peace at all levels of society and

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human relationships to enable individuals and societies to live in peace and harmony. In the revised strategy of UNESCO (2009) a fifth pillar was added to the four: learning to transform oneself and society. This relates to sustainability and highlights the importance of integrating areas of learning rather than separating them. It also highlights the importance of critical thinking, using diverse learning and teaching methods and mutual decision-making. According to UNESCO, the main pillars of learning, then, are learning to know, to do, to be, to live together and to transform oneself and society. To achieve these, a person needs to have metacognition that develops with reflections and discussions about learning (UNESCO, 2009). In order to begin to achieve the above, schools need to develop and define the curriculum and move towards creativity and capability in multiple environments and away from the traditional reproduction process in the classroom: from fact-based education (curriculum) to skills-based. Our aims for our students should be that they master the necessary skills to find information for themselves, that they can communicate their ideas in many different ways, think imaginatively, tackle problems, test solutions and learn how to learn. Many researchers emphasise that learning is an interactive process between what is known and what is to be learned. Educators can help children to make connections to prior knowledge and clarify what is already known, so that they can share their ideas and also make links between their own understanding and the understanding of others (Barr 2000; Frame 2000). Learning is also a social process. Read (1958) emphasises that the general purpose of education is to foster the growth of what is individual in each human being, at the same time as it harmonises the individual and the social group to which the individual belongs.

Active learning It seems obvious that schools that take seriously the visions of education presented here will have to make changes in the way they address teaching and learning. In particular they will have to move towards various forms of active learning. Some might argue that all learning is, in some sense, active. However, the concept of active learning is contrasted with teaching in which the pupils are relatively passive receivers of information and where learning activities are tightly under the teacher’s control. Definitions of active learning differ slightly from one

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another but most of them refer to autonomy and engagement by the student in the learning and instructional process. Kyriacou defines active learning as follows: “Active learning refers to any activities where pupils are given a marked degree of autonomy and control over the organisation, conduct and direction of the learning activity. Most usually such activities involve problem-solving and investigational work and may be individualised or involve small group collaboration” (1998: 39).

There are, of course, other and somewhat different definitions but they emphasise similar aspects, such as involving students in activities rather than listening passively to the teacher. These definitions emphasise the importance of reading and writing, discussing and solving problems, analysing, synthesising and evaluating. Imagination is unquestionably a major factor in active learning, or as Eisner puts it: “Inviting students to use their imagination means inviting them to see things other than the way they are. And, of course, this is what scientists and artists do; they perceive what is, but imagine what might be, and then use their knowledge, their technical skills, and their sensibilities to pursue what they have imagined” (2002: 199).

Most definitions also stress the importance of empowering students, making them responsible for their own learning, and the importance of promoting learning through instructional activities that involve students in doing things and thinking about what they are doing. In part, it is a matter of bringing to the forefront of the learner’s mind aspects of knowledge that they often cannot name. But it is also a matter of creating dialogical situations where the learners are able to look at situations through one another’s eyes, talk about what they are discovering together about themselves, about the world around them, about what is and what might be (Greene, 2001; Vygotsky, 1978). Active learning strategies also use diverse teaching methods in the classroom. Active learning is a multi-directional learning experience in which learning occurs teacher-to-student, student-to-teacher, and studentto-student. As we know, by offering students different ways of learning we are much more likely to be able to meet the educational needs for all students and increase the possibility that students are successfully dealing with the learning tasks, which in turn could help them to be more selfconfident and, hopefully, happier in their learning. I would argue that active learning emphasises the importance of how students learn as well as what they learn. Students learn the content; they

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develop conceptual knowledge, and acquire language through a discoveryoriented approach to learning. The students share with the teacher the responsibility of discovering, constructing and creating something new. The students are not only engaged in the activity itself but also with the goal of the activity. In an active learning environment the students gain a sense of empowerment because the content presented and ideas discussed are relevant to their prior experiences and histories. In such an environment the teacher is viewed as a resource and facilitator. It requires students and teachers to commit to a dynamic partnership in which both share a vision and responsibility for instruction and learning.

Storyline and active learning One such approach is the Storyline method. Storyline is an integrated approach which draws various subjects together in a topic and activates students in a number of ways. They are using a variety of work methods, such as listening, reading and writing; going on visits, interviewing, using reference materials, working alone, in pairs and groups and presenting their work in many different ways, and are involved in some sorts of art activities (Bell et al, 2006; Harkness, 2007). They can use drawing, painting, sculpture, music, dance, poetry or drama as vehicles for presenting their knowledge and enhancing their learning. A Storyline topic adopts many of the features of a story, which is jointly created by the teacher and the students. The teacher initiates the topic, provides the framework and logical sequence for the narrative which he guides with carefully planned key questions inviting the students to create the setting, invent characters and explore incidents to develop the detailed plot of the story. The teacher has the key questions prepared in advance but allows the students to develop their own answers. The key questions confront the students with problems and issues which have relevance for them and which they are allowed to tackle and solve in their own ways. This empowers students and gives them ownership over the learning process, allows them to explore their own ideas, and invites their active involvement. The approach encourages learners to explore a topic in depth, dealing with feelings as well as facts. It also provides opportunities for self-evaluation and reflection as well as an assessment of learning and thinking (Creswell, 1997; Bell, 2000; Harkness, 2007). In the Storyline approach the learner has to think about how to express his/her knowledge and how to present it to others. In this way learners are encouraged to use all their senses regardless of whether this involves their eyes, ears, noses, mouth or fingers. Working in this way provides the

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learners with aesthetic enrichment and helps them to appraise, enjoy and respect their own work as well as the work of others (Ahlquist, 2011). Moreover, this aesthetic role may be crucial for supporting learning (Gardner, 1993). Elements of aesthetic education activate visual education for the eye (design), musical education for the ear, movement for the body (dance), plastic education for touch (sculpture), verbal education for speaking (drama and poetry), and constructive education for thought, thus educating the whole child. One of the principles of Storyline is to display as much of the pupils’ work as possible. The teacher therefore plays a very important role in helping the pupils to organise this. It is important that the visuals are attractively mounted and the colours of the background are thoughtfully chosen and every piece thoughtfully arranged. By being actively involved in helping to show the students’ work to its best effect, the teacher demonstrates respect for the pupils and their work. All it takes is a little time and my belief is that surrounding students with a rich environment is worthwhile and has a purposeful meaning in the learning process.

The teaching and learning environment— some Storyline research The aim of this research was to seek experienced teachers’ opinions on what kind of teaching and learning environment may improve the children’s activity in the classroom and stimulate their interest in learning. Twenty-six experienced Storyline teachers participated and I divided them into four focus groups. The teachers involved were from preschool up to youth groups (16-years-old). They had various degrees of experience in using Storyline. Why Storyline teachers? Since I know the principles and the main goals of the Storyline pedagogy, I thought it would be good to hear from teachers how the method works in the classroom and discover if using Storyline is an effective way to encourage children’s interest in learning and prepare them for lifelong learning. The interviews were carried out from January to March 2012. The main themes for the discussion were: if and/or how Storyline helps pupils to be active in their own learning process and how well Storyline motivates them to learn. The teachers looked back into their own teaching experience and gave examples from topics where they pointed out how working with Storyline could motivate the children to be engaged and active learners. The teachers’ answers and examples were transcribed and then analysed. A key finding was that the teachers’ views mirrored the theories of active learning and intrinsic motivation. Therefore, the

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examples presented here, from teachers of various age groups, are framed to reflect the theories, principles and educational aims discussed earlier in this chapter. A number of key themes and ideas emerged. The first example relates to the extension of knowledge. The teachers involved in this example explained how they had begun by discovering and extending knowledge during the Storyline. For example, as one teacher of kindergarten children reported: “The topic we were doing was animals. The students had no idea what we were about to do. We started by asking the students a key question, what large animals did they know, and all of a sudden someone answers, ‘Yes, there are polar bears but they are in danger of becoming killed off.’ And then I introduced the word ‘extinct’. We started working with that concept. Did they know any other animals that are in danger of becoming extinct. In that discussion one student asked if some animals could already be extinct. They were using much more advanced words than I started off with but these just came out of their own prior knowledge” (Teacher 1).

Here we can see the importance of good questioning and the use of mother tongue is always an important factor in all the topic work. The next example, linking to student autonomy and motivation, came from the topic Capital Tours with 12-year-olds (7th grade). This topic provides the teacher with many opportunities to integrate many subjects, such as geography, history, languages, art and aesthetics, mathematics and mother tongue. One teacher said: “We were doing Capital Tours. Students worked in groups and they were supposed to gather some knowledge about certain European cities that they would then present to the other students in class. The students could choose how they wanted to present their knowledge. One group decided to make a video to present their knowledge. I had not mentioned this; it was entirely their own idea. And what I found interesting was that they were working on this night after night at one of the student’s homes. I mean, there’s nothing I could have set them to read or anything I could have asked them to do that would have motivated them like this. They had come up with the idea themselves and that motivated them so much that they were willing to work really hard to prepare to present their information to the class” (Teacher 2).

Although the objectives in this topic were clear, the students felt that they had the opportunity to choose their own way to achieve them and this example demonstrates clearly that, if students are motivated, their interest and their willingness to learn increases.

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This third example demonstrates motivation, initiative, independence, pursuit of knowledge, transfer of knowledge to others, dialogue and work that takes advantage of technology. This is illustrated by a comment from one of the teachers: “Once during a parents’ day the interview was completely taken over by the student and he was so enthusiastic and began showing his parents everything we were doing in the classroom. I thought to myself, this is the way to do it. From that experience I’ve allowed most of my parents’ interviews to develop this way. I don't say much but let the students do the talking. I think it’s rather smart when this happens” (Teacher 3).

From this example we can see how the students have to reflect, perform, recall and formulate their thoughts and decide how they will tell the story when telling the parents about their work. This is a great exercise for them on a number of different levels: they are actively participating in their learning. This next extract exemplifies teamwork (co-operation), which is particularly emphasised in the theories of active learning and is often central to motivating learners: “I had a little girl who had a problem with group work. It was only a group of three, the girl and two boys. They were writing a description of their task and it had been difficult for her working with the boys. She’s very bossy and has gotten away with that until now. This time the boys didn’t back off an inch but to reach an agreement they offered her different options. She learned a great deal from this. They were so nice to her but very firm and sought every way to reach an agreement with her. I think it’s very good for them to work in this way and reach a mutual agreement. They are learning so much about communication and negotiation” (Teacher 4).

The Storyline method offers a lot of opportunities that the students see but that the teacher might have missed. However, this will only be the case if the teachers are ready to allow the students to comment on their observations and then to accept their opinions. As one of the teachers said: “Students show so much initiative if you’re prepared to allow them to do so. I enjoy it very much, even though things take a different course than the one we set out with and the outcome is just a slightly different route to the same goal. This method offers a lot of opportunities that the students spot but that the teacher might not” (Teacher 5).

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A particular theme was that the students really seemed to remember their Storyline topics and their learning during these. A teacher said: “One mother told me that it was so much fun when the students were reflecting on their school years, when they were graduating from the 10th grade. The Storyline topics stood out and the students remembered them all and talked about them” (Teacher 6).

Another teacher said: “I met a student who is grown up now. When he was in the 4th grade I taught him about Icelandic birds using Storyline. He said: ‘I remember so well when we were doing it.’ He told me that he once attended a quiz and got a question about birds. He could then recall his work from that topic, and that helped him so much in that quiz” (Teacher 7).

These examples are only a small sample of the data gathered from the teachers during the research. They emphasise the key findings: the involvement of the students in their own learning; the freedom to imagine; and the role of creativity. Additionally, the participation in debate and discussion is very important, as is reasoning and justification of choices and actions. The emphasis on the learning process fits well with the learners’ day-to-day lives and therefore seems meaningful for them. Many teachers mentioned how the children were actively linking their learning to what was happening in the world when doing Storyline topics. They described how the children brought newspaper clippings to classes or mentioned news stories or radio programmes relating to the topics they were working on. Many interesting themes emerged in my interviews with the teachers that I have yet to take a closer look at and examine further. For example, the teachers mentioned how easy it was to meet different individual needs, how well the method appeals to boys and how active and interested they’d become in their learning. This is not something I sought to ask specially but the examples teachers gave of enthusiasm, activity and initiative, were often specifically related to the boys in their classes. Furthermore it was very interesting that the teachers themselves expressed great joy in working with the Storyline method. And what it means to have a happy teacher! Although more work needs to be done on analysing the interviews, the main result from the research indicates that the teachers believed that the variety of activities, the creativity and imaginative thinking of the Storyline approach, as well as the flexibility and easy adaptation of curricula to the diverse needs of individuals in schools, encourages the

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children’s activity and helps to stimulate greater interest in their learning. The teachers’ answers and examples (case studies) from their own experience seem to mirror the theories of active learning and motivation.

Conclusion This chapter started by providing a glimpse into the possible future demands on education. These demands will have a great impact on the purposes and processes of education, the structure of schools and the teaching profession. Schools will continue to exist but education will be defined in a broader sense. Subjects will be combined in a more holistic way, the boundaries between them will be less obvious (Caldwell, 1999), and so will the boundaries between schools and their environment (Hargreaves and Fullan, 2000). Teachers and schools will have to focus more on each student as an individual rather than as one of a group, and schools, students, teachers and other professionals will increasingly need to work more co-operatively to better serve the needs of each individual. It will also be imperative that teachers look at schooling from the perspective of students’ learning rather than from how they like to teach. Most schools will, in the future, be required to provide powerful, highperformance learning for understanding (Hargreaves and Fink, 2000), which prepares young people to participate in tomorrow’s society. Such learning is not just cognitive and involves not only constructing knowledge but is also cultural and emotional and creates emotional bonds and understanding between students, and between teachers and students. These bonds are the building blocks of empathy, tolerance and civic duty. Such learning, argue Hargreaves and Fink (2000), will only be realised by schools and teachers that are responsive to the cultural, cognitive and emotional diversity of students and ready to involve families and communities to bring learning to higher levels. In other words it is not schooling we are looking for but education which opens up possibilities to investigate new ways to use our senses; seeing, hearing, feeling and moving (Greene, 2001). Storyline topics, with their activities, their stories and their visual displays, offer endless opportunities to bring about discussion and to ignite imagination as well as encouraging critical thinking and evaluation, and thus preparing students for life outside the classroom. And it can sometimes be difficult to find the true path to learning experience, as Kantsø (2000) argues. Sometimes it is not necessary to use words to explain our experiences. Perhaps words are not always needed to explain a

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picture, a poem, a beautiful building or a mountain; this can be expressed through other forms. Learners might even not always know the words they need for this. We must allow the learners to close their eyes and enjoy the journey; to explore events, places, art and culture. All this is possible for active participants in Storyline topics. The Storyline approach is one of the ways that schools can create an active educational environment for their learners and contribute to the educational vision described in the first part of this chapter. It is important to keep in mind the words of Loris Malaguzzi, the Italian scholar and one of the pioneers of the Reggio Emilia approach: “Learning and teaching should not stand on opposite banks and just watch the river flow by; instead, they should embark together on a journey down the water. Through an active, reciprocal exchange, teaching can strengthen learning how to learn” (cited in Edwards et al, 1998: 83).

References Ahlquist, S.L. (2011). The impact of the Storyline approach on the young language learner classroom: a case study in Sweden (EdD thesis), University of Leicester, UK. Barr, I. (2000). Learning for the 21st Century and Storyline. The International Storyline Conference. [Conference Report] Aalborg: Danmarks Lærerhøjskole. Bell, S. (2000). Storyline, Feelings and Respect. The International Storyline Conference, p. 5-12. [Conference Report] Aalborg: Danmarks Lærerhøjskole. Bell, S. and Harkness, S. (2006). Storyline—Promoting Language across the Curriculum. Hertfordshire: United Kingdom Literacy Association (UKLA). Caldwell, B.J. (1999). Education for the public good: Strategic intention for the 21st century. In D.D. Marsh (ed.) Preparing Our Schools for the 21st Century. Alexandria: ASCD Yearbook 1999. Creswell, J. (1997). Creating Worlds, Constructing Meaning: The Scottish Storyline Method. Portsmouth: Heinemann. Edwards, C. P., Gandini, L. and Forman, G. (1998). The hundred languages of children: The Reggio Emilia approach—Advanced Reflections. Westport USA: Ablex. Einarsdottír, J. and Jonsson, O. P. (ed). (2010). John Dewey í hugsun og verki - menntun, reynsla og lýðræði. Reykjavik: Haskolautgafan Unversity Press.

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Eisner, E.W. (2002). The art and the creation of mind. New Haven: Yale University Press. Frame, B. (2000). Key Questions and Effective Learning and Teaching. The International Storyline Conference. [Conference Rapport] Aalborg: Danmarks Lærerhøjskole. Gardner, H. (1993). Multiple Intelligences: The Theory in Practice. New York: Basic Books. Greene, M. (2001). Variations on a Blue Guitar. New York: Teachers College Press. Hargreaves, D. (1998a). Schools of the future. Presentation on the second conference on Quality of Education in Akureyri, 21-22 August 1998. —. (1998b). The Knowledge-creating school. Paper submitted at the annual meeting of the British Educational Research Association in Belfast, August 1998. Hargreaves, D. and Fink, D. (2000). The three dimensions of reform. Educational Leadership 57 (7), 30-34. Hargreaves, A. and Fullan, M (1998). Mentoring in the new millennium. Theory into Practice 39 (1), 50-56. Harkness, S. (2007). Storyline—an approach to effective teaching and learning. In Bell, S., Harkness, S. and White, G. (eds). Storyline: Past, Present and Future, p.19-26. Glasgow: University of Strathclyde. Kantsø, J. (2000). Den æstetiske, praktiske og musiske dimension. Falkenberg, C. and Håkonsson, S. (eds.) Storylinebogen—en håndbog for undervisere. Vejle: Kroghs Forlag. Kyriacou, C. (1998). Essential Teaching Skills (2nd edition). Cheltenham: Stanley Thornes. Read, H. (1943/1958). Education through Art. London: Faber and Faber. UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) (1996). Learning: The Treasure within. Report to UNESCO of the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-First Century. Paris: UNESCO Publishing. —. (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) (2009). Review of contexts and structures for Education for Sustainable Development: Learning for a sustainable world, http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001849/184944e.pdf Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

CHAPTER FOUR CONNECTING MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCE TO STORYLINE: OPPORTUNITIES FOR EVERY TALENT GRIET DE BAECKE AND LILLIAN VAN ACKER

Introduction Howard Gardner’s (1993) theory of Multiple Intelligence can be linked in many ways to the Storyline approach. We have several years of experience in counselling teachers in the use of Storyline and Multiple Intelligence. When it comes to answering key questions, pupils in the classrooms of Ghent (Belgium) are challenged to solve problems by using Multiple Intelligence techniques. In such a way, pupils’ and teachers’ natural talents are matched, stretched and celebrated through specific didactical structures and co-operative learning. The combination of Storyline and Multiple Intelligence is so self-evident that the teachers feel that it enriches learning and is an excellent way to engage all of the pupils in following the line of the story. In this chapter, we will illustrate how a “boring” subject can be turned into an absorbing adventure by the excellent marriage between Storyline and Multiple Intelligence. What is intelligence? Everyone has an opinion or idea about this term. The intellectual functioning of mankind is expressed in terms such as “smart” or “stupid”, “slow” or “quick” in, for example, gathering and retaining information. However, this is a very restrictive interpretation. Since intelligence cannot be easily defined, a wide range of descriptions is too limited or too broad. If we use the term “intelligence”, we are in any case referring to a human capacity. Tacitly, we are acting as if it concerns only one capacity. But other options are possible: several types of capacities or intelligences might exist, or there might be one general function for various intellectual capacities. The notion that intelligence can

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be considered as one general quality expressed by different forms of cognitive functioning remains a topic for discussion in psychology. The interest in individual differences originated when those differences became economically significant. Against the backdrop of industrialisation and prolonged compulsory education, we started looking for the “good” pupil using what were termed “intelligence tests”. Hence, it is not surprising that the story of the definition of intelligence and the development of intelligence tests began at the end of the 19th century with Alfred Binet, the inventor of the first intelligence test (Zangwill, 1987). According to Binet, intelligence depended on surrounding influences and was therefore not a straightforward human quality. For Binet, an intelligence test would measure the capacity of each individual to understand all kinds of things and combine them in several ways. However, Binet was also convinced that intelligence only continues to develop until puberty. One of the criticisms of the early intelligence tests was that linguistic skills were too predominant. Intellectual skills could also be of a different nature. Subsequently, tests were extended and adjusted by, for example, using pictures to reduce the impediment of linguistic knowledge. All of these adjustments of the tests suggest that there is no consensus about the definition of intelligence. However, people agree that tests measure differences, which correspond to our intuitive ideas about differences in intelligence. This is, at least, a basis for further research. Although, for example, being skilful in skateboarding or playing a music instrument does not belong to the generally accepted intuitive notion of intelligence, Howard Gardner was convinced that these might be components of various independent mental abilities. He calls his theory Multiple Intelligence. He draws attention to capacities which are often neglected in our education system and in our society. Gardner distinguishes eight categories, for which he finds confirmation in the research related to brain damage. In this research field, indeed, eight distinct independent capacities are defined. One of these capacities may be damaged, while the other faculties remain intact. Examples include: the loss of spatial understanding (not being capable of recognising a drawing); the loss of kinaesthetic coordination (not being able to perform certain ordered movements); and a sizeable personality alteration. Moreover, Gardner found support for his theory in case studies of “Savant syndrome”. It concerns people with limited capacities who demonstrate one exceptional capacity in an area that can be categorised under one of the eight intelligences. Examples might be a particular musical inventiveness, a particularly skill in calendar arithmetic and/or a special technical talent.

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However, there was considerable criticism of Gardner’s reference to “Savants”. A peculiar talent does not seem to be so exceptional when it is compared to that of the talent of people who have achieved world-class status in a particular area, such as music or mathematics. However, regardless of what might be the ultimate judgment of Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence, it cannot be denied that we intuitively feel that this theory embraces the child and mankind such as we know, see and feel them. Many current education systems, and society, are all too often unilaterally focused on a limited number of capacities, especially language and arithmetic. If we succeed in addressing other capacities in our education system and in our society, then it would not only be more inclusive, but it would also result in enrichment of our society. Does that statement not sound familiar to the Storyline community? For the rest of this article, we will use “talents” and “intelligences” as synonyms.

Which talents or intelligences does Howard Gardner distinguish and what do they mean? The descriptions below give an overview of Gardner’s list of talents or intelligences together with a short description of the different aspects related to each one. Logic-mathematical: The capacity to understand logical correlations and underlying principles and to be able to work with abstract numbers and quantities. People with logic-mathematical intelligence have a preference for reasoning and are often critical. Musical: The capacity to recognise, remember and make musical and rhythmic patterns. People with musical-rhythmic intelligence think in rhythms and melodies. They can more easily concentrate if the voice of the speaker boasts some nuances or if they move rhythmically, make or hear rhythmic sounds. Linguistic: The capacity to use language to express yourself and to understand and convince others. People with sizeable verballinguistic intelligence think in words. They are consequently able to understand something correctly if it is told to them or if they read texts. Naturalistic: The capacity to recognise, understand and work with patterns in natural surroundings. People with well-developed naturalistic intelligence are induced to think by means of a natural environment or by observing natural phenomena. Because they

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observe closely, they are able to classify natural and handmade objects. Spatial: The capacity to visualise situations and difficulties, and to work with them. People with extensive visual-spatial intelligence think in images. They often make small drawings if they have to concentrate on spoken text for a longer period of time. Interpersonal: The capacity to sense, understand, counsel, lead and manipulate. People with interpersonal intelligence reflect by talking to others about their thoughts. Whenever they do not do that, they think less deeply. These people have a preference for co-operation and are very good at this. Bodily-kinaesthetic: The capacity to use (parts of) the body in order to solve a problem, to express something or to make something. People with bodily-kinaesthetic intelligence understand something by doing it. Some of them use their entire body, others principally their hands. These people often need movement in order to concentrate properly. Intrapersonal: The capacity to reflect, and to take correct decisions based on these reflections. People with strongly developed intrapersonal intelligence possess self-knowledge. They decide what they can and cannot do and how they can improve themselves in areas in which they are not proficient. They prefer to think alone, within themselves and in silence. This brief summary is useful in setting the scene for the discussion in the remainder of this chapter.

Multiple Intelligence (MI) in education Behind the laudable conviction that every child has talents, there is an underlying problem for their teachers: we soon know which child is good at drawing or singing, which child scores goals for the local soccer team or which one plays a musical instrument after school hours. Or maybe teachers recognise a born “human calculator” in the class, or a pupil who is remarkably good at “playing with words”. Teachers who regularly organise group work or project work will also soon discover the leaders in the class. Sometimes it seems as if only a few pupils have specific talents. So what about the others? There seems to be a “grey area” of children whose talents we are not actually aware of. Where do we have to start looking for these talents? Are there also children who do not possess true

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talents, who are in fact “weaker” than the others? Is the message for them that a score of 6 out of 10 is “quite a performance”? In Vuurwerkt, a Flemish project which intends to support underprivileged, unemployed adults in discovering talents, and then use them, the solution is formulated as follows: “The first step in developing a talent is to discover it. Sometimes, this is not at all difficult, but the talent is frequently hidden under a thick layer of dust. In particular, people who have endured rejection and disappointment are blind to their possibilities.” (Bon vzw, 2011:19). Being aware of your own talents is the first step in learning. Schools using the Multiple Intelligence theory often use such terms as stretching, matching, and celebrating: Stretching: using the strong intelligences of a pupil to support and enhance the less developed intelligences. Intelligence or talent can therefore, to some degree, be extended and is no longer a fixed IQ number. Matching: paying attention to each of the intelligences separately by challenging them and allowing them to co-operate in harmony with the other intelligences. This process is easier for intelligences that are developed naturally. Celebrating: aims to give pupils recognition for their own unique intelligence pattern. No two minds are identical, but all of them are valued. Two people understanding together can do or know more than one person. By constantly matching, stretching and celebrating in a classroom, pupils understand and get used to strengths and weaknesses in themselves and others. They are able to discuss, understand and cope with differences between people. It reduces competition in the classroom and increases self-confidence. As a pleasant but not unimportant side effect, we see the same processes happening with teachers in MI classrooms. Who does not want to work in a team where different talents of teachers are discovered, seen and being used to help others, and where colleagues help you with their talents if necessary?

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A broad learning environment, in which the Storyline approach offers us a range of possibilities… Quite a few children have low self-esteem and do not know their proper talents. The question is, therefore, how can teachers observe these talents in the class? A first element of the answer is closely connected to the so-called “broad learning environment”. As not every child boasts the same number or type of talents, we should generate an environment that would allow each and every talent to receive the same number of opportunities. This becomes possible through the organisation of activities that differ from the traditional approach. Some examples of this are: musical activities being more than just occasionally singing a song; nature exploration going beyond finding leaves during an Autumn theme; and technical activities which are a bit more challenging than being “busy with your hands”. To reach this level, teachers should ask the following questions: x Are there sufficient opportunities for children to show themselves from an alternative perspective? x Do children get the opportunity to discover new aspects of themselves which are currently unknown to them? x Do they get sufficient opportunities to develop the (new) areas thoroughly? These questions bring us to the perspective of the teacher. Do we not tend to look too much from a middle class perspective? Do we not think too much like the talent scouts on television, scouting for top athletes, artists and musicians? What do we consider as a talent and what is disregarded? An inquiry asking teachers about the talents of children from their class revealed that teachers who were able to identify a talent in more than half of their children included among these capacities not only subject-related talents or talents based on extracurricular activities. They noted how creative or how enterprising some children are. They commented on children who were constantly exploring things or solving problems, and children with empathy who spontaneously comforted other children. At the Pedagogical Counselling Department in the city of Ghent, we believe that the Storyline approach can provide teachers with the means to go actively looking for talents, particularly in children who do not get a lot of attention in the course of “regular” lessons. For us, the Storyline approach is a technique par excellence through which all children can

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develop talents, some of which were previously unnoticed. Talents should not remain under a thick layer of dust. Indeed, a talent will only be functional for a child if it is noticed by others. This is a plea to educators to provide children with a wide range of opportunities to try out different things, to encourage them in what they like to do, and to be alert to what is “appropriate” for every individual. Whether or not children are “successful” is not the major concern. Maybe they did not receive sufficient opportunities to acquire proficiency? Maybe there is still some “potential”? For all these aspects, Storyline can play a fundamental role in our education system. Key questions can provide the initial impetus for learning activities which actively tap talents in previously unclaimed territory. Target-oriented observations of children during these activities reveal talents which were formerly unrecognised. The wellbeing of children increases and the awareness that all children, and teachers, have talents which have developed differently, but are equivalent, gives the school a completely new momentum. Furthermore, it is possible to call on strongly developed talents to help less developed talents grow. Thus, we no longer consider intelligence as static, but as dynamic: a story that will never be finished.

References Bon vzw (2011). Inburgering Brussel: Annual Report 2011, http://www.bonjaarverslag.be Gardner, H. (1993). Multiple Intelligences: The Theory in Practice. New York: Basic Books. Zangwill, O.L. (1987). Binet, Alfred. In Gregory, R. (ed.). The Oxford Companion to the Mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

CHAPTER FIVE SCEPTICAL QUESTIONS ON STORYLINE AND HOW TO ANSWER THEM ULF SCHWÄNKE AND REBECCA PLASKITT

Storyline has become a well-known construct for teaching and learning in a number of countries. But teachers who use Storyline are still sometimes seen as transgressing the everyday boundaries of teaching. These boundaries may be defined by the national or state-wide curriculum but more often they stem from the expectations of headmasters, colleagues, administrators or parents—not forgetting the students themselves. Ideally all these persons should have some basic knowledge of what Storyline is about. As this is often not the case, they tend to be sceptical about a number of features connected to Storyline. On the other hand, teachers who are enthusiastic about Storyline, and who are convinced that this approach is superior to many traditional ways of teaching, will sometimes reject sceptical views not realising that in so doing they will rather reinforce the resistance towards Storyline. The purpose of this chapter is to consider and give value to questions concerning Storyline—even if they may show a remarkable amount of scepticism—and to discuss possible answers from the viewpoint of a “critical friend”. The chapter poses a number of hypothetical questions about education and pedagogical approaches, and then seeks to address these in a systematic way. 1.

How can you learn from a narrative? The era of fairy tales has been over for quite some time.

This is an important objection, because Storyline is about learning rather than just entertaining learners. To answer this question we should recall that for the longest time in human history, stories have been the preferred way for transferring knowledge from one generation to the next (Bell et al, 2007). For instance, think of the Bible, of ancient myths, of

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fables or of the numerous narrations among indigenous peoples. Humans love stories. Today on TV they tell stories most of the time—movies, soap operas and even “Reality TV” deliver some sort of narrative. Even commercials use the story form to convince potential customers. Why is that so? Because a story gives meaning and context to information, and everyone likes to learn about things that are meaningful to them. Also you remember facts much better if they are connected to each other like the links of a chain. A story is such a sequential chain of details. That is why modern learning theory is in favour of storytelling and of narratives in school (cf. Spitzer, 2002; Egan, 1989; and 1997; Roth, 2011). 2.

How can children learn something without being taught in advance?

This is quite an understandable question because it reflects the way schools used to work for a long time. However, we should keep in mind that there are different ways of teaching and learning. One is to present some content—that is the traditional way, where the teacher is doing most of the work while it remains dubious what the students really learn. Another is the correction of prejudices or obsolete knowledge. This cannot be done without the collaboration of the students. A third way of learning is learning by discovery where the students are the most active persons in the learning process. Remember a situation when you found out about something by yourself, how proud you were and how long you remembered the newly acquired knowledge (they call it the “ah-ha effect”). By the way, this is the main motivation for scientists, technicians or artists who deal with a problem when doing research. Of course you cannot learn everything by discovery—it would simply take too long. And of course it will only happen on rare occasions that a student discovers something completely new. They will rather rediscover facts or ideas which are already known, but that is what school is for: to gather knowledge, to learn about its meaning and to get the ability to apply it. Storyline offers many opportunities for learning by discovery. And it is one of the general aims of Storyline to have the students acquire an attitude of genuine curiosity and self-confidence toward the challenges of life that can be compared to that of an inventor. During evaluation and reflection, students may configure the information differently—creating a new product. If they do not learn at school how to cope with unexpected problems, how will they survive in a future world that will be quite different from the present one?

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3.

Why do schools always come up with something new? Didn’t we learn sufficiently when we attended school?

A rather natural question to which there is no simple answer. You are right in the assumption that what happened in the head of a child during a lesson has always been similar for as long as there have been schools. What has changed though is our interpretation of the learning process. Some ancient Greeks, Socrates for instance, believed that the human soul knows everything before one is born, and what is called learning is just remembering; so the task of the teacher was to help the students with their “memories”. Later teachers thought they could transfer knowledge to the students by talking about a certain subject. Rote learning was another idea of how the students’ heads were filled with information. In the 20th century behaviourists regarded the human brain as a “black box”. By carefully watching which sort of input achieved what sort of output, they hoped that they could control the learning process. All these approaches assume that students learn exactly what has been taught. We all know from experience that this is not true. On the contrary we often learnt what the teacher never intended, for example, to show an attentive expression while secretly reading a book below the desk. Today most learning theorists agree that everything we learn involves active construction in our brains. As the following quotation by the writer Jonathan Franzen (2002: 15) suggests, “We catch part of a word and hear the whole. We see expressive faces in floral-pattern upholstery; we constantly fill in blanks.” And the more we are involved in trying to find out about certain content the more we learn. This fact was already discovered by the great American philosopher and educator John Dewey, who emphasised the necessity of student activity. Modern neuroscientists strongly support this view. In addition they underline that learning becomes more likely if different learning methods are applied to learn the same content, because then the neurons are activated in both diverse and efficient ways. For these reasons Storyline uses a variety of activities, inviting students to construct meaning through using different perspectives and tools that help students acquire knowledge for themselves. Developing students’ understanding by having them explore content and multiple intelligences, enhances the learning palette they are developing, which will be their tool as they face experiences and learning situations in their futures. And in this respect it seems more than adequate to try out new learning methods.

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Doesn’t it all take much too long?

You are right—working on a Storyline takes quite some time. Whether it is too much time depends on your expectations concerning the quality of learning outcomes. If you think it is sufficient that students have “heard about” something, then the best way of teaching is to tell them something about the content and show some PowerPoint slides. Unfortunately most of what one hears gets lost very quickly. If we want the content to be anchored in the student’s long-term memory, more effort is required; they should be active learners. Providing striking information, which makes the students think, introduces thought-provoking, open-ended questions and creates an opportunity to explore possible answers and evaluate their relevance and value. Attaching new information to already known facts, and practising where the new insights can be applied to practical problems is preferably done using a hands-on activity. This means that the students use relevant information to develop a model or artefact. Schools must decide whether they want the students to have a vague idea about a huge pile of knowledge or if they want them to acquire the ability to evaluate and resolve difficult and meaningful problems thus not only learning to cope with new challenges but also learning a variety of ways to synthesise facts and content into a meaningful model—showing their understanding of an idea and learning how to learn. Do we want content or process? The latter may take more time but it is much more fruitful. 5.

It looks so much like kindergarten.

That is a correct observation. The question behind this observation probably reads: Can students at secondary school or even university level actually learn something in this way? Can they take the extra time to study serious subjects? The answer to this question is absolutely yes, because students who take part in a lot of different hands-on activities also activate their brains in different ways. Thus the content is better remembered. It is also the reason why students have fun when learning—and it is a wellproven fact that “the brain runs on fun”—it becomes more active when the learning environment is engaging and full of fun. (See also the answer to question 17.) But—someone might ask—don’t students feel infantilised by such an approach? Well, initially some students might lack trust or the experience that this method will work. But from more than 30 years of using Storyline with adult learners it can be said that as soon as they realise how much fun it is and how much they learn such a reservation is never mentioned again.

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John Dewey might have added: Did you ever think about how strange it is for humans, who have a natural desire to move, to be forced to sit still for five or six hours every morning and listen to someone talking? Funnily, most people don’t think that it is absolutely necessary to have a quiet classroom with students sitting neatly at their desks. But for some reason the same people strongly doubt the advantages of a stimulating, interactive and supportive learning environment. 6.

Are the children really allowed to do what they want?

This question is obviously derived from concern about the proper outcomes of teaching, a concern that all parents and teachers will agree on. The answer to this question is quite simple if you watch closely what the students are doing. You will soon realise that they are working on resolutions to problems the teacher has posed by asking a key question. So if students write a list, build a box model, calculate costs or prepare a role play, they do exactly what the teacher wants them to do in order to learn more about the subject of the lesson. In carrying out such activities, however, they have a certain range of freedom and that is why the students themselves often feel they are doing what they like or even what they want. This degree of autonomy also explains the high morale and motivation of students creating within a Storyline. It’s the same as gardening: If you have to mow the lawn every Saturday at 11 o’clock in a precisely defined way, it becomes an annoying duty. If you can decide for yourself what to do in the garden, when and for how long, it becomes a pleasure. 7.

Why do you allow students to be so noisy in the classroom?

Adults who remember that teaching used to be closely connected to silence frequently ask this question. Now Storyline is not encouraging children to shout and be rowdy, but it creates a workshop atmosphere where everyone is busy at the same time (not only the one student who was just asked a question by the teacher). Think of carpenters working on a stage set. They are building, talking about issues and possible solutions as they arise, or imagine a plumbers’ workshop. There is always some considerable noise and yet craftsmen work and learn in such a place. In fact the achievement of the students relies much more on their opportunity to be involved in the task than on the amount of noise. The noise is a dynamic created by active questioning and collaborating on ideas.

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Does it not take too much time to prepare a Storyline; are teachers not overburdened with this task?

You can imagine that many teachers think in a similar way. And indeed it takes quite some time to prepare a Storyline, to define the learning outcomes in accordance with the curriculum, to think up suitable key questions and to ponder which students’ activities might be appropriate to the specific learning situation. The experienced teacher knows that thorough preparation is an investment in the quality of teaching and learning. And most Storyline teachers agree upon the fact that—on the whole—it may take a similar amount of overall time to prepare quality lessons from day to day or to prepare a Storyline that will run over weeks. Once the Storyline is planned you might want to make some minor alterations, create some extracts or materials, and take time to mount or present the students’ work artistically. This process provides a vision with clear goals for the teacher. And the process for the teacher and students is creative, dynamic, engaging and meaningful. 9.

Won’t overachieving students be disadvantaged or at least bored if less able students take their time?

That is one of the main worries of parents. The underlying assumption seems to be that at school the whole class should progress at the same speed. Ambitious parents sometimes worry that their children cannot proceed at their own pace if they are impeded by less gifted students. Storyline allows every student to work as quickly or slowly as is appropriate for him or her. This can be managed by a variety of groupings; students can work in small groups, in pairs, with the whole class or individually. When working on their own, they can proceed as quickly as possible. In fact, they may become an “expert” on a process and be able to teach classmates when they are ready to learn or do the task, for example, using a particular iPad app to show their understanding of a historical topic. This often proves to be advantageous for the whole class. And when working in small groups they have the chance to convince or even teach their fellow students. We all know from experience that we understand an idea most perfectly if we try to explain it to someone else. In that respect collaborative learning doesn’t only help the slower learners but also the quicker ones.

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10. Storyline seems to be all about fantasy; what will children learn about real problems? Indeed, some of the narratives used in Storyline teaching are taken from children’s books. And if you watch children in a Storyline classroom you might get the impression that they are acting according to their fantasy. But if you watch a bit closer you will see that they are using imagination rather than fantasy. Isn’t that pretty much the same? Certainly not! As the following example shows we can discriminate between fantasy and imagination. Things we can only speculate on (for example, whether the human soul is immortal) belong to the realm of fantasy or belief. We may have an opinion on such matters but we will never know for sure. There are other things we don’t know about, but will probably be able to find out about in the future (for example, is there such a thing as dark matter? How does climate change work over thousands of years? Is there such a thing as a criminal personality?). Such questions are very interesting; and if it is the task of schools to prepare children for a future we can’t foresee, then students must acquire the ability to deal with such problems in order to find resolutions to future challenges. That is the reason why Storyline puts less emphasis on the learning of facts and more on problem solving. 11. Why use simulation if you could work on projects instead? Many teachers who are familiar with the ideas of John Dewey might hold this opinion. And they are right that if you can do the real thing in the classroom, just go ahead. If, for instance, the idea is to build a boat that floats, the students should plan, design, build and test a small boat and afterwards evaluate their learning process. But if the idea is to learn about the history of the Vikings and the importance of their longboats for warfare, it is much more instructive to create a simulation or story including incidents to engage thinking and learning. This model can be used to ask a great number of key questions and to learn a lot about the life of the Vikings. When the Storyline, the model that guides student learning, has come to an end, then it is advisable to visit a museum and have a look at a real Viking boat, but there is no need to try and build one yourselves. Yet students can compare their writing and artefacts to the original sources at the museum. You can also simulate a court case, a cruise to the North Cape, an oil platform, a huge fire fought by a fire brigade or the original Olympic Games in ancient Greece. In other words, there are many things, actions or tasks you simply cannot create as a project. But you can learn a

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lot by simulating them. Here, process drama can often enhance the Storyline (McNaughton, 2012). 12. Aren’t there more important goals to achieve than just having the children act out their creativity? Yes, there are. In the end we want the younger generation to preserve our society and to tackle the problems of the future that we cannot foresee. In order to accomplish this they need basic knowledge and process tools, but first of all the ability to cope with new situations. These can be real situations like in project work or situations of simulated reality. In both cases it takes the imagination of the children, collaboration and relevant tools involving testing of their ideas and feedback to create adequate and effective resolutions. That is why creativity is necessary—not because it is nice to have children do creative things but because they will otherwise not be able to deal with future challenges. Divergent thinking offers possible ideas. Creativity combines those ideas and imagines new scenarios or products. 13. All this handicraft work—wouldn’t it be much more modern and more effective to have the students use a computer instead? This objection is heard quite often because the Storyline approach was developed in the 1960s, two decades before desktop computers began to spread across offices and into schools. And indeed it is very important that young people learn to use a computer and know how to use the Internet. These skills are called computer literacy in order to emphasise the fact that nowadays we simply cannot do without computers. No reasonable person would argue that the next generation should be raised without computers. The question is not if but how. In our opinion children should learn to use the computer or other technology as a tool, not as an end in itself. Students might learn to use the computer for word processing, calculating complex tasks, researching and communicating by email. Of course children will also use their computers to download music or videos, play computer games, surf the Internet, buy things from virtual market places, upload films to the web, become members of social networks and so on. These activities are normally learned by doing, as programmes and apps become more intuitive. In most cases it is the child that knows how to do it, and the adult who is taught. So what children should learn about the computer is how to handle it, how to use software for specific purposes and, most importantly, how to avoid wasting time by trying to do things with the

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help of a computer where there is no adequate application. One might for example use avatars in a Storyline instead of collage figures, but will the process of imagining them be as creative and stimulating as making a collage figure? Also, you cannot take them in your hands: they are only on the screen. Many activities a teacher might initiate using (real) collage figures are not possible with virtual figures. A second reason why the use of technology in schools should be limited to the occasions where it is really helpful is the fact that the numerous possibilities a computer offers support multitasking—the ability to do more than one thing at a time. Neurobiologists agree that youths who spend a lot of time playing computer games and surfing on the web tend to become addicted, they lack the ability to concentrate and they make more mistakes than others who spend less time in front of a computer (Bergmann and Hüther, 2007; Korte, 2010). It seems that the universal machine designed to increase effectiveness is also becoming a source of ineffectiveness. If these findings prove true, there is no reason to keep children in front of a computer for longer than necessary. However, as the use of technology is now another tool for students to create artefacts and show understanding, consideration should be given regarding the age of students, and also the availability and variety of technology and apps. One might limit the time frame to 45 minutes for use of technology and then engage in some other tool or environment for learning. 14. How can you measure the individual learning outcomes if students collaborate most of the time? This is a good point and the answer is that one actually cannot. It would take too many teachers to watch each student when doing group work in order to evaluate the learning objectives achieved. It is similar to traditional teaching where only one student speaks at a time and 30 others are (supposedly) listening. But if you do Storyline you can easily watch single students while all the rest are engaged in work. You can deliberately spend time with students who are far ahead of the class (or far behind) and you can support each student at his or her individual level much better than in a regular classroom situation. In addition the students not only acquire objectives belonging to the cognitive domain but they also learn co-operation, empathy, role-distance, respect for their learning partners and other abilities that they will need in their future lives. Storyline is not only about knowledge but also about social learning and attitudes.

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15. Isn’t Storyline just old wine in new bottles—we used to call it “business game” in the old days? As Storyline is an approach to learning that uses simulation of reality there is indeed a certain similarity to other learning environments where something is simulated. But there are also a number of differences: x A business game relies on a real situation; a Storyline can also rely on fiction, a book for instance. x A business game starts with a set of data whereas Storyline starts with a story appealing to the imagination of the students. x A business game normally poses one central problem; a Storyline poses a number of key questions that invite the students to continuously solve one problem after the other. x The rules for a business game are quite strict and mostly a certain outcome is requested. When using a Storyline the educational objectives are important, and there may be a number of different resolutions to the problems that the students have to consider. x In a business game the roles of the students are defined by the teacher in advance, in a Storyline they are defined by the students. x The context of a business game is derived from the curriculum; the contextual details of a Storyline are derived from the students’ lives and ideas. The Storyline teacher collaborates with their students and is willing to develop the underlying narrative together with them. 16. Don’t the students lose respect for their teachers if they are allowed to decide so much by themselves? A crucial question, there is no doubt about that. If the teacher defines their role as that of a tamer they will see themselves in charge of everything that happens in the classroom. In that case they will have to fight for acceptance. In the Storyline classroom the teacher cares about having an atmosphere of mutual respect. The teacher does not ask more than they are willing to give themselves. So the students experience what it is like to become involved in decision making; they learn that it matters whether they are actively participating in learning or just sit in on the lesson. To some people it might sound paradoxical, but the more respect the teacher expresses for their students and the learning process, the more they gain the respect of their students. The Storyline approach lets the

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students feel what it is like to make important contributions to the resolution of meaningful problems. They also learn that every single student is asked to contribute—certainly not a bad basis for life in a democracy. 17. “Life’s not easy at the bottom.” Isn’t Storyline spoiling the children by not challenging them enough? In ancient Greece there was a saying that a person who is not mistreated will not be educated. Dr Samuel Johnson held a similar opinion in the 18th century, as he believed that flogging in schools was advantageous for the pupils. Even today some people think that the hardships of life are the best education and if it is fun it can’t be learning. But what sounds so plausible proves to be wrong if viewed more carefully. Of course students can be taught quite a lot under pressure, and the more pressure there is the more the student will want to escape punishment. The first problem though is that the negative feelings produced by learning under pressure are connected in our brains to the content taught under pressure. So you cannot recall what you have learnt without recalling the negative emotions associated with the content. The second problem is that pressure and punishment do not reinforce learning as much as was formerly thought. They rather lead into a vicious circle, which is difficult to escape from (Butterworth, 1999): The findings of neurobiologists over the last 20 years rather support the view that pressure is not supportive but inhibitive of learning (Singer, 2001). Meaningful content, encouragement by the teacher and an atmosphere of respect are the ingredients of joyful learning. Most adults know from experience that they can do best what they like to do. With children it is just the same. 18. There is so much content in most Storylines which will be outdated not long after the students have left school. Yes, that is true. But it is true for almost everything that is taught at school. Storyline teachers are convinced that it is not so much the content that matters but the abilities and the attitudes the students acquire while actively working on different problems. Of course every student has to learn how to read and write, they should be able to do some arithmetic and they should learn one or more foreign languages. What counts though is not the knowledge of a certain algorithm but a basic understanding of mathematics; what students need is not so much the knowledge of

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vocabulary but the ability to use the structures of a foreign language and to make themselves understood. Instead of delivering content—which is mainly, sooner or later, outdated knowledge—schools should supply the students with the ability to cope with future tasks and give them the confidence that they can succeed. 19. Storyline seems to work only in primary education, but how can you use it in secondary schools if you only teach two or three periods per week? Of course it is quite simple to plan a Storyline if you are a class teacher teaching more than one subject in a class. If you work in secondary education, for example as a foreign language teacher, you will find it more difficult to introduce Storyline to your classroom. Still you have a number of choices: x You can co-operate with other teachers who, for instance, teach mother tongue, math or biology. x You can use the collage figures and models together with the colleague who teaches another foreign language. So, for instance, the students will profit from the same Storyline in Spanish and French. x You can ask the students to do some of the creative work as homework. x You can use a book in the language you are teaching as the “red thread”. But what is even more important: You should differentiate between “going through something” and “learning”. In secondary education it sometimes does not matter so much what the students really have learnt but what has been talked about in class (and then probably was forgotten quite soon afterwards). If that applies to your school as well, why not just take your time and make sure your students learn? As mentioned above, students learn best if they are actively doing something apart from sitting and listening. So why not use projects, role play, situated learning, experiments and—once in a while—Storyline, to support active learning, even if the amount of content seems to be a bit less?

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Conclusion Storyline is more than a method; you might call it a pedagogy. Certainly it is a unique approach to active learning (and teaching). Like all good pedagogical ideas Storyline is alive, which is why it is keeping up with our changing world and with the changing needs of the younger generation. So over the years not only the sceptical questions concerning Storyline will be different ones but also the answers. Nonetheless we hope teachers will continue to design meaningful learning environments by using the red line of a story like a modern-day Ariadne: a thread that leads the learners not back to the entrance of an irritating maze but forward to the frontiers of discovery.

References Bell, S., Harkness, S., and White, G, (eds.) (2007). Storyline: Past, Present and Future. Glasgow: University of Strathclyde. Bergmann, W. and Hüther, G. (2006). Computersüchtig. Kinder im Sog der modernen Medien. Freiburg: Walter. Butterworth, B. (1999). What Counts. How every brain is hardwired for math. New York: The Free Press. Egan, K. (1989). Teaching as Storytelling. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Franzen, J. (2002). How to be alone. New York: Picador. Korte, M. (2010). Was soll nur aus unseren Gehirnen werden? Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung vom 30.4.2010, S. 35. Letschert, J., Letschert-Grabbe, B. and Greven, J.(eds.) (2006). Beyond Storyline: Features, principles and pedagogical profundity. Enschede: SLO. McNaughton, M.J. (2012). “We know how they feel”: Using Storyline in transformative, ecological learning. In Wals, A. and Corcoran, P.B. (eds.). Learning for sustainability in times of accelerating change. Wageningen, Netherlands: Wageningen Academic Publishers. Roth, G. (2011). Bildung braucht Persönlichkeit. Wie Lernen gelingt. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta. Singer, W. (2001). Neurobiologische Anmerkungen zum KonstruktivismusDiskurs. Vortrag im Rahmen des konstituierenden. Workshops der Felix Burda Lectures in Fessenbach. Spitzer, M. (2002). Lernen. Heidelberg:Spektrum Akademischer Verlag.

PART II: STORYLINE IN THE CLASSROOM

CHAPTER SIX NURTURING THE SPIRIT JEFFREY M. CRESWELL

The topic of this chapter is respect for children. I have been troubled for the past several years by a lack of respect for children in most of what passes for education. Parker Palmer (1998) in the forward to the tenth anniversary edition of his book The Courage to Teach quotes a story about John Dewey that humorously illustrates our curious dependence on measurable learning at the expense of nurturing the spirit of the child. Dewey was asked what he thought about the IQ test. Dewey likened the IQ test to his family’s preparations for taking a hog to market. In order to figure out how much to charge for the animal, his family put the hog on one end of a seesaw and piled up bricks on the other until the two balanced. “Then we tried to figure out how much those bricks weighed,” said Dewey. Today we say, in effect, “This child weighs seventy-six bricks’ worth of language skills, while that one weighs eighty-three bricks.” But we still don’t know how much the bricks weigh—and the kinds of bricks we use differ from one setting to another. When the staff tutor team at Jordanhill began their work in schools that developed into Storyline, they started by asking some important questions such as “What matters to children?” and “What do children need?” The order of these questions is important. We usually begin with the question of what children need and then we set about trying to give it to them without ever knowing what matters to the child. Together these questions prepare us to create classrooms that respect the spirit of the child, hence my title, “Nurturing the SPIRIT.” The art of education involves finding out first what matters to a child and then determining what that child needs. The word “educate” comes from the Latin educare meaning “to draw out”. So the verb we use to talk about learning implies that there is a spirit within the child that we draw out in the process of education. True education is not about weighing bricks but about paying attention and nurturing what we see.

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I am going to spend most of this chapter telling you a story. It is a story of a Storyline done at the Metropolitan Learning Centre in Portland, Oregon with a group of first and second graders that happened to include my two grandsons. In the classic Storyline model of experience-reflectiontheory I will take you through the Storyline, reflect on the experience and then share some insights into the characteristics present in Storyline that nurture the SPIRIT of the child. The children in these two first- and second-grade mixed age classrooms were taken on a walk in Forest Park, a beautiful wooded natural area near the school. The entrance into the park that the children walked through is a lovely rose arbour. After walking for some time they came to a large, old growth Douglas Fir tree with a note on it. The note read: “Hi, I’m Pseudotsuga Menziesii, but most people call me Douglas Fir. My friends call me Doug. You can call me Doug. I am happy to see you got my note and you found me. A lot of people walk by but they don’t stop and chat. I am one of the oldest trees in this forest. The fairies of the forest floor keep me strong and healthy. Find a piece of the forest floor about the size of your thumb. Use it to build a fairy. The fairy will be your guide into the forest world. Visit soon! Love, Doug”

As you can imagine, the children were very excited. They quickly went about collecting sticks, pinecones, rocks, pine needles, fern fronds, seeds, moss—anything that might be used to make a fairy. These were put into a bag and carried back to the classroom. The children set about making a large model of Doug in the hallway between the two classrooms and the note was put up on the model for all to read. Then the children were given a wooden clothespin to create their fairy of the forest floor. The fairies were wonderful and whimsical, each with his or her own distinct personality. The children wrote biographies of their fairies and gave them all names like Squirrel Medusa, Red, and Swirl. About once a week Doug left challenges in the hallway that the children, with the help of their fairies, had to investigate. Here is one of those challenges: “I am so glad to see you on a nice day! Did you introduce yourselves to my special plant friends? Those ferns can be tricky to tell apart! I have a plant to show you up on Wildwood Trail. If you all come together, please go in little groups so you don’t step on the little forest floor buddies. Did you bring lunch? The meadow is nice today. Love, Doug”

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These notes always led the children on an investigation to learn more about the forest where Doug lives. What were some of the things that the children investigated? They could identify almost all of the plants and some of the critters that we discovered while we walked—slug, salmon berry, vine maple, moss, to name a few. I have a little story that illustrates the passion these children had for the things they were studying. I was able to accompany them to the park on one occasion. It was a drizzly Oregon morning and everything was wet. This brought out the slugs in great numbers! There were huge banana slugs everywhere you looked. Many of them were in the middle of the trail. The children organised a slug protection system and took turns doing the job. The one who found the slug in the path would crouch over it and cup their hands over the slug for protection. Then they would call out, “Slug warning!” to everyone who passed by. Most six- and seven-yearolds would turn up their noses at slugs and perhaps even end their lives under a shoe, but these kids knew the value of the slugs in the forest and wanted to make sure they were safe. Nurse log with mushrooms, robin’s egg, maidenhair fern: the children were keen observers and stopped frequently to let me know what was all around us. There was one plant in particular that the children pointed out with righteous indignation. You will learn why soon enough, but needless to say it is going to play an important role in the story! Parent volunteers went along on these walks to support the children and they got as excited as the children did. It was not always warm, sunny weather, but the children didn’t seem to mind at all. The occasional showers were no deterrent to these kids. They were on a mission! Sure enough, a problem soon became evident. The children were informed by Doug that there was an invasive species threatening to take over the forest. English ivy had been planted in people’s gardens and had escaped into the forest. Now it threatened to choke out the native plants including big trees like Doug. It didn’t take long for the children to see the danger and want to do something about it. They arranged with an organisation called the No Ivy League to go into the forest and pull ivy from around the trees and the forest floor. They were amazed at the length of the vines and the strength of this tenacious plant! The children worked diligently, with concentration, to remove the evil ivy. Their faces were filled with glee at achieving success. These balls of ivy became thunder balls to hurl down the mountain, or even light sabres that were used to slash back more ivy. They worked with the determination that only comes from deep understanding and the conviction

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that they were doing something important. You would have been impressed with the piles of ivy they collected in just over an hour. After several weeks of studying the plants, animals and trees in the forest the children were invited to create a ceremony to thank Doug and the fairies for all they had taught them about the mysteries of the forest. Each child wrote both a thank you and a wish for Doug on a small piece of watercolour paper and then they painted a watercolour for Doug on the other side. These gifts were taken up to Doug for one final visit. The teachers wound a piece of string around Doug and each child was given a paper clip to attach his or her gratitude to Doug. Needless to say, their gratitude and their wishes expressed their appreciation for all that they had learned along with their hopes and dreams for the forest in the future. After all of the paintings were hung on Doug the children conducted their ceremony and sang a song to Doug: “Douglas fir, O Douglas fir How can I tell you how I feel? You have given me many riches I love you so.”

Back in the classrooms each class created a frieze of the forest floor. They put in all of the details about the forest as they were learning about it. They also created posters showing the evils of English ivy. They made drawings of Doug carefully showing where the note was found on him on their first visit. The children filled out information cards on the plants they had identified. These were put up on the frieze next to the plants. They included the Latin names and common names of the plants and their characteristics, and why the plant is important to the forest floor. The children built forest floor terrariums, which the fairies helped them to take care of. They wrote observations of their forest floor, tested the soil, and added critters such as potato bugs and slugs where appropriate! They made charts of their answers to their key questions and put up word banks, which demonstrated what they were learning in their research and experiments. As part of their school auction the children made a glass quilt of Doug in the forest and this was proudly hung in the classroom. After the visit to say goodbye to Doug the children were invited to do a painting showing their favourite part of the trip. This was followed by some writing about what they had learned during the Storyline. They gathered all of their work into a forest floor folder. These folders were shared with parents at a special open house where the children told all

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about their Storyline, introduced their fairies to their parents, and showed them the frieze and all of the class work. The guiding question for this Storyline was, “How do the choices we make affect the habitats around us?” Clearly the children had developed some interesting responses to this complex question. In terms of the learning goals that were accomplished during the Storyline, the children were able to: x Understand structure, function and interactions of living organisms and their environment x Identify examples of change, identify parts of a cycle x Plan, implement and analyse a simple investigation x Recognise the science issues in a current event x Listen to and read informational text x Develop common vocabulary around content x Reading for information x Begin writing expository text around specific content x Observational drawing x Write poetry inspired by the science Now let us reflect on this experience and see if we can identify some of the characteristics that support or nurture the spirit of the child. In order to do this I am going to share with you an acrostic developed by Rebecca Nye (2009), a wonderful psychologist and researcher who lives in Ely and has worked for Cambridge, Nottingham, and Anglia Ruskin universities. Her research, like the work of Steve Bell and Sallie Harkness in Storyline, involved actually working with children over time and noticing what worked. Rebecca shares that these characteristics are meant to be a set of criteria to really work with, a tool to evaluate and draw out best practice. She proposes that they could become a useful checklist to help you take stock of how well you are supporting the spirit of the child. I have slightly adapted her list in order to apply it to Storyline. Here are the characteristics: x x x x x x

Space Process Imagination Relationship Interests Trust

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As we talk about how these characteristics support the spirit of the child I would challenge you to consider whether these aren’t also characteristics that nurture the spirit of the teacher. I wonder. SPACE: Looking at this picture I wonder what the space in this classroom says to a child. Clearly, this is a space that belongs to everyone. There is student work attractively displayed on the walls. The children are comfortable in this space as indicated by their casual, relaxed body language. The children’s work is attractively displayed with labels. You can’t see it in the picture but much of the display captures the children’s thinking as well as their artistic expressions. This room says that what the children are learning matters and even more importantly that the children matter. Their work is honoured and shared with an audience that the children care about. This honouring of children’s work also carries over to creating an emotional space that supports children. They feel heard in this environment. They feel listened to. They feel respected. PROCESS: The experience of the Forest Floor Storyline contained a lot of rigorous academic learning. But it was much more about an experience that involved a process which was both memorable and meaningful. The children conducted a wishing ceremony when they sang their song to Doug in the forest. It was clear from their heartfelt wishes, which they “threw” up to Doug, that these children had experienced something personal and meaningful. This process is likely to continue after the Storyline is over. Just last week my youngest grandson, Graham, asked his mother if they couldn’t go to Forest Park to visit Doug. He has also taken it upon himself to eradicate all the invasive plants from the back garden of his home! He continues to learn and apply that learning in an ongoing process. IMAGINATION: This Storyline clearly combined scientific investigation with fantasy and imagination. The forest floor fairies lived in the classroom, but they also lived in the imaginations of the children. They inspired the children to learn about the forest. They added both magic and mystery to the experience. The children’s imaginations were respected and honoured in the work in the classroom. Wonder was properly valued as a powerful learning tool, not something to be avoided because there was no right answer. When you walked into the classroom and began talking to the children they freely volunteered what Doug had been writing to them. They introduced you to their forest floor fairy and told you his or her name. The story was a real part of the learning. RELATIONSHIP: What a gift to see classrooms where the teachers built such strong, personal relationships with their students. Both teachers have a wonderful classroom practice that illustrates their commitment to

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each individual child. They begin the day and end the day with a greeting line and a goodbye line. They get down on the children’s level and look each child in the eye, welcoming them in the morning, calling them by name. Then they repeat the ritual at the end of the day thanking each child for his or her contribution to the day and again, calling them by name. We all long to be known, to be seen. These teachers also built strong relationships with their students by modelling. Often during the Storyline the teachers participated in the activities right along with the students. The children see their teachers as fellow learners, not as people above them. They know that they aren’t asking them to do anything that they don’t do or value themselves. INTERESTS: In Storyline we always begin by asking children what they know through a key question. We model that we care about what children think and know, but we also model that we believe they already bring a lot to the classroom with them. Children in a Storyline classroom are not empty vessels waiting to be filled. We believe that education is about “drawing out” that which is already there. We do this by asking real questions, listening to the answers, recording them, and then building upon them. We actually create a learning context in the classroom that embodies the collective knowledge and wondering of the community of learners. This honours individual differences and supports all children to be full participants in the learning. All the children in these two classrooms had the opportunity to pursue their interests at different times throughout the Storyline. Most importantly they were given choices about what they wanted to do. This built ownership as well as allowing individual children to follow their own passions within the framework of the Storyline. TRUST: I loved spending time in these two classrooms because what I observed was a level of engagement and passion which is rare in most classrooms. The students really cared about Doug, and that care came through in their wishes and dreams and paintings. They felt safe to study and explore. They felt inspired. They were absorbed in the learning. All of the other characteristics above help to create this trust which results in powerful, lasting, transformative learning.

Conclusion Now, look back over these characteristics and see how they might serve as criteria for supporting the spirit of the teacher—space, process, imagination, relationship, interests, trust. Aren’t these what teachers experience in a Storyline class? Aren’t these the criteria that inspire us to

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continue our good work with children? I would like to close with a story that illustrates this point. I had the pleasure of doing a Storyline class in a small school in Shoshone, Idaho. Shoshone is a small, economically depressed town in rural Idaho. For the last ten years they have been on the “failing” schools list under the “No Child Left Behind” Act. This required the teachers to narrow their curriculum, reducing social studies and science to half an hour a week and drilling reading and mathematics for hours a day. Children are routinely tested for reading fluency using a stopwatch and they must be able to read a given number of words a minute in order to make the grade. Last year, for the first time, the school met the targets. Our Storyline class began with a sparkling cider toast to the teachers in celebration of this achievement. This accomplishment allowed them to make more choices about how to teach and they had chosen Storyline as a way of enriching their curriculum. The entire staff of this school, including teaching assistants, special education teachers, music and P.E. teachers and the principal, were willing to give up a week of their summer to take Storyline together. They were hungry for work with children that they could get excited about. I would maintain that their spirits were severely malnourished. The school had chosen “The Endangered Species Zoo” for the allschool Storyline and that is the topic we were doing in the class. There was a buzz of excitement in the room as the teachers created their animals, and their zoo guides. On the second day of the class they were working on the box models of the habitats for their animals and I noticed a teacher quietly slip out and go down to her classroom. She came back with a handful of beautiful paintbrushes and she was staring at them lovingly as she walked back into our workspace. I smiled and asked her if she had what she needed. She looked up at me with tears in her eyes and said: “Ten years ago I was told to lock these up in my closet. I wasn’t allowed to paint with children because that wasn’t academic and we had to focus all of our energy on raising our students’ test scores so that we could get off the failing school list. Now you are telling me that I can still teach my children the curriculum and we can paint, and create and imagine. You have no idea how happy that makes me.”

We all long for work that matters. Working with children in this holistic, creative, and inspiring way makes teaching a joy. I know that Storyline is a wonderful way of nurturing the spirits of children and teachers. I hope you are inspired to continue sharing this wonderful way of working with children in these challenging and exciting times.

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References No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, 20 U.S.C. 6319 (2008) Nye, R. (2009). Children’s Spirituality: What It Is and Why It Matters. London: Church Publishing House. Palmer, P. (1998). The Courage to Teach. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

CHAPTER SEVEN THE BIRTH OF A STORYLINE SCHOOL PAMELA ADAMSON

Introduction Unlike many other parts of the country, Falkirk, located in the central belt of Scotland, is thriving and has a growing population. Falkirk is within easy commuting distance with Glasgow, Edinburgh and Stirling and is serviced with good road and rail links. Its geographical location has led to an increased demand for housing. As a result, new communities are being created and others expanded. Kinnaird Village is one such community and, when complete, will comprise 1800 new homes served by Kinnaird Primary School which has been built at its very heart. Built in 2007, Kinnaird Primary School has 3 departments; nursery (age 3 & 4), Primary (Primary 1 – Primary 7) and specialist provision for children with severe and complex needs (Primary 1 – Primary 7). There is capacity for 50 children in the nursery, 434 in the primary and 24 with severe and complex needs. The school started small but has experienced rapid growth as the housing development progressed (150 children in 2007 has increased to 500 in 2013). It is predominantly an affluent area although some social housing has been built within this new community. The school does not operate in isolation and works in close partnership with a cluster of schools in the local area. This group comprises 2 nursery schools, 7 primary schools (all with nursery classes attached), and 3 secondary schools (one for children with additional support needs). The birth of this new school coincided with a time of major change in Scottish education. Scotland was in the process of gearing up to full implementation of a new national curriculum, Curriculum for Excellence, in 2010. This provided an excellent opportunity for this new school to adopt Curriculum for Excellence from the outset.

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People I was appointed as headteacher to open this school, having previously been headteacher of another two schools within the local area. I had responsibility for the recruitment and training of staff, the development of the curriculum, learning and teaching, and ensuring appropriate resources were in place to support this. I had a “blank canvas”. Having a vision was vital. As headteacher it was up to me to develop and share a vision for this new school. The school was at the very heart of this new community and it was important that the quality of the learners’ experiences matched the quality of the new facility. The eyes of the local council and the local community were on us! My initial priorities focused on: x x x x x x

Creating our identity Establishing a positive ethos Sharing our vision Creating an effective team (staff, pupils and parents) Ensuring appropriate and sufficient resources were in place Ensuring that there were high standards of learning and teaching

I had to consider the needs of staff, pupils and parents and ensure that they felt part of the creation and development of this new school. The staff came from a wide variety of schools and with varying levels of experience. All had applied to join this new school team and demonstrated a strong commitment to the school from the outset. The pupils also came from different schools, having experienced different learning and teaching approaches and experiences. The parents, particularly those whose children joined us in our initial year, were taking a huge leap of faith in the school as there was no history or reputation against which to assess the quality of the learning experience their child would receive.

Time Prior to the school opening I needed to establish a plan of action. There were four key elements to my plan for the school’s inaugural year: x x x x

Implement Curriculum for Excellence from the outset Use the school’s opening as the curriculum in its initial year Remove constraints from staff where possible Use Storyline as a key driver

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Implementing Curriculum for Excellence from Day One enabled the staff team to focus fully on the future. I wanted to avoid having to make unnecessary changes or to impose programmes of study, planning formats, etc. I felt that it was important that the staff team, parents and pupils were all involved in the development of our new curriculum. Having been a committed Storyline practitioner throughout my teaching career I knew the value and relevance of such an approach in relation to the core principles of Curriculum for Excellence. I had been involved in the introduction and development of the use of Storyline as headteacher in my previous school. Working in partnership with our Education Services Curriculum Support Team, pilot projects were undertaken and training for staff rolled out across a number of schools. My school was used as a model for this work. Opening a new school is a huge task! I knew that it would be impossible to establish every area of the curriculum immediately. I was prepared to take a risk and focus on inter-disciplinary projects which were specifically relevant to the school’s situation. The new school itself would be the curriculum for its first year. All of the teaching staff had worked in the local area prior to being appointed but they all came from different schools. I wanted to involve them in developing this new curriculum together and I knew that it would take time. To resolve this I decided to focus on effective learning and teaching while allowing them to plan in a way with which they were already familiar. Removing these constraints would free them to focus on learner’s experiences rather than trying to become familiar with imposed new planning structures. Removing constraints is fine but providing freedom is frightening, particularly for the less experienced staff. It was important that common structures were in place. I believed that Storyline would provide the structures we required.

Why Storyline? Storyline was originally developed to support inter-disciplinary working and this is a key feature of Curriculum for Excellence. I was also resourcing an entirely new school. Everything to support learning in every area of the curriculum had to be sourced and purchased. I knew that Storyline was a very cost-effective way of working, e.g. using junk and craft materials to create settings, people, etc. It was also well-suited to being delivered across a range of year groups and could therefore be matched to the banded levels within the new curriculum:

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Early Level First Level Second Level

Nursery and Primary 1 Primary 2, 3 and 4 Primary 5, 6 and 7

By designing inter-disciplinary Storyline topics which were relevant to the school’s situation and which could be delivered across stages, I would be able to develop staff teams and a shared understanding of learning experiences and outcomes. The feeling of ownership is also central to Storyline. The teacher has the line but the children have the story. I needed to establish a learning community who felt ownership of their new school and knew that this approach could be a powerful driver in making this happen.

Planting the seed The next stage was to implement my plan of action. A half-day training session was planned prior to the school’s opening by Education Services and our Educational Psychology team. A special needs school was to be closed and the staff and pupil population split between two new schools being built. Kinnaird was one of these schools and the purpose of the morning was to help support planning for change. This was the first time the new Kinnaird staff team would meet. I wanted to provide them with an activity which would be fun and nonthreatening, but which would have a specific purpose. I chose to use a common Storyline technique as a practical workshop activity; creating a collage of faces. Each person was challenged to create a character, a member of staff for our new school. Their character had to have the skills and qualities which they felt would make them ideal for their role in our new school and had to work in a job-type different from their own, e.g. a teacher may choose to create a clerical assistant or support assistant. This hands-on practical activity proved highly effective in breaking the ice. New colleagues had to share resources, chat and ask each other about their job roles. The focus on skills and qualities helped establish a shared understanding of the high standards we were looking for in our new school. The outcomes of this day were prominently displayed in the staffroom of our new school when it initially opened as a reminder of this. Another reason for my choice of workshop activity was to plant a seed with my new staff team about Storyline itself. Only a couple of staff had any direct experience of using this approach but many were aware of my involvement in its development at my previous school. I wanted to plant a

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seed in the hope that it would spark an interest in learning more. My plan worked, and very shortly after the school opened several staff asked me if formal training in Storyline could be provided. All staff, both teaching and non-teaching, were provided with a fullday’s training in Storyline delivered by Steve Bell and Sallie Harkness. By involving both teaching and non-teaching staff everyone working in the school developed an understanding of the philosophy behind this approach and its relevance to our school and Curriculum for Excellence. Not only did it serve that brief, it also proved to be an excellent team-building day due to the practical nature of many of the activities. The school community extends beyond staff and pupils; it encompasses parents too. As headteacher I have a duty to inform and consult with parents. The introduction of Storyline to Kinnaird Primary, as one of the key learning and teaching approaches we would use to deliver Curriculum for Excellence, demanded that we provided parents with an understanding of it too. I believe that the best way to fully understand Storyline is to experience it so I led a full-day workshop for parents similar to that undertaken by staff. I used photographs and parent feedback about this day to explain what Storyline is all about to parents who were unable to attend, e.g. via the school newsletters, display boards and on our website. Our ability to share the very positive messages and endorsement of this approach from parents to parents was extremely powerful as it provided them with reassurance that this new school was delivering exciting learning experiences for their children.

Relevance One of the key principles of curriculum design in Curriculum for Excellence is “relevance”. I wanted to use the school’s opening as our curriculum in our initial year. What was of particular relevance to our new school’s location was the fact that it had been built in the centre of a huge, empty, building site. Developers had designed an entirely new community with the school and a small shopping centre being at its heart. Completion of the development of this new community was initially predicted at taking about 10 years so the school knew that it could expect constant growth and expansion. New people would be continually arriving to live in these new homes. It was therefore important that the school helped develop a strong understanding of “community”, both in terms of the school itself and in the wider sense.

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“New Neighbours” was a well-established Storyline topic which I believed would be of particular relevance to our school situation. I decided to ask our Primary 2, 3 and 4 classes to do “New Neighbours”. All three year groups were within the first level of Curriculum for Excellence so their learning outcomes and experiences were the same. By getting the teachers to work on the same topic I was also able to begin developing relationships across my new staff team. Teachers adjusted the topic plan to ensure that the learning outcomes met the appropriate stage of development for their year group, e.g. Primary 4 added a section about vandalism. Parents were also showing an interest and getting involved. One Primary 4 parent even contacted me as she was concerned that the school had been “vandalised”. Her child had clearly been talking about their learning at home!

Gaining confidence The success and impact of staff training was immediately apparent. Every teacher committed to delivering at least one Storyline project per year and the nursery team quickly set about writing their own topic plan, “The Giant’s Bear”. Their story was based around a giant (the friendly brother of the giant from Jack in the Beanstalk) who had lost his bear and wrote to the children using a huge letter to ask for their help in finding it. The children quickly engaged in searching for the bear but realised that they did not know what it looked like. They decided to write to the bear asking for a photograph. Others decided to telephone him. It was at this point that the value of training everyone in the school became very evident. The school janitor (caretaker) played the giant and was the voice at the other end of the phone. When the children visited the school office to ask the secretary for a stamp for their letter to the giant, she wrote the reply back in character as the giant. Posters made by the nursery children were displayed around the school, involving older pupils in the search. “So that’s what the bear looks like!” exclaimed one mother as she arrived to collect her child from nursery. It was apparently all her child talked about at home. This level of involvement from staff, pupils and parents, and the impact and energy it was giving to the learning taking place in the initial year of the school’s life really helped to establish our position as a school and give parents confidence in the learning experiences we would provide.

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Community development The second major project undertaken in the primary department in our first year was a project entitled “Eco Community”. At that time the school was completely surrounded by empty land and we only had plans of how our new community would eventually look. How do planners design entirely new communities? I was involved in writing this topic outline with a group of colleagues preparing for the International Storyline Conference being held in Gothenburg in April 2008. I agreed to implement the plan at Kinnaird and share the outcomes at the conference. Our Primary 5, 6 and 7 pupils worked together on this topic. We wanted to utilise this opportunity to enable staff to work together and for the pupils, who had come from various schools, to develop their relationships too. Knowing that local developers had a large-scale model of our new community, we decided to use this as the format for developing ours too. This project was a huge success. The use of “community meetings”, led by a pupil committee, to make all the decisions around the development of the project enabled a very high level of pupil ownership and involvement. Effective partnership working with the local builders was established and the children were able to draw on real-life expertise to inform their own community design. Due to the impact of this project it was extended to run for a longer time. The children returned from their Easter break to discover that there were plans to build a motorway through their new community! A campaign was then launched to save it and resulted in the local councillor and the head of the roads department being summoned to the school so that the children could share their argument. The children really believed that this was real... so real that I had to write to their parents to explain that it was just fictitious! This single Storyline project had a profound impact on the school as a whole. The children felt that their learning had been so successful because it had felt so real. They insisted that all visitors attending the formal opening ceremony of the school had to be shown their project, which had taken over an entire classroom. This meant that many key members of our local Education Services team, local councillors and parents learnt more about Storyline and the quality of learning this approach supported. Staff and pupils were subsequently invited to deliver a presentation about this work at Scotland’s annual Learning Festival in September 2008. They also presented to several groups of international visitors which included the Danish Parliamentary Education Committee.

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The level of publicity it got really put our school on the map. It helped give us our identity at a local, national and international level, and ensured that parents had confidence in the standard of education this new school would provide.

International connections The school has developed a strong reputation for its Global Citizenship work since it first opened and Storyline has been the key which has opened many doors for us. A report made by the Danish Parliamentary Committee on their visit to our school and my involvement in the Gothenburg conference led to further international links. Our use of Storyline across our school has been the stimulus for forging international partnerships. We have provided student placements for a Danish social education student and a German trainee teacher, both of whom wanted to learn more about Storyline. We regularly welcome many Storyline practitioners from all over the world to our school. Between 2010 and 2012 we participated in a highly successful Comenius project entitled Storyline in Practice in Different Countries with schools in Sweden and Norway.

Curriculum development Following the success of our initial year we needed to develop our curriculum rationale and expand the range of topics across the school which would meet the needs of Curriculum for Excellence. In order to do this I led the staff in a development task. I asked them to identify: x What topics had worked well in the past and for what stage in the school x Why they were successful x What they have always wanted to teach but have never been allowed to Teachers then matched their answers to the experiences and outcomes within Curriculum for Excellence. This resulted in us identifying proven topic themes across all stages in the school which teachers felt confident in delivering. It also enabled us to quickly identify gaps where new topics needed to be developed. All staff committed to delivering at least one Storyline topic per year.

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Continuing staff development The initial staff training and the success of the Storyline projects undertaken in our first year ensured that staff members were motivated to develop this approach further. Our local education authority had embraced Storyline following the pilot project that they had undertaken with me at my previous school. They ensured that Storyline development and training featured as a key development priority in their strategic plan. As a result a wide range of training opportunities were provided to staff. Several of my teachers took advantage of this training. Two took part in the development of a Storyline based on “toys”. This involved them working with a group of teachers from other schools. They designed their topic plan and met at intervals throughout its implementation to share its outcomes. A formal evaluation ensured that the views of staff, pupils and parents were sought in relation to the impact of the project. The very positive results further consolidated my teachers’ belief that this was a very effective teaching methodology, further strengthening the commitment of staff in general across the school. The rapid growth of staff due to the constantly rising school population has necessitated continuing training and development. The building was designed so that classrooms are linked in pairs. They have a shared “quiet room” linking them together. I encouraged staff to work together and our school timetabling was designed to ensure that stage partners were released from class at the same time to undertake planning and preparation. The vast majority of new recruits to our school were newly qualified teachers. By June 2012 50% of our teaching staff had two years or less teaching experience. To ensure they felt supported I matched newly qualified teachers with more experienced ones. I also encouraged teachers to record the journey of each Storyline project with photographs and examples of work. This enabled new staff with a record of a pervious topic to help them become familiar with the Storyline approach should it be unfamiliar to them. A bank of Storyline plans was also accessible which they could use as they were or adapt to meet their needs.

Curriculum tracking Storyline is very much an inter-disciplinary approach, i.e. several areas of the curriculum are covered within each topic plan. It was important that the staff had a shared understanding of our curriculum rationale and that we tracked coverage of our curriculum.

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To facilitate this, a tracking system was introduced which enabled teachers to identify which learning outcome and experience they had covered in each curriculum area and how they had done it. Over a threeyear period this would provide clear evidence of the pathway taken through the curriculum by each class across a Curriculum for Excellence level. We recognised that our curriculum is not static. Our topic planner has been reviewed on an annual basis to ensure its continued relevance and our responsiveness to the needs and interests of our pupils, e.g. in the summer of 2012 the whole school undertook a major project on the theme of the Olympics. Incorporated within this was a specially written Storyline plan tasking a year group to organise an Olympic “closing ceremony” for the whole school.

Community links From the first day our new school opened we took our role as the centre of this new community very seriously and have proactively sought to develop a wide range of partnership links with local agencies, businesses and community groups. Each year, for example, we have included the Storyline topic ‘The Shopping Centre’ in our Primary 3 curriculum. We knew that there were plans to build a small shopping centre directly opposite the school and felt it important to develop an understanding of this with our pupils. Now under construction, we will be able to revisit this with these classes, comparing their ideas with reality and developing their learning and business partnership further in a very real sense. The partnership work with the local builders was also invaluable with our initial Eco Community project work, something which we have been able to sustain over the past five years. We have also utilised the resources available to use, e.g. Primary 2 pupils visited and evaluated the local show homes to determine the suitability for an elderly couple who had asked if they could advise them about housing in the local area as they were considering moving to live in Kinnaird.

Parental involvement We have always felt it important to share our pupils’ learning with parents. The more they understand about the learning and teaching approaches we take the more effectively they can support their child’s learning at home.

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Each year each class in the school takes responsibility for leading a whole school assembly. Teachers very often chose to time these to coincide with the end of a Storyline project. The parents of the class leading the assembly are invited to join the rest of the school in hearing all about the learning that has taken place. Often, the parents are invited for a tour of the classroom too with the children acting as their tour guides. This whole-school and parental involvement has ensured that the children’s work is valued and celebrated and the feedback from both groups is consistently positive.

Pupil voice As headteacher I have a duty to ensure that pupils have a voice and that their opinions and ideas are used to enhance our school. We do this in a variety of ways, e.g. various pupil committees, pupil conferences, questionnaires, etc. It is also important that children learn how we can influence things as adults. Each year our Primary 5 pupils learn about the Scottish system for government. Using the Storyline approach they learn this by creating their own political parties, writing manifestos (containing actions which could actually be delivered for real in the school) and conducting their own election involving every pupil in the school. They test their ideas against reality by inviting government ministers to school and by visiting the Scottish Parliament itself. Using the Storyline approach for this makes it extremely powerful and ensures that its outcomes are relevant and meaningful.

Quality assurance Self-evaluation is at the very heart of the Scottish education system. It is vital that schools continually monitor and assess their own performance. These evaluations are validated through inspections by the local education authority (local council) and by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education (HMIe). Teachers are trained to be reflective practitioners and every Storyline project is reviewed in a variety of ways to ensure that it has been effective in meeting the planned learning intentions.

Conclusion I set Storyline as a key driver for change when opening Kinnaird Primary School back in 2007. I believed that this would provide the framework we need to implement our new curriculum while ensuring

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high-quality learning and teaching. Was I right to believe this? In June 2012 our school was inspected by HMIe who identified and acknowledged that the Storyline approach had played a central role in the provision of very good learning experiences and reported this in their final report. Our commitment to Storyline remains strong and we continually strive to develop new skills and topic plans. This session (2012-2013) all staff will receive training in book-based Storylines and in visualisation (art and display techniques). We look forward to welcoming more international visitors and embarking on school partnerships well into the future. Kinnaird Primary is still very much on its Storyline journey!

CHAPTER EIGHT GLOBAL STORYLINES: THE WORLD IN THE CLASSROOM; THE CLASSROOM IN THE WORLD MARIE JEANNE MCNAUGHTON AND DIANA ELLIS

Prologue “It was morning in the village. Mist hung over the valley and the treecovered lower slopes of the mountain were only just visible, while the peak soared above the landscape. In the distance, the sea began to catch the light and seemed almost to sparkle. The sun had just risen and the people of this remote and self-sufficient community were preparing for the day. As well as their main work, as farmers or fishermen, bakers or builders, each had a particular role in looking after and protecting the island’s most precious resource, the Water Source. This flowed from high in the mountain, turning from trickle to stream as it fed into the lake below, feeding the land and serving the needs of the community. In many ways, life was uncomplicated on the island, dictated by the seasons and the length of the day. But the people were not without sophistication and many ingenious technological solutions had been found to make the best use of the island’s resources. On that morning, as usual, water systems were being monitored, fields were being irrigated and many other routine tasks were being undertaken. As usual, too, the islanders took time to stop and pass the time of day and to chat about the latest news and events. But this was not going to turn out to be a usual day. Indeed, on this day, the life of the community would change forever…” Based on Episode 3 of “The Water Source” Global Storyline

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Introduction Story making and storytelling are fundamental human activities. All cultures include stories that explore and communicate traditions, values and universal themes, often through the use of allegory and symbolism. Story can entertain, but it can also inform, illustrate abstract concepts and help to convey the complexity of human action and relationships. It can also be, for example, a medium for developing skills and making connections, a means of social and cultural bonding and of sharing culture and belief systems, or a way of sharing in common human experiences, often by uniting both the cognitive and the affective domains. Moon (2010: 96) states that story “…can tap into the imagination and emotions and form new and meaningful connections between existing areas of knowledge that can be neglected in conventional practice.” The power and potential of story in learning has been recognised by Storyline practitioners since the 1960s. The Global Storylines project has adopted and adapted the Storyline methodology, incorporating specific Global Citizenship Education (GCE) and Educational Drama pedagogies and strategies. It aims to help teachers and learners to develop and extend their understanding of their skills and values relating to some of the many environmental, social and economic issues facing humanity in the 21st century.

The Global Storylines project The Global Storylines project was developed jointly by the West of Scotland Development Education Centre (WOSDEC—Diana Ellis and Lynn Baxendale), the University of Strathclyde (Marie Jeanne McNaughton) and Glasgow Educational Improvement Service (Ruth Barr) —the Global Storylines Team. It was a 3-year, DFID-funded (Department for International Development) project, set up in 2010, the overall aim of which was to embed an exploration of global sustainability and citizenship issues into the learning experiences of pupils in Glasgow. Over the course of the project, teachers from 38 Glasgow primary and secondary schools received training to enable them to implement and evaluate a range of global citizenship-based, Global Storylines topics, developed by the project team, in their classrooms. Topic pedagogy is based on, and extends from, that of Scottish Storyline (Bell et al, 2007). Using a constructivist approach (Selly, 1999) around a series of key questions, the teacher and learners create a fictional environment as the starting point for cross-curricular, environmental and

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global citizenship learning. The key questions are used to develop a number of “episodes” forming the Storyline. A particular innovation in the Global Storylines project was the integration into the Storyline of a wide range of Global Citizenship activities and NGO (non-governmental organisation) teacher support materials, from, for example, Oxfam, Save the Children and Christian Aid. A second innovation was the inclusion of educational drama, not as an optional extra but as a key pedagogical approach within each Storyline. The project teachers all received specific training in action research methodology, in GCE, in the Storyline approach, and in using educational drama as a learning medium. The GS Team sought to involve learners in the creation and development of stories about communities affected by social, economic or environmental problems, prompting a critical exploration of both local and global development issues. During the classroom implementation of each, the Global Storylines were designed to: x x x x x x x x

Provide contexts for meaningful global learning Allow flexible, responsive teaching Enable cross-curricular links and curriculum coherence Empower learners through opportunities for agency, critical thinking, reflection, decision-making and choice Encompass skills and concepts development, and exploration of values Encourage social collaboration and participative approaches Develop empathy, as opposed to sympathy, through affective learning Provide opportunities for learners to take risks, but in a safe environment

Additionally, project outcomes included: x The emergence of a body of trained, confident teachers, with a critical understanding of global development issues who are exploring issues around the Millennium Development Goals with pupils through the methodology of Global Storylines within the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence x The development of a sustainable, peer-led model of Continuing Professional Development for Glasgow teachers around Global Storylines

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Global Storylines afford teachers and learners opportunities to make regular connections between the stories and “real world” issues. The format allows learners to explore specific sustainability and development issues including those around the Millennium Development Goals (United Nations, 2000), and in doing so, to develop their understanding of global interdependence. Global Storylines, then, offer teachers a creative, dynamic and reflective way to engage learners in critical thinking and the exploration of values.

GCE links in Global Storylines A particular feature of the Global Storylines planning is that each episode is specifically linked to the development of knowledge and concepts, skills, and values and attitudes in GCE. Oxfam, in 2006, produced a document setting out the key learning for responsible Global Citizenship: Knowledge and Understanding: social justice and equity; diversity; globalisation and interdependence; sustainable development; peace and conflict. Skills: critical thinking; ability to argue effectively; ability to challenge injustice and inequalities; respect for people and things; cooperation and conflict resolution. Values and Attitudes: sense of identity and self-esteem; empathy; commitment to social justice; value and respect for diversity; concern for the environment and commitment to sustainable development; belief that people can make a difference (Oxfam, 2006: 4). These have been adapted and extended as part of the Global Storylines project in order to more accurately fit both the Scottish curriculum, Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) and the learning outcomes of the Global Storylines topics. They provide descriptors of expected behaviours for each of the elements listed above, at each curricular level, and aim to create a flexible tool for teachers to use in planning and assessment. The general headings are set out at the top of each Global Storylines episode plan. The teacher should consult the framework of descriptors and then highlight the aspects of learning in GCE that are the focus of that episode (see Appendix 1). An example of the descriptors can be seen in Table 8-1. A wide range of a number of excellent support materials designed by, for example, Oxfam, help to break down the issues into manageable, ageappropriate steps.

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Table 8-1. Examples from Global Storylines GCE/SE learning frameworks GCE/SE Theme

CfE Early Level sense of immediate and local environment

CfE First Level sense of the wider world

CfE Second Level trade between countries

CfE Third Level awareness of interdependdence

Knowledge about the world and its affairs: the links between countries, power relationships and different political systems. An understanding of the complexities of global issues. Co-operation and conflict resolution (S)

awareness of different places

links and connections between different places

fair trade

awareness of our political system and others

co-operating sharing

tact and diplomacy

accepting and acting on group decisions

negotiation

Ability to share and work with others effectively, to analyse conflicts objectively and find resolutions acceptable to all. Empathy (VandA) Sensitivity to the feelings, needs and lives of others in the world: a sense of common humanity and common needs and rights. A capacity for compassion.

starting to resolve arguments peacefully

involving/ including society and others

compromising

interest in and concern for others in wider sphere

empathy towards others locally and globally

Globalisation and Interdependence (KandU)

starting to participate concern for others in immediate circle

compassion sensitivity to the needs and rights of others

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Using Drama in Global Storylines Educational Drama is an integral part of each Global Storylines topic. In Storyline, the individual people, members of the imagined community created by the pupils, are usually incorporated into a frieze of the environment in which that community is set. Using drama the Storyline people “step out of the picture” (McNaughton, 2007). Drama can add an extra “dimension” to Storyline. It allows us to take the characters down from the frieze and to bring them to life. Instead of imagining the events in the peoples’ lives, drama allows the children to play them out—the children can try out “being” the people from the Storyline frieze. It is as if the characters step down from the picture and are embodied in the children who are then, for a time, able to be inside the story. It also allows the participants to talk to any of the characters in the story, to ask them questions, to try to discover more about who they are, what kind of lives they lead and why they behave as they do (McNaughton, 2007: 150). In Global Storylines the educational drama sessions harness the natural ability of young people to play and pretend, so that drama becomes a medium for learning. It is “process” or “living through” drama, (Bolton, 1992) and it is based on improvised role play rather than on pre-written scripts. It uses a wide range of theatre conventions such as still image, thought-tracking and conscience alley to enable the participants to put themselves “in the shoes” of others and to explore ideas, emotions, values and actions from different perspectives. The strategy of teacher-in-role allows the teacher to take part in the improvisation with the learners, often in a low-status role, seeking help or advice from the learners’ characters, or playing devil’s advocate. A key feature of educational drama, and one that is central in Global Storylines, is reflection time, which allows the participants to look back, out of role, and critically reflect on their characters’ actions and responses during the drama activities. McNaughton’s (2010) research on using drama in ESD/GCE found that there was considerable evidence that the pedagogy of educational drama: x provides the participants (teacher and learners) with meaningful contexts in which concepts in ESD/GCE could be explored x allows a wide range of skills linked to ESD/GCE to be developed and practised x encourages the consideration of dispositions, attitudes and values necessary for positive environmental citizenship

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The use of drama in Global Storylines, then, extends the teacher’s repertoire of pedagogical strategies with which to address humanenvironmental issues.

The Global Storylines A feature of the project, made possible because of the DfID grant, was the ongoing support and training offered to the teachers in their own classes by a member of the WOSDEC teaching team, Diana Ellis, who was seconded from school on a full-time basis for three years. Another feature was that the funding allowed project teachers to spend three or more days out of school each year, working and learning together in sessions on GCE/SE, Storyline, drama and action research, led by members of the project team. The teachers are also given time to share experiences and reflections and to offer each other peer support, both online and through school visits to each other’s classes. The experienced teachers act as mentors for the incoming teachers, as well as undertaking new Global Storylines. Thus, a community of practice for Global Storylines was established. Now that the project has finished, ongoing continuing professional development in the Global Storylines methodology is available for teachers, both in Scotland and further afield. Five Global Storylines were written and implemented during the three years of the project. It is envisaged that a topic will last for around six to eight weeks, depending on the number of sessions/lessons that the teacher decides is appropriate for each episode, and on the breadth and depth of the study. It is important to note that the Global Storylines topics are based on an integrated curricular approach, whereby the learners have opportunities, at different times during the school day, to engage in a wide range of curricular and cross-curricular activities, such as research, discussion, critical examination of information, and writing, related to the global citizenship and sustainability issues emerging from the Global Storyline. Many of the activities are linked to NGO teacher support materials (e.g. from Oxfam, WWF, Save the Children and Christian Aid). Opportunities are provided to extend knowledge and understanding in, for example, the arts, mathematics, science, geography, history and economics of the issues involved. In this section, the five Global Storylines contexts are outlined.

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Year 1, First Level: The Village and the Giant A village enters a competition to be the “best village community in the country”. However, their plans are thwarted by the presence of a troublesome giant who is making a mess and being anti-social. What does this giant want? Can the villagers help him to fit into the community and, if so, how can they do so while still maintaining their best village status? This story provides stimulus for exploring prejudice and discrimination within our communities in the real world, offering young learners an opportunity to examine their attitudes towards difference and inclusion.

Year 1, Second Level: The Water Source A remote, generally self-sufficient, community is asked to offer refuge to people who have become displaced as their water supply has dried up. Will they help? How does the extended community share the resources? What happens when the extended community also begins to suffer from water shortages? How can the community survive? As well as investigating issues of water scarcity and sustainability, learners are supported here to examine the human consequences of these issues. Through the powerful drama episodes, the learners experience what it feels like to be both a refugee and a community receiving refugees. This motivates them to research what happens in real life, and ultimately to take action for change.

Year 2, First Level: Our Food, Our World In a farming community everyone farms the same imaginary crop. The characters experience the vagaries of the world trade system. How can they find ways to trade fairly and live sustainably in their local environment? A further problem occurs when insect damage to their crops threatens their way of life. The community commissions the help of a team of entomologists working in a local laboratory who look for sustainable solutions. Out of character, the learners are inspired to research both how trade (unfair and fair) works in the real world, and how insects are beneficial to farmers. In this way young learners really begin to feel that sense of interdependence we have with both other humans and our planet’s precious resources and rich biodiversity.

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Year 2, Second Level: Our Crop, Our Land A small rural farming community, where the basic mono-culture is supplemented by small-scale cottage farming, is threatened when a developer buys the huge tract of land that incorporates their community, and plans to grow a different, commercial crop. Their way of life is threatened by this land grab. How will the farmers take action to save their community and maintain their independence? As in the first level farming story, the learners here are motivated to make connections between our way of life here, what we consume and who grows it elsewhere. Although learners touch on trade justice and the vagaries of the market, the majority of the research out of character involves learners investigating land grabs in the real world and what they can do to help stop this happening.

Year 3, First and Second Level: The Discovery This story is set in a unique habitat with a particular ecosystem that supports some very rare wildlife. The community lives well and the people are proud and protective of their special place. Then a discovery is made on the land of a valuable commodity (a mineral ore or some other valuable resource, already in use in the world), the exploitation of which could change their lives. A large development is proposed for extracting the commodity, but this will damage the habitat of the animal—what do the community do? This story provokes a deep sense of connection and interdependence with our natural world. Many of the learning activities out of character look at the minerals in our everyday objects such as mobile phones—exploring how, more often than not, these are extracted by miners who are paid poorly, with unacceptable working conditions and using methods which irreversibly damage the local environment. Learners are thus inspired to take action to expose these issues and challenge the large multinationals responsible. These brief outlines describe how the unique combination of educational drama, story and critical reflection support learners to develop the skills, values and attitudes of a Global Citizen. It is also important to note that the Global Storylines topics are based on an integrated curricular approach, whereby the learners have opportunities, at different times during the school day, to engage in a wide range of related learning and activities from a number of curriculum areas.

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The impact of Global Storylines: some evidence and findings A requirement of the project funding was that, throughout the project, data should be gathered to evidence the impact of the project on the pupils, the teachers and the community. To that end, written, oral and photographic evidence has been gathered. The data includes teachers’ reflective logs; recordings from teachers’ reflective focus group discussions; interviews with groups of pupils; interviews with head teachers; pupil’s written and drawn work; and photographic and video evidence of pupil involvement. Additionally, an independent assessor was appointed to scrutinise the project implementation and to look in particular at the potential impact of the project on all parties involved. Analysis of data from Year 1 suggests that the Global Storylines approach can contribute to an alternative environmental education paradigm, one that provides more positive, optimistic, action-oriented views of environmental issues. The exploration of both human relationships and relationships with the non-human environment, developed through the context of the fictional communities and places created within the Storylines, and brought “to life” in the drama, can offer a powerful tool for the examination and development of human action in and interaction with the environment. At the same time, the Storyline provides a safe “distance” from which fears, prejudices, values and alternative choices and behaviours can be examined, and solutions proposed. In the following sections, some brief examples of the data gathered may serve to give the reader a “flavour” of the extent of the positive responses to the learning from the pupils, the teachers and from independent observers.

The pupils’ learning During each project, the teachers kept detailed records and reflective accounts of the development of pupil learning. Analysis of these data suggests that three main categories of pupil learning took place as a result of their taking part in the projects: learning in sustainable development; critical thinking skills; and values, respect and empathy. Example of their comments included: “It was great to see children’s curiosity and interest growing about the water poverty problems facing their fictional community. They are more aware now of similar issues in the world that I thought they would be.” (T. C.)

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“The pupils looked at different viewpoints and realised how they were being manipulated by what others were telling them. They agreed that once gossip begins it is very hard to convince people that there is not some element of truth in it.” (T.F.) “I feel the children have a growing commitment to social justice. They are very willing to speak up for others and were happy to learn from the ‘incomers’.” (T.A.)

Pupils, too, were given many opportunities to evaluate their own learning and to comment on their views on the topics both in written evaluations and during recorded focus group sessions. There was overwhelming enthusiasm from the pupils, and their assessments were often articulate and honest. For example: “My overall impression of the topic was that it was one of the best topics I’ve ever done. It was all the drama, because I thought learning about farming would be boring, but when I experienced it, like experiencing the land grabbing—we had some challenging questions. And it was emotional for some people, cos it actually felt real in a way, so that’s why it’s one of the best topics I’ve done, and will probably do for a while!” (P.B.) “It was really powerful when they said we were getting our land taken off us. It was good in a way, but bad in a way cos you’d experienced all this stuff and you thought you were doing fine, but then that happened. It was really strong.” (P.L.) “I’d say that the topic itself was a bit of a surprise, because we don’t really do that in school. It’s more appealing to people our age instead of just studying stuff. In all the other topics, when you do work it feels like you’re doing so much work, but in this topic you’re doing a lot of work but it doesn’t feel like that because it’s something fun.” (P.N.)

In general, then, the teachers were pleased with the progress made in the pupils’ learning and the pupils were happy to be involved in engaging and meaningful activities.

The teachers’ impressions Data were gathered from the reflective discussions during teacher focus group meetings, and from the teachers’ reflective learning logs. This demonstrated that the teachers judged themselves to have grown and developed, both personally and professionally in their awareness of global

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issues, as a result of taking part in Global Storylines projects. Some examples of comments include: “Through the Storyline children can really empathise with their characters and gain a deeper understanding of the issues people are affected by. They also learn how to debate and argue opinions in a safe environment.” (T.C.) “I realise now how much support is required from ordinary citizens to continue to improve the basic living conditions in some countries.” (T.S.) “I feel I am now thinking so much more about our impact on the future—I feel more strongly about the importance of providing for future generations—and empowering pupils as they will be the adults making decisions in the future.” (T.M.) “It’s the only chance the pupils (and I) have of empathising with and understanding more the injustice of situations throughout the world and the consequences for people involved.” (T.I.) “I am now feeling more confident in tackling controversial issues with my pupils.” (T.J.)

The development of the teachers’ confidence in using the Global Storylines to teach GCE, and also the development of their own personal awareness of global issues were two of the strongest features of the project.

The views of the external observers In order to confirm and validate the project, a number of professionals who were not directly involved in the writing or teaching of the Global Storylines were consulted. The head teachers of the project schools were very positive in their assessment of how the projects have impacted on the learning and sometimes the behaviour of the pupils. Additionally, the project was required to employ an external evaluator to assess the merits of the project independently. Finally, members of both Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education (HMIe) and the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) were asked to comment on the usefulness of the project. As a result of these consultations, the GTCS has invited the Global Storylines Team to present the project to be included in a portfolio of professionally recognised qualifications that might be undertaken by teachers in Scotland. Examples of comments from external observers include:

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“These children have awareness and a depth of understanding about these important world issues... everything that we do affects people all over the world... It has fitted so beautifully into Curriculum for Excellence because it has encouraged the children to work independently, to work more collaboratively and to take on roles and responsibilities so that they can share knowledge and understanding.” (Head Teacher) “It is evident that not only has the experience changed participants’ way of teaching, for some it has changed their outlook, beliefs and actions. The teachers now are passionate about global learning, and recognise that children’s learning is deeper with Global Storylines compared to previous approaches they have used. They are enjoying teaching in this way.” (External Evaluator) “These teachers have given us a new benchmark for the quality of Professional Recognition in the area of Education for Global Citizenship. What came through was a passion for social justice. We’ll be using some of these as exemplars for other teachers, and would like to accredit the Global Storylines training programme as one of only 3 programmes across Scotland which takes teachers and pupils through a deep learning process about Global Issues.” (Education Adviser, General Teaching Council for Scotland)

In summary, the project has provided substantial evidence that Global Storylines topics benefit all of the topic participants, pupils and teachers.

Conclusion The data, therefore, suggest that the Global Storylines project offered access to a combination of powerful, and sometimes unique, pedagogical tools. These, it might be suggested, helped the learners to explore the difficult, and sometimes controversial, ESD/GCE issues that emerged from the Storylines. The teachers in the project highlighted the fact that going from the particular (the specific story) to the general (parallel stories developing awareness of real-world issues) was facilitated by the Global Storylines approach. The children were able to understand, and empathise with, the plight of their people, in their story: they had “been” these people. This provided a frame through which to view highly complex issues and events. The use of a number of excellent support materials designed by, for example, Oxfam and UNICEF, helped to break down the issues into manageable, age-appropriate steps. It was also important, given the age of the children, to end each Storyline on a note of hope, though not one of unrealistic optimism. Looking at real-life examples of how various

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communities throughout the world have dealt with, and are dealing with, environmental and social threats in positive ways, helps to ground the Global Storylines learning firmly in the real world. The data suggest that the participation in this integrated approach also extends and deepens the learners’ affective response to the issues being explored, encouraging the development of empathy and allowing the learners to identify with the issues on a “human” level (Jarvis and Parker, 2005). The Global Storylines methodology thus prompted a deeper critical exploration of both local and global development issues. The main goal, for both pupils and teachers, is to explore different perspectives of both local and global development in a way that affects not only their minds, but crucially also their hearts.

References Bell, S. Harkness, S. and White, G. (eds.) (2007). Storyline: Past, Present and Future. Glasgow: University of Strathclyde. Bolton, G. M. (1992). New perspectives on classroom drama. London, Nelson Thornes Ltd. Jarvis, P. and Parker, S. (2005). Human learning: An holistic approach. Oxon: Routledge. McNaughton, M.J. (2007). Stepping Out of the Picture: Using Drama in Storyline Topics. In Bell, S., Harkness, S. and White, G. (eds.) Storyline: Past, Present and Future. Glasgow: University of Strathclyde. —. (2010). Educational drama in education for sustainable development: Ecopedagogy in action. Pedagogy, Culture and Society. 18 (3), 289308. Moon, J. (2010). Using Story in Higher Education and Professional Development. Oxon, UK: Routledge. Oxfam (2006). Education for global citizenship: A guide for schools. Oxon: Oxfam. Scottish Executive Curriculum Review Group (SECRG) (2004-2009). A curriculum for excellence. Edinburgh: Scottish Executive. Selly, N. (1999). The art of constructivist teaching in the primary school: A guide for students and teachers. London: David Fulton Publishers. Some useful websites for GCE information and resources: Christian Aid: http://www.christianaid.org.uk/ Education Scotland:

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http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/learningteachingandassessment/lear ningacrossthecurriculum/themesacrosslearning/globalcitizenship/index .asp Oxfam: http://www.oxfam.org.uk/education Save The Children: http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/about-us/what-wedo/education UNICEF: http://www.unicef.org.uk/ WWF: http://scotland.wwf.org.uk/

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APPENDIX A An Example of the Global Storyline: the Water Source (Level 2/KS2) Background to the global issue: Environmentalists and scientists agree that water will be a key global environmental and social issue of the 21st century. Almost 900 million people still lack access to safe drinking water and 2.6 billion people still lack access to basic sanitation. Storyline summary: A remote community dependent on a single water source is asked to offer refuge to people who have become displaced as their water supply has dried up. What will influence their decision? How will the new, extended, community share the resources? What happens when the new community also begins to suffer from water shortages? Global Citizenship Teaching and Learning: Valuing resources (the “preciousness” of water, sustainability of harvesting and consumption) Participation (community cohesion, making informed decisions, willingness to make a difference) Empathy (sense of common humanity, awareness and compassion for the needs of others) Critical thinking (asking questions, expressing opinions, justifying reasons, challenging injustice)

Critical thinking

Skills:

What are their needs?

Who lives here?

What does it look like?

Where are we?

Key Questions

VandA:

A remote community dependent on a single water source

Context Building (1)

Storyline Episodes

Global Citizenship links

Social justice and equity Empathy

KandU:

Sustainable development Concern for environment

Belief you can make a difference

Globalisation and interdependence Sense of justice

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Ability to challenge Co-operation and conflict resolution injustice Learner Activities Teachers Learning Intentions Assessment to expand as appropriate To work together to decide Discuss possible remote How do pupils describe a the environment for the environments, e.g. forest, community and explaining story mountain, coastal, island, the different kinds of To work together to agree desert, tundra... communities they belong to? on who lives in this Make an initial decision on environment setting the environment for the How do pupils demonstrate To understand that we are Storyline—remind pupils that an understanding of the all members of lots of this is flexible at this stage. difference between luxury different kinds of Explore what the term and necessity? communities, including a “community” means—what global one. communities do we belong to? How do pupils demonstrate To work together to agree What are the needs of our local respect for diversity within the basic needs of the community? What do we their community members? Storyline community contribute to our community? within the chosen Choose relevant activities from environment Save the Children’s “What is a Community?” lesson ideas.

Value and respect for diversity

Ability to argue effectively

Selfesteem

Diversity

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Context Building (2) Our water source: the heart of community life Episode 1 Water Celebration Day

Examine how people use water around the world

Find and select relevant info about different community rituals and celebrations (locally and globally)

How does the community celebrate the water source?

To understand the roles of different members of the community, ensuring their needs are met.

Research community rituals and celebrations. Drama Scene 1: The Celebration (using movement, music, improvisation and text; audience awareness)

Research water use in home/school/around world. Luxury or necessity?

Make initial decision on who lives in this setting What could be the needs of the community in the Storyline setting? Christian Aid “Global Class” activity; British Council/ UNICEF wants and needs activity Pupils make initial class concept-map of the setting.

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How does the water source sustain this community?

Summary of all episodes

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Demonstrate understanding of the equal rights to access of water through their celebration activities.

Present reasons in agreement or disagreement about water issues

Episode 4 The troubled community leave their home

What are the displaced people’s needs in the community? Are these different than before?

Who is the visitor? How can we help her community?

Episode 3

A stranger with a worrying message...

What are their roles and responsibilities in the community?

Episode 2 A day in the life…

Develop empathy towards refugees.

Understand the needs of displaced people.

Respect and listen carefully to the views of others in the class Understand that caring and sharing are important for being happy To work together to make a decision about how to help

Compose a detailed biography of each character in the Storyline.

How do pupils demonstrate their critical thinking about the visitor’s request?

Can pupils look at the situation from the perspective of the other community?

Drama Scene 4: Leaving Home The class take on new roles as the other community packing and leaving. List the needs of the newcomers: UNICEF Lifestyle Priorities activity. Suggestions of how the original community can help.

Justify roles and responsibilities in the community and how all use the water.

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Drama Scene 3: A visitor arrives. A scout arrives in the community with news that the water source in his area has dried up. He is looking for help. Pupils write lists of alternatives then make decision as to best way forward. Focus on offering refuge to the displaced people.

Drama Scene 2: A Day in the Life of the Community “Participation ladder” activity (pp. 9-12 of UNICEF. What is Participation?)

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(Culminating in a final Sharing Event.)

Episode 6 The big debate: finding a way forward

Episode 5 The water source begins to dry up…

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How?

Present our learning to others, reflecting on what skills we have developed and how our attitudes and values might have changed.

Argue effectively by presenting reasoned points based on evidence.

How does the situation change for the community?

Who decided?

Understand how and why water shortages happen and the effects.

What are the present and potential future problems?

Drama Scene 5: Where’s our Water? The community experiences difficulty with their water supply—gossip begins. Oxfam resource Water for All. Examine water shortage stories from around the world. Drama Scene 6: The Big Debate. Many members of the existing community think that the newcomers should leave. The community is divided. A debate has been organised so that decisions can be made. Consequences chain (P11 Oxfam Guide for Schools); possible/ probable futures (Citizenship for the Future, WWF); Circles of Influence map/ Pupils present their learning to the school and wider community.

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How do pupils demonstrate a growing sense of social justice for all? How do they explain the idea of sustainable living?

How do pupils think critically about the new situation?

How do pupils demonstrate their growing understanding of injustice?

CHAPTER NINE LEARNING IN THE ENVIRONMENT SALLIE HARKNESS

Introduction This chapter describes how I, Sallie Harkness of Storyline Scotland, in collaboration with staff from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), One Voice for Nature, developed three Storyline topics to progress a number of school projects in the Perth and Kinross area of Scotland: x x x

Growing Up Around Loch Leven Growing up with Quarrymill Reintroduction of White Tailed Eagles to Eastern Scotland

New curriculum guidelines in Scotland have emphasised the importance of children’s learning about the need for conservation to protect biodiversity and also the value of outdoor experience. The Curriculum for Excellence (2004-2014) identifies four main aims of education. These are that pupils should become Successful Learners, Confident Individuals, Responsible Citizens and Effective Contributors. There is much anecdotal evidence suggesting that participation in Storyline topics will help to promote these qualities. In the ministerial foreword to “Curriculum for Excellence through Outdoor Learning” (2009: 2) Keith Brown, MSP, Minister for Skills and Lifelong Learning stated that: “Learning need not take place solely within educational buildings. The outdoor environment has massive potential for learning. We are extremely fortunate to have such rich urban and rural environments on our doorsteps and our children and young people’s learning experience can be enhanced by maximising the potential of the outdoors.”

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The collaboration with RSPB came as a result of a chance meeting between myself and Dr Joyce Gilbert, then Education Policy Officer for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. RSPB has a reserve and education centre at Vane Farm in Perth and Kinross overlooking Loch Leven, the major UK nesting place for the Tufted Duck, home to thousands of wintering geese from Iceland, and an area of special scientific interest. One of Dr Gilbert’s remits was to encourage local schools to take part in a long-term project called “Growing Up Around Loch Leven”. She realised that introducing Storyline approaches to teachers in the schools concerned might help to encourage more active pupil-centred involvement. The schools in the project were one fairly large secondary and a number of primaries in the small towns and villages scattered around the shores of the loch. One perceived problem was that school visits to the outdoor centre at Vane Farm were not effectively linked to work in the classrooms before and after the visit. I was interested in designing Storyline topics that would prepare pupils for the outdoor learning and suggest follow-up activities to be completed on their return to school. Additional benefits would be an updating of the teachers’ and RSPB staff members’ approaches to teaching and learning and stronger ties between the two groups. Funds were made available to support a Storyline workshop for class teachers at Vane Farm where they were also introduced to the scope and facilities of the RSPB centre.

Growing Up around Loch Leven At a teachers’ workshop participants from the loch-side schools were introduced to “a typical Storyline topic” in which pupils should build a large-scale picture frieze of a loch-side community, create characters who lived and worked there, and then, in role, explore reactions to proposals to create a nature reserve and visitors’ centre. The Storyline plan moved on to enable pupils to adapt their frieze, then build and staff the visitors’ centre. At that point the visit to Vane Farm allowed pupils to compare their “mental model” with the “real thing” and to link their visit with previous experience and thinking. As one would expect they were full of questions about the differences and similarities between what they had designed in the classroom and the actual reserve. Pupils from Portmoak Primary then decided to record a sound picture portraying the loch and its environs. They also wrote poems about their visit. Most of the teachers adapted the material to suit their special interests and the age and ability of their pupils. Year 3 pupils at Milnathort Primary developed a rather different Storyline named “Life in the Woodland”

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working with their teacher Rachel Law. This class made a large-scale frieze of the forest environment and created animal characters in the form of paper plate puppets. Rachel went on to write another Storyline that she named “Minibeasts in the Garden”. After their visit to Vane Farm pupils in the small village school at Cleish explored their immediate surroundings and designed a local nature trail. All of these pupils visited Vane Farm at different points in their studies and were able to carry out follow-up work on their return to school. (See Appendix 1 for an example of the Storyline plan and texts.)

Fig. 9-1. Portmoak Frieze constructed by Year 4/5 pupils

Growing Up with Quarrymill Funds from the Gannochy Trust (set up by Arthur Bell, the whisky magnate) offered further opportunities to schools in and around the city of Perth to examine and assess a local park/wild area as a means of encouraging outdoor learning. Pupils were then challenged to identify areas near their school that could be used in this way. Teachers from the area were invited to spend a day at Quarrymill to explore the park and be introduced to a possible Storyline challenge topic that they could develop with their class. The challenge was designed to give a focus to classroom activities before the pupils visited the park, to make sense of activities during their visit, and to lead on to further challenges when the classes returned to their schools.

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White Tailed Eagles Return to East Scotland Following a successful project to reintroduce white tailed eagles to the West of Scotland, collaboration between Scotland and Norway resulted in a further initiative to bring these magnificent birds to Eastern Scotland. To ensure the success of this project it was recognised that schools had a role to play. Once again RSPB were able to access funding to finance research and development. Lynnette Borrodaile was responsible for creating a factfile on the eagles while I designed a Storyline plan. This topic was aimed at year 6 and 7 pupils (10-12 years) and invited the class to help publicise the initiative and persuade others of its value and importance. Teachers from schools in Perth and Kinross were introduced to this material at a one-day in-service workshop held in the city of Perth and they agreed to undertake classroom work on their return to school. (For a copy of the “Eagles” Storyline, please contact the author.)

Reflections Pupils and teachers responded favourably to adopting the Storyline approach in their classrooms and appreciated the packages of support material made available. Much high-quality work was developed in schools before children had their outdoor experience. This prepared them for visits outdoors giving added value and resulting in a renewed enthusiasm for further work after the class returned to school. The Storylines all presented challenges and in some respects were not typical of the “traditional” Storyline approach. In the challenge topics (Quarrymill and White Tailed Eagles) pupils were invited to take on new roles as themselves rather than create imaginary characters. The use of “letters” was a strategy that enabled teachers to introduce and drive forward these topics and in both cases they were real letters from real people who eventually appeared in the classrooms. All the Storylines included opportunities for research and reference work and the success of these episodes depended on the teacher providing suitable materials. In the case of the Sea Eagles the fact file created by Lynette Borrodaile was invaluable. The funding accessed by Dr Joyce Gilbert made teacher workshops a possibility although finding “cover” during these was not easy. Follow-up visits by RSPB staff also contributed to the progress and success of the topic work as did the pupil visits to Vane Farm and Quarrymill. It remains to be seen if the schools will continue using the Storyline approach and if they will plan further development of the topics that involve outdoor work and visits. The Scottish Curriculum for Excellence

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clearly supports such initiatives. In a recent paper, Curriculum for Excellence through Outdoor Learning (2010: 9) it is stated that: “Different outdoor learning experiences offer opportunities for personal and learning skills development in areas such as communication, problem solving, information technology, working with others and thinking skills. Outdoor learning offers many opportunities for learners to deepen and contextualise their understanding within curriculum areas, and for linking learning across the curriculum in different contexts and at all levels.”

A parent council member said: “They understand what they’re doing a lot more—it’s all very well looking at books and speaking about things but if they’re outside doing it, it’s a lot more real for them and I think it helps them to understand.”

Another relevant quotation comes from Gardner (1993). “We have got to do a lot fewer things in school. The greatest enemy of understanding is ‘coverage’. As long as you are determined to cover everything, you actually ensure that most kids are not going to understand. You have got to take enough time to get kids deeply involved in something so that they can think about it in lots of different ways and apply it—not just in school, but at home and on the street, and so on.”

Already the programmes have been interrupted by movement of staff, lack of further funding, and pressure from other curriculum initiatives. Two years of wet and stormy weather may also have lessened enthusiasm for going outdoors but, without exception, the pupils did not mind being out in rain and wind. They relished the outdoor learning experiences and it was clear that in many cases these were new experiences. With special thanks to Dr Joyce Gilbert and to Sandy Howe of RSPB, also to Lynette Borrodaile, and to all the children and teachers involved.

References Gardner, H. (1993). Multiple Intelligences: The Theory in Practice. New York: Basic Books. Learning and Teaching Scotland (2010). Curriculum for Excellence through Outdoor Learning. Glasgow: Learning and Teaching Scotland. Scottish Government (2004-2014). Curriculum for Excellence, http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/thecurriculum/whatiscurriculumf orexcellence/index.asp

Key Questions

How do you think we could “translate” the words into a picture?

What kind of people will live here? What jobs will they do? How will they spend their leisure time?

How do you think people will react to the notice? What happens at the Meeting?

Storyline

1.The Landscape (see Text 1)

2. The People

3. The Notice (see Text 2)

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Teacher reads text while class listen Pupils list items for largescale frieze picture Groups work on different areas and the frieze is created Pupils answer key question and create smallscale figures of different characters Each character is named, given a simple biography and introduced to the class Pupils discuss the notice and then consider how their character will react Role play of meeting

Pupil Activities

Class then group and individual Individual role play in a group/class context

Class

Re-arrange furniture or use another room

Text 2—facsimile poster

Biography cards

Art materials including large background paper Art materials including fabric and threads, scissors, adhesive

Groups/pairs and individuals Class then individuals

Text 1—copies may be provided for close study

Resources

Class

Organisation

An Example of the Storylines

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Imaginative writing in form of biography Oral skills Reading for understanding Projecting into thoughts and feelings of a character Role play

Group skills, imagining and designing Imagining and designing

Learning and Assessment Listening and understanding, recall of detail

What is a good way for us to celebrate this Storyline?

What have we learned? What was enjoyable? Should changes be made in future? What is there yet to learn?

7. Review

How will the people be affected? How do you think they feel? What do you think might happen now? How best can we tell the stories of these incidents?

What changes will be made in the area?

6. Celebration

5. Incidents

4. Changes

Review questions are discussed and feedback noted Pupils may write individual reviews

Class discussion, suggestions are listed A choice is made and the celebration planned and organised

Stories/reports, etc. are written

Pupils discuss changes and these are recorded on the frieze In role of their character pupils express feelings to one another Pupils brainstorm ideas for incidents are listed (Teacher can also suggest)

Groups Individuals

Individuals pairs and groups of three Class then groups, pairs or individuals depending on choice Individuals and small groups Class, groups and individuals— opportunities for all to take part Class

Class followed by groups

Learning in the Environment

Paper and pencil

Flipchart

Requirements will vary according to the kind of celebration

Some groups will require costumes and props, others art materials and others writing materials

Art materials, etc. for transformation of frieze

Functional writing, expressing an individual view

Self-evaluation

Expressing ideas, exchanging views, agreeing, assigning and carrying out tasks

Writing—narrative form, reports, scripts, etc.

Imagining/ discussing

Empathy

Prediction/logical thinking

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Text 1: The Loch Leven Landscape The valley was wide, flanked by gentle hills to the north and steeper slopes to east and south. In the centre of the valley, surrounded mainly by fertile farm land, lay a large, shallow, freshwater loch. Four burns fed the loch and the river leaving it at the south east corner flowed out to a bigger river estuary some 24 kilometres away. On a fine day the loch lay peacefully reflecting the blue of the clear sky above it. Swans sailed majestically on the calm waters dipping down to feed on the abundant plant life below the surface. There were fish down there too in the nutrient rich water. The loch was home to a variety of ducks, its islands providing safe havens for nesting birds. In the wetlands surrounding the loch reed beds and overhanging willow scrub sheltered the ducks and ducklings from predators, disturbance and bad weather. A multitude of insects lived out their short lives in and around the loch which was also home to small animals such as otters, water voles and water shrews. In autumn huge numbers of geese flying from their breeding grounds in Iceland and Greenland stopped by the loch on their way south or made it their winter home. The loch was a popular destination for fishermen and wild fowlers. Pasture land in the valley was grazed by dairy and beef cattle, sheep and horses. Farm crops included cereals, potatoes, broccoli and strawberries. There was woodland also, tangles of ancient trees on the slopes of the hillsides and more recent forestry plantations in other parts of the valley. A network of small narrow roads connected the farms, villages and little towns at the north end of the loch but the motorway further west carried most of the heavy traffic, leaving the valley and its inhabitants undisturbed.

Text 2: The Notice Site of Special Scientific Interest NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN OF A PUBLIC MEETING TO DISCUSS PROPOSALS FOR THE LOCAL AREA Residents (over the age of 18) are invited to attend at the Public Hall at 7.30 pm on Wednesday 30th September to hear proposals for the establishment of a NATIONAL NATURE RESERVE Representatives of SNH and RSPB will be on hand to explain details, to answer questions and hear opinions.

CHAPTER TEN STORYLINE AS A MEANS OF DEVELOPING LINGUISTIC CREATIVITY JOANNA SMOGORZEWSKA

Introduction The foundation of all kinds of creativity training is the question of the most effective way to develop creative potential. There are many kinds of creative training, which include exercising different abilities concerning various methods and techniques. A number of studies show that developing creativity is possible. The idea of developing children’s creative potential is realised when they are exposed to different kinds of activities—artistic, linguistic and musical (UszyĔska-Jarmoc, 2003)—and these can develop the imagination (Górniewicz, 1991). In the study described below, the Storyline method was treated as a kind of creativity training, the aim of which was to develop the language creativity of fiveyear-olds. It examined the efficacy of the Storyline method. Additionally, the study was an opportunity to demonstrate the Storyline method to Polish teachers, as it is not well known in Poland.

The linguistic creativity of children Linguistic creativity is defined differently in academic literature, depending on whether it is related to linguistics, psycholinguistics, psychology or education. But in many cases, even if the definitions are somewhat different, there is some overlap. One of the definitions of linguistic creativity refers to Chomsky’s generative theory and its view that language can be creative and that everyday language can feature innovation (Chomsky, 1968). According to psycholinguists, language has creative characteristics because, in using language, people can both express what they think and, at the same time, what they are talking about

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can influence how they think (Kurcz, 1980, 1987). In this definition creative language and thinking are symbiotic, and contribute to human knowledge and understanding about the world. According to the psycho-pedagogical definition, the linguistic creativity of children is understood to be the creation of new words (neologisms) and of stories. Creating neologisms is mostly done on the spot by young children and helps them in filling the blanks that are caused by an, as yet, limited vocabulary. Spontaneous creation of neologisms is mostly characteristic of children until the age of four, yet older children, despite the fact that they rarely create new words, may still do this (Chmura-Klekotowa, 1970). The stories of children of preschool age are mostly a modification of known earlier fairy tales or stories. Sometimes children try to think up completely new and original stories. It can also occur that children, using a small existing fragment, can create a new episode. They can make up this kind of statement spontaneously or when requested as a task. In seeking to understand linguistic creativity, I first made an attempt to define this for my own studies. I define linguistic creativity in broader and narrower terms. In a broader sense, I understand creativity as “creation”, a concrete human activity, which is directed towards the emergence of a product. A common human activity is speaking. One of the most important features of language is linguistic productiveness (fluency)—the human ability to use a number of words and means of modification and to link these into sentences, creating an infinite number of messages for potential recipients. Thanks to this feature, a person can pass to the recipient the same content using alternative methods and, therefore, increase the chance of clear understanding of the meaning (NĊcka et al, 2008). This feature of language demonstrates that talking and conversation with another person is a kind of linguistic creativity. In the narrower sense, I define creativity classically, as an activity that leads to the emergence of new and valuable things (NĊcka, 2005). Linguistic creativity in the narrower meaning often manifests itself in the creation of neologisms and original statements, for example, fairy tales (NĊcka et al, 2008). Practice in linguistic creativity in the broader sense, as defined above, especially among young children of preschool age, can lead to the emergence of linguistic creativity in the narrower sense of creating something “new”.

The study This section describes the key aspects of a study, the main aim of which was to assess the usefulness of the Storyline method in developing

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the creative and linguistic abilities of five-year-old children. To this end, tests were administered to assess its effectiveness directly after finishing Storyline-based classes and again after three months. The data gathered were subjected to language-creativity analysis of the “products” (fairy tales) and the “creative process” (the process of creating fairy tales) from the children. This was a comparative study: as well as the Storyline sample group, data on the development of creativity were gathered from two further groups, an “Associations Pyramid” group and a control group. However, analysis of the data from the non-Storyline groups is not the subject of this chapter, except as a point of comparison in reporting the data and in the final discussion.

Studying linguistic creativity The study of creativity is complex, especially with regard to creativity among young children. Because of this, the use of triangulation in research allows data to be collected and ideas to be examined from different perspectives. In this research, both quantitative and qualitative methods (Fishkin et al, 1998; Flick, 2007a, 2007b) were used in order to produce the most reliable and useful results (Karwowski, 2009; Shaughnessy et al, 2002; Silverman, 2001). There are two aspects of linguistic creativity. From one perspective language creativity can be seen in the creative process—how the child is thinking and creating. From the other perspective it can be seen in the creative product—in what the child is creating and the kind of structure the product has. For the purposes of this research, and on the basis of preliminary reading of the pedagogical and psychological literature related to children’s development, thinking, language and creativity, I have attempted to develop a model of children’s linguistic creativity. In this model, I assume that linguistic creativity consists of two basic elements: the Creative Process (the activity) and the Creative Product (in the case of this study, a story/fairy tale). The model is shown in Table 10-1. Table 10-1. Model of children’s linguistic creativity The Creative Process (the activity) The self-regulatory strategy The motivational strategy The cognitive strategy

The Creative Product (a story) The semantic structure of the story The cohesion and complexity of the story The length of the story

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Within this model, the Creative Process element, wherein the children are engaged in creative activity, is subdivided into the three strategies employed: the self-regulatory strategy, in which the child is able to, for example, plan and self-correct the activity; the motivational strategy, whereby the child is able to strive to reach a goal, take some risk, and be willing to continue despite encountering difficulty; and the cognitive strategy, in which the child makes connections between previously unconnected elements and tries out different solutions. The Creative Product element (in the case of this study it is a story made up individually by every child) is likewise subdivided into three distinct aspects. The aspect dealing with semantic structure was based on structural patterning of the children’s stories proposed by Peterson and McCabe (1983) and transformed by Bokus (1991). Those structures constitute fewer (sequences) or more (episodes) elaborated statements. For example, sequences might be descriptive, action-based or reactive, while episodes might be descriptive, narrative, complete or unfinished. A complete list of these definitions of semantic structures may be found in Smogorzewska (2011, 2012). Two further aspects make up the Creative Product element of the model: the cohesion and complexity of the story depends on the child’s ability to, for example, provide a time sequence, to acknowledge the relationship between cause and effect and characters, and to intentionally represent a character’s action in the story: the length of the story is specified as the number of words which the child uses to create a story. Additionally, the originality of the story was assessed. This was understood as not only the rare appearance of an element but also as a surprising or novel idea. Because this dimension seemed to be very subjective, it was assessed with the help of a range of experts. Together, these definitions were used as a basis for coding the data collected during the study and then in the subsequent analysis of those data.

The research “treatment” and data collection In the study there were two experimental groups (“Storyline” and “Associations Pyramid”) and one control group. In the study a pre-test and two post-tests, based on the Linguistic Creativity Model, were administered. The study consisted of four stages: Stage 1: A pre-test examination was administered to each child individually. Stage 2: Classes were taught using one of three methods: the Storyline method; the Associations Pyramid method; or the normal teaching method

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(for the control group). The first and the second groups created new stories during classes. Those classes were based on children’s activity. The control group listened to the stories, which were already written, and after reading talked about the text. Stages 3 and 4: Individual meetings with children (the post-tests). The first post-test was conducted shortly after finishing the classes, and the second after three months to check whether any positive effects achieved persisted beyond the study period. All of the children who took part in the project were examined in the same way. During every meeting with a child the conversation was held in a separate room so that there would be no distraction. Every child was asked to tell a story. An instruction was prepared for this study as follows: “I know that in your kindergarten children can tell fantastic stories. I was telling stories to children, but now I have run out of ideas. That is why I came here especially to meet you and to hear what story you can create and tell. I am sure your story will be very interesting and that I would be able to tell your story to children in other kindergartens, if you give me permission. But you must remember that those children know a lot of stories, so your task is to tell them a story which they have never heard before. It will be best if you make up a new story! If you allow me, I will record what you are saying to give the other children a chance to hear how you are telling the story. Will you agree to help me? Please tell me when you are ready to start telling your story.”

During the post-test examination the instruction was changed slightly. It took into consideration the fact that children were already familiar with the experimenter and meeting process. The instruction was as follows: “Your story which you told last time was very interesting for the children and they liked it. They said that they would like to listen to one more story created by you. Would you try to create one more story? Just like last time I will record your story to give children a chance to listen to the story. Tell me when you are ready to start telling your story.”

Every child had as much time as they needed to make up a story. If a child said that they did not want to tell a story, or did not say anything, they were asked why. If the child said that they did not have any ideas, the child was encouraged to tell the story that they liked best. After this kind of encouragement some children decided to start talking, but if this did not work, the child was not pressed to respond. When a child was talking the elements of their behaviour were marked on the Creative Process

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Observational Sheet, based on the Linguistic Creativity Model described in Table 10-1.

The participants The participants in the study were a group of five-year-old children attending kindergarten. The choice of research group was decided mostly by developmental reasons. Children of this age are mainly in their third year of pre-school education and thus were expected to be more confident in terms of the study’s linguistic expectations. In the following year they would begin primary education. The expectation of their suitability, in terms of their cognitive development, and especially their language development, seemed to be justified. Research experience gained from previous studies on same-age children’s participation also had an impact on choice of research group. The number of children who took part in the study is shown in Table 10-2. Table 10-2. The number of participants Storyline Pre-test Post-test 1 Post-test 2

68 64 61

Association Pyramid 44 45 42

Control 45 46 45

Total 157 155 148

Topic scenarios were prepared and these scenarios were given to the teachers who conducted classes. The pattern of the classes was the same for each group: two classes per week for three weeks, followed by a oneweek break, repeated for three cycles—12 weeks in all. Every week the classes followed the same pattern, with at least a one-day break between them. In isolated cases, however, it was impossible because there were some additional events like going on a trip to the theatre or because there were some free days. Every class lasted about 30 minutes, but sometimes the classes were slightly longer or shorter, depending on how much the children liked the topic and how willing the children were to talk. Every class consisted of a “verbal” element, during which the children created a story or talked with the teacher, and an “artistic” part, during which they prepared, for example, drawings or paintings on the given topic (connected to the class topic).

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The classes using the Storyline method Every three-week cycle of classes formed a self-contained whole. During the three weeks the children created one story, gradually developed over that time, and every story consisted of a few episodes (during each class the children worked with one episode). The sequence of events in every cycle was the same and followed the standard Storyline method. Some scenarios were from well-known stories while some were new. Sometimes the children worked on tasks as a whole group, sometimes in smaller teams and sometimes as individuals. In most cases about 4 to 5 children worked in teams. The teams had the same composition throughout the cycle. In the teams, every child “played” a role during the class. In every scenario there were “key questions”, which the children answered during the meeting. Some of the problems given to children required verbal responses and some involved making or doing. After finishing a task, each child, or team, was invited to speak about its work.

Some results Here, I have attempted to provide a brief overview of the key results of this study in terms of the Storyline method. A full and detailed account of the whole study may be found in Smogorzewska (2011, 2012). Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used in the study and the analysis of the data reflects this. Here, however, the results of the data analysis are discussed in descriptive rather than statistical terms. All statements in italics relate to the thematic coding categories (here referred to as “variables”) derived from the Linguistic Creativity Model set out in Table 10-1. In the original hypothesis, it was assumed that children from the experimental groups would gain more from the participation in the class meeting than children from the control group. However, analysis of the data revealed that in terms of the Creative Process element of the Linguistic Creativity Model, there were few significant differences between the children in Post-test 1. In terms of creating stories, the Creative Product, significant differences were observed. It must be stated that in almost every coded variable, and in each of the three groups, there was an increase in the children’s abilities. This is only to be expected, as most children will almost certainly make some progress as a result of direct educational intervention. However, it was found that the amount of progress varied for each of the three groups.

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In the case of a set of six variables, namely, the semantic structure of the story, the cohesion of the narration line, the complexity of the narration field, originality, the semantic structure of the narration, and the choice of the subject of a story and selecting information, the experimental groups were shown to have gained more through taking part in their classes when compared with the results from the control group. These results could signify that the classes for the experimental groups were more effective in developing language abilities than the classes for the control group. However, there was no significant difference between the Associations Pyramid group and the Storyline group. In the case of a few variables only one of the two experimental groups had better results than the control group. For example, the data relating to the variable the length of the story demonstrated that for the experimental Storyline group the stories lengthen between Pre-test and Post-test 1, while in the other two groups the length of the stories stayed the same. The data relating to self-correctness of the activity showed the greatest improvement in the results of the experimental Associations Pyramid group. However, for one variable, putting diversity into the story, only in the experimental Storyline group were the changes significant. Children from this group in Post-test 1 included more characters and objects in their stories than in the Pre-test, In the case of the variables the consciousness of an aim, the diversity of the content of the story, and planning the story the analysis shows that the changes between the Pre-test and Post-test 1 measurements were the greatest for all groups. The second Post-test was administered three months after the end of the initial study. It sought to discover whether any of the positive gains demonstrated in Post-test 1 had persisted beyond the study period. Analysis of the Post-test 2 results demonstrated that the gains made by children from the experimental groups persisted more strongly than the results of children from the control group. In the control group, a fall in results was more often observed. In the Storyline group, the results in the case of almost all variables remained unchanged from Post-test 1. In the case of three variables, the complexity of the narration field, the involvement and effort put into the activity and the choice of story subject and selecting information, the results demonstrated an increase in comparison with Post-test 1. In this group, in comparison with Post-test 1, three results fell: the semantic structure of the story, originality of the story and putting diversity into the story. At the same time, the level of children’s involvement in creating, and the aspiration to tell the story more carefully and with more details, was significantly higher during the final test—and only in this group were the results very significantly higher. In

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the “Associations Pyramid” group almost all of the effects that were noticeable during the first post-test, turned out to be stable, while in the control group the results were mostly unstable. Additionally, when compared to the control group, the results of the experimental groups demonstrated significantly more improvement between the first and the third measurement.

Conclusion During the last few decades there has been a fundamental change in the way of looking at the youngest of children. Educators and psychologists, and others involved in work with children, for instance, Jerome Bruner (1996), Loris Malaguzzi (1998) and Maria Montessori (2005), started a new trend with regard to children. They began to view children as having the ability to learn very rapidly and they develop and learn best through being engaged in varied, interesting and enjoyable activities. During the last century children ceased to be regarded as passive receivers of the surrounding reality but as active constructors of the surrounding world. Margaret Mead (2000) suggested that children are not only individuals who are shaped by adults, but are also the teachers of their caregivers. A complete change in assessing children’s potential also influenced the way in which adults look at children’s abilities and think about their learning needs. In recent decades, teachers have started to use “active teaching methods” more often. However, it is the children, not the teacher, who should be most active. For example, in “Creative Teaching” (NACCE, 1999), the teacher should be creative in finding ways to engage the children in the learning process. This might be called “learning to be creative”. The Storyline method, used in this research, is, in my opinion, a good example of a balance between the children’s and teacher’s actions. All participants are a necessary part of the process and everyone has their own equal and complementary role. The method relies on the belief by teachers that young children are capable of sustained involvement in complex learning situations. In this chapter, I wanted to show that the Storyline method is effective in work with young children. It must be acknowledged that there are many potential factors which may have influenced the results, as well as some possible inaccuracies in statistical measurement. However, despite the possible flaws in the study, I think that there is evidence that the Storyline method is worth using with children. It brings many benefits to children in terms of cognitive development (as I tried to show in relation to language development), as well as providing opportunities for social and emotional

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development. This was acknowledged many times by the teachers working with the children during the project. For teachers, Storyline was a useful addition to their pedagogy. Everyone in the classroom, children and adults, can gain from taking part in the classes. They can learn many new things, and, importantly, they can learn much from each other. Teaching in this way may require more effort and engagement from the teacher, but it also brings more satisfaction. This project was financed by the National Centre for Science. Financing was provided on the basis of decision number DEC2011/03/N/HS6/01747.

References Bokus, B. (1991). Tworzenie opowiadaĔ przez dzieci. O linii i polu narracji. Kielce: Energeia. Bruner, J. (1996). The Culture of Education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Publishing. Chmura-Klekotowa, M. (1970). Odbicie tendencji sáowotwórczych jĊzyka polskiego w neologizmach dzieci. Prace Filologiczne, 20, 153-159. Chomsky, N. (1968). Language and mind. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World. Fishkin, A., Cramond, B., and Olszewski-Kubilius, P. (1999) (eds.). Investigating Creativity in Youth: Research and Methods. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press. Flick, U. (2007a). Designing qualitative research. London: Sage. —. (2007b). Managing quality in qualitative research. London: Sage. Górniewicz, J. (1991). Rozwój i ksztaátowanie wyobraĨni dziecka. Porady dla rodziców i nauczycieli. Wydawnictwo Naukowe “Praksis”. Karwowski, M. (2009). ZgáĊbianie kreatywnoĞci. Studia nad pomiarem poziomu i stylu tworzenia. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Akademii Pedagogiki Specjalnej. Kurcz, I. (1980). Psycholingwistyka a psychologia procesów poznawczych. In: A. Schaff (ed.). Zagadnienia socjo- i psycholingwistyki (pp. 39-90). Wrocáaw: Ossolineum. —. (1987). JĊzyk a reprezentacja Ğwiata w umyĞle. Warszawa: PaĔstwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe. Malaguzzi, L. (1998). History, ideas, and basic philosophy: An interview with Lella Gandini. In Edwards, C., Gandini, L. and Forman, G. (eds.). The hundred languages of children. The Reggio Emilia Approach: Advanced reflections. London: Ablex Publishing.

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Mead, M. (2000). Culture and comittment. Warszawa: PaĔstwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe. Montessori, M. (2005). The Montessori Method: Scientific pedagogy as applied to child education in the children’s houses. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Akademickie “ĩAK”. National Advisory Commitee on Creative and Cultural Education (NACCE) (1999). All our future. Creativity, culture and education. London: DfEE. NĊcka, E. (2005). Psychologia twórczoĞci. GdaĔsk: GdaĔskie Wydawnictwo Psychologiczne. NĊcka, E., Orzechowski, J., and Szymura, B. (2008). Psychologia poznawcza. Warszawa: Academica SWPS, PaĔstwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe. Peterson, C. and McCabe, A. E. (1983). Developmental psycholinguistics: Three ways of looking at a child’s narrative. New York: Plenum Press. Shaughnessy, J. J., Zechmeister, E. B., and Zechmeister, J. S. (2002). Research methods in psychology (5th edition). Columbus: The McGraw-Hill Companies. Smogorzewska, J. (2011). PiĊciolatki opowiadają bajki. Wykorzystanie metod “Storyline” i “Piramida SkojarzeĔ” do tworzenia bajek z dzieümi. Niepublikowana praca magisterska. Warszawa: Szkoáa WyĪsza Psychologii Spoáecznej. —. (2012). “Storyline” and “Association Pyramid” as methods of creativity enhancement: Comparison of effectiveness in 5-year-old children. Thinking Skills and Creativity 7, 28-37. UszyĔska-Jarmoc, J. (2003). Twórcza aktywnoĞü dziecka. TeoriarzeczywistoĞü-perspektywy. Biaáystok: Trans Humana.

CHAPTER ELEVEN STORYLINE AS A KEY TO MEANINGFUL LEARNING: ARTS AND SCIENCE COMBINED IN SPACE ME TONE PERNILLE ØSTERN AND ANNA-LENA ØSTERN

Introduction SPACE ME was a research and development project in which we investigated the potential change in our understanding of how learning can be enhanced when the arts and science are combined. About 230 thirteento-fourteen-year-old pupils in two public schools in the city of Trondheim, Norway, participated in the project during the school year 2011-12. Trainee teachers, teachers, teacher educators and artists also participated, working as developers as well as being research informants in the project. The project looked for evidence of transformative learning processes amongst everybody involved, including the researchers, as we developed and carried out the project. SPACE ME was initiated and led by a dance artist and teacher, Tone Pernille Østern, and a biologist and teacher, Alex Strømme. They both work as teacher educators, and seek to develop both teacher training and teaching in schools into dialogical, inquiry-based, multimodal and creative learning spaces. The core project group also included a professor in arts education, Anna-Lena Østern; a PhD student in arts education, Nora Sitter; a visual artist and teacher educator, Robert Øfsti; and an improvisation actor and secondary school teacher, Audun Mollan Kristoffersen. This core group designed and led all the project events in SPACE ME. Additionally, a larger group of artists was involved in different project events. Participants in the project included trainee teachers (around 20 students were actively involved) and pupils at the schools where the

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students undertook their practical training (around 220 pupils). The participating teachers at the two secondary schools, all of the artists involved, and we as developers of the project were also considered to be research informants. A large amount of empirical data was generated from the project. These included evaluation sheets, reflective logs, video observation, observation, photo documentation, interview transcripts and a range of products created during the project. However, because of the need for focus, only some aspects of these data will be used as a basis for this chapter.

Multimodal pedagogical design as framework Selander and Kress (2010) use the concept of pedagogical design to direct attention to how learning processes can be designed on many levels. The teacher is a designer of the teaching and in addition there are other influences on the learning processes. In the end, as individual students learn, they re-design information and intended learning aims through their own meaning-making processes. According to Selander and Kress, the design concept is valuable as it recognises that design is about forming ideas, concepts and patterns to create a new product or re-create an old one. Design is about adding something to the world that was not there previously, or seeing something in a new way. In this way, design changes the world, and design also changes the ways that people socialise and communicate. Design and re-design is constantly taking place. Selander and Kress also argue that teaching is a constantly developing process, in terms of pedagogical design, and this draws attention to how form and content are deeply interconnected in learning processes. Pedagogical design must change as the world around changes, and it must take into account young people in contemporary society. The concept of pedagogical design emphasises that there are important power issues connected to the choosing of the design, e.g. learning can be designed to be open or closed. We asked ourselves which pedagogical designs are open so that young people can participate in their own learning processes allowing more objective knowledge to inform the young people’s subjective experiences, wondering and creativity. To develop a Storyline seemed to be a good start to do exactly that. In this Storyline we actively wanted to work in multimodal ways. Jewitt (2009) writes that a starting point for multimodal practice is that every modality basically should have an equal cognitive value. A modality is a semiotic resource like, for instance, music, movement, speech, print, mime, architecture, images and film. The modality points at the ways a

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certain sign can convey meaning. That is why different modalities have different potential for meaning making. Multimodal theory has destabilised existing views of how people learn. According to Jewitt, human beings orchestrate meaning through their choices and configuration of the modalities. The meaning formed through multimodal recourses is always social. In Storyline the broadening of meaning can take place through explorative, productive, creative activity. The Storyline topic, SPACE ME, was carried out during one intensive school day only, and it served as the start to the larger project. As we will conclude, an analysis of the evaluations and products by the thirteen-yearolds shows that as the Storyline was developing during the day, so was a sense of meaningfulness among most (but not all) of the young people. By a sense of meaningfulness we mean that the learning activities were experienced as relevant, interesting, engaging and motivating for the young people. There is no doubt that the artistic elements (for example, the interactive Cyborg, performed by a dance artist) and a general aesthetic approach to learning (for example, a multimodal science lecture with clear aesthetic and personal references by the teacher) functioned as vitalising forces during the Storyline school day. The following sections describe each of the steps in the developing Storyline and the underlying pedagogical thinking that guided the design of the Storyline.

A dancing Cyborg and an enthusiastic Professor as a dramaturgical hook A bunch of morning-tired 13-year-olds turn the corner in the corridor, approaching their classroom. As they get closer, they suddenly pause and wake up. What is this? Outside their classroom door a strange, funnylooking person (or is it a person?) stands, frozen, not moving at all. An unfamiliar electronic sound hovers in the air. The person is covered with electrical equipment and wires, has strange clothes and heart-like sunglasses. The young pupils do not quite know what to do—stop to discuss or look for a teacher to ask what this is? But their teachers have not arrived yet, there is only a troubled professor who tries to get the machine-like person to move. As the school kids get involved in a dialogue with the Professor, they keep an eye on the frozen machineperson. The Professor encourages them to help him in finding a solution. Slowly they get closer and somebody suddenly discovers the text on the machine-like person’s t-shirt. It says: “Please press the button”, and on the back “Please touch”. After a while, one of the boys dares to get closer and press a button on some of the electrical equipment wired around the

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person. There is an immediate reaction. The person starts moving and says, “Thank you.” The Professor is relieved, the young people laugh, and as the stranger soon stops again, they press another button and another and another to keep her dancing. They have met Cyborg, and she only moves when somebody touches her. However funny this is, it is also a problem. The Professor explains that Cyborg will soon be sent out on a long, lonely journey into space and she must be able to function alone. As she obviously cannot, the Professor is thankful that the school kids are there so they can help to design another robot that will be more suitable for a long journey into the unknown. So, the pupils’ very first meeting with SPACE ME is through an interactive, dancing Cyborg and an enthusiastic Professor outside their classroom. In choosing this beginning, the project group had clear aims informed and formed by dramaturgical thinking. Dramaturgy emphasises the deep connection between form and content, a connection developed within the field of theatre and performance. To borrow the conceptual set of dramaturgy from the theatre is beneficial because it directs attention towards being in the teaching moment with awareness of the importance of how the teaching moment is designed and carried out. Form and content cannot be separated, and to create form is about designing. The pedagogical design we choose will have a huge impact on the pupils’ attitude towards the theme and desire to investigate. By choosing an interactive, dancing Cyborg as a surprising start of this Storyline school day we wanted to shake the pupils from their everyday, tired morning routines. We wanted to wake them up by presenting them with something unexpected. We wanted to engage feelings, make them think and act in order to understand the Cyborg and we wanted them to interact with one another, the Cyborg (Tone, artist/teacher) and the Professor (Audun, actor/drama teacher). The convention of “teacher-inrole” allowed the two teachers to work with the pupils, both in role as the characters and out of role as themselves, throughout the Storyline day. Maybe the most important aspect of the Cyborg and the Professor using teacher-in-role was that it pushed both the two teachers and the pupils into an open interaction, where neither teachers nor students knew exactly what was going to happen. The teachers had little control (although some other teachers were on hand if needed and the teacher could stop the drama and come out of role at any time) and they had not been able to plan the exact outcome of the meeting between Cyborg and pupils. Instead, they had to be present with a high degree of sensitivity and really listen actively to the different initiatives from the pupils. They needed to go with the flow. Tone noted:

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An incredible energy was created, the pupils were totally in the moment, and they actively engaged in making the Cyborg move. The pupils, especially the boys, also got seriously involved in discussions with the Professor about how the Cyborg could function and what was wrong with her. Karlsen (2002) writes about the value of dramaturgical thinking in designing teaching processes. He underlines that dramaturgical thinking forces teachers to be in the moment instead of thinking about the moment. He criticises a typical definition of teacher professionalism as being able to plan, predict, reflect, keep distance and have control. These are important qualities for a teacher, but if you replace “the professional teacher” with “the good teacher”, then the teacher also needs to be able to act spontaneously, intuitively, with a high degree of presence, with little control of the intended learning aims (but never with little control over the classroom), and with an openness to unexpected learning paths and outcomes. This opens up what Bachtin (1991) calls authentic dialogues— dialogues where the teacher does not know the answer in advance but instead honestly engages in investigating a theme with the pupils.

Creating an expert role, including an intergalactic passport The pupils were grouped in fives, forming teams of experts who could refine the design of a cyborg for a journey into space. They were asked to discuss and plan the kind of expertise that would be needed for that journey, and for the construction of the cyborg. As they were discussing that, they were also asked to define the different individual roles that were needed in their expert team. They should decide on roles to ensure that they had the range of professions needed for the task. They were then asked to individually fill out an intergalactic passport, which had been prepared in advanced. On one side of the passport there was an empty photo frame where they should draw their fictional character’s portrait. On the other side they should fill in their fictional name, profession, age and nationality. Out of 214 passports filled out by the pupils at the participating secondary schools we formed 11 categories of expertise the

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pupils considered necessary for the expert teams. Miscellaneous, nonspecific answers formed a twelfth category. The more obvious roles from an adult perspective, e.g. construction, research and computer communication expertise, were supplemented by the young people’s wider suggestions such as food expertise, health and sports expertise, medical expertise, artistic expertise and entertainment. Some also chose war and peace expertise. Some even suggested an alien in the expert team, a tourist or a retired person. All these were considered serious choices. We had anticipated that we would get some subversive suggestions such as those demonstrating prejudice, and we had prepared for how we would handle these. But no such suggestions appeared. The expert teams presented their intergalactic passports and their choice of fictional expert role to the Professor, and the pupil explained why his expertise was needed, for instance like this: Pupil (boy): Professor: Pupil: Professor:

I am a robot trainer. Good, a robot trainer is needed in the team. What do you train the robot to do? I train him to walk. Good, that might be needed in the space ship. It is good to train the robot in advance.

This short oral presentation and interview served as a moment of reflection, before the pupils started to design the cyborg model. This task was a typical Storyline task. The participating pupils were framed as experts, and they were tasked with a problem to solve though joint efforts. To think of themselves in the role of experts was an exploration in itself, and to argue why each person’s expertise was necessary strengthened the voice of each individual pupil involved. The intergalactic passport was a pedagogical design in itself as was the use of the passport developed during the project period. Thus the pupils got a stamp to paste on for every new task they participated in during SPACE ME, and on the final day they all got their personal intergalactic passport back, laminated, together with an accompanying booklet with pedagogical documentation of the whole project year.

Multimodal science lecture about space The pupils learned more about the universe through a lecture given by the science teacher in the project group. He made the lecture a multimodal performance with images, video clips, narrative, poems and information about milestones in space research. In Table 11-1 we have provided a

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structural analysis of the lecture with the columns structure, substance, modality, and interpretation of function. Table 11-1. Structural analysis of the multimodal lecture in SPACE ME, created and performed by Alex Strømme Dramaturgical structure Introduction With a hook

Substance

Modality

What is the universe? Starry night

Voice and image

Orientation

History of the star constellations, focus on “big bear”

Darkening sky and stars

Complicating action 1

His personal astronomy story since he was 8 years Apollo 8 flying around the moon; photo of the earth as a globe

Photo of the lecturer

Complicating action 2

Narrative top 1

The first words in the Bible uttered by the astronaut watching an earth rise

Poetic passage

John Donne’s “No man is an island”

Complicating action 3

Voyager 1 and 2 Taking pictures of planets in the milky way. The astrophysician Carl Sagan

Picture of the astronauts; image of the globe. Picture of earth rise; authentic voice of one astronaut

Lecturer-asartist embodying the poem Picture of the satellite; movie through the solar system. Picture of Sagan

Interpretation of function Inviting the audience through a question, starting a dialogue Connecting the audience to the greater story of mankind We share this story

A human being is small and vulnerable Metaphorical expression for the trembling experience of smallness. The existential theme is becoming visible Metaphorical expression for our connectedness to each other Further exploration into space focusing on one known person’s vision; also deepening the existential perspective

Storyline as a Key to Meaningful Learning: SPACE ME Narrative top 2

Earth’s place in our galaxy—following Voyager’s journey through our planetary system from 1977 till 1990: showing Earth as a pale blue dot caught in a sun beam at a 6 billion km distance Voices of the Earth on a golden CD. The pulsars as map

The actual picture Sagan’s voice reading a poetic passage from the introduction of his book “The pale blue dot” Picture; audio traces

Resolution

Voyager soon leaving our galaxy. Today still contact with Voyager—in 2013— but soon it will leave our galaxy the Milky Way.

Movie fading out …

Coda

The lecturer lets the universe change into a picture of human eye and asks about the universe inside: The phrase “Who are we?” is the last text displayed

…into a picture of a human eye. The text “Who are we?”

Narrative top 3

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The breathtaking insight in man’s and Earth’s place in the universe

Spreading traces from humans into the universe. Introducing the thought of the possibility for intelligent life in some other place in the universe. The exploration of the universe has just started— opening scary as well as huge perspectives.

Returning back to the place where the lecture started: the universe and the journey out, but now looking inwards to the universe inside each human being—changing perspective— escalating clearly to an existential level.

Focusing on the design, the themes identified in the lecturer’s choices when developing and presenting this lecture included: choice of an exciting theme; sharing of personal experiences; dialogical lecturing; substantial knowledge content; use of multimodal and poetic

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communication; animated presentation; clear narrative; and being part of an engaging context with supporting team members. The lecture was 25 minutes in duration, and rich in expressions. It created an engaged atmosphere among the young people, and it was easy to continue with the Storyline from there.

Designing our own cyborg for a journey in space The pupils now proceeded with making their own cyborg design. In the role of experts they worked in teams of about 5-6 pupils to design a cyborg. Their task was to design a more suitable cyborg than the original one that they had met; one that had all the attributes needed to survive and travel into the unknown. In order to make their own cyborg design, all expert groups were given an A3 sheet of paper with a picture of a human skeleton with the correct proportions, prepared by the visual artist in the project group. They also received a bundle of magazines and newspapers from which they could cut and stitch whatever attributes they wanted onto the skeleton, some old and broken machine parts that they could glue onto the cyborg and colour pens in order to draw and write explanations on their cyborg. The decision-making about which machine parts the cyborg needed would demand from the pupils a good knowledge of human body parts: in order to build a cyborg, they would need to decide which body parts to replace with “better” ones. They would also need to investigate the living conditions in space and the conditions on the possible different planets the cyborg would visit. In this way they would be able to imagine those ways in which the cyborg would need to be improved, physically, in order to survive alone in space. An analysis of the pupils’ cyborgs made by the visual artist in the project group shows that the cyborgs functioned more as a collective selfportrait than an expression for new scientific knowledge (Østern and Øfsti, 2012). This would probably have been different had the Storyline lasted for a longer period of time, but during this project the pupils had limited time, and a lot of interesting raw material (the magazines and old machinery). This turned the situation into more of a playful cut-and-stitchgame. The cyborgs were equipped with things that the young people were interested in: mobile phones, computers, weapons and devices that could make the journey less lonely for the cyborg, like TVs and iPods. It seemed that their cyborg functioned more as a collective expression of what the young people were concerned about rather than an investigation into conditions in space. However, the pupils combined the equipment in

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highly creative ways in order to make the perfect cyborg. One group cut the “home” and “delete” buttons from an old computer and glued them onto the skull of the cyborg. They explained how the cyborg could press “home” if she got too homesick and “delete” if in a terrible situation she needed to delete herself. Other groups thought about what kind of clothing she would need to survive, others about what equipment she would need in order to communicate her experiences back home to Earth and yet others about how she could exercise her body in order to stay fit. (Østern and Øfsti, 2012) In the end, the pupils probably learnt more about the human body through their cyborg design, as they were using a skeleton with the correct proportions and were thinking about organs to improve or replace, than about space, as we originally planned. In combination with imaginative discussions in their expert groups about their fictional cyborgs (which became very real for many expert groups), the task of designing a cyborg became a collective self-portrait with clear references to their own world of youth culture (Østern and Øfsti, 2012).

Presenting their own cyborg with the help of the enthusiastic Professor The different expert teams were asked to present their cyborg designs before they were displayed on the Storyline wall. One pupil representative from each expert team demonstrated and explained the team’s cyborg design to the Professor, while an iPad projection on the wall ensured that the information was shared with everyone. The Professor interviewed the pupil, who explained the processes they had used to design their cyborg. This presentation was an opportunity for meta-reflection. The Professor helped the presenter to think about and justify the choices the group had made, asking why each part was included and how they had reached decisions. He supported the pupils’ narrative by giving them different ways to extend their explanations. The product was given value because of the high level of articulated reflection. To do this well is a demanding task which needs an experienced teacher and actor used to improvising and being highly present in the moment. The Professor needed to grasp the essence in the cyborg designs immediately and to be able to turn every aspect into something interesting and worthwhile. We had not foreseen how important the presenting of their expert roles and, later, their cyborg designs, would be for the pupils and we did not think about these stages of the Storyline in advance. As they took place, however, we realised that these meetings between the pupils presenting

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their work while the fictional Professor listened enthusiastically, were actually close to what Bachtin (1991) means by an authentic dialogue. The multimodal, semiotic work of the pupils was seen and valued and the meeting had real meaning because it was authentic in nature. The teacherin-role had to employ an open dialogue whose outcome he did not know and still maintain the goal of finding and articulating the meaningful, semiotic work embedded in their cyborg-product.

Training the cyborg for the different challenges she might meet in space This Storyline Day was not only a day with and for school kids, but also with trainee teachers. Learning about Storyline was included in the curriculum for trainee teachers in the arts and in science. Trainee teachers in sports were also involved since, in the Norwegian sports and arts curriculum, dance is a compulsory subject area, although in practice it is often neglected. The project group taught the trainee teachers as well as the school kids. The trainee teachers had gone through the same Storyline structure as the pupils on a one-day course on campus. This included theory about Storyline and how to teach Storyline. Eighty trainee teachers were involved during the Storyline Day at campus but only the twenty who were placed at the two project schools in their practical training period were involved in teaching Storyline for the school kids themselves. The trainee teachers’ task was to carry out the same Storyline structure as we did with them alongside us. We did not ask any of them to be the Professor, as this was a key role in this Storyline, demanding a high degree of acting skills and experience in reacting to learning opportunities with “spontaneity”. However, the trainee teachers, as well as some dance artists, were invited to participate in the role of Cyborg, which some of them did. At one of the schools, then, there were several cyborgs waiting for the pupils when they arrived at their classrooms. This worked well and created a lot of energy. The task of helping the pupils to plan the different ways of training and preparing the cyborg for the long journey in space, was given to the trainee teachers. They wanted to develop some of the tasks we had given them during the Storyline Day on campus, to make them more challenging. The science trainee teachers, especially, found that the tasks planned to train the cyborg were not challenging enough from a scientific point of view. We were happy to let them improve the Storyline and plan for more challenging tasks. The trainee teachers worked in three groups, one Storyline Day for each group, and they prepared slightly different tasks to

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train the cyborg. The Cyborg training tasks, planned and facilitated by one group of students, are shown in Table 11-2. Based on our own evaluation and the reflective logs by the trainee teachers we believe that these different tasks to train the cyborg were interesting and conducive to learning about space. However, this part of the Storyline suffered from lack of time. It was also a pity that each group of pupils only got to work with one task, and thereby only with some subjects and some modalities. These planned tasks could have been spread out over a period of a whole semester, as there is enough material for a long Storyline process built into these tasks. All of the pupils could then have participated in each task, thereby working with the theme space through a wide range of subjects and modalities.

Presentation of the different task as a performance— a live Storyline wall The pupils’ work during the Storyline Day was documented through the different products they created. It was also documented in photographs. The intergalactic passports were the first documentation made. The students had the passports hanging around their necks throughout the day. All of the cyborg designs were displayed on the wall after the expert groups had presented them. Some of the products of the “training sessions”, where the pupils worked with training the cyborg for a long journey, were live products/presentations, as shown in Table 11-3. The products of the other groups could have been hung up on the wall, but instead all groups presented their products on the stage for the Professor. All members of the group were together on the stage and the Professor listened and helped them with questions, comments or feedback as they went along. This performance presentation, became a symbolic way of wrapping up the day and ending it. All pupils got the opportunity to show their work, raising the level as often happens when work is shown to an audience (due to focus, expectations and excitement) and to receive feedback and appreciation from the Professor. The performance presentations became like a live Storyline wall documenting, through live moments, the work of the Storyline Day.

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Investigate the digestive system of the cyborg and plan how she can be equipped and prepared for eating and drinking aboard the spaceship.

To investigate the solar system, the names and characteristics of the planets, including the scales and distances.

Draw a map for the cyborg so she can find the way out of our solar system, including an investigation of basic information about the different planets she will pass (in case she needs to land on one of them)

To investigate the human digestive system organs and how they function. To investigate how these are affected by lack of gravity in space, and also the problems with eating and going to the toilet because of lack of gravity.

To draw the solar system with correct scales and distances.

Learning goal

Task

Internet and books were available in order to investigate the human digestive system. Pencils and colour pens were available to draw their own figure on big-sized papers. The outcome was a drawing of a cyborg, pointing out the digestive system and different solutions to overcome the challenges the human digestive

Internet and books were available in order to investigate the solar system. Pencils and colour pens were available to draw own map on big-sized papers. The outcome was a big map showing the solar system, with fact boxes with information about the different planets.

Modalities and form

Training a Cyborg

Science

Main subject in task Science

The task demanded concentration and discipline by the pupils. It was only to some extent creative, and mostly consisted of finding theoretical facts about the solar system, and drawing them correctly. The trainee teachers in science had some problems in classroom management (due to inexperience, this was their first weeks of practical teaching training) The task demanded concentration and discipline by the pupils. Its first part mostly consisted of finding theoretical facts about the digestive system in the human body. The part with inventing solutions for overcoming challenges led to a creative session, though, where the trainee teacher in science said that she did not want to stop the pupils from crossing the borders of

Outcome and Evaluation

Table 11-2. Tasks planned by the trainee teachers to train the cyborg for a journey in space

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Plan, design and draw the exterior and interior of the spaceship. What materials and shapes are needed for a spaceship? What rooms are needed for a long trip like this, and how should they be designed?

To draw a model of the exterior and interior of the spaceship with correct scaling and proportions.

To invent solutions to handle these challenges and draw a figure of the cyborg’s digestive system and solutions for challenges connected to the digestive system aboard the spaceship. To discuss what rooms that are of importance on a long journey in space, how to use the spaceship effectively, what materials to use and what equipment that are needed. Discussion with the trainee teacher in visual arts and the visual artist in the project was the most important source of information and creativity for the pupils in this task. As they were discussing, the trainee teacher and visual artist asked questions, which challenged the pupils’ thinking. As they were discussing, they were collectively drawing the interior of the spaceship, which they then finally fulfilled into a final product. The outcome was an architecture-like drawing of the exterior and interior of the spaceship.

system is going to meet in outer space.

Visual arts

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The teaching was highly dialogical and it was quite easy for the trainee teachers to engage the pupils throughout the lesson. The group worked collectively, gathered around the trainee teachers and visual artist the whole time.

imaging what is possible at all. The pupils invented different ways of eating and going to the toilet.

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Plan how the journey can be documented and communicated back to earth.

Prepare for the experience of weightlessness and how lack of gravity will affect the cyborg in space.

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To investigate technical challenges in communicating for example pictures and photos from space back to

To discuss and investigate what facts should be communicated back to earth, and how this should be done.

To compose a short dance using these movement elements.

To experience the movement qualities of falling (giving into gravity) and being lifted (working towards gravity) in order to experience how gravity constantly works on the own body. The whole class was taught as a movement class, with creative dance as the main modality. The class was led by the dance artist and trainee teachers in sports through demonstrations and guiding questions. These questions invited / instructed the pupils to engage in movement exploration around falling, stretching out, jumping, rolling and partner work involving weight shifting and lifts. This was all the time connected to the experience of working with or against gravity. In the end, the pupils composed short dance sequences, which they showed. -Discussion with the trainee teacher in film and media was the most important source of information and creativity for the pupils in this task. They also used the Internet but did not have access to digital equipment like cameras. The outcome of the lesson was a performance where they demonstrated a talk show on

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Film and media

Dance

The session suffered from lack of proper equipment, which turned the class into more of a discussion class than a practical trying-out class which would have been ideal. The trainee teacher had some problems with keeping the pupils motivated.

The student sport teachers were not familiar with planning and teaching creative dance, so the dance artist planned and taught in together with them. The pupils were participating with a high level of motivation throughout the session.

Prepare for the first meeting with aliens. How to communicate with a foreign living being from space?

To compose a short play performance showing the first meeting with foreigners from space.

Through guided improvisations, the outcome of the session finally was a short performance showing the first meeting with an alien.

The class was taught as a drama class, with movement tasks and discussion about language as the main way of working. The actor (who had had the role of the Professor) led the class together with a trainee teacher (who had not studied drama/theatre).

To plan a demonstration of how the journey can be documented and communicated back to earth. To discuss what living beings unlike us, if they exist, might be like. To discuss how they should be approached and how one could train to communicate with a stranger across languages or other communication modes.

To discuss what communication possibilities human beings have today.

earth where signals from the cyborg were received and discussed in the TV studio.

earth and invent solutions to overcome these challenges.

Drama/ theatre

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At this school there were no trainee teachers who had studied drama/theatre, so it was necessary that the actor led the session together with a trainee teacher from one of the other arts. The pupils were motivated throughout the lesson.

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Analysis of the pupil evaluations— experience of meaningfulness When the Storyline Day was over the pupils evaluated the Storyline experience. In this section we have analysed written responses from 227 pupils aged thirteen to fourteen, using “meaningful experience” as analytical lenses. Pupil responses to a list of six prompts and questions were collected: 1. Describe what Storyline is. How have we worked today? 2. Tell us about something you remember especially well from the day. 3. Which subjects have you worked with today and how? 4. The visiting teachers and trainee teachers have been your teachers today. What have they done as teachers? 5. How did the group work function in your group? 6. What was it like to present things for the others and what did you learn from the other pupils’ presentations? The questions were structured in order to find out if the pupils felt that they understood what we had done during the Storyline Day, and if they had experienced satisfaction. Thus the focus was not so much on what exactly the pupils learnt but more on the meaningfulness of the Day from the pupils’ perspective. This includes a focus on the meaningfulness of the learning process, and the different explorative tasks. In the analysis of the data collected, it is possible to identify different attitudes: a majority of positive attitudes to the active learning, but also some questioning and negative attitudes, because it did not feel like school usually does from the perspective of the pupil. In the analysis for this chapter we have focused on question 2: Tell us about something you remember especially well from the day. The analysis of the responses grouped the answers into four major categories: x x x x

Active engagement in a task Interactivity Positive evaluations Negative evaluations

The breakdown of these responses is shown in Table 11-3.

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Table 11-3. Things the pupils remember especially well from the Storyline Day Category 1. Active engagement in a task Cyborg design Presentation To draw (planets, space craft) Intergalactic passports Gravitation movement dance 2. Interactivity The cyborg dance The lecture Co-operation in the group 3. Positive evaluations Meta reflection 4. Negative evaluations Not fun, nothing memorable Total

% of each statement (N= 227) 53.5 27 8.3 6 5.2 7 33.6 19 12 2.6 10.3 10.3 2.6 2.6 100%

From the perspective of meaningful learning, the answers from the pupils quite strongly demonstrate that, for them, their own active engagement in tasks were the moments they remember from this day. Additionally, interactivity demands active and dialogical involvement from the pupils, which seemed to add to the meaningfulness of the situation. The responses in the third category, positive evaluations, in most cases consisted of quite general comments. However, some were more specific and connected to meta-reflection, for example: “I have experienced that you can learn a lot from practical work as well as from theoretical work. I have experienced that to work with all of you is more fun than sitting at your desk. I especially remember my own presentation, very well. I remember everything we have done today. But especially well when we made the drawing of the spacecraft.”

Out of 227 statements there were only 6 that might be interpreted as negative, for example: “Sorry, I do not remember anything. It was not fun.”

With the analytical lenses focused on the pupils’ written responses, the major pattern in the experiences clearly demonstrated that the pedagogical design was received as a very positive event, and that the pupils’

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experience was meaningful because of the framing that Storyline offers. They found it meaningful to be actively, co-creatively and practically involved in the learning and the exploring activities.

Conclusion Throughout this chapter we have narrated the story of a developing Storyline. We have analysed certain aspects and moments of the developing pedagogical design with especially designed tasks for the Storyline such as intergalactic passports, the cyborg design and the use of teacher-in-role (the dancing cyborg and the Professor), as well as the lecture performance about the universe. The choices of the participating pupils regarding expert roles have been categorised. The pupils’ statements about especially memorable moments have been categorised into four categories. These categories demonstrate the importance of meaningful experiences in pupils’ learning processes. We suggest that during the SPACE ME Storyline, for a majority of the pupils, a broadening and deepening of meaning around the universe took place. From the perspective of multimodal theory (Kress, 2010) this may have happened because of the use of many modalities and the transformation between different modalities, in addition to other factors like dramaturgical thinking embedded in the pedagogical design. In SPACE ME, Storyline seems to have been a key to meaningful learning.

References Karlsen, G. (2003). Sårbarhetens mulighet. Om utfordringer i den personlige lærergjerning >The value of being vulnerable. About challenges in the personal teacher act@. In Karlsen, G., Løkken, G. and Nilssen, V. (eds.) FoU i praksis 2002 >Report from the conference Research and Development in Practice 2002)@. Trondheim: Program for Teacher Education, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2-12. Jewitt, C. (ed.) (2009). The Routledge Handbook of Multimodal Analysis. London: Routledge. Kress, G. (2010). Multimodality. A social semiotic approach to contemporary communication. NewYork: Routledge. Bachtin, M. (1991). Det dialogiska ordet >The Dialogical Word@. Gråbo: Anthropos. Østern, A-L. (2013). Close-up of the craft of making a multimodal lecture for teenagers about the universe: the importance of a meaningful

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context and supporting colleagues, Reflective Practice: International and Multidisciplinary Perspectives 14 (6), 801-813. Østern, T. P. and Øfsti, R. (2012). Fra cyborgdans til cyborgdesign >From Cyborg dance to Cyborg design@. På Spissen 1, 2012. Oslo: Norske Dansekunstnere. Selander, S and Kress, G. (2010). Design for lärande—ett multimodalt perspektiv. >Designs for learning—a multimodal perspective@. Stockholm: Norstedts. A visual summary of the research and development project SPACE ME can be seen at https://vimeo.com/44724276 with the password: RnD summary.

CHAPTER TWELVE FROM CRADLE TO GRAVE: A STORYLINE TOPIC ABOUT LIFE AND DEATH BJÖRG EIRÍKSDÓTTIR

Introduction As a classroom teacher, I have often considered how difficult it seems for us to talk about death, not just in school, but also in general. I think it is important to prepare our students for life from the cradle to the grave as much as we can. I have often done that through teaching literature. There is so much that can be discussed after reading a good story. But within the safety of our classroom environment and because of the positive relationships we have fostered, we have a variety of ways to introduce the idea that death is not just something that happens in stories or movies, it is an experience that will touch each of our/the children’s lives. This chapter describes a topic that asks children to think about life from the cradle to the grave through discussion and learning about the human body, hospitals and a palliative care ward.

Designing the topic A recent newspaper wrote about an interview with an Icelandic writer, Vilborg Davíðsdóttir. Her husband was dying from cancer and she had been blogging about how she and her children coped with that and how important it is to talk about both life and death. Vilborg said: “We do our best in the education system and our upbringing to prepare our children for life and the challenges that they will meet in life but we never talk about the fact that we are all going to die. That each and every one of us will have to depart from our loved ones when they die” (Fréttatíminn 1-3, February 2013).

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Last year when designing the topic for teaching about the human body that is in our curriculum for 7th grade, a decision was made to design a topic about a hospital because it would make a relevant and engaging Storyline (Letchert, Grabbe, Greven 2006). In the Icelandic curriculum children should learn about: x The human body x What they can do to be healthy x Common illnesses It is also important to discuss: x Both body and soul can get ill x What can be done if people become ill x Serious illness and accidents can lead to death The core features of Storyline as explained by the founders of Storyline are: “Storyline is a way of using narrative to empower children’s learning. A context—usually a matter of topical and community interest—is proposed by the teacher. Children develop the story and action through drama, art, discussion, research, writing and creative thinking. The theory is that the story, which is jointly created by the children, contextualises and motivates them; they become emotionally and intellectually involved with their learning” (Bell and Harkness, 2006).

When designing this Storyline topic the principles of the Storyline method and the aims from the curriculum were honoured (Eiríksdóttir, 1995). In short I wanted the topic to: x x x x x

Encourage active learning Make the learning interesting so the students see the point in doing it Connect what they learn to reality Help to fulfil the aims of the curriculum Help us to have fun

These were key ideas when I designed the topic: Hospital (Appendix C). A fellow teacher and I introduced the topic to our 7th grade classes at the same time. By working on the topic with another teacher, she and I benefited from useful discussions as we developed the Storyline with our classes, and reflected on many new ideas during the topic. Additionally, an

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idea from a student made a big difference on the final outcome of the learning and experiences for the students. It is very important to have a good plan for a topic when you start, and it is equally important to be able to incorporate the opportunities that occur on the way, to make the topic more interesting and relevant to the learners. At the same time we should always have our aims in mind and follow them. When adding ideas, a teacher should remember the importance of maintaining the pace of the topic so that the teacher or the students do not lose the thread and the interest. It is also so much fun to reach the ending, reflect and celebrate the children’s learning, and look forward to starting a new one.

The topic work: The Hospital In this chapter the Hospital topic work in the classroom will be described.

Episode 1: A hospital The first key question is “What wards do you think are in a hospital?” After a brainstorm, the next question is “Where do you think we look to confirm our ideas?” After checking out the structure of the main hospital in Iceland, the teacher and pupils arranged all the wards on the classroom wall, maintaining space for organs and diseases that would follow in the following episodes (see Fig. 12-1).

Fig. 12-1. Brainstorm

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Episode 2: Dangerous diseases In this episode the pupils took into account dangerous diseases people can get and which organ was not functioning properly if they got the disease. The names of all the diseases were written on a card as well as the name of the organ that they thought was not functioning. From there the children contemplated which hospital ward the patient would go to and put the name of the disease/organ under the name of the ward. This activity developed ideas about the organisation of a hospital and many diseases that would be treated in the different wards in a hospital. I was surprised that the pupils thought of so many different diseases, both mental and physical.

Episode 3: The organs of the body Now it was time to learn about the different organs of the body. The children’s research was guided by the question, “Which organ is not functioning when people are ill and have various dangerous diseases?” Each group studied the organs that were treated in one ward of the hospital. They drew each organ and mounted it on the wall beside the ward. They told the rest of the class about its function and importance for the body. This episode was rather long, so the teacher decided to simultaneously begin the next episode “The staff of the hospital” so the pupils would hold the thread and not get bored because learning about all the organs of the body is a big task. While the pupils worked on this episode, they read at home and at school selected chapters from an excellent textbook about the human body. The pupils were asked to record three interesting aspects of the organ, which they shared and discussed in class.

Episode 4: The staff of the hospital After brainstorming to identify which staff were needed in a hospital, each pupil made a person with a particular profession and investigated their duties and function in the hospital. Each student told the class about their staff character and it was displayed on the wall too. At the end of this chapter the pupils had to think of what the staff should know about the organs. Each group wrote a few questions about their organ to find out whether the staff had the necessary knowledge. The mixed groups answered all the questions with the help of all the information on the wall and the textbook.

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Episode 5: The patient Each pupil made a patient and selected the patient’s disease. The pupils then formed groups of doctors that met the patients when they came to the hospital. The “doctors” asked questions to find out the patients’ symptoms (answered by a student in role as the patient) and to determine which ward they should be treated on. This was a difficult and fun task and the pupils really had to use the knowledge from their previous work. The patients used previous and recent knowledge when describing how they felt, and was excited if the doctors identified the disease they had decided on for their patient.

Interlude: Contribution of a student One of the students came to school and asked if he could introduce an idea he had for the class. He had prepared a PowerPoint presentation to make ideas clearer for us. He wanted to organise a run in the neighbourhood, with all the 7th graders, and collect money for the Palliative Care Ward that was in the neighbourhood of the school. The pupils and teachers were interested. His idea was then introduced to the head teacher and discussed in a teachers’ meeting. The decision was made to organise a run for the whole school to collect money for the Palliative Care Ward. The activity also emphasised the curriculum goal: to be healthy it is good to exercise, especially outside.

Episode 6: From cradle to grave Now groups of pupils were asked to decide on landmarks in a lifetime of a person. Their ideas would be developed and shared on posters (see the picture). The groups had different and interesting views on how to describe this on the poster. It was fun to see that they all thought there were more interesting landmarks from birth to 20 years of age than later in life. Landmarks were, for example: birth, starting to walk, going to playschool, starting to talk, going to school, becoming a teenager, getting married, having children, getting old and dying. This was understandable because we focus on ourselves. But it is interesting at the same time, because it appears grownups do not have very interesting lives!

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Fig. 12-2. Children at work

Episode 7: Visit of a specialist We contacted the Head of the Palliative Care Ward and the priest in our congregation. We asked them to come to the classroom to answer questions that the pupils had prepared. The pupils were very interested to hear about the function of the Palliative Care Ward and also about what it is like to die. This lesson is one of the memorable ones in my teaching career. The pupils asked such good and interesting questions and were so interested in the answers. Both the Head of the Palliative Care Ward and the priest answered thoroughly and honestly, and the pupils listened thoughtfully and respectfully.

Episode 8: Assessment The pupils evaluated the topic. They wrote down what they thought was interesting, what they learned from it and what could be done differently if another group would work on it later. In general, all the pupils liked the topic and felt it had been meaningful and worth the effort.

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Episode 9: Parents evening or an open classroom for visitors in school hours The students created a hospital in the classroom. They were in role as doctors and patients. They also entertained their guests with short plays from doctors’ jokes they selected from the Internet. Their enthusiasm and knowledge of the topic was apparent. Both the students and their guests had a lot of fun (see Fig. 12-3).

Fig. 12-3. Roleplay

The end After the run with the whole school, the 7th graders were invited to come to the Palliative Care Ward to present the money they had collected. They decided on a song to sing for the staff and, all by themselves, chose an old Icelandic hymn that was very appropriate in addition to another more cheerful song. The staff told them about the ward and showed them around a part of it. No patients were involved, for obvious reasons.

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Conclusion At the end of the topic work the teachers and pupils, separately, assessed the work in general. x The pupils liked it and felt they had learned a lot about the human body, the function of a hospital, how important it is to think of what we eat, to exercise and not to use drugs x They all mentioned the episode “From the cradle to the grave” and said that was so much fun to think about and discuss x They said they learned a lot from asking the Head of the Palliative Care Ward questions about what happens when we die x They also liked making the questions for the other students and acting out “doctor’s jokes” x They did not enjoy learning about the organs as much, but realised it was useful and that they learned things they did not know before In Kársnesskóli marks are given in numbers and words. The teachers keep a record of many aspects of the topic and grade students’ work as the topic progresses. We assessed: x x x x x x

How pupils presented the organs for the other students How many questions they could answer about the organs How well they functioned in group work The quality of the work on the poster From the Cradle to the Grave How original and organised their Topic book was Their overall work and interest while working on the topic

I think that this topic was a success and that the aims I stated in the beginning were reached in general. How the pupils influenced the topic work and enriched it was significant and fantastic. I was also very pleased when we were able to connect it to our neighbourhood. This association made it real and influenced the whole school. The effect is also longlasting because the whole school is running again this year and collecting money for a different institution in our neighbourhood. Within the context of the Storyline, we managed to talk about life from the cradle to the grave and hopefully prepare the pupils for different aspects of their lives and how to cope with the death of loved ones. In topic work it is always important to have a variety of objectives: x It is very important to be flexible

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x Consider possible related opportunities within the neighbourhood x Listen to suggestions from the pupils x Although some details in the story may change, based on student interest and opportunities in the neighbourhood, teachers should maintain their aims and curriculum goals Storyline designs and implementations offer teachers opportunities to fulfil requirements based on curriculum and school policy. The Storyline structure is based on learning theory and reflective practice of experienced teachers. In an article, Cecilie Falkenberg (2006) clearly explains how the Storyline Method is based on the learning theories of Russo, Dewey, Piaget and many others. These theories and the experience of thoughtful practitioners can help children learn. Storyline helps teachers engage students in stimulating learning situations. It can provide a context for students to discuss ideas that may be uncomfortable or unsociable in other circumstances.

References Bell, S. and Harkness, S. (2006). Storyline: Promoting Languages Across the Curriculum. UKLA, Minibook 21. Eiríksdóttir, B. (1995). Qualities of the Storyline Method for Teaching in Primary Schools in Iceland (Master’s thesis), University of Strathclyde, UK. Falkenberg, C. (2007). Learning Theory: Substantiating the Storyline Approach to Teaching. In Bell, S., Harkness, S. and White, G. (eds.) Storyline: Past, Present and Future. Glasgow: University of Strathclyde. Fréttatíminn 1-3. February 2013. “Það á að tala um dauðann”. Letschert, J., Grabbe-Letschert, B. and Greven, J. (2006). Beyond Storyline. Features, principles and pedagogical profundity. SLO, Netherlands Institute for Curriculum Development.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN ASTRID LINDGREN AND EMIL OF LÖNNEBERGA: A BOOK-BASED STORYLINE HANNE JACOBSEN

Introduction This Storyline is based on the Swedish author Astrid Lindgren and her books about Emil of Lönneberga. The idea is that the pupils should be encouraged to explore Astrid Lindgren’s universe on their own. Through the work of the author, pupils encounter significant human and ethical issues and must personally relate to norms and values. Astrid Lindgren’s stories can be shared with brothers and sisters, friends, parents, grandparents and teachers. The Katholt community, the games, emotions, empathy, humour, dedication and imagination are just some of the things that are addressed in working with her books.

Astrid Lindgren—who was she? Astrid Lindgren was born on 14 November 1907 in Vimmerby in Småland, Sweden. Her childhood was happy. She grew up in a home with parents who loved each other. On the farm Näs there was security and freedom in abundance for Astrid, her older brother Gunnar and little sisters Stina and Ingegerd. Astrid’s father was a farmer and the adults had so much to do that they did not always know what their children got up to. Their children often played in a boisterous way. Describing her childhood, Astrid once said that, “We played and played, so it was strange that we didn’t play to death.” Her father was a good storyteller and told many stories from his own childhood. Astrid Lindgren used her father’s stories as the basis for many of the stories she wrote about Emil of Lönneberga. Her books have been translated into 90 languages in 100 countries. Pippi

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Longstocking was the first to be translated. Astrid Lindgren died in Stockholm on 28 January 2002.

Playing Playing games is of vital importance in Astrid Lindgren’s books and life. In the Pippi books, from the Bulderby series, Astrid Lindgren convinces the adult reader that playing is life affirming and deeply necessary in order to develop into a competent adult. Cheerful and robust children play with a solid grounding in reality, as part of working out life’s problems with each other and adults, and as an important socialisation factor. Some sick or lonely children, on the other hand, do not get opportunities to play; then they fantasise. This is why I find it so important to use play in teaching. The aim of the topic is to provide teachers in primary school (for children aged 6-9 years) with some tools and ideas to use in practice, and to provide them with ideas for interdisciplinary work, using the theme of Swedish author Astrid Lindgren and her books about Emil of Lönneberga. During work with the topic there will be a focus on Astrid Lindgren as a person and a writer. The pupils will work with the characters, the time and setting of Emil from the books. We also look at the games, and the way pupils themselves grow up, in comparison to the way Emil grew up, and what it is like being different from others. During the various activities, the objectives will focus on language awareness, drama, movement and visual arts skills.

Development of skills and knowledge During the topic, the pupils will be working with: x x x x x x x x x x x

The spoken and written language Spelling Reading Discussion Drama: identify yourself with Emil’s life Movement Art Music Co-operation Listening—asking questions Presentation in front of the class

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x Knowledge about the author Astrid Lindgren My experience is that it is good for the pupils to know what they can get better at during the work with the topic and so I put these goals on the wall and present them for the pupils.

Organisation The pupils should work in different groups during the activities. The teacher selects the most suitable activities for the class. Sometimes the whole class will be involved in the same activity, for example, class discussions, or in plenary sessions, or brainstorming. In other activities, students will work in groups with 4-6 pupils. For some of the activities the best way to work can be in pairs or individually.

Key questions The key questions which should open up the pupil’s knowledge, discussions and activities are written in italics.

Using the flipchart There are many ways of working with words from the flipchart: x When the teacher writes the words on the flipchart, she can also talk with the pupils about letter names, large and small letters, vowels and consonants, word length and rhythms in the words x Pupils can jump, clap, dance the word rhythm or play the words on rhythm instruments x The words can be read each day in the classroom x The pupils can write the words in their own book or on the computer and read them at home for their parents x The pupils can write some words from the flipchart in their own book and count how many letters there are in the words, how many vowels and consonants, and how many syllables x When the flipchart paper is placed on the wall in the classroom, students can see the words and use them for their own stories x Pupils can make a memory game or an image lottery with words or pictures from the topic x They can make tasks where the first letter of the word is missing. They must find out what letter it is and write it

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x Try playing a game using a flyswatter x All the letters are hanging on the board. The teacher asks the pupils some questions: “Can you hear which sound the word Emil starts with?” A pupil comes up to the board and slaps the letter E with the flyswatter. “Is it a vowel or is it a consonant?”—“Which vowel does Ida start with?” A pupil comes up to the board and slaps the letter I with the flyswatter.

The pupil’s own book Every child gets a notebook in which they can draw, write their own text, and place photos and articles about the topic.

Additional activities Not all pupils will be working at the same speed. Some pupils will finish an activity before others. For them, there are suggestions for additional activities.

How to begin with the topic about Astrid Lindgren The teacher shows the pupils a picture of Astrid Lindgren. The teacher explains that the lady in the picture is a Swedish author called Astrid Lindgren. She has written a lot of storybooks for children. After that, the teacher asks the pupils some key questions: x x x x x

Can you mention some of the books she has written? What does the picture tell you? What do you know about her? What is an author? Can you paint a picture of Astrid Lindgren?

Activities During a class discussion, the teacher can write the pupils’ answers on a flipchart. The pupils could then paint a picture of Astrid Lindgren and write a little story about their painting. They can use the words from the flipchart. All the pictures are hung on the wall together with the stories and every child presents their painting. The teacher then asks the pupils what else they would like to know about Astrid Lindgren. The pupils write or

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draw 3 questions about Astrid Lindgren to which they would like to have an answer. The teacher writes all the questions on a flipchart. Afterwards the pupils get together in groups. The groups make their own books about Astrid Lindgren with pictures, drawings, stories, newspaper cuttings, articles and pictures from the Internet, copies from books, poems, songs, and so on. If they cannot read themselves, they can ask their friends, teacher or parents to help. The groups present their books to the class. During the pupils’ work with the books, the teacher reads about Astrid Lindgren aloud for the class. She also helps the groups find other ideas and more information in books about Astrid Lindgren.

Emil of Lönneberga After the work with Astrid Lindgren, it is time to read and work with one of her books. I have chosen Emil of Lönneberga because I find many children today, especially boys, are characterised by a personality and behaviour that often gives them the diagnosis of ADHD. These children are restless, hyperactive and imaginative, but they are also good children. When I think of my own years at school, there were also such children then, but they were not diagnosed as having a condition. Emil is also a lively and happy boy. I wonder what would have happened to him if Astrid Lindgren had written about him as a sick boy or a boy with a diagnosed condition. Nowadays children grow up in the framework of our modern society, and with parents whose attitudes to the upbringing of children have changed since Emil and I were children.

Beginning the topic about Emil When pupils enter the classroom, they hear songs about Emil on YouTube. The teacher reads one or two chapters at a time in the book More about Emil of Lönneberga. After reading a chapter, the teacher asks questions about the text: x x x x x x x

Did you know the song? What kind of a boy is Emil? What does he look like? How old is he? Where do you think he lives? What qualities does he have? Can you make a picture and write a little story about Emil?

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Activities and incidents Who is Emil: After the discussion the pupils can paint and display a picture of Emil, write a little story about him, and tell their story to the class, as they did with Astrid. In their notebooks, they can scan or copy their painting of Emil, perhaps using it on the front of the book. In the book they can write words, stories, draw, paste in pictures and other work about Emil of Lönneberga. Being different: The teacher asks the class if Emil is like other children or whether he is different. The class discusses the question. The teacher writes their opinions on the flipchart. The teacher then asks what they think it would be like to have Emil in their class and asks the pupils to write a story about that and read the story for the class. Groups of pupils thus discuss and create/write a story about “Emil in our class”. They present the stories to the class. Next the teacher asks the pupils if they know someone who is different from them and if they can describe the difference. Two pupils share a piece of paper. On one side of the paper Child A writes or draws how he looks and what he likes. On the other side of the paper Child B does the same. The two children discuss the differences, for example, A: has red hair—B: has black hair. Then they can explain the difference to another pair in the class. The incidents and pranks: The teacher asks what it means to be a naughty boy and whether Emil is a naughty boy. The pupils discuss the questions in groups. After that the group tells the whole class what they think it means to be naughty. The teacher writes the pupils’ suggestions on the flipchart. The teacher asks the pupils what happens when Emil plays pranks. The pupils look at “Emil of Lönneberga—intro”, 1 minute, 17 seconds on YouTube. In this session we see that Emil is playing pranks and his father shouts his name very loudly. Afterwards Emil spends a long time carving wooden figures. The teacher asks the pupils whether they can shout “Emil” as loudly as his father. All the pupils try doing that. Then the teacher asks if they think Emil reaches the workshop before his father can catch him. Catching game: A pupil is Emil’s father, Anton. Another is Emil. They now run from one place to another. As soon as Anton begins to shout “Emiiiiil”, Emil runs towards “the workshop”. He must try to reach it without getting caught by his father. The other pupils in the class are obstacles along the way, which Emil and his father have to get around, jump over, crawl through the legs of or whatever. The game concludes when Emil reaches the workshop or is caught by Anton. The pupils can take turns being Emil and his father.

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The teacher asks the pupils whether they can carve a wooden figure. A carving workshop is established where each pupil carves a figure. The teacher asks what the pupils believe Emil thinks about while he is sitting in the workshop, and whether it is fair that Emil is locked up inside the workshop. The pupils are tasked with writing a story or a cartoon about that. The teacher can also ask whether it is also difficult for us to accommodate each other’s mistakes and if we also exclude others from the community when they have made us angry. This leads to a group discussion and presentations to the class. Pranks: The pupils are asked to remember some of Emil’s pranks. The teacher writes the pupils’ suggestions on the flipchart. The pupils help each other to write the pranks on the computer and place the page in their own book about Emil. The groups choose one of Emil’s pranks and determine how they will work with it. They can: x x x x x x x

Draw/paint a picture Write a story Make a cartoon Dress up and make a drama Write a poem or a song Find out other ways to illustrate the incident Present the pranks to the class

The teacher can ask the pupils whether they sometimes play pranks and to describe them. Each pupil makes an illustration and a story about a selfexperienced prank and reads it to the class. They then discuss whether they think their parents and grandparents also played pranks, and ask their parents or grandparents to tell or write about their pranks, before presenting them to the class. Other people in the book: The teacher can ask which other people we hear about in the story and writes the pupils’ suggestions on the flipchart. The pupils can make some of the people and present the person to the class. The pupils choose one of these people and make this person in cardboard, clay, or whatever. The people are hung on a wall in the classroom, and the pupils present their people to each other. The teacher asks the pupils to describe the characters and make a written description of their person, and then writes the name of the person and the pupils’ characteristics of the person on the flipchart. Now the pupils have a lot of words which can help them to describe the people they have made and these words can be placed next to each of the people on the wall. The teacher can ask the pupils to write a story about their person and read it to

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the class. The pupils who have made the same person work together and create a story about their person, which they read to the other groups. For example, the pupils who have made Emil create a story about him. The teacher may also ask what Lingonberry-Maja, Emil’s mother, Emil’s father, Line, Alfred and the other people say about Emil. Every child draws a cartoon bubble around their person and draws or writes what they think about Emil and present it to the class. The class can then discuss why they think each person has a different impression of Emil. The setting: The pupils discuss where the story takes place and locate Sweden on a map in the classroom. The teacher asks them to find a map of Sweden on the computer, print it out and put it in their book. The children make suggestions about what they think the houses look like, the architecture, colour, materials, etc. The teacher writes their suggestions on the flipchart. Afterwards they look at pictures of houses in Småland in Astrid Lindgren’s books. All the pupils draw/paint a typical Småland house and place them together on a frieze. The pupils talk about which other places they hear about in the book such as sheds, a horse stable, a cowshed, a sheep pen, a henhouse, firewood shelter, washhouse, and a pig sty. The teacher writes the pupils’ suggestions on the flipchart. The pupils are asked to make some of the places, working together in pairs. They choose the building they want to create and then present the buildings to each other, describing how they made it. The building can be made in a shoebox, out of milk cartons, in a large cardboard box, or out of Lego with farms and animals. The teacher asks the pupils to imagine what would happen if Lingonberry-Maja, Emil’s father Anton, or others went into the building. The pupils write a story about what happens in the house and read the story to some of the other groups. Incidents: During the Storyline, some of the following incidents may be suggested: x x x x x x x x x x

Emil gets a horse Emil at the auction in Lönneberga Emil driving Alfred to the doctor in a snowstorm Emil kissing the teacher Kommandussen in the wolf trap Emil at the market A circus in town Christmas preparations Christmas get-together at Katholt Visit to the Mayor

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x Emil gets sent to America The pupils choose one of the incidents. Afterwards they get together in groups. Some make a story about the incident. Some make a drama and perform it for the class whereas others can play puppets with dolls made out of cardboard. The setting: The teacher makes copies of the images in the book about Emil and places these images on the wall. Now the class can have a discussion about the setting of the story, involving such questions as when they think the story takes place, how they can tell when the story takes place, what the washhouse looks like, why Emil’s father does not take the car to Mariane Lund, etc. The teacher writes the pupils’ suggestions on the flipchart. The groups select an image from the wall, then they write or tell a story about what happens, and why the pupils can see that the story is not happening nowadays. The groups read their stories for the class. This leads to a class discussion of the differences in the time when Emil was a child and today. The teacher writes their examples on the flipchart. Table 13-1. Flipchart Childhood when Emil was a child x Not many toys x Toys usually handmade x No electricity x Children had to work x Families had no cars x Emil had no bike x No telephones x Children had bare feet or wooden clogs

Childhood in 2010 x More toys x More time to play x We have television, computers, etc. x Dentist x Playgrounds x Electricity x Proper footwear

The class can discuss what a good childhood would be like if they could decide. The pupils can make pictures, a song, stories, a movie, a collage or something else, and present them to the class. The games and the toys: The teacher asks what kind of toys Emil and the other kids had, and whether the pupils could make some of the toys. The teacher writes the suggestions on the flipchart. The pupils make a wooden gun, a jumping jack or a skipping rope. The pupils bring their own toys into the classroom where they make an exhibition with them all. The teacher divides the Flipchart in two. On one side the teacher writes the games that Emil and his friends were playing. On the other side, she writes

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the games children play today. The pupils discuss the differences. The teacher asks the pupils whether they can play some of the games Emil and his friends played. These included: tag; walking on stilts; sending a letter in a bottle; welly or boot throwing; tree climbing; circus; building huts and caves outside in the forest; and The Witch. Can you play The Witch: Number of participants—at least four. Equipment—a light stick. Choose a Witch. The Witch gets a wand, which is the light stick. With this wand the Witch can put a spell on the others. The other participants in the game run around and tease the Witch. She tries to touch them with the wand. Those who are touched by the magic wand must stand completely still. They can only be freed if a participant who has not yet been in contact with the Witch touches them. Therefore the Witch has to touch as many people as possible to prevent the others from freeing each other. The participant who succeeds in avoiding being bewitched becomes the next Witch. Can you throw: The pupils do what Emil and Ida did when they borrowed Line’s dairy buckets. Arrange the buckets in a long row. Participants stand at a distance from them and have to try to throw stones into the buckets. Beanbags or balls can be used. The poor people in the poorhouse: The teacher asks the pupils why the poor people have such strange names and if they remember any of them. The pupils recall the names of the poor people and the teacher makes a list of the names on the flipchart. The pupils are asked to make one of the poor people and write a story about them. They make the person out of cardboard. After that they write a story about the person’s life before and after they came to the poorhouse. They then tell or read the story to the class. The poorhouse: The teacher asks the pupils what they think it looks like in the poorhouse. After a class discussion, the teacher writes the children’s suggestions on the flipchart. Each group makes a poorhouse and presents to the others. The teacher asks why they think the poor people live in the poorhouse and not in a house or apartment. This leads to group discussions and presentations to the whole class. The teacher can ask what they think it means to be a poor person, whether they know someone who is poor, how Emil helped the poor people, and how we can help poor people.

Additional activities Additional activities may include the following:

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x Make a drawing of the poor people. Use colours, black and white to make a scale of grey. x Find some old clothes. Dress up as a poor person. Get together with some of the other poor people (4-5 in each group) and make a drama about life in the poorhouse. x Select a song you know. Perhaps one of the songs Emil sings. Make a song about Emil and the other people in the story. Use instruments. Sing and play the song for the class. x Lingonberry-Maja tells the story of Devil’s Busse man. Who is he? What does he look like? Can you draw a picture of him? x Emil hoists Ida up the flagpole. Can you construct a flagpole and hoist one of the cardboard people up the flagpole? x Write a letter to Emil’s mother from his teacher, where the teacher describes a prank that Emil played at school.

Other topics The book can also be used to work with other topics: x x x x x x x x

Animals Food Feelings Gossip Work The Seasons Children, parents and family life then and now Life in the countryside

Concluding activities Ways to conclude this Storyline topic include the following: x Watch the movie about Emil of Lönneberga. x Let the children create tasks that summarise the topic Astrid Lindgren and Emil of Lönneberga. Requirements for the tasks could be that they must contain: Questions to be answered; activities that require movement; games; songs and music; things in nature. x Write a birthday card to Astrid Lindgren in which you tell her about working with Emil as a topic.

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x Make an exhibition of all the people and buildings and other things that have been made. x Invite the other classes from the school, nursery schools and parents to see the exhibition. Give a lecture on the topic. x Make a competition for others in the classroom and for parents. It may be a quiz. x “Astrid Lindgren” comes to visit the class and reads from one of her books. What would you ask her about? x Prepare and hold a 100-year birthday party for Astrid Lindgren.

Documentation and evaluation In Storyline, it is important for the children to document and evaluate their work and learning. They can: x Write a diary every day. They can write about what they have enjoyed and what they have learnt. x Select some of the things they have made and written. These things are to be kept in order to illustrate how their skills and knowledge have developed, and to have a record of what they have learnt. x Write an article about the topic for the school magazine. x Complete evaluation forms made by the teacher. This can be done at home together with their parents. Here are some examples of the pupils’ self-evaluations from this topic: x x x x x x x x x x

I have learnt how to work together with others I have learnt a lot about Astrid Lindgren I have learnt about vowels and consonants I have become better at writing and reading I have become better at understanding words, hearing sounds and writing long words The best activity was building the big barn It was fun when Emil hoisted Ida up the flagpole It was fun to hear stories It was fun to play games It was fun to play pranks

I hope that this topic inspires others to use Astrid Lindgren books in their Storyline topics.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN STORYLINE AS A MODEL FOR SCHOOL CHANGE: A PRINCIPAL’S PERSPECTIVE EMILY NELSEN

Introduction Storyline. One word. One simple word. But in that simple word a world exists… a living, breathing, energising, ever expanding world. Let me tell you about our world in the small-town school of Shoshone Elementary in the state of Idaho. Our school is much like any small rural elementary school in Idaho, except for one dubious distinction. Four years ago we were identified by our State Department of Education as a “persistently underachieving school”. We were in the bottom 5% of all schools in Idaho based on our lack of academic achievement, and had made no gains for the past 7 years (the state didn’t look further than that—apparently it was enough for them). I fondly referred to those of us in the group of low performing schools as the losers’ club. We were placed on a priority list for some very helpful services and extra funding, but at the same time we also received a lot of attention regarding our negative behaviours. One visit, shortly after our identification, by a team from the Department of Education stands out in my mind. Phrases such as “malicious compliance”, “no sense of urgency”, “negative voices” and “need for more rigour” were used to describe us. While it was certainly necessary for us to take a hard look at why we were in the pickle we were, words like that were demoralising for the staff. It was also my first year as principal of the school, and this did not help me create much of a positive relationship with the staff. What followed was a series of meetings, visits, mandates and help, all designed to assist us in raising our academic standards and achievement. The staff, while angry at the situation, was determined to prove everyone

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wrong. They wanted to show that we were not a bunch of losers; but the atmosphere was still negative and morale was low. Teachers worked harder and harder, and spent more and more time creating lessons. Each consultant who came to the school had better ways to do things, and we tried it all. Yes, we tried and we tried. And we became tired. Oh so very tired. And discouraged. And angry. Soon the negativity seeped into the community resulting in some parents losing faith in our school. They believed neighbouring districts could educate our students better than we could. Moreover, the state told us we had to offer “school choice” and pay for those families to take their children to the neighbouring districts. And we became even more discouraged. But we never quit working and trying. We gained a new superintendent who breathed new life into our school. He encouraged us, and supported us, and told us to try new things. Then one beautiful winter morning in February, while on a visit to see my family in Bend, Oregon, I decided to visit a school I had heard about for years. A school described to me by my nieces and nephews as “the most wonderful school ever”. Highland Elementary is a magnet Storyline school founded 10 years ago by two Storyline trainers, Elaine Smith and Colleen Vallerga. Highland consistently has extremely high test scores, a waiting list of teachers who want to teach there, and a reputation throughout Bend as being one of the best schools in the city. On that morning in February, I walked through the front doors of Highland Elementary and my life was changed forever. Their wonderful principal showed me that there really was life outside of our “losers’ club”. It was a life I had forgotten existed. Not only did it exist, it was there in front of me in living colour. It was a world of joy, of enthusiasm, of energy, and not just for the students—the teachers were as excited to be at school as the kids. And I said to myself, “I want this for our school. I want people to come to our school and have their breath taken away by the wonderfulness of it all.”

The vision Before we go much further, you need to know my vision for our school. I want Shoshone Elementary to be a place of respect. In order for that to happen, I believe we owe our students an education that is meaningful. I believe that: x Students learn as much or more through projects than from a textbook

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x Experiences in the world are just as valuable as classroom learning x The earlier exposure students have to experience the better and easier they learn because it acts as a foundation and a point of reference for all other learning x Children are really just mini-adults in many respects o they have strong opinions o they can carry on intelligent conversations o they have great insight that many adults could learn from o the younger they are the better philosophers they are, provided they have a safe environment to express themselves x Our future depends on how well we raise our youth You might ask what it was I saw at Highland that caused me to realise it was a mirror of my own vision. At the time I did not realise that Storyline has seven guiding principles, and that I was seeing my vision being acted out on a stage called School through those seven principles. As I walked through classrooms, spoke with students and teachers, and felt both the highly charged energy and the lightness of the atmosphere, I realised it was something very special. Below is a list of the seven principles and an example of what I saw and heard: x Story: The students could tell me exactly what the story was that they were creating. It was meaningful to them, and they cared deeply about it. Their learning was imbedded into something familiar to them—a great story. x Anticipation: Teachers and the principal all described with great delight, stories of the anticipation created before each Storyline opening. How students stand at the doorway to the school, their noses pressed to the glass, to spy any clues as to the topic they will study next. The anticipation did not stop with the announcement of the next topic; it continued as the students created the story and wondered, “What’s going to happen next?” A fifth grade classroom was studying the Alaskan Iditarod, and students were watching the progress of their characters in that famous race. What would happen? Who would win? x Teacher’s line: The teacher’s line is what gives the students control of the story they are creating, and the teachers control of the curriculum. Even though the students had some control, they were still learning the necessary curriculum as laid out by the district and state. This was evidenced by charts and graphs of the demographics of the participants in the Iditarod, by the novels they were reading

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x

x

x

x

by famous Alaskans, by the brainstorming lists hanging in the classroom. Not only was it education, it was education that was deep, and rich, and meaty. Ownership: Students own their own learning. A second grade classroom had been turned into a hospital. The students were all physicians of various specialties. Ordinarily, second grade students would have limited interest in what a neurosurgeon or gastroenterologist did for a living. Instead, these students were eager to share their stories of the assorted patients living in their classroom because the bandaged and sick dolls that lined the walls were indeed very real and very much alive. They could tell me in great detail how they tended them and healed them. Context: Context as it relates to Storyline refers to how children build understanding, going from the known to the unknown. Storyline provides the perfect framework for this. At Highland I saw students learning about the river that runs through their city. All students knew about the river (building on the known), but they had not experienced the river from its inception in the nearby mountains to the place it flowed into the mighty Columbia. Using the river, which was known to all, was the jumping off spot into the science, the history, and the art the river provided. Structure before Activity: What I observed at Highland was a highly structured, sophisticated form of organised chaos. The activity level, the energy level, the creativity, and the joy would fool the untrained eye. As an educator I understood the time, the resources, and the thought teachers put into creating something like this. I also understood the time the teachers had put into teaching their students the routines and the structures that allowed such successful independent work. The average citizen might not understand. But as with all good planning it is what makes even the most difficult task look easy. Respect: This was my greatest take away. The amount of respect shown within the school was indescribable. There was respect for what the students knew, not only collectively, but also individually. There was respect for the ideas the students presented. There was such a sense of community within the classroom and within the school. Learning was valued, children were valued, and teachers were valued. Everyone belonged, everyone had a place, and everyone had something important to contribute. It simply gave me chills.

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What I saw reminded me of how I used to teach, it was everything I believed about education. For 24 years I made the commitment to my students to provide a respectful, encouraging learning environment with experiences they would not get anywhere else. I put it all away when I became a principal in order to make sure everyone was complying with the mandates and following the instructions we were receiving, and insuring we were all doing everything in our power to raise our test scores. After reflecting on my experience at Highland, I realised I was as unhappy as the teachers. We were working ourselves to death to make sure students were meeting the standards and passing the tests, and in doing so we had taken away any possible joy or reward in learning and teaching. After bringing the school leadership team to Bend to show them my dream, which became “our dream”, we took it to the staff, the superintendent and the school board. We convinced them that it would be the best thing for our school. We showed them we would still have high academic standards, we would still have great rigour, we would still have intervention groups and progress monitoring and a color-coded daily schedule, and we would still expect the most from our students. But, we also showed them we could bring joy to the learning process and make kids want to be at school. We showed them we could have a balance between the rigour of high academic standards and the joy of learning. Who would have known on that day in February, that four short months later we would be having a sparkling cider toast in plastic champagne glasses to celebrate making Average Yearly Progress, a testing standard set by the federal government, for the very first time. Who would have known on that day in February that 100% of the elementary staff would enthusiastically and voluntarily sign up to attend their very first Storyline training? And who would have known on that day in February that a year later we would walk through the doors of Highland Elementary and say to ourselves, “We did it. We have the same feeling of joy, enthusiasm, and energy at our school. We no longer have to come here and WISH, because now we HAVE!”? So from a principal’s perspective, what did we gain? Well, here is the short list: x We have better morale x As a staff we are more willing to work together, and work with cohesion x We have a more positive atmosphere throughout the school x Teachers and students are learning together x Students have a reason to like school again because it is fun to learn

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x Learning is more meaningful x Students are learning to think in a new way, outside of their experiences x The school and the community are coming together; 90% of the students who left with “school choice” have now returned x Student and teacher attendance have both increased dramatically x Parents are coming to school like never before. Our autumn Storyline culminating event was the best attended event in the last several years, far exceeding Christmas Concerts and parent/teacher conferences. We have a student population of 246 and we served over 700 hotdogs at the dinner which accompanied the culmination. (Hotdogs are a highly technical way of determining attendance, by the way!) Now comes the question of sustaining our growth and improvement. I believe all learners need support in order to really “get” something. Students need scaffolding from teachers as they learn a new concept. In the same manner, teachers need scaffolding as they learn new things too. Hence the ongoing, focused, professional development for our staff. I cannot expect anyone to do something well without giving them the support they need. That is where Skype conversations with Jeff, a “miniStoryline-class” mid-year, and a second summer of training come in. Teachers are paid for their time commitment, and the cost for credits earned is covered by the district. Being respectful of teachers and their time is high on my priority list, and offering them something in return for their dedication to the process is important. Professional development is carefully designed to encourage all the staff, and in some respects force the unsure or hesitant teachers, to continue to take new risks in a safe and supportive environment. Yes, it is a lot of money, time and effort to provide this type of support. But, it is what I would want as a teacher, and I try to always look at what I am asking the teachers to do through their eyes. Some things I cannot change—they have to do it because they have to do it, but when I have the choice and the opportunity I try hard to never forget what it is like to be in their shoes. Too often, after teachers go to “principal school” and become a school leader, they lose sight of where they have been in their lives and become less respectful of the value of the people around them. I do not think it is necessarily on purpose, but it is an unfortunate response to the mandates and rules that come down from above.

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Conclusion Supporting our teachers is critical to both our success as a school, and to their success as a teacher. Without them, the school is nothing. On my bathroom wall, right next to the mirror, I have two pieces of paper hanging there for me to see. Every single morning as I brush my teeth I read the following: “I lead with wisdom, integrity and virtue.”

and “Be courageous, and stand up for your beliefs.”

As simple as these two statements are, they are what have helped me through the tough times and acted as my guiding stars in all decisions and interactions with people. These statements have given me the strength to help direct our school into becoming a place where the staff wants to be, a place students love, and a place parents are proud to say their children attend. I have not done this by myself; but with the support of the superintendent and the buy-in of the teachers and community, our school is a dramatically different place for both adults and students. Are we experts in Storyline? Heavens, no. This year is our first year and we are beginners. Do we have the test scores to prove it was a success to those who might doubt? Not yet, but we know that it is the right path!

PART III: STORYLINE IN THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASSROOM

CHAPTER FIFTEEN STORYLINE AS AN APPROACH TO TASK-BASED LANGUAGE TEACHING DORIS KOCHER

Introduction Due to worldwide political changes and societal developments that lead to increasing mobility and flexibility of young and old, the mastery of foreign languages, i.e. profound linguistic and intercultural communicative competencies has grown in importance in recent years (Byram, 1997; Council of Europe, 2001). Moreover, there have been some major shifts of emphasis in the debate on foreign language learning and teaching influenced by findings from second language acquisition research (Ellis, 2000; 2003): x a change from language as form to language as a means of communication x a focus on complex tasks and meaningful activities instead of onedimensional drills and “non-sense” exercises which serve language in small digestible bits x a shift from the learner as a recipient participant and passive consumer to an active and creative language user in a communicative context x a shift from the learner as an individual to the learner as a member of a social group (social agent) who negotiates and constructs meaning with his or her classmates by accomplishing various tasks x a stronger focus on authentic materials and on experiences that learners gain outside school (learner biography) x a change in the roles of teachers and learners which is also reflected in a more friendly relationship and a supporting learning environment

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x a focus on the learning process itself as compared to learning products x a focus on new forms of assessment, such as self-assessment or portfolio assessment which not only measure outcomes and results, but also the learners’ active co-operation and their individual learning processes (Kocher, 2007) All the above-mentioned aspects are considered in the concept of taskbased language teaching (TBLT) which offers new perspectives for the foreign language classroom—but also challenges. Apart from Nunan (1989) and others who started with research on the role of tasks in communicative language learning in the 1980s, it was mainly Willis who contributed to a new understanding of language learning and teaching when she published A Framework for Task-Based Learning (1996) as an alternative framework to the widely spread P-P-P approach (presentation, practice, production).

Task-based Language Teaching What actually is TBLT? Nunan (2004) mentions a number of principles that support task-based teaching, such as authentic materials, focus on interaction to convey meaning, focus on learning processes and the integration of the learner’s own experiences, to name just a few. Finding a clear definition of the term “task”, though, seems to be rather difficult as even experts such as Ellis (2003), Samuda and Bygate (2008) or Van den Branden (2006) use different concepts, which obviously leads to confusion and uncertainty among readers and practitioners. Van den Branden (2006: 3) even complains that “almost anything related to educational activity can now be called a ‘task’.” One of the most frequently cited definitions, which is also shared among many professionals, is probably the following: “A task is a workplan. (...) A task involves a primary focus on meaning. (...) A task involves real world processes of language use. (...) A task can involve any of the four language skills. (...) A task engages cognitive processes. (...) A task has a clearly defined communicative outcome” (Ellis, 2003: 9-10). Nunan makes a distinction between tasks and exercises, whereby the latter strongly focus on isolated language practice, and compares a number of definitions to explain the difference between real-world tasks and pedagogical tasks. In his opinion, a pedagogical task is considered as “a piece of classroom work that involves learners in comprehending, manipulating, producing or interacting in the target language while their

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attention is focused on mobilising their grammatical knowledge in order to express meaning, and in which the intention is to convey meaning rather than to manipulate form. The task should also have a sense of completeness, being able to stand alone as a communicative act in its own right with a beginning, a middle and an end” (Nunan, 2004: 4). Furthermore, Willis (1996) gives an overview of different task types that can be used in the foreign language classroom and finally decides on 6 main types of task with different degrees of difficulty (Ibid: 26-28): 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Listing Ordering and sorting Comparing Problem solving Sharing personal experiences Creative tasks

As creative tasks tend to be freer and more complex, they are often called projects. They can also involve combinations of the abovementioned task types, and usually the outcome is presented to some kind of audience. This description also fits Storyline projects as will be explained later on. In terms of task sequences, there are again various concepts and models (e.g. Estaire and Zanón, 1994; Willis, 1996; Cameron, 2001, or Ellis, 2003) but all of them have three main phases in common: a pre-task phase, a during-task phase and a post-task phase. According to Willis (1996), whose TBLT-framework seems to be the most popular and widely discussed one, a task always follows a certain routine: Step 1: Pre-task: Introduction to topic and task Step 2: Task cycle: Task, planning, report Step 3: Language focus: Analysis, practice While Willis (1996) puts a strong focus on language analysis and language practice in the post-task phase, Estaire and Zanón (1994) suggest a more comprehensive reflection and evaluation of all kinds of learning processes and learning products. With regard to self-determined learning and future actions this step definitely plays an important role and should not be neglected. Even though the concept of TBLT has gained many supporters and thus resulted in a great number of international publications in the last 10 or 15 years, there are still many questions and doubts to be discussed when

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it comes to implementation in the foreign language classroom: “Does TBLT [Task-based Language Teaching] work for teachers and learners in the classroom as well as it does for SLA researchers? Further, is TBLT more than a fascinating pedagogical approach that looks good and convincing on paper? Can it really inspire language teachers when they prepare their lessons or does it only frighten them because of the high demands it places on them and on their learners? (...) How do learners react to the idea of no longer having the particulars of grammar spelled out before being confronted with a speaking task? Does TBLT work as well for children as for adults? Can it be implemented in classes of 25 students with a wide range of cultural backgrounds and different levels of language proficiency? How (...) does the syllabus developer select, order and sequence some 720 tasks?” (Van den Branden, 2006: 1-2). Apart from researchers and teachers who are searching for answers to the question of how to successfully implement TBLT in the classroom, there are also young university students who are keen on trying out innovative concepts and thus break with traditional classroom routines but unfortunately lack practical support as one of my trainee teachers sadly realised: “Focusing on the learner is the new way to teach (...) and it is mentioned in every other article and book I read. But how am I supposed to teach like that when I have never experienced what it really means?”

The Storyline approach The Storyline approach was originally developed by a creative team of Scottish educators led by Sallie Harkness and Steve Bell in the late 1960s when school reforms asked for a more cross-curricular, integrative and holistic approach in Scottish primary schools to foster problem-solving strategies, study skills and language competencies in the mother-tongue classroom (Bell, 1995; 2007). Today Storyline finds supporters all over the world as it proved to be a very flexible and beneficial concept for many kinds of learning arrangements and target groups. Even though it is mainly used in L1-primary classrooms in northern Europe to teach various subject areas in a more holistic way, there are many good reasons to also implement Storyline in the foreign language classroom to make language learning more meaningful and thus more motivating (Kocher, 1999; 2007; 2008). Apart from topics and goals, Storyline projects can also vary in terms of length and complexity. In the primary classroom they can last for several weeks or even months. When it comes to foreign languages in secondary school which are often taught by teachers who only see their

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classes for their language lessons, it might be better to decide on a shorter time-frame of maybe only 4-6 double lessons of 90 minutes each. A short “compact course” carried out within 1 or 2 weeks not only relieves teachers from organisational problems but also helps learners to stay focused and excited about their story. .

Key principles of Storyline Storyline projects are considered as simulations; they have a narrative structure, i.e. a story with any kind of characters, a setting and a time frame. As in every story there is a beginning and an end, and also a number of problems and dilemmas (incidents) to be solved by the learners. With the help of open key questions the teacher sets various tasks and thus challenges the pupils to use the foreign language in a meaningful and authentic context. Although the teacher has designed a rough sketch of the story beforehand to ensure that all learning objectives will be achieved, Storyline work is not a matter of storytelling but rather of collaborative storymaking as there is always plenty of room and freedom for the learners to integrate their own ideas and gradually develop their very own story: The learners create figures, give them an identity and thus bring them to life. They design a story-specific setting, e.g. a room, a cave, a ship, an island or maybe a planet and think of all kinds of details that make their story exciting and unique. While plunging into the story and taking over the new roles of their characters, they can bring in their individual experiences, pre-knowledge, hypotheses, imagination and creativity, and as all contributions and suggestions are taken seriously, every child experiences a feeling of success. Moreover, Storyline fosters a multitude of very different skills, learning strategies and intelligences (Gardner, 1983; 1999) which enable learners to work autonomously and efficiently. From time to time the teacher asks new key questions to initiate multiple problem-solving processes. Nevertheless, it is the learners who decide what they want to write or tell and what kind of language they want to use to express their ideas and thoughts. The teacher, however, takes on the role of a guide and facilitator who observes the different learning processes, organises and coordinates the various activities, and also provides the necessary materials and media. It is the mutual respect and feeling of ownership that helps learners to be active, take risks, ask critical questions and at the same time use, display and enlarge their knowledge, competencies and skills through meaningful and purposeful interaction: “The teacher is in control but the pupils feel that this is their story. It is

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truly a partnership. The teacher is interested in motivating the pupils to use language in a wide variety of forms. The pupils want to participate because they are listening, talking, reading and writing about their own creations” (Bell, 1995: 8). Due to the narrative structure, all learning steps and tasks are clearly connected and “make sense”. This obvious cohesion and interrelation helps learners not only understand and memorise content and language better, but also gives them a strong sense of achievement. As they evaluate their learning products and processes on a regular basis, Storyline work is not only learner-centred but also learning-centred.

Characteristics of a Storyline classroom Depending on the topic, the age group and the local conditions, Storyline classrooms may of course look very different but still there are some typical features that they all have in common, no matter where the story plays. For several reasons, the following aspects play an important role in foreign language classes: x Collages: There are all kinds of two or three-dimensional pictures or objects which are gradually created by the learners and regularly presented in class. They support especially the younger or weaker learners who might not be fluent enough to express all their creative ideas in the target language. At the same time these concrete materials foster inspiration, engagement, responsibility and a strong feeling of ownership. x Frieze: All Storyline outcomes such as texts, pictures, collages and objects are eventually attached to the walls. The frieze functions as a classroom museum as it documents and displays all the processes and products of the lessons. It re-tells the story and at the same time creates a motivating learning atmosphere. In addition, it lends itself to spontaneous conversations or discussions and allows learners to share, compare and evaluate their work. x Wordbanks: Posters with mind maps and word lists that contain topic-related vocabulary or various helpful phrases are developed together with the learners and may also be illustrated with pictures to help memorise new language. These so-called wordbanks are attached to the wall and serve as a dictionary that can be accessed very quickly and easily, even during a presentation. x Group and/or pair work: Co-operative learning is an essential goal in Storyline projects. Therefore learners usually work in pairs

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or small groups where they negotiate task solutions, help each other with their presentations and feel safe experimenting with the foreign language. x Materials and media: As Storyline is aimed at experiential and holistic learning, there must be many kinds of appealing materials such as paper, crayons, wool or fabrics that allow learners to visualise their ideas. Furthermore, there should also be different low-tech and high-tech media such as various dictionaries, encyclopaedias, magazines, newspapers, CD-ROMs, DVDs, MP3 players, cameras or computers with access to the Internet that help pupils solve their tasks and thus take further learning steps.

TBLT and examples from Storyline projects Storyline projects can be regarded as one specific form of TBLT, as pointed out above. In general, the TBLT framework designed by Willis (1996) is very similar to the outline of any Storyline project as will now be illustrated by a number of task examples for different learner levels in primary and secondary school (Kocher, 2006; 2008).

Pre-task: Introduction to topic and task, activating and pre-teaching language Initially, teacher and class choose a topic that can be transformed into a Storyline project. This could be either a topic from the coursebook (e.g. Space Camp Florida; Life On a Farm), a fantasy story (e.g. Witches; Aliens from Planet YQ5), a fairy tale (Snow White; Cinderella), a crosscurricular or bilingual topic (Californian Gold Rush; Life in the Amazon Rain Forest), a piece of literature (e.g. Macbeth; Harry Potter) or maybe a real-life topic that the learners find interesting (Our Ideal School; Song Contest). Depending on the topic, a Storyline project can either be introduced by some music, a sound collage, a picture, a historical document, a map, a letter, a poster or even a short film-clip and is then developed with the help of inspiring key questions that are gradually posed by the teacher. In the example of Witches (Fehse and Kocher, 1998), which was designed for grades 6-7, the teacher first plays some mysterious sounds (e.g. a thunderstorm, heavy rain, footsteps, knocking on a door, laughing and screaming people, etc.) and then asks some of the following questions: “What comes to your mind when you hear these sounds?”, “What do you think a witch looks like?”, “What kinds of things does a witch need to do

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magic?” The learners express all their ideas, experiences and preknowledge they might have gained from books, museums or films, and with the help of (picture) dictionaries they look up topic-related language to be collected on posters. These wordbanks serve as a permanent classroom dictionary and at the same time ensure that everybody in the class has some kind of basic language to communicate successfully.

Task cycle Doing the task: “Communicative tasks provide much better opportunities for language learning than virtually any other type of classroom activity” (Davies, 2007: 48). This is why learners in Storyline projects are asked to solve many different tasks and sub-tasks that refer to the content but also to the topic-specific language of the story. In the example of Witches the groups first discuss what a witch’s home might look like and thus use the language collected in the wordbanks, before they decide on the rooms and places they would like to design. Then they discuss in their groups who will be responsible for a specific sub-task, e.g. who will draw the picture, who will look up important words in the dictionary, who will write the text or who will check the time. It might also be helpful to have a team leader (speaker) in each group who coordinates the work in progress with the teacher. The teacher, in turn, takes on the role of the classroom manager and observer who decides how much support and how much freedom the learners need while working on their tasks. Planning and preparing task results: Before any learning products are shared in class, the groups discuss their presentations in detail: they decide on the content, check their texts for mistakes (peer correction), practise free speech, prepare a roleplay activity, design a poster, maybe take some pictures or even make a short video clip. In the abovementioned example of Witches the learners study their magic spells, learn them by heart, work on their pronunciation and perhaps design a short choreography or a piece of music to make their presentation even more appealing. In Circus (grades 4-5) the learners develop and practise some tricks to present to the audience, they decide on the sequence of their performances, prepare short speeches and maybe practise some pieces of music or try on specific costumes to look like real professionals. Usually the learners are very motivated to work on their language competencies because they feel responsible for their work and naturally want to give good and comprehensible presentations. They try hard to

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surprise the audience with creative solutions and thus spend a lot of time inside and outside the classroom to get well prepared—either in small groups or alone. Reporting task results: Presentations are an essential part of Storyline work and they usually take place whenever a task has been completed. As the learners (and not the teachers) decide on what they want to show and tell, there is an authentic communication situation with a real information gap, and thus everybody is intrinsically motivated to listen to their classmates. In the example of Our Ideal School (grades 9-10) the groups present blueprints of a perfect school building and also give well thoughtout reasons for their decisions because they all want to win the fictitious contest. In New Neighbours (grades 6-7) they celebrate a welcome party and give presents to their new neighbours, such as a collection of useful addresses, an invitation for dinner or perhaps a voucher for a grocery shop. In Kidnapped in Scotland (grades 6-7) the learners present a short video clip or radio broadcast with all relevant details of the happy ending. With young learners (grades 1-4) the tasks and presentations might be less complex regarding the language but still as exciting as with advanced learners. Well-chosen key questions inspire the children to present their ideas with great pleasure and involvement: What hobbies could the dwarves have (Snow White)? What tricks can circus artists perform (Circus)? What (useful and funny) things do pupils have in their school bags (Our Class)? What animals do you think live on a farm (Our Farms) (Kocher, 2001)? Even if all groups work on the same tasks, the results are always unpredictable, surprising and unique, and consequently differ in terms of language quantity and quality. Usually all materials are attached to the frieze, once they have been presented in class. This allows the learners to reread everything at their own pace or even change, add and correct things if necessary. While the children are reading and discussing the various outcomes—mostly without being asked to do so—a broad variety of language skills and competencies are being developed and trained. Apart from this positive effect on language learning and language awareness, many learners are curious to find out if anything has changed in the frieze and so focus on the content of the story more intensely. The teacher can even support this kind of playful learning by adding, hiding or removing things now and then.

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Post-task: language focus and evaluation Analysis and reflection: At the end of a Storyline project there is usually an evaluation of all products and processes, but short evaluation phases can also be integrated into the project to focus on single items such as content, procedures, behaviour, material, language or any other relevant aspects. This can easily be done at the beginning or end of a lesson or when specific problems arise within a group. Learners might reflect on their work—either alone or with their peers—by completing an ageappropriate questionnaire or a checklist, by commenting on a short video recording from their presentation or perhaps by keeping a learning log to regularly summarise their learning achievements (“What I have learned today...”) and also to think about their future learning steps (“What I still need to improve...”). In terms of language learning and language awareness, wordbanks may be extended or perhaps a certain tense such as the past simple could be repeated after one of these integrated reflections to improve the learners’ fluency, accuracy and complexity of language. When it comes to presentation skills, different techniques can be collected to make future presentations even more authentic and more professional: “Take a deep breath before speaking. Smile. Make short sentences. Don’t read everything out. Look at the audience. Don’t hide your hands in your pockets.” For teachers there are many opportunities within a Storyline project to observe, evaluate and assess their learners’ language proficiency and to think of additional language support for individual learners (differentiation). Often it is the learners themselves who notice mistakes when they listen to their classmates or when they read frieze materials. In this case they could be asked to talk to their classmates and help them correct their mistakes (peer correction). Practice: After a Storyline project has been completed, teacher and learners can decide on additional exercises to work on certain linguistic deficiencies that might have become obvious during the project, for example tenses, irregular verbs, adverbs, spelling, pronunciation etc. If necessary, the teacher can also choose extra activities for individual learners while the project is still going on. To ensure that the learners do not get distracted and thus lack motivation to continue with their Storyline project, all kinds of intensive language practice exercises should be set for homework or after the project has been completed and not while the story is being developed because “it is tasks that generate the language to be used, not vice versa (...) The main focus is on the tasks to be done and

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language is seen as the instrument necessary to carry them out” (Estaire and Zanón, 1998: 12).

Conclusion This chapter has argued that Storyline as one specific form of TBLT has the potential to be an effective tool to realise the above-mentioned goals and newly set guidelines in foreign language learning. Furthermore, Storyline is a useful vehicle to put complex theory into practice and thus contribute to school development. Storyline work is theme-based and allows learners to work on a topic in a natural and motivating way because they are constantly asked to bring in their own creative ideas, individual experiences, questions and solutions. The main focus is on content and not on forms as in the traditional foreign language classroom. Therefore learners are more engaged and also more relaxed to learn the foreign language. When sharing their ideas with their peers, they feel strongly motivated and encouraged to take risks since they notice that communication becomes meaningful and purposeful, and thus more authentic than in a traditional textbook-based lesson. At the same time, their language awareness is fostered which again helps them improve various communicative competencies. Storyline makes learners curious and excited to critically explore their inner and outer world, and hopefully it helps them to become reflective, tolerant and democratic citizens within their individual local contexts but also in the so-called global village (Council of Europe, 2001). A trainee teacher from one of my Storyline courses summarised her learning outcome with the following words: “All in all Storyline is a very good teaching method which I want to apply in a real classroom. Since I enjoyed the Storyline in the seminar a lot I suppose pupils will also enjoy it.” Another course participant confirmed that, “a teacher has no need to be afraid of doing a ‘Storyline’ in class as theme and level of guidance can be chosen and adapted.” Last but not least, a third university student emphasised the great potential of Storyline with regard to intercultural learning: “If children are motivated and have fun in the [foreign language] classroom, they will like [the] language and are therefore OPEN for ICC [intercultural communicative competence]. Then you have already achieved a major goal, even if the topic may have not been very appealing to EVERY student.” There is nothing else to add to these statements...

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References Bell, S. (1995). Storyline as an Approach to Language Teaching. Die Neueren Sprachen 94 (1), 5-25. —. (2007). Continuing Professional Development in Storyline. In Bell, S., Harkness, S. and White, G. (eds.). Storyline: Past, Present and Future. Glasgow: University of Strathclyde. Byram, M. (1997). Teaching and Assessing Intercultural Communicative Competence. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Cameron, L. (2001). Teaching Languages to Young Learners. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Council of Europe (2001). Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, teaching, assessment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Davies, P. (2007). TBL: What Has Task-based Learning Given Us? Modern English Teacher, 16 (2), 48-52. Ellis, R. (2000). Task-based Research and Language Pedagogy. Language Teaching Research 4 (3), 193-220. —. (2003). Task-based Language Learning and Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Estaire, S. and Zanón, J. (1994). Planning Classwork. A Task Based Approach. Oxford: Heinemann. Fehse, K.-D. and Kocher, D. (1998). Storyline—Witches: Klasse 7/8. Lichtenau: AOL. Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. New York: Basic Books. —. (1999). Intelligence Reframed. Multiple Intelligences for the 21st Century. New York: Basic Books. Kocher, D. (1999). Das Klassenzimmer als Lernwerkstatt: Medien und Kommunikation im Englischunterricht nach der Storyline-Methode. Hamburg: Kovac. —. (2001). Storyline—Our Farms: Klasse 5/6. Lichtenau: AOL —. (2006). Lernprozesse anleiten, unterstützen und auswerten mit dem Storyline Approach. Der Fremdsprachliche Unterricht Englisch, 84, 18-21. —. (2007). Why Storyline is a Powerful Tool in the Foreign Language Classroom. In Bell, S., Harkness, S. and White, G. (eds.). Storyline: Past, Present and Future. Glasgow: University of Strathclyde. —. (2008). Aufgabenorientiertes Lernen und Lehren am Beispiel des Storyline Approach. In Müller-Hartmann, A. and Schocker-von Ditfurth, M. (eds.). Aufgabenorientiertes Lernen und Lehren mit

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Medien: Ansätze, Erfahrungen, Perspektiven in der Fremdsprachendidaktik. Frankfurt a. M.: Lang. Nunan, D. (1989). Designing Tasks for the Communicative Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. —. (2004). Task-based Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Samuda, V. and Bygate, M. (2008). Tasks in Second Language Learning. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Van den Branden, K. (2006). Introduction: Task-based Language Teaching in a Nutshell. In Van den Branden, K. (ed.). Task-based Language Education: From Theory to Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Willis, J. (1996). A Framework for Task-Based Learning. Harlow: Longman.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN STORYLINE AND LEARNER MOTIVATION IN THE UNIVERSITY FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASSROOM PETER J. MITCHELL, LIUDMILA A. MITCHELL AND SVETLANA K. GURAL

Introduction Foreign languages have been taught widely in Russia since the end of World War II. Learning a foreign language—in practice, English—is compulsory in all schools. It is also mandated for all students in higher education. At some higher education institutions in Russia, including our own (National Research Tomsk State University), the teaching of English has a long and rich history. It is unfortunate, though, that many schools and higher education institutions have not paid due attention to innovations in teaching methods and internationally-recognised best practice. In spite of attempts going as far back as the late Soviet period to update teaching methods in line with modern international practice, the default system of teaching English in Russia in many institutions is very much old-fashioned: teacher-centred, with an over-reliance on textbooks, and a lack in communication practice and using authentic English in situations which simulate real life (Gural and Mitchell, 2008). Such an approach to language learning and teaching cannot but cause problems in terms of developing proficiency in a foreign language. It is not enough to include English as a subject in Russian school and university curricula; there is now an acceptance that improvements in teaching English as a foreign language need to be made in order that learners are motivated to learn (Ter-Minasova, 2005).

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Storyline and learner motivation: the theory Motivation is a key factor in language learning and is recognised as promoting effective acquisition (Dörnyei, 1998, 2001). Creswell (1997) links motivation in Storyline to its being learner-oriented and oriented to developing learner autonomy. Furthermore, motivation and autonomy are viewed as having a mutual relationship (Ushioda, 2011). Bell describes the “paradox... that the teacher has planned for almost every activity in which the learners will engage but the students feel that they have ownership of the story” (Bell, 2000: 3). Deci and Flaste propose that learners are autonomous when they are “fully willing to do what they are doing, and they embrace the activity with a sense of interest and commitment” (Deci and Flaste, 1995: 2). Legenhausen (1998) argues that the pre-planning of tasks by the teacher results in teacher-domination of the work and does not promote true autonomous learning. In Storyline, however, the story is developed collectively by both the teacher and students, rather than solely by the teacher. Little describes learner autonomy as “the product of an interactive process in which the teacher gradually enlarges the scope of her learners’ autonomy by gradually allowing them more control of the process and content of their learning” (Little, 2007: 26). This fits what Kocher (1999: 17) calls “structured freedom”. It could be argued that this “structured freedom” makes Storyline even closer to real life, in that in our own lives we exercise our own decisions, but within certain contexts which we do not and cannot control; circumstances beyond our control can impact upon the outcomes of our decisions. This is summed up by Lewis and Vialleton: “In language learning, many aspects of the situation are beyond the immediate control of learner or teacher. The inability to control them does not make either less autonomous (…) Autonomy, both in learning and in life, is just as much about how one reflects on and deals with what one cannot control, as about the—rather strange—desire to control whatever one can” (Lewis and Vialleton, 2011: 218). In Storyline, learners do retain much more autonomy than many other methods allow (cf. grammar-translation, audiolingualism, and even communicative language teaching). The role of the teacher is similar to that in other learner-oriented approaches in that he/she serves as a facilitator rather than instructor/provider of knowledge. This requires the learners to think more and rely on their own resources, enabling them to become independent learners who “learn how to learn” and who are capable of solving problems. Students’ ownership of their learning in Storyline has been noted to impact positively upon students’ intrinsic motivation (Ehlers et al, 2006). By creating their own characters, learners

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are able to internalise feelings and emotions, and in doing so “feel a strong sense of ownership” (Harkness, 2007: 20). In taking on such roles, their feelings of involvement and ownership might be expected to result in an increase in their motivation. Creswell writes that “a good story draws us into its spell as we predict what is coming, and we anticipate its unfolding with joy and excitement” and notes that Storyline’s Principle of Anticipation ensures that learning never stops because the learners feel part of the process and do not stop thinking about the story, which “provides an atmosphere that is conducive to motivated, active learning” (Creswell, 2007: 91). In studies on Storyline in the secondary and young adult classrooms, indeed, increased learner engagement reflecting enhanced motivation is a common theme (Ahlquist, 2011: 50). Since Storyline involves the creation of many “products” the principle of ownership of these products is enhanced, which results in higher motivation for all the learners involved. Although it is true that levels of motivation may vary between individuals doing the same task and also for an individual over time (Schunk et al, 2008), in Storyline motivation which arises from engagement in one task may carry the learner into the next in the narrative (Van den Branden, 2006). In Storyline, it is the learners themselves, rather than the teacher, who want to set high standards when presenting their products in class; they want to impress the audience with good and correct products so they feel “intrinsically motivated to work hard” (Kocher, 2007: 122). Storyline also encourages mutual respect and learners “feel a very real and positive partnership with the teacher who plays a significant role as the director and designer of the story” (Bell, 2006: 58). This could have a positive impact on foreign language classrooms where the teaching and learning process has been hampered by teacher-centred methods or issues of hierarchy. In Storyline, “what contributes to increased motivation seems to be the opportunity to work more independently, both individually and in groups, use skills other than reading and writing, and to be involved… [Although research has shown] some older learners to be resistant to practical work, many responded positively, one reason perhaps being that such work has a function in the Storyline” (Ahlquist, 2011: 50). When activities are meaningful, motivation is enhanced. Storyline’s emphasis on authentic communication and fluency, as opposed to artificial dialogues and accuracy, has a positive impact on motivation. When students communicate with each other and realise that they are understood, they are “motivated to participate in communication” (Kocher, 2007: 123). Greater motivation ought in turn to have a positive impact on learning, and a method such as Storyline might be expected to result in greater fluency

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and better communication skills. This is what led us to introduce Storyline to the university foreign language classroom.

Storyline and learner motivation: The practice We introduced Storyline to the EFL classroom for a group of students majoring in foreign languages. For one month the language classes employed Storyline in terms of a project similar to those described in the previous chapter. The students were asked to maintain journals during the project, in which they recorded what they did and their feelings about classes. At the conclusion of the project the students were interviewed regarding their motivation to learn English using Storyline. The results were as follows. In terms of their English language skills, the students perceived a great improvement, particularly in regard to speaking skills and expansion of their vocabulary. They enjoyed the fact that Storyline gave them far greater opportunities to speak and, indeed, speak almost entirely in English during each class and practise new vocabulary. In the words of one student, “we immersed ourselves in English”. The less proficient students considered that their speaking skills and vocabulary had improved considerably. All the students also noted improvements in their listening skills, which they attributed to the increased amount of time spent communicating in English. The participants’ writing skills had also improved and they perceived this as being due to the interesting nature of the tasks and their close connection to real life combined with the freedom to be expressive in what they wrote. In terms of reading skills, the students noted a slight improvement, but attributed this mostly to the perceived relevance of the reading tasks to real life and again noted that the previous teaching methods had a definite focus on reading. Writing on their feelings about classes, common words used repeatedly are “fun”, “interesting” and “useful”. One student wrote about the first class: “The class was fun and interesting. I liked it.” Many students wrote that they liked learning English using Storyline, for example, “It’s good to learn English in such way!” which is also supported by another student: “I didn’t know I could learn English in the fun way.” There were occasional negative comments when describing feelings, some of which related to activities that were not enjoyed by individual students, for example one student did not enjoy the art work. Additionally, in the first week of Storyline, a weaker student twice wrote that he sometimes found it difficult to participate in discussions, but this problem seemed to disappear after teacher interventions and encouragement.

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During interviews all the learners reported increased motivation. When asked why they thought they had become more motivated, the students’ answers were similar. One noted that he felt “more involved in the learning process”. Two students said that they felt close to their characters and the story they invented. One of the students spoke about how he learned real-life things that he could use immediately, in terms of both language and information. When asked which teaching method they preferred, all the participants chose Storyline. One said that this was because he thought Storyline was “interesting and innovative”. Another stated that Storyline was “more interesting” than previous classes, which was true for the other students as well. There was a consensus among the students that they felt ambivalent about the textbook-dominated teaching and learning process prior to Storyline, with no particularly strong feelings either way, characterised by such comments as “OK” and “not bad”. When discussing the teaching and learning process during Storyline, however, the students were much more positive. Many described the Storyline process as “interesting”. One related how it was “very interesting to think about what we’ll do in the next class”. Another said it was a “completely new” way of learning for him; a third said that Storyline was “brand new” after classes that were too routine. Indeed, as the students related that they looked forward to each class and wondered what would happen as part of the topic; this resulted in greater efforts regarding preparation and higher motivation. When asked if they would prefer to continue using Storyline or not, all the participants answered in the affirmative.

Discussion As discussed previously, motivation may be divided into two basic types: “intrinsic motivation, which refers to doing something because it is inherently interesting or enjoyable, and extrinsic motivation, which refers to doing something because it leads to a separable outcome” (Deci and Ryan, 2000: 55). As for intrinsic motivation, as previously stated, “fun”, “interesting” and “effective” were common responses for many of the students. Motivation in Storyline also comes from increased student ownership of learning due to opportunities for student creativity and control of the learning process. Intrinsic motivation may be positively impacted upon through a “sense of personal autonomy” (Deci and Flaste, 1995: 30). This sense of personal autonomy was reflected in student responses to Storyline, such as the previously noted interview comments by one student that he felt “more involved in the learning process”.

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Additionally, several of the students reported that they enjoyed “creating”, be it stories, characters or solutions to problems. It is interesting to note comments contrasting Storyline and the previous teaching approach by one of the students: “Before Storyline I studied hard because I wanted [to get a good job], but Storyline is good because now learning English is more interesting and fun way to study.” Comments such as these suggest that the desire to find a good job provides a stimulus for extrinsic motivation, irrespective of teaching method, whereas Storyline as a method had a positive impact on students’ intrinsic motivation. Gardner (1985, cited in Dörnyei, 1998: 122) conceives motivation in language learning as subsuming three components, namely, motivational intensity (effort), desire to learn the language (want/will) and an attitude towards the act of learning the language (task enjoyment). Student motivation was closely connected to the participants’ sense of ownership. Learner ownership is fundamental to Storyline and mandates the students themselves taking responsibility for their learning, which is aided through the use of imagination and taking on another’s role (Hofmann, 2007). This was accomplished and enjoyed by the students. The increased effort was accompanied by reflective learning coming from the learners’ own initiative, which is an important tenet of Storyline (Falkenberg, 2007: 52) and had a positive impact on learner motivation. The students looked forward to what would happen next in their classes, i.e. they displayed task-enjoyment. Moreover, motivation arising from engagement in a task carried the students into the next task in the narrative. Increased motivation, according to the learners, was due to opportunities for creativity and perceived links to real life, for example, as one student said: “I can see myself doing these things and solving these problems in my future profession.” This was a point with which the entire group agreed. Most importantly, the group was unanimous in wanting to continue using Storyline in the future.

Conclusion The learners were unanimous in their preference for Storyline as opposed to the methods earlier employed in the teaching and learning process. The students all agreed that the previous teaching methods were too routine and not particularly interesting. Common opinions were that Storyline as a method was much more interesting and flexible, allowing students to be creative and be more involved in their learning, while using their imagination. They had looked forward to each class and were motivated to work harder. The students considered Storyline’s relevance to

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the real world to be particularly useful, along with its use of authentic texts. Furthermore, the role plays required them to put their new language knowledge into practice and gave them valuable insights into real uses of language. In conclusion, therefore, the trial of Storyline proved to be successful both in improving the students’ language skills and raising learner motivation.

References Ahlquist, S.I. (2011). The impact of the Storyline approach on the young language learner classroom: a case study in Sweden (EdD thesis), University of Leicester, UK. Bell, S. (2000). Storyline, Feelings and Respect, a paper presented at the International Storyline Conference, Aalborg (Denmark) on 6-8 November 2000. —. (2006). Storyline as Motivation for Language Teaching. In Ehlers, G., Harder, K., Järvinen, H.-M., Brandford V. and Materniak, M. Storyline Approach in the foreign language classroom: Trainer’s Handbook. Comenius Project, 112381-CP-1-2003-1-DE-COMENIUS-C21, 20032006. Creswell, J. (1997). Creating Worlds, Constructing Meaning: The Scottish Storyline Method. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Deci, E.L. and Flaste, R. (1995). Why we do what we do: The dynamics of personal autonomy. New York: Penguin. Deci, E.L. and Ryan, R.M. (2000). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: Classic definitions and new directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology 25, 54-67. Dörnyei, Z. (1998). Motivation in second and foreign language learning. Language Teaching 31 (3), 117-135. —. (2001). Motivational Strategies in the Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Ehlers, G., Harder, K., Järvinen, H.-M., Brandford V. and Materniak, M. (2006). Storyline Approach in the foreign language classroom: Trainer’s Handbook. Comenius Project, 112381-CP-1-2003-1-DECOMENIUS-C21, 2003-2006. Falkenberg, C. (2007). Learning Theory: Substantiating the Storyline Approach to Teaching. In Bell, S., Harkness, S. and White, G. (eds.) Storyline: Past, Present and Future. Glasgow: University of Strathclyde. Gardner, R.C. (1985). Social psychology and second language learning: the role of attitudes and motivation. London: Edward Arnold.

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Gural, S.K. and Mitchell, P.J. (2008). Formation of a professional discourse using the principles of interactive language teaching by Harvard professor Wilga M. Rivers (Tomsk State University’s experience in the context of teaching students with non-language majors). əɡɵɤ ɢ ɤɭɥɶɬɭɪɚ (Language and Culture) No. 4 2008: 5-10. Harkness, S. (2007). Storyline—An Approach to Effective Teaching and Learning. In Bell, S., Harkness, S. and White, G. (eds.) Storyline: Past, Present and Future. Glasgow: University of Strathclyde. Hofmann, R. (2007). Rethinking “Ownership of Learning”: Participation and Agency in the Storyline Classroom. In Bell, S., Harkness, S. and White, G. (eds.) Storyline Past, Present and Future. Glasgow: University of Strathclyde. Kocher, D. (1999). Das Klassenzimmer als Lernwerkstatt. Medien und Kommunikation im Englischunterricht nach der Storyline-Methode. Hamburg: Kovaþ. —. (2007). Why Storyline Is a Powerful Tool in the Foreign Language Classroom. In Bell, S., Harkness, S. and White, G. (eds.) Storyline Past, Present and Future. Glasgow: University of Strathclyde. Legenhausen, L. (1998). Wege der Lernerautonomie. In Timm, J.-P. (ed.). Englisch lernen und lehren. Berlin: Cornelson. Lewis, T. and Vialleton, E. (2011). The notions of control and consciousness in learner autonomy and self-regulated learning: a comparison and critique. Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching 5 (2), 205-219. Little, D. (2007). Language Learner Autonomy: Some Fundamental Considerations Revisited. Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching 1 (1), 14-29. Schunk, D.H., Pintrich, P.R. and Meece, J.L. (2008). Motivation in Education. New Jersey: Pearson Education. Ter-Minasova, S.G. (2005). Traditions and innovations: English language teaching in Russia. World Englishes 24 (4), 445-454. Ushioda, E. (2011). Why autonomy? Insights from motivation theory and research. Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching 5 (2), 221232. Van den Branden, K. (ed.) (2006). Task-Based Language Education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN STORYLINE AND EFL TEACHING IN BRAZILIAN MUNICIPAL SCHOOLS ANDRESSA PORTELLA FELIPIN, IMGAT NIELSEN AND SIMONE SCHMITT

Introduction According to the National Educational Guidelines, Brazilian education is aimed at the optimal development of a citizen who must be able to recognise and perform his rights and duties, as well as preparation for the job market. Bearing in mind that learning a foreign language is a significant tool that allows citizens to interact with different cultures and develops a broad view of the global community, foreign language teaching assumes an important role in the formation of the learner. Thus, foreign language learning is mandatory in Brazilian middle schools from the 6th grade. Due to the considerably high consumption of American cultural products, such as movies and music, and also via the Internet, American English crosses the borders of the country, sometimes even more easily than Spanish, which is the language of the neighbouring countries. For those reasons, both these foreign languages are taught in Brazil. From 2000, English teachers at municipal schools in Ijuí, Brazil, started research on EFL and formed a study group guided by professors of the regional university, UNIJUÍ, with the goal of creating a sense of unity among the city’s schools, improving, at the same time, the quality of education. It was necessary to consider the great diversity of backgrounds in the city. Although each school has social and cultural features that differ enormously, the EFL teaching had to be of equal quality, which meant that the methodology had to be flexible enough and its implementation relatively inexpensive in order to be adequate for the needs of the students

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in each school. For these reasons, Storyline became the basis for EFL teaching in these schools.

Why Storyline? Using Storyline, EFL classes can be developed in a more open and creative way, where the student participates actively, and this contributes to increase his interest in learning and motivation. According to Bell and Järvinen (2003), the approach is suited to teaching multicultural groups, since it allows the students to create characters that can help them to reflect on their own identities and cultural backgrounds from a respectful perspective while they learn a foreign language. Additionally it is interesting and engaging. A story unfolds, within which there is a context with a setting and characters placed in time and space, and a sequence of related events that culminate in a surprise moment—an incident. The Storyline is created by the teachers and students, and it is a basis for all the classroom tasks. Even though teachers provide the guidelines for the story, the learners develop each episode according to their imagination. They create the characters and their relationships, names and biographies, as well as the environments and all the details of the story, while the teacher plans and organises materials, and co-ordinates the participation of the students in class. The content-topic relation is strengthened once it is developed through a story. This holistic approach makes it possible for students to experience the learning process by choosing and using new words and language functions according to their needs to continue the story, instead of merely practising structures and decontextualised vocabulary. Hence, Storyline focuses the student, the content and the task; develops learners’ autonomy; promotes co-operative learning; and enables purposeful communication in the target language. Storyline promotes co-operative learning as it requires group work, sharing knowledge and resources. For such sharing of information, students must present their work, using the target language for purposeful communication, where they are expected to ask and answer questions about what they have created. Storyline enables integration of language skills, language functions and grammar. Brandford (2003) suggests that the approach provides an audience and purpose for learning, which gives meaning to skills practice: using their language skills is necessary if the learners are to continue the story. The same applies to language functions and grammar. According to Brandford, grammar is not left aside if it is part of the class plan. Therefore, within the context, language skills, functions and grammar are

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taught in Storyline less superficially, since learners need to use them to develop and maintain the story. Storyline also caters for the different abilities of the learners and provides opportunities for them to display their abilities. Materniak (2003) argues that it is necessary to consider the different learner types in the classroom, to recognise activity as a way of learning (kinaesthetic intelligence) and not as a potential disruption: teachers should also provide activities that allow students to visualise (spatial intelligence), and opportunities to listen, imitate and practise the sounds of language (musical intelligence). When considering the highly body-oriented Brazilian learners, it becomes essential to include in class a good deal of hands-on activities, besides visual and auditory ones. A characteristic of Storyline is that it provides learners with many opportunities to experience and demonstrate success. It also enables the more active participation of students with significant additional support needs, who have recently been included in mainstream schools, as there is always room for developing individual skills. One of the cases of students with special needs involves a fifteen year-old girl who does not read or write, yet her favourite subject is English. In her words: “porque eu faço mais atividades” (because I do more activities). She has a great talent for drawing pictures, so she is the official illustrator in her group. She can also work on her abilities in listening and speaking related to the vocabulary studied. She works as much as the others and she is learning English. Similarly, students with Down’s Syndrome benefit from Storyline’s many concrete materials, realworld authentic situations, co-operative work, and visual instructions, which help consolidate their learning. Storyline encourages them and makes the activities joyful and interesting in the inclusive setting. The Down’s students are engaged in Storyline and make progress along the learning continuum. It is very common to see their eyes shine and observe their constant interaction in English classes.

How does it work in practice? In the present context, there is a Storyline project for each of the years of middle school: The Farm, in the 6th grade; The City, in the 7th; The Break Time, in the 8th; and The Web, in the 9th. Each of them is composed of three or four episodes, which are developed through steps, such as: Warming up; Brainstorming; Introducing a model; Producing a concrete element; Practising; and Presenting. All projects are guided by key questions, which direct the action and trigger the students’ thoughts and ideas about the story. They come with a section of teacher’s notes, which

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contain instructions for games, activities and suggestions of significant tasks along the episodes. As extra practice, there are worksheets, which can be used according to the needs and pace in the development of every group. Warming up: This step is aimed at linking students’ previous knowledge of the topic and new information. It enables the consolidation of new information as knowledge, according to the concept of the Zone of Proximal Development, as proposed by Vygotsky (1978). Brainstorming: The students are asked about the vocabulary related to the subject; there is a need for consulting bilingual dictionaries and researching the subject. The students then contribute with the words they know. These words are listed, illustrated and displayed in the classroom through posters during the school year. This helps students to visualise the vocabulary. Introducing a model: This consists of listening or reading tasks, which provide models of language functions, structures and the vocabulary that will be required from students to continue the story. Producing a Concrete Element: Several materials can be used in building the concrete elements of the scenes, such as paper, fabric, plastic, glue, and colouring materials. Notwithstanding, there are other materials needed for researching and consulting, such as bilingual dictionaries, magazines, Internet, DVDs and CDs. Such materials are used for poster making and collages, for example. In collages, characters and environments of the particular Storyline are created and crafted by the students from recycled materials, such as cardboard boxes, coloured paper, and pieces of fabric. The materials produced by the students are visualised in posters. This helps to register the overall development of the Storyline, as well as facilitating the engagement of the students with the creation of the story, depicting the results of the students’ work during the project, promoting visual stimuli, and showing that there are different possibilities of representation, all of which deserve to be respected and appreciated. The fact that students actually build up the scene helps to create a sense of ownership towards their products as they identify themselves with their work and become emotionally involved with the process, lowering the affective filter, which could be a barrier for learning when too high, as suggested by Krashen (1982). Practising: Before the students produce written reports, invitations, and leaflets, or present their characters and posters, some practice on language functions, on grammar, and even on genre adequacy is needed. This ensures that students are confident enough to produce language more accurately, during both speaking and writing tasks.

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Presenting: This involves sharing information on their characters, collages or posters, oral interviews, presenting reports and giving instructions. Along with oral production, written follow-up tasks are proposed, as well as descriptions, invitations and reports. All the four skills and also grammar topics are integrated within the episodes; they appear contextualised, as the development of the Storyline demands. This makes the use of the language necessary for the student, not because the teacher requires it of them, but because they must know how to develop the story.

Assessment The criteria for evaluation must take into account not only the progress related to the language skills, but also the social and creative aspects involved in the process. The assessment in Storyline according to O’Malley and Valdez Pierce, as cited in Järvinen (2003), must consider: Constructed Response: Students construct a response, provide an expanded response, engage in a performance, or create a product. Higher Order Thinking: Students typically use higher levels of thinking in constructing responses to open-ended questions. Authenticity: Tasks are meaningful, challenging and engaging activities that mirror good instruction or other real world contexts where the student is expected to perform. Integration: The tasks call for integration of language skills and, in some cases, for integration of knowledge and skills across content areas. Process and Product: Procedures and strategies for deriving the correct response or for exploring multiple solutions to complex tasks are often assessed as well as the product or the “correct” answer. Depth versus Breadth: Performance assessments provide information in depth about a student’s skills or mastery as contrasted with the breadth of coverage more typical of multiple-choice tests. All of the items cited above are observed in a Storyline sequence, which makes it possible for the assessment to occur naturally in classes. In ways other than language tests on the four skills, grammar and vocabulary, we also use oral interviews, experiments, exhibitions, written reports, and portfolios, as well as teacher observations and students’ self-evaluation.

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Conclusion It is possible to observe that the learners in county schools in Ijuí, Brazil, are highly engaged in the process of learning from the beginning of the Storyline project. They are eager to show what they can do and are proud of their work. It helps them focus their attention in class on learning, which promotes a proper environment for the process to take place. There are several opportunities for the integration of skills and communicative competences in class. The use of the target language improves gradually, as do the learners’ social skills. Students learn how to co-operate and how to respect each other. The classroom practice is inclusive, since there is always a chance for every learner to show their knowledge, abilities, and to be valued. Storyline requires reflection, discussion and research. At the same time, actions for problem-solving situations must be taken which are similar to real life situations. Thus Storyline has proved to be an effective tool for EFL teaching, helping to develop critical thinkers who can participate in their social environments, becoming responsible citizens.

References Brandford, V. (2003). Use of Storylines to develop reading and writing. In Ehlers, G. (ed.) Storyline Approach in the foreign language classroom—Trainer’s Handbook. Kronshagen Schleswig-Holstein. Järvinen, H.-M. (2003). Peer and self-assessment and the Storyline approach. In Ehlers, G. (ed.) Storyline Approach in the foreign language classroom—Trainer’s Handbook. Kronshagen SchleswigHolstein. —. (2003). Using the Storyline to teach second languages to immigrant learners: Finnish as a second language as an example. In Ehlers, G. (ed.). Storyline Approach in the foreign language classroom— Trainer’s Handbook. Kronshagen Schleswig-Holstein. Krashen, S. (1982). Principles and practice in second language acquisition. New York Prentice Hall International. Materniak, M. (2003). Making a case for the Storyline Method. In Ehlers, G. (ed.). Storyline Approach in the foreign language classroom— Trainer’s Handbook. Kronshagen Schleswig-Holstein. Parâmetros Curriculares Nacionai—3o e 4o ciclos do ensino fundamental. Língua Estrangeira. (1998). Brasília, MEC/SEF. Brasil. Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN DEVELOPING WRITING SKILLS IN THE YOUNG LANGUAGE LEARNER SHARON AHLQUIST

Introduction Although the Storyline approach originated in the 1960s and is today well-established in first language teaching contexts in many parts of the world, it is less common in second and foreign language teaching—that is to say both where English is the majority language of the country in which the minority language learner is living and where it is learnt in school in the learner’s own country. However, as can be seen from the other chapters related to the subject in this volume, Storyline has many benefits for language teaching. The narrative framework provides a context for a range of meaningful tasks that engage the learner’s emotions, challenge their intellect and in which their skills in the second or foreign language can be developed holistically. This chapter is concerned with the development of writing, a skill which, in the twenty-first century, remains as important as ever. In academic life and in the business world the ability to communicate via the written word is essential for success. Global contacts and geographic mobility for educational and career purposes have led to an ever more prominent role for English as the language of international communication. This is recognised in school curricula around the world. Children start school at around the age of five and may, depending on the country, begin their formal education in English at this age. Moreover, in some countries they will have already encountered English informally via music and television. Before they are even in their teens many will be users of English on the Internet and in computer games. In Sweden, where I work as a teacher trainer, the overall aim of the national curriculum regarding English (Skolverket, 2011), is that children should develop all-round communicative competence, i.e. the ability to

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understand and be understood in spoken and written English in different genres and contexts. Concerning writing, by the time they are nine, children should be able to give simple descriptions and messages; by the time they are 12 they should be able to produce presentations, instructions, messages, narratives and descriptions in connected text, with attention paid to spelling and punctuation. In this chapter, based on a study which I conducted into the impact of the Storyline approach on the young language learner classroom (Ahlquist, 2011), I outline the benefits of working with a Storyline topic for the development of writing in late primary age learners.

Writing as a classroom activity The act of writing can contribute in a number of ways to second language learning. Firstly, learners of all ages have different learning styles. Some learn best through the written medium—when they see words and write them themselves. A second point is that writing necessarily goes at a slower pace than speaking. This means that the learner has time to consider what they want to say, to think about how to say it and to make revisions, with opportunities here both for consolidating their existing knowledge of grammar and lexis, as well as extending it. With regard to vocabulary, this is significant since many young learners (and adults) judge their progress in a new language by the number of words that they know (Read, 2007). Thirdly, the written, unlike the spoken, word is fixed. This means that it is easier for the teacher to look at a piece of writing with the writer and to discuss the problems in the text. When the learners later compare an earlier piece that they have written with a later piece, they may be able to identify signs of progress, especially with their teacher’s help. Grammatical structures or lexis which were only partially understood, or not understood at all, in the earlier piece may be used correctly at a later stage, so providing an insight into the learners’ developing interlanguage —that is to say, their acquisition of the second language. This awareness of progress contributes to the development of the learner’s positive selfimage, which is recognised in the research literature (for example, Lundberg, 2010) as vital to effective learning. Nevertheless, writing as a classroom activity is often neglected beyond the sentence and paragraph level found in workbooks. Free writing, within a framework and with guidelines, is less common, certainly at primary age. This is possibly because learners have limited linguistic resources and are not considered to benefit from tasks which are not controlled. It could be that time for English is limited and there is much to be done. In short,

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teachers may believe that the best way to teach the language is simply to follow the textbook. The irony is that many children of this age enjoy writing. They have vivid imaginations (Halliwell, 1992), can become emotionally engaged in stories and they still learn holistically, at the same time as they are developing grammatical and lexical complexity (Torras et al, 2006), which involves the ability to question how the grammar of English works and to understand their mistakes. At the same time, while many girls in particular relish the opportunity to use their imaginations and to write fiction, it is known that boys are not so enthusiastic (Warrington and Younger, 2003). Furthermore, some young learners of both sexes find writing hard either because they do not know what to write, or because writing requires higher linguistic control (Shak and Gardner, 2008), making it the least preferred of the language skills. Redrafting and revising, which have the potential to contribute to language development, are unpopular with both sexes (Moon, 2005). Where a writing task is considered to be laborious, learners are unlikely to be motivated to engage with it. This is important for, as John Hattie (2008) concluded, learners achieve more when they enjoy what they are working with.

Writing and the Storyline approach Storyline can offer benefits for the development of young learner writing in a number of ways. Perhaps the greatest benefit is that it provides a framework in which a range of tasks serve a meaningful purpose in developing the story. This is significant because, as Ellis (2003) makes clear, a learner’s engagement with a task depends on the relevance he or she sees in the task. That the tasks are varied, in the sense that they may be descriptive, narrative, in the form of a letter or instructions, means that they can appeal to different learners. It is also the case that the content— what the learner should write about—is provided to a large extent by the story itself, which is particularly beneficial for those who find this difficult. Not least, it can be pointed out that the research literature recognises the importance of having an imagined or genuine audience for a piece of writing (Lo and Highland, 2007). In Storyline, every piece of writing has both an imagined and a genuine audience. On the one hand, it has a receiver in the story; on the other, there is the context of the classroom. The fact that drawings and texts are displayed on the frieze means that they will be seen by others besides the writer and the teacher. This suggests that the learner is more likely to be motivated to produce his or her best work.

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Other advantages for writing are provided in the way that some of it takes place in the group, where learners can pool their resources to complete a text. Even where they write individually, sitting face to face in a group means that it is easier to ask questions. Similarly, learners can check each other’s work. Being able to comment on a classmate’s work is a requirement of the Swedish national curriculum, considered to be a component in the development of an individual’s metacognitive awareness. This reflects the literature; Cameron (2001), for instance, points out that peer assessment is the first step towards self-assessment. It is also less negative for the learner than a teacher’s assessment may be considered to be (Nunan, 2005).

Storyline, our sustainable street In the ten years that I have worked with Storyline as a teacher trainer and also observed young learners engaged in a Storyline, the word I have heard most often to describe the experience of both adults and children is “fun”. Since enjoyment and achievement are considered to be linked (Hattie, 2008), the aim of the study was to investigate which features of Storyline work were most popular with the learners and the impact of this way of working on their language development in English. The views of the learners themselves on what they learnt and what they saw as the differences between learning English through Storyline and in normal English lessons was also considered important. Over a period of five weeks, a mixed school year 5-6 (11-13 year olds) took part in a Storyline about a number of families who had moved into a new street in the fictive town of Danbury, located in the north-west of England. They had previously worked with Storylines in Swedish and in English with their teachers. The aim of this Storyline was to consolidate the grammatical structures and the lexis which the learners had already met since starting English at the age of seven, and to introduce the lexis of sustainable development—words to do with climate change, pollution, recycling and so on, which the learners had already studied in Swedish. In the course of the Storyline they took part in a project to live in a more sustainable way, having to deal with people dumping waste near their street and with the behaviour of anti-social neighbours. They designed a new park and celebrated their anniversary in the street with a party. As well as the syllabus for English, objectives from the syllabi for art, home economics, natural and social science were included. During the five-week period the learners undertook a number of group and individual writing tasks. In groups they worked on an advertisement

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for their house, a collage of sentences and pictures showing how their family’s lifestyle impacted negatively on the climate; they wrote a letter of complaint and prepared questions to interview a new neighbour. They wrote three individual pieces of writing—a character description for a newsletter in the second week, an email to a friend halfway through the Storyline and a longer letter to a friend, written in the final week, after the families had spent a year living in the street. The data collection tools consisted of questionnaires for the learners, interviews with both learners and teachers (of whom there were two), classroom observation notes, learner journals, and some video recording. For details regarding the data collection tools, methods of analysis and the complete findings of the study the reader is directed to Ahlquist (2011).

Findings and discussion The most popular features of the Storyline for both boys and girls, as based on the questionnaire, were art and group work. The learners were also clear on how these had contributed to their learning of English. With regard to art, the learners stated that they had to know the words for what they had drawn in order to talk about it; with regard to group work, it was “fun” and things were easier when done in the group. In contrast, working alone ranked very low on the scale of popularity for both sexes. Both art work and group work are connected to writing. Although not every writing task involved art, every art task involved some degree of writing. This might be at sentence level, in a collage showing the negative impact of the families’ daily lives on the environment, or a longer piece. For example, having drawn a self-portrait of their character, the learners then wrote about him or her and his/her daily life. Concerning the group work, although there were often conflicts in the different groups regarding the distribution of labour, the learners believed that the benefits outweighed the drawbacks. The less proficient boys in particular noted that writing was easier when it was done in the group, even where the writing was individual, because they could ask their friends if they had questions. Almost all the learners considered that their writing had developed and the reasons were the same as those given for the other skills: they had done a lot of it and it was “fun”. They commented on learning new words, being surer of word order, grammar and spelling. The teachers’ assessment was that the topic, sustainability, had provided a challenge for the more proficient learners—challenges being rare in the reality of a mixed ability class, where teachers have to devote their attention to the least proficient.

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With regard to group work, the teachers considered that two types of learner in particular benefited from collaboration: the more proficient of the younger learners in the class, who were pushed to perform by the older children, and the less proficient of any age, who persevered in the group whereas alone they might have given up. This reflects the comments of the less proficient boys stated above. Regarding the popularity of writing, for the girls as a whole it was the preferred skill; for boys this was speaking. For many girls, writing was linked with using their imagination (imagination being a Storyline feature which they ranked highly), often with art and with creating the character. There is a clear sense of a receiver in much of the writing and this leads the learner to interact with their imagined receiver. For example, in her email, after telling her old friend about her new best friend in the street, one learner adds “but don’t worry, you are still my best friend too”. Learner comments (questionnaire) such as “it was fun, it felt like writing to a real friend”, show how some learners were imaginatively engaged in the writing task. This finding is consistent with the research literature which shows that, generally, girls enjoy using their imagination and like writing, whereas boys are less positive. Concerning the three individual pieces of writing, the character description had no formal requirements; the email was to be half a page of A4 long and to include six new words. The letter had no formal requirements, but was to review the year on the street. To support the learners, the teachers provided them with a chronological, bullet-pointed list of events. With regard to the email, all but five of the least proficient produced the minimum length. The teachers commented that although the email had not been written on the computer, the fact that the paper was headed as an email encouraged many of the learners to take more care over what and how they wrote, as compared with their approach to writing in a normal lesson. Again, this reflects the research literature, partly concerning the positive effects of having a real or imagined audience, and partly the positive effects of perceived meaningfulness. This was also seen in the letter, where all but five of the least proficient wrote more than a page of A4. That so many were able to do so may be attributed to the support provided by the teachers in the form of the bullet points. Nevertheless, the significance of this is that one of the school’s requirements for year 7—in other words, two school years above the younger learners—was a page of A4 of continuous text with a clear message. Tornberg (2009) maintains that it is only when learners write freely that the true state of their interlanguage can be seen. The examples given

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below illustrate this. They are extracts from the letters of two older learners. The class had recently met the relative clause, but not the passive mood. The first example shows that the learner has an understanding of the passive and an ability to use it, and also the ability to construct a relative clause. However, the learner still seems to be unsure about the difference between who and which. In the second example, we can see that the learner is able to construct a subordinate clause (beginning that) and to structure a relative clause. This learner has either forgotten or is still unsure of the pronoun whose. The problems in both cases appear to be lexical rather than grammatical. “And we heard about a dump who has been started in the town.” “One day we read in the now’s paper that a lady she name is Doris Rant, that she found mobile phones in her garden.”

The next three examples are from younger learners, who had met the relative pronouns, but neither the relative clause nor continuous past tense. We can see that the first learner has not distinguished between the use of who and which, but the second has constructed a subordinate clause (beginning because) and a relative clause using her available resources. As in the sentence of the second learner above, this shows a confusion between the use of the subject pronoun she and the relative pronoun whose but an understanding of the structure of the relative clause. Similarly, the third learner makes a good attempt at expressing the continuous past, which has not yet been formally introduced. “I live in Danbury with my dad Robert whitch is 31 years old.” (character description) “Then we meat a old women she’s name is mrs brown and she was very angry bicus she has a Damp in her gaden.” (letter) “We met mrs Brown she talking about the dump all the time and to the end we desided to right a letter to the consul.” (letter)

Finally we will consider two extracts from the writing of one of the less proficient younger learners, who was unable to fulfil the length requirement in either task. “HoLLo Elisabeth im sorry at im don’t have call can you came to.” (email)

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These texts were written two weeks apart. The first is difficult to understand owing to grammatical and spelling mistakes, as well as lack of punctuation. The second shows control of structure and syntax. I would argue that the learner was able to produce a text of greater grammatical accuracy and lexical range owing to the support provided by the teachers’ list of points to include. By relying heavily on this support the learner has been able to construct two sentences which can be understood and which communicate a clear message.

Conclusion Writing has many benefits for the development of English as a second language in young learners. Perhaps the most important of these is that it allows time for reflection and revision, both of which contribute to learning. Where learners work collaboratively the chore of revision may be relieved by contributions from group members to a discussion on grammar, syntax, spelling and punctuation—discussions which can mediate learning, not least by drawing attention to features which might otherwise be missed by the individual working alone. If learners are to benefit from writing tasks, however, these tasks must be motivating or they will not engage with them. The Storyline approach provides a narrative framework in which a variety of text types serves a genuine purpose in developing the story. Because the tasks have a function in the story—to inform or to complain, for instance—there is a receiver who is known to the learner, if only by name or office (when the families write to a council department, for example). This in itself is motivational, and also means that the curriculum requirement that the learner adapts his or her writing to different receivers and situations can be met more easily—by the teacher in designing the tasks and by the learner because the task motivates them. The Storyline frieze has an important role to play. It displays the learners’ work, which depicts the developing story. Together with the art work, the texts are there to be consulted—to bring those who have been absent back into the story, or as part of a task about events in the story which requires the learners to study the detail of the frieze. In this way the learners’ work is treated with respect because it both serves a purpose and is seen to do so. It has an audience within the context of the story and beyond it. This knowledge is likely to have a positive effect on learners,

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encouraging them to pay more attention to the quality of work they produce, thereby learning more in the process.

References Ahlquist, S.I. (2011). The impact of the Storyline approach on the young language learner classroom: a case study in Sweden (EdD thesis), University of Leicester, UK. Cameron, L. (2001). Teaching languages to young learners. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Ellis, R. (2003). Task-based second language learning and teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Halliwell, S. (1992). Teaching English in the primary classroom. London: Longman. Hattie, J. (2008). Visible Learning: a synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. Abingdon: Routledge. Kirsch, C. (2008). Teaching foreign languages in the primary school. London: Continuum. Lo, J. and Hyland, F. (2007). Enhancing students’ engagement and motivation in writing: the case of primary students in Hong Kong. Journal of Second Language Writing 16, 219-237. Lundberg, G. (2010). Perspektiv på tidigt engelsklärande In Estling Vannestå l, M. and Lundberg, G. Engelska för yngre åldrar. Lund: Studentlitteratur (Perspectives on an early start, English for the younger years). Moon, J. (2005). Children learning English: a guidebook for English language teachers. Oxford: Macmillan. Nunan, D. (2005). Classroom research. In Hinkel, E. (ed.) Handbook of research in second language teaching and learning. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Read, C. (2007). 500 Activities for the primary classroom. Oxford: Macmillan. Shak, J. and Gardner, S. (2008). Young learner perspectives on four focuson-form tasks. Language Teaching Research 12 (3), 387-408. Skolverket (2011). Läroplan för grundskolan, förskoleklassen och fritidshemmet: Lgr11. Stockholm: Fritzes Offentliga Publikationer (National Education Agency, Curriculum for compulsory school, preschool class and leisure time centre). Tornberg, U. (2009). Språkdidaktik (4th edition). Malmö: Gleerups (Teaching and learning foreign languages).

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Torras, M.R., Navés, T., Celaya, M.L. and Pérez-Vidal, C. (2006). Age and IL development in writing. In Munoz, C. (ed.) Age and the rate of foreign language learning. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. Warrington, M. and Younger, M. (2006). Raising boys’ achievement in primary schools: towards a holistic approach. Maidenhead: Open University Press.

CHAPTER NINETEEN STORYLINE AND ICT IN SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING BARBARA BLAIR

Introduction According to the 2006 school curricula (LK06) in Norway (Knowledge Promotion, 2006), all subjects at all levels are to include five basic skills: reading, writing, speaking competence, arithmetic and digital competence. It soon became apparent, however, that many teachers lacked the necessary digital competence for this task (Tømte, 2007). Building on previous experience with more traditional Storylines in the EFL classroom, a group of staff at the English Department, Bergen University College (BUC) saw the potential of this method for developing teachers’ own digital competence, as well as providing a method for use in their own classes. In 2009, the BUC Media Centre was invited to join in developing an online English Storyline that would address these issues. The result was the Wiki-English Storyline (WES), which has four key aims: to improve participants’ digital competence, to introduce the Storyline method, to practise English in a variety of genres, and to provide a forum for reflection on learning processes. The skills and knowledge required to achieve these aims are acquired in the process of producing and publishing a variety of texts, with accompanying multi-modal documents. The WES was first introduced in 2009 in the in-service courses for English teachers. These were small groups of fewer than 15 mature participants. Two years later, it was introduced into the pre-service courses for trainee teachers. The situation was then radically different; there were three times as many participants, and they were younger and less experienced. In addition, as part of a distance education strategy, the module was extended to second-year English education students at three regional colleges, thus, all of the communication—between students and staff as well as within working groups—had to be online. These factors

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changed the dynamics of the Storyline. While various changes and innovations have been made in relation to the technological solutions, the basic Storyline has remained unchanged.

Storyline in second language learning Stories lie at the heart of language learning at all levels, whether they are listened to, told, read or written; and whether they are in the mother tongue or a foreign language. According to Ehlers, children learn “story grammar” at a very early age, so “the Storyline method uses the memory structure of a story that the children already have to teach them new content and language” (Ehlers et al, 2006). Stories serve not only as a means of introducing language-specific phenomena such as vocabulary and language structures, but also as a source of motivation and engagement. In addition, learners at a young age are not only able to compose and tell their own stories in the traditional printed media, but also to discuss stories, drawing upon the story grammar, in the classroom forum. They are familiar with the various features of the story genre and soon learn to use concepts such as characters, setting and action. This in turn facilitates the discussion and analysis of texts. In fact, stories are essential learning materials in the foreign language classroom. The Storyline approach “recognises the value of the existing knowledge of the learner” (Storyline Scotland, n.d.), and is therefore considered a learner-centred approach. This means that Storylines in ESL build upon the learners’ existing knowledge and skills, linking what they know about stories to new learning, in terms of language skills, vocabulary, genre conventions and text production. Since activity is considered central to learner-centred approaches, as well as to ESL learning, emphasis is also placed on activities involving interaction, artefacts, context and creativity. In an ESL Storyline, the learners interact continuously as they engage in decision-making and problem-solving processes, within the story’s parameters; the teacher provides the scaffold for their work by setting the learning goals and designing the activities. The learners also work with artefacts, which serve to engage both their heads and hands in the learning process. The artefacts vary depending on the ESL learning goals; they may be mathematical tools or art supplies, texts or nature. With regard to context, a Storyline in ESL can be used to transport the learners to a place in the English-speaking world in which they can practise their language skills. This is possible because “the Storyline provides a context, not an authentic one, but one that is embedded in a story structure, resembling true life” (Ehlers et al, 2006). Finally, creativity is developed as the ESL

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learners design the setting and develop the characters, who then guide the plot and create the artefacts. Ultimately, it is the learners who produce their own story. The emphasis on communicative skills in Storyline makes it a particularly appropriate approach for the ESL classroom; it provides an ideal context for developing linguistic competence. Both receptive (listening and reading) and productive (speaking and writing) communicative skills can be included in the Storyline, as well as non-linguistic forms of communication. Since “communicative competence is determined and achieved by diverse and interwoven processes when individuals interact with each other” (Ehlers et al, 2006), the opportunities for interaction provided in Storyline are critical. As fictional English-speaking characters, learners become less inhibited in their spoken and written interaction; and in an “authentic” (although perhaps fictional) setting in which English is the language spoken, they may find it more natural to use the language. This emphasis on communication in Storyline is important for the ESL classroom, as is the focus on cross-curricular activities. This is particularly relevant when the national curriculum, as in LK06, requires that digital competence and arithmetic be taught in ESL. All too often, the digital competence component is reduced to an information search on the Internet rather than active engagement in the sites; and the arithmetic component to the translation of basic concepts rather than their meaningful application. In a Storyline, if these skills are among the goals, learners may be given meaningful activities related to their story that will help them to improve their competence in these subjects. In addition, other subjects may also be drawn into the Storyline, allowing English to make a meaningful contribution to general education. It is in the formulation of the key questions, activities and objectives that the foundation for a Storyline is laid. In an ESL Storyline, these tend to focus on general communicative competence and specific competences related to language, text and genre. In the Wiki-English Storyline, several of these elements are included, as well as digital competence.

Developing the Wiki-English Storyline Hands-on experience is the best way (or perhaps the only way) to learn about Storyline; it is also the best way to develop competence and confidence in using digital tools. This is equally true for trainee teachers and teachers, and for their pupils, so a Storyline framework was developed that could be adapted to suit various competence levels in these disciplines. Due to pressures of time, the entire Storyline had to be

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completed by course participants in three sessions (3 hours each), with considerable independent and online group work between sessions. The first session consisted of an introduction to the project, to Storyline and to the digital tools that would be used, as well as work on the first episode in the story; detailed instructions were posted on the course platform. The second session completed the first story episode and started the second; and the third session focused on the final episode and reflections. This was a very intensive module and three of the tasks were graded. An earlier Storyline developed at the University of Tromsø indicated that web 2.0 might serve our purposes (Brox, 2010). The platform chosen for the Wiki-English module was Wiki Spaces, and later Google Sites, which provided the online forum for the story. In order to extend the repertoire of useful teaching tools, Etherpad, and later Google Docs, were added as a collaborative writing tool; and Blogger, as a site for student (out-of-character) communication and post-project reflections. Google had the advantage that all of these tools were available on a single site. While most of the participants were familiar with blogs, few knew anything about the other tools. At the first session, therefore, the expert from the Media Centre who had set up the wiki site explained how they could produce collaborative documents and upload material. In this connection, the importance of acknowledging sources was stressed. In addition, participants were encouraged to experiment by including various media in their online presentations. A framework was developed for the WES, including key questions, activities (group, individual and class), online resources and learning objectives. Throughout the Storyline, the emphasis was on using oral English for various purposes such as presentation and negotiation; and on producing written texts in a variety of genres such as descriptions and formal letters. These have been summarised in Table 19-1.

* discussion (group + class) > decision regarding location * brain storming (class) > decision regarding information to provide about the town wiki site * collaborative writing (group) > description of specific features of town * brain storming (class) > options * selection of workplace (group) * presentation of workplace to class * collaborative writing (group) > description of a fictional workplace * upload texts + pictures (group)

Where is the town located?

What information should be included in a description of the town?

What workplaces are in the town?

1. Place

Activities

Key Questions

Episodes

Table 19-1. The Wiki-English Storyline

Wiki

Etherpad/ Google Docs

Etherpad/ Google Docs

Resources

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* digital skills + ethics

* writing + digital competence

* oral skills + negotiation

* writing descriptions of place + digital competence

* oral skills + negotiation

Goals / Objectives

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* brain storming (class) > * discussion of characters (group) * write and post a biography of ‘their’ character (individual) * find and post pictures of ‘their’ character (individual) * introduction of the characters to the class (individual) * discussion of the proposal (groups > class) * write a list of issues (group) > how the oil refinery will affect their workplace > how the community should respond * brain storming (groups > class) * write a letter stating how this will affect them personally (individual) * give an interview about how they will be affected (individual)

What information can we provide about the people in the town?

What do you feel about the proposal?

What can you do in response?

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Recording devices

Wiki

Internet

Wiki

* writing formal letters * oral skills > pronunciation + intonation

* problem solving * structuring arguments

* oral skills > expressing opinions

* presentation skills

* oral skills + description * writing descriptions of people * digital skills

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The incident (see below) was designed to draw upon the learners’ knowledge of ongoing debates on ecological issues: industry and growth versus community and the environment. It is intended to stimulate emotional responses, active engagement and heated discussions. It introduces a cross-curricular link in LK06 between English and the natural and social sciences.

New Zealand Forges Ahead – in Golgwera! After 10 years of discussion and several surveys and reports, a site for the new oil refinery has been selected: Golgwera. This small town is located on the north-eastern tip of the North Island. Golgwera is ideally suited for this development for a number of reasons: x x x x x

A good natural harbor. A location on international navigation routes Available land suitable for development A river that can provide hydro-electric power An existing road network that can be expanded

It is expected that the refinery will bring new life, growth and prosperity to this isolated community. There will be new residents, new workplaces and new economic opportunities. http://golgwera.wikispaces.com/Golgwera%27s+Future

The Wiki-English Storyline in practice The first episode of the story focuses on the location and provides opportunities to practise oral and written skills, as well as training in using the digital resources. While the town already has a name, it does not have a location, and the first task of the groups is to consider where in the English-speaking world it might be situated; this activates the learners’ existing knowledge of these regions. They then have to produce clear arguments in support of their proposed location in the plenum discussion, on the basis of which a decision is made regarding where to place the town on the map. Participants are then asked to reflect upon what information they would provide in a description of their town, and a list is made

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including such topics as history, points of interest, population and geography (Example 1). The groups then choose a topic and, following some discussion, work on the collaborative writing task. Example 1: Location

Golgwera is located at the north-eastern most tip of North Island, New Zealand, and is also known as the East Cape. It is situated at the mouth of the River Golg which is famous for its freshwater fishing and its scenic walks. The river flows through magnificent forests and sheepfarming country before it winds its way through the town. It may sound like a cliché, but people in Golgwera smile all the time because it is such an idyllic place to live (see Photo Gallery below). The town faces the majesty of the South Pacific Ocean with miles of beautiful sandy beaches situated east of the harbour. The town has a spectacular backdrop in the form of the snow-covered Tui mountains which includes the highest mountain in the region, the Te Golgwa. The trail up the Te Golgwa starts just behind Golgwera school and the climb is well worth it because from its elevated vantage point you get the most spectacular views over the South Pacific Ocean. Golgwera is blessed with a mild climate, but at times during the winter it is pounded by spectacular storms rolling in from the Pacific. http://golgwera.wikispaces.com/Location

Given this background information, it is then possible to consider what sorts of employment and activities might be available in the town; here again, class brainstorming is followed by group discussions which lead to the selection of a workplace. These are then summed up in the second collaborative writing task: a description of their workplace (Example 2). When everyone is satisfied with these documents, they are uploaded to the town wiki site, along with pictures.

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Example 2: The Maori Culture Resort

The Maori Culture Resort is a family business that wants to offer fishing trips on boats, traditional Maori cuisine and the opportunity of learning about our proud cultural heritage. We are located on the harbour on East Cape. We offer a wide range of tours, cruises and canoe-courses. Why not take your family on a day cruise on the famous Quentin Canoe? It was once used for fishing, and is known to be very stable, strong and manoeuvrable. It is a unique way to explore the Golgwera sea side. Our business has been developed on the basis of our ancestors’ knowledge and wisdom. The Maori Culture Resort has its own museum, the Quentin Canoe Museum. Here you can study our rich collection of old canoes used in former times. It is open to the public every day. If you like to fish, Golgwera and the Maori Culture Resort is the right place for you. Here you will meet the best guides and experts in the field. http://golgwera.wikispaces.com/Maori+Culture+Resort

The second episode focuses on developing the characters in the Storyline. Class brainstorming serves to produce a list of the information considered necessary to identify the townspeople. This includes features such as name, age, relationships, appearance, likes/dislikes and work. In group discussions, the learners then develop their own characters, drawing upon their descriptive vocabulary and their knowledge of relationships (Example 3). As in Episode 1, this task is intended to develop writing skills and competence working with digital tools; unlike Episode 1, this is an individual rather than a group task. Should they encounter any problems using the digital tools, they can post a question on the site blog. Once the place and workplace documents have been published on the wiki site, the groups introduce their workplace to other groups, and each individual introduces himself/herself.

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Example 3: Grandpa Quentin

Our family history goes back long before the Europeans came. My great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, the big chief Tin, settled here in Golgwera in his seagoing canoe. His family became numerous after a short time. His grandson, my great-great-great-grandfather, the big chief En Tin, was an admired and respected leader of the Golgtribe. His motto was peace and love. He first married Gaga Haka, granddaughter of Ge Haka, ancestor of the Ge Gi tribe of Gagatanga. Next he married Te Ta Tanga, daughter of Tan Tanga, the chief of Tunga. His third wife was Gai Go Huki, daughter of Ge Huki, chief of Hiki at Hakamore. Big chief En Tin visited them each in turn. One day in the Golgwera bush, on his way to visit his first wife, he met the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, and they immediately fell in love. Her name was Winifred Cook, and she was English. Anyway, nine months later she gave birth to my great-great-grandfather, chief Qu En Tin of Golgwera. Big chief En Tin and Winifred never married, but lived happily together in peace and harmony with the other wives. His canoes were famous for the beautiful carvings in the front, showing this beautiful woman named Winifred... My great-great-grandfather Quentin I, his son Quentin II and grandson Quentin III, my grandfather, were Golgwera’s finest boat builders. The Quentin Canoe was stable and strong, made of timber from the Golgwera bush, and of course it had the beautiful carvings. My parents and now I, Quentin V, and my family, have continued this proud tradition. Unfortunately, in the late 1950s the market for fishing canoes declined. It was depressing to think that the Quentin Canoe, our ancestor’s wisdom, knowledge and pride, was not needed any more. However, tourists came instead... We started out offering canoe courses and cruises to tourists. The old Quentin Canoe became popular again! Now we run the Maori Culture Resort and it has become a successful family business. I’m so proud of my grandson Billy; he spends all his spare time working at the resort. Tourists love to listen to him telling the old Maori stories I told him when he was a little boy. And you should see his Maori music and dance performances! I hope his mother Jane will let him take over the business someday. I am now an old man, but I'm so happy that our rich Maori culture has in a way re-emerged. http://golgwera.wikispaces.com/Grandpa+Quentin

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Episode 3 is where the action starts, with the proposal to build a refinery in the town. In their groups, the learners discuss the potential consequences for them of this development, after which they share their views with the other residents. A list of positive and negative effects is compiled and possible responses and solutions are discussed; this is an exercise in problem solving and balancing opposing interests. Before proceeding to the writing task, the class revises their knowledge of formal letters and how to write convincing arguments. Individually, they then write letters to the town mayor stating how this development will affect them personally (Example 4). This is then uploaded on the website. Example 4: Grandpa Quentin’s letter Grandpa Quentin Golgwera 15 November 2009 Mayor Wamwee Elton Town Hall Golgwera Dear Mayor Elton, I am writing to you and the town council to beg you to put an effort to stop the plans for this new oil refinery located here in this small town Golgwera. I am now an old man and I have lived my entire life here in my beloved Golgwera, like generations before me. My family and our family business, the Maori Culture Resort, are my whole life. I fear that an oil refinery will not only bring an end to the Maori culture, but be a threat to the whole community. The Maori Culture Resort is built on traditions and has been in our family for generations. After some hard times in the 1950s when the market for fishing canoes declined, we have slowly built up this centre to become a successful family business. The centre has brought growth and prosperity both to my family and to Golgwera. My daughter even changed her mind about leaving this town, because of her involvement in the centre. To my grandson, it’s his whole life, and I hope he will take over some day. We are located at the harbour and of course it will be incompatible with big oil tankers. I fear expropriation when the oil company acquires land and area.

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We have seen on the news how oil leakage and oil spills pollute beaches and destroy fish and birdlife. Acid rain will pollute our river and destroy our big forests. Tourists and local people will no longer be able to fish trout if the river is to be used for hydro-electric power. A refinery will occupy a lot of land with a big road network and pipelines through the landscape. Will you allow a beautiful small town like Golgwera, with its rich wildlife and culture, to turn into an ugly industrial area? Do you really think the community and the local people will benefit in the end? The oil company is owned by the British and that’s where the profit will go too! I beg you to consider this when you are going to reach a decision on this very important matter for Golgwera’s future. Sincerely, Grandpa Quentin http://golgwera.wikispaces.com/Letter+to+Mayor+Wamwee+Elton

The concluding task in this episode is an individual recorded interview for the “local media”. These are one-two minutes long and sum up the points made in the letters. The recordings can then be analysed by the teachers and detailed feedback on pronunciation and intonation can be given. This marks the end of this intensive WES. The examples provided were the work of experienced teachers, and both the quality and extent of the texts will vary with the learners’ level. For younger learners, adjustments need to be made to the amount of time allowed for classroom work and to the types of tasks assigned.

Participants’ reflections The final task that the Storyline participants completed was a reflection blog. At this point they stepped outside their Storyline roles to evaluate the entire process. The following are some of the comments from the participants on the five Wiki-English Storylines held to date. In their evaluation of Wiki as a tool and Storyline as an approach, most responses were positive. Virtually none of the participants were familiar with Storyline or Wiki prior to this module, and many commented that they had learned a great deal. It was generally considered fun and interesting, and many mentioned that they enjoyed working with ESL in a new and creative way. Nevertheless, some commented that they had found it

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difficult to use the digital tools. In this context the importance of clear instructions and guidance was stressed. This may also be attributed in part to the wide range in digital competence at the start of the module. With regard to the implementation of a WES in their own classes, many thought it would be interesting to try. In fact, several have since been in touch to share their enthusiasm, after successfully adapting and carrying out the WES in both upper primary and lower secondary ESL classes. In contrast, others felt that they still lacked the necessary digital competence to set up the site and guide their pupils, and said they preferred the more traditional Storylines that they had been shown. Nevertheless, digital competence was not the primary issue raised with regard to the implementation of the WES; that was time. Many participants felt that they simply did not have the time to prepare and implement such a Storyline. With regard to language learning, participants stressed that they had been forced to use English in a variety of ways in the WES. Some also mentioned that this was a good way to practise writing and speaking.

Coordinators’ reflections The most rewarding aspect of Storyline in general and the WES in particular was the level of engagement; most participants, irrespective of their age or level of English, were immediately caught up in the story. They also put an unusual amount of effort into the tasks. There are several possible explanations: the tasks were not typical for college courses; the texts were published for fellow students to read; and the activities were part of a broader learning approach. The integration of the various competences and genre in the tasks functioned well, and the overall coherence of the module also contributed to its success. As in schools, the lack of time was perhaps the greatest hindrance with regard to capitalising fully on the potential of both the Storyline approach and the Wiki technology. Unfortunately, innovative work often competes with other elements on the curriculum for class time. The solution was to concentrate on group activities in class time and schedule activities that did not depend on discussion for homework. A related issue arose as the WES was introduced in different courses. Face-to-face contact between groups seems to be important for engagement and motivation. The cross-college pre-service course in 2010 depended on online communication within groups, which was problematic. Some of the cross-college groups did not function well due to a number of factors: not only was access to the communication forum unstable and

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timetabling of group meetings difficult, but the participants did not seem secure in working with people they had never met. For local courses, communication was not a problem since the groups met regularly. The obvious solution was to divide the students into single-college groups. A second issue that arose in the distance learning module related to instructions. When these are given to large groups via online communication links, the chances of success seem to decrease. It seems that having someone physically present to answer questions and go over details is essential when complex processes in unfamiliar fields are to be explained. Even though detailed instructions were provided in the WES information pack, there were those who could not manage the digital tools. The solution at BUC has been to have a technical advisor available during the upstart phase. While WES has not been without its problems, particularly when transitioning from small local modules to large cross-college modules, the overall benefits have been marked. The participants gained first-hand experience with Storyline and came to appreciate its usefulness in the field of ESL. They also had the opportunity to develop and display their oral and written competence in the various tasks. And even those who did not feel confident using the new technology at the end of the module acknowledged that they had learned a great deal.

Conclusion Storyline is ideally suited for second language learning. The story provides an “authentic”, if fictional, context for using the language. In their character roles, the learners become native speakers, inhabitants of a town somewhere in the English-speaking world. This creates an engagement and motivation for using the language that is lacking in ordinary classroom language exercises. Through brainstorming around the key questions, participants activate and pool their existing knowledge before starting to work. In group discussions, they inspire one another to new creative heights. In addition, all of the traditional language skills are included (reading, writing, speaking and listening); participants’ oral performances are followed by probing questions and their written documents are read and commented upon. Thus, the level of communication activity—in English—in WES is both varied and high. The Wiki-English Storyline is cross-curricular, with a focus on digital competence as well as ESL. Some teachers and trainee teachers feel that they themselves lack the necessary digital competence to help their pupils whereas others are confident in their abilities. It is this gap that the WES is

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intended to bridge by introducing participants to three useful sites. The tasks for the WES require a certain level of digital competence; participants must be able to navigate around the sites, upload documents and pictures, and abide by the copyright laws; and use a blog to ask for help if necessary. While all of the participants may not have reached a level of digital competence that would allow them to launch into this field with confidence, even the most reserved had made marked progress. In an effort to make it easier for teachers to set up their own WikiEnglish Storylines, the Storyline team is currently developing online schema. The teachers need not start from scratch to set up a Wiki site, but will be able to fill in the parameters in the schema. These will not be limited to the town model of WES, but open up for a variety of settings, characters and incidents. The aim is to make Storyline more readily available by minimising the preparation time.

References Brox, H. (2009). Digital Storyline: Virtuell Læringsarena Med Web 2.0, http://norgesuniversitetet.no/files/Digital_Storyline_Sluttrapport.pdf Ehlers, G., Harder, K., Järvinen, H.-M., Brandford V. and Materniak, M. (2006). Storyline Approach in the foreign language classroom: Trainer’s Handbook. Comenius Project, 112381-CP-1-2003-1-DECOMENIUS-C21, 2003-2006. Scotland, Storyline (2013). What Is Storyline? Storyline Scotland, http://www.Storyline-scotland.com/whatisStoryline.html Tømte, C. (2007). “Lærere Mangler Digitalkompetanse.” Dagbladet, 26.10.2007, http://www.dagbladet.no/kultur/2007/10/26/516267.html Utdanningsdirektoratet. Knowledge Promotion (2006), http://www.udir.no/Artikler/_Lareplaner/_english/Common-coresubjects-in-primary-and-secondary-education/

PART IV: STORYLINE IN ADULT EDUCATION

CHAPTER TWENTY THE APPLICABILITY OF THE STORYLINE APPROACH TO TEACHING IN ADULT EDUCATION CECILIE FALKENBERG

Introduction Do learning philosophies apply to adults as well as children? Of course! The theories of Dewey, Piaget, Vygotsky, et al generally cover adults’ learning too, but not necessarily in the same way. The goals are often different, too, as are the reasons for learning. Does the Storyline approach work for all kinds of people? I am not sure. There is to my knowledge no serious research on the subject, though many of us would love to have such knowledge. Experience suggests that it works perfectly well in all age groups adapted to the situation and when it concerns adults it generally must be done with clear purposes. Within the last twenty years I have personally experienced it being used successfully in many contexts with small children, school pupils, youngsters and adults. I will present you with three examples of the latter.

The reasons to use the approach One is that it works well in both teaching “knowledge” and solving problems. Primarily it enhances the involvement of learners, often due to the ownership of the project it gives the participants who are co-writers of the story. A very good reason is the high activity level often via a lot of practical or even artistic work to underline the outcome. Other vital points are that it involves socialisation and fun. Obviously these are all good reasons resulting in effective learning. There is, however, at least one reason that probably does not apply for both schoolchildren and adults. The reason why I have been working very hard teaching teachers to use the Storyline approach is the democratic

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educational effect. In a Storyline project you ensure that the children, through the open key questions, feel that their own ideas are asked for, that their thoughts are very usable, that their opinions count, that their arguments are heard, that their proposals are taken seriously and that their solutions to problems are important and being implemented. This is a very important feature in the approach through which they develop action competencies, entrepreneurship, critical thinking, democratic education, “Bildung” in German. In this way they become Educated Persons (EPs) as Fenstermacher and Soltis express it in English. This is of course a major reason for using the Storyline approach in school. This goal is not in focus when it comes to using the approach with adults. They are already supposed to be competent persons using critical thinking, which is also the reason why I say that adults expect to know why they are exposed to a Storyline project. Many adults would react sceptically if you used the argument that it would teach them critical thinking, but they always consider it a good reason to use the approach with young students in school. The reason for using Storyline with adults is that it improves learning and problem solving in some way or another. This is what I will discuss in the following examples involving different kinds of adults. With different purposes these have all been successfully carried out recently.

How do you learn the Storyline approach to teaching? How much time is enough? These are good questions and have no definitive answers. It depends on several factors concerning the learner, the subject matter, the teacher and the interaction between them. Despite these variable conditions for learning we do know a lot about the complex process. You cannot learn to use the Storyline approach from merely listening to a lecture or reading an article. At best, it gives you some information about it, which probably generates interest to learn more. Watching a film or visiting a class working with a Storyline project is fine but not quite enough either. Participating, discussing the matter with others or even better practising and working with it yourself are obviously more effective ways of learning. The best way might well be when after having learnt it, you teach it to others—e.g. teaching colleagues to use the approach. The necessary thinking this requires adds immensely to the quality of your own learning. The great learning philosopher John Dewey (Dewey, 1936) is known for his learning by doing axiom. Some seem to forget that he added that it

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must be the kind of doing that requires thinking and imagining. In this context it means that it is not enough to imitate a Storyline teacher by letting pupils cut and paste people and places in their stories. The teacher must be sure of what he/she is actually teaching the pupils through these activities and the communication and imagination it takes. The problem is as with the uncritical use of “situated learning” (Lave and Wenger, 1991) that the apprentice might carry on with unreflected imitation. Applying the theory of another great man of epistemology is relevant to the question of how to learn a complex way of teaching: The process of acquiring new knowledge and skills involves prior knowledge and skills and requires a certain amount of practice and reflections. As Jean Piaget (Piaget, 1936) put it, adaptation requires a balance between assimilation approximately meaning consolidation, e.g. by training and trying out, and accommodating meaning learning something new, getting new ideas and reflecting. The learning process only advances with reciprocal action or the interaction between these two processes—in an ongoing balance. Teaching the approach to others after having tried it yourself, gives good meaning. The Dreyfus brothers’ model of expert skill acquisition (Dreyfus and Dreyfus, 1986) also provides good philosophical insights into how this is obtained in five steps from novice to expert. Important in understanding effective ways of learning something like the Storyline approach is to put it into a relevant context (Lave and Wenger, 1991) taking place in a social situation with someone already being an expert helping you into the zone of proximal development (Vygotsky, 1978).

First project: “Trainee teachers learning the Storyline approach as well as important things they have to learn to become good teachers” Two teacher training college teachers who all knew that learning would require practice, wanted to use substantial time both to let their trainee teachers try it out, but also to fulfil another purpose, i.e. the college teachers wanted to be able to teach Storyline themselves in the future. I worked with two classes (50 students) for a week, and the two college teachers continued the project for many weeks after. In previous courses I had used different Storyline projects suitable for schoolchildren with teaching students or trained teachers. That had worked well, but having more time for this class, I wanted to do something even better. At the planning meetings with the two college teachers they told me that they could only use limited time, as there were other things the students had to learn about. So I came up with the idea that the Storyline

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project, through its content, would also teach them some of these other things, as well as teaching them the Storyline approach. This would justify using more of their precious studying time, while utilising the benefits of the Storyline approach even better. The result was a Storyline project concerning fictive trained teachers reflecting on their school class teaching, which turned out well. We could introduce any relevant pedagogical and psychological subject matter through the key questions and activities, revealing the curriculum they were about to learn. This would also serve as a perfect example of how to incorporate different types of curriculum into a Storyline project for their future school pupils. The brief outline for the project is as follows. Table 20-1. 7th grade pupils Key questions

What would teachers want to know about their pupils?

Who are the pupils? What do they look like? How do you think they are?

Activities Instructor: “In a school over there (pointing) is a 7th grade class with 25 typical pupils” and poses the first key question (column to the left). Participants brainstorm in groups of 4, taking notes and creating a list. The instructor records the suggestions on a flipchart. Each piece of information is discussed for its relevance and appropriateness In pairs, they create a pupil for the fictive 7th grade. They use a collage technique or drawing or (as we did) each pair chooses a picture of a child of 7th grade age already displayed on a table. In addition, they make a short biography using the flip-chart list with name, age, address, family relations and additional information about the pupil. Everything is posted on the wall, and the pupils are presented to the group one by one.

Examples of learning intentions In focus here is making the trainee teachers’ thoughts concerning 7th grade pupils explicit. Consideration of and prioritising of information about pupils. Ethics concerning information about pupils and their homes. Rules that might be relevant. Considerations concerning professional level, pupil prerequisites, etc. Personality description. Preparation of a pupil description (different models). Difference between description and interpretation. Prejudices and stereotypes. Putting pupil descriptions into words. Assessment of pupil potentials.

224 How would you characterise this 7th grade class?

Chapter Twenty Groups of 4 discuss and construct a joint description of the class.

Considerations of a description of an entire class. How can they be different and what might be the reasons why? What to be aware of and how to handle some of the possible situations, etc.

The fictive 7th grade pupils are presented one by one by the trainee teachers discussing the importance, the relevance and the appropriateness of the information given in the biographies. Table 20-2. The 7th grade teachers Key Questions

Who is each of the 6 teachers? How is he or she?

Who are your teacher’s favourite pedagogical philosophers? Why?

Activities Instructor: “This class has a team of 6 teachers.” A plenary meeting conducted by the instructor discusses this and agrees on 6 teachers covering all subjects in 7th grade. The 6 teachers and their subjects are listed on the flipchart. In 6 groups they choose a teacher to create. A technique is agreed upon to portrait them, e.g. collage figures of heads (as we did), full size dolls, drawings or pictures from magazines. Each group also writes a biography for their teacher. The teachers are now posted on a board and each is presented by a group member. Groups discuss, make choices and prepare for short lectures on the various philosophies they find appealing. (Or from a list the college teacher has made?)

Examples of learning intentions

How teacher teams are put together. Group psychological considerations. The teacher’s personality and pedagogical profile. Ways in which the teacher’s implicit and explicit views are expressed. Possible application of the term “authentic teacher” (Laursen, 2004) and the three types of teachers in Fenstermacher and Soltis (2004). Considerations about teachers’ differences— also concerning personality. Pedagogical theory concerning a number of epistemologists and other pedagogical theorists as Piaget, Vygotsky, Dewey, Schön,

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In which ways do you think this theory will have an influence on your teachers’ teaching practice?

This might be for a “pedagogic weekend” since it is obviously time consuming but also crucial for this Storyline project. Literature on pedagogic philosophy and internet access. Lectures are given. Class discussion and review after each lecture to ensure understanding of the meanings of the philosophies. The teacher groups discuss this and present to the rest of the class. What characterises the teachings of this teacher or what should characterise it? Also the problems that might be implied by this theory should be revealed

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Luhmann, Habermaas, Brunner or whoever is relevant for this class Giving lectures. Considerations on what these people actually are saying. Note taking. Value of lectures regarding learning.

The concrete meaning of the declared teaching view for the teacher’s way of teaching: method, environment, etc. and action. TheoryPractice? Philosophical discussion on whether there is a direct connection.

Fig. 20-1. Frieze Each of the fictive teachers’ learning philosophy beliefs is revealed. Examples are given of what this implies for their ways of teaching, followed by a discussion.

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Table 20-3. The teacher meetings Key Questions

What will your teacher say at the team meeting? How does it proceed?

Which theories and which approaches do you think they need a course about?

Activities Instructor: ‘The teachers meet weekly to discuss ways to teach 7th grade.’ The groups discuss, prepare and write notes about what should be presented at the team meeting. One represents their teacher for the team meeting. They must consent, write a plan and present it for further comments.

They now choose something they would like to hear more about. The college instructor acts as course instructor and puts the desired theory on the programme. The fictive teachers are course participants. Notes are written. Plan for teaching the class lectures on pedagogy themes.

Examples of learning intentions

Concretising of the present teaching views in a plan for teaching practice. Planning teaching. Team building, roles and climate etc. in groups. What it takes to form a good working environment. Process management. Pedagogicalpsychological theory. To choose the manner of education for a course for teachers where pedagogical theory is presented. Evaluation of the course—both content and form.

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Table 20-4. Teacher-pupil connection Key Questions

Activities

Examples of learning intentions

What do you as pupils value about these teachers?

They now work in new groups where they take the perspective of the pupil they created and talk about the teachers through the eyes of the pupils in 7th grade. The fictive teachers’ qualities are revealed in this new perspective. Each group chooses a way to present a pupil telling a story about the teacher. Introduce the notes about teacher pedagogic influences. Participants’ personal perspectives. Everyone individually writes a story about what once happened when they went to school describing their favourite teacher. The stories are read and collected in a book titled My Best Teacher. Back to the perspective of the fictive teachers in 7th grade. Discussion about pupils. ‘My favourite pupil profile’ list is made. Key words from each story are collected on the flip-chart, leading to discussion.

Working with pupil perspective in pedagogic work. In connection with change of perspective: concepts like empathy, appraisal and acknowledgement. Teacher’s personality. Discussion of the value of the teachers’ pedagogicalpsychological choices seen from the pupils’ point of view.

Who was your own favourite teacher at school and why?

Who is your favourite pupil and why? What are the implications of this key question as a teacher?

Connections to the previous discussions are made The pupil-teacher connection as the most important factor for effective learning is stressed. See John Hattie: Visible Learning (Hattie, 2009, and Hattie, 2012). Ways in which the change of perspective can provide a pupil with new chances and show new learning potential. Are teacher’s sympathies for pupils natural or inevitable? And acceptable?

Change of perspectives. Who is your pupil’s favourite teacher and why? Who was your own best teacher when you were in school yourself? Who is your teachers’ favourite pupil? Are teachers’ sympathies acceptable, natural or inevitable? How to behave?

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Table 20-5. Classroom and school Key Questions

Activities

Examples of learning intentions

What has to be in the classroom to make it possible for the teachers to work the way they want?

Groups discuss and make lists. A mutual flip-chart list is made. The others ask the presenters to defend their positions especially for ideas they do not find necessary. All proposals are prioritised.

How and why must the classroom be organised, e.g. how the furniture should be placed and so on? What is allowed?

The teacher groups discuss the physical space, including classroom organisation; groups sketch out their possible classroom including placement of the items from the prioritised list. School regulations for classrooms are consulted. After discussion and questions, the best suggestions are highlighted. Groups build three-dimensional models of the ideal classroom. These are displayed and presented one by one. Children’s different learning styles and multiple intelligences within the space of the classroom model is discussed.

The physical space of the classroom’s effect on possibilities for learning and how it reflects a certain learning philosophy. Priorities regarding the wishes for a wellfunctioning classroom connected to a learning philosophy. Continue discussion on how physical environments can impact on education. Familiarising with school regulations. Looking at various examples of schools in real life. Multiple Intelligence theory is taken into consideration (Gardener, 1983). About the environment’s limited impact on learning consult Hattie (2009, 2012).

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Table 20-6. Incidents Key Questions

Activities

Examples of learning intentions

What happened the day the teachers were very sad? Or very happy? In which ways can these stories be told?

In small groups the participants will create a list of possible explanations for the teacher’s mood. The stories are discussed in the groups.

Considerations of strategies for possible behaviour in different pedagogical and psychological incidents in a class.

Participants brainstorm ideas for ways to share their stories. This will be recorded on a horizontal list above the vertical incident list to form a scheme (Falkenberg and Håkonsson, 2000: 138). Ideas on the list might include: a cartoon, a painting, writing in diary form, as an article, as a short story, a news report, as a letter, in a poem, told as a fairy tale, skit, puppet show, song, dance, etc. The groups choose an incident and a way of expressing their story. The incidents are presented in front of the whole group. Later groups could choose a new incident and a different form of expression.

Thinking of different forms of expression for the incidents. Choice of expression form and presentation of a story in one or more ways, giving the learner opportunities for using multiple potentials. Organisation of work with many ways of presentation (and remembering to keep it simple!). All this to extend the traditional ways of telling stories in class for their future pupils.

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Table 20-7. Lesson plan Presentation Cartoon

Incident A parent had a complaint about his son being bullied in class The teacher told a sad story about one of the other teachers being seriously ill… As the teacher entered the class there was a fight… The class had done so well on “Pollution Day”… Four of the pupils had not written their essays… Many other stories to discuss a relevant matter…

Painting

Rap

Lecture

Play

Other ways to present a story…

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Table 20-8. Project work Key Questions How did the teacher team plan for the coming period of project work? How do teachers involve pupils in planning project work? How does this proceed?

Activities

Examples of learning intentions

A group of the fictive teachers plan the future project for the 7th grade. The rest observe and support. Literature about project work is available.

Project work as a compulsory way of working as well as assessment. Features learning philosophy of project work.

Having considered this question, they now take on the role of the pupils again. The pupil teams choose a theme, formulate problems to be solved and make plans for action. They should include procedures, presentation and evaluation.

Participation and codetermination as a necessity for democratic education. Pedagogic scenario. Project work and all of its possibilities. Problem formulation as a task.

Table 20-9. Connections between home and school Key Questions

Activities

Examples of learning intentions

How do the teachers and parents work together to make a successful programme?

The groups discuss the best way to involve parents. They make a plan for the meeting with parents including both form and content. In what ways might the students be involved?

Co-operation between school and families. The importance of understanding parent meetings. Involving pupils in democratic education.

What do the parents say?

Each participant takes the role of a parent for one of the pupils. They share their opinion in a meeting with the other “parents” of the 7th grade class. Roleplay of a meeting between parents, teacher and pupil. Others observe and later discuss.

Myths and prejudices about parents.

What do the pupils say at the meeting?

Meetings between pupil, teacher and parents. The “good dialogue” or the “difficult situation”. Giving responses.

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Table 20-10. End of story Key Questions

Activities

Examples of learning intentions

How does this story end?

Brainstorm ideas for a culmination to the project (i.e. a party, inviting others to see the exhibition, a class excursion, winning a contest). Arguments are given and a choice is made. Arrangements are made for excursions according to choice and the necessary work is planned, distributed, and done. The culminating event takes place.

Considering how to end a long project like this. Rules and ethics for parties at school. Organisation. Classroom management. Good experiences

Table 20-11. Evaluation Key Questions

Activities

Examples of learning intentions

How did it go? What was this project about? What have you learned? What did you achieve? What will you do differently next time?

In new groups each key question is answered on the following three levels: As the fictive pupil As the fictive teacher And most importantly, as yourself, a trainee teacher. How did you learn the Storyline approach? Did this method help you learn the pedagogical curriculum for your study? Has this project been a valuable part of your teacher training? Will you be able to use the Storyline approach in your future work? A whole group debrief later.

Assessment and evaluation as an inevitable part of teaching. Evaluation and reflection as part of one’s own learning process. Different kinds of methods and tools for evaluation. Also, the PISA tests and other OECD evaluation programmes. Awareness of differences between control evaluation and development evaluation.

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Second project: “The Ballet School” This project took place in the context of ballet teacher education 20082011 at The Royal Danish Ballet in Copenhagen. These highly-trained professionals were NOT going to learn the Storyline approach. The aim was to professionalise the ballet teaching—not the ballet itself but the pedagogical side of it—to improve the performance of the young dancers. There have always been ballet dancers with no teacher education teaching ballet to children. It happens in many fields of arts and skills, and is often referred to as apprenticeship teaching or situated learning (Lave and Wenger, 1991). As mentioned in my introduction it easily ends with the professionals just continuing doing what has always been done, even if it is outdated or perhaps never was the best thing to do. The newcomers just keep doing what the experienced teachers did. Sometimes they are not even allowed to try new ways or to question the old practice. Normally apprenticeship learning functions very well, as it had done in The Royal Danish Ballet, but not without problems concerning modern pupils or modern critical parents or with unhappy incidents and hard fates for some children. Thus the board asked us in my institute at University College Copenhagen to design a short pedagogical education for the dancers who teach ballet. These ballet teachers are the best performers who have reached the “retirement” age of 35-40! The task was not only teaching them some learning philosophy, which had already been tried with limited success. We realised that it was not a case of merely informing them, but of facilitating their own understanding of how and why to teach in certain ways. These lovely and highly professional artists had little experience in academic learning and several of them were not familiar with reading up on theory. That was our reason for choosing two approaches: 1. To make sure the learning took place in a relevant ballet context we chose the Storyline approach to teaching. 2. To make sure that the course developed their practice we chose action learning. Neither of them requires reading long texts.

The Storyline project In many ways the project was similar to the above mentioned except for the aim. It was also shorter and less theory focused. We worked with a

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story about a famous ballet school in a small country—absolutely fictive— for one full week. The Storyline project week opened the crucial discussions for these ballet dancers now entering a different position for which they had no professional training: being ballet teachers for young ballet students. A vocabulary for their teaching was made. All the problems and features of their everyday teaching were put into words. This of course was a great success and they all felt enlightened. To obtain their certificate there was still a long way to go since the next many months were used for the Action Learning Project to reinforce or alter their actual teaching of the ballet pupils. Every term and theory model introduced and used during the Storyline project was illustrated for their folders and on large sheets on the walls. We kept coming back to them and repeating them during the many phases of the action learning rounds in the two years we spent on this project. The aim was not for them to know all the terms and the theory, neither to fully understand all the models but to provide them with everyday language for, and an understanding of, what they experienced in their ballet classes.

Action learning After the first intense week of introduction through the Storyline project the teachers in teams formulated one or more problems they wanted to tackle or ways of teaching and attitudes they would like to work on in their classes. The primary objective of action learning is to bring about the development of teaching through ongoing experimentation with observation of and reflection on concrete educational settings. Phase 1: Finding a relevant focus (formulating a problem definition) Phase 2: Selecting specific experiments (initiation of actions) Phase 3: Observation of experiments/actions Phase 4: Talking about the observed lesson with the colleagues (the didactic conversation) Phase 5: Learning from it—finding new focus (analysis and then start of a new cycle) The teachers first decided what they would like their colleagues and us to look for in their ballet lessons with their pupils. Everything was written into a kind of contract for the following observation of their lessons. An

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important feature here is using special sheets to ensure observers only looked for what was decided on. Their and our comments on it were written on the sheets. The didactic discussions came immediately after, normally lasting two hours. Throughout the discussions we had our pedagogical terms from the Storyline project to use for the phenomena we observed. They themselves figured out a new praxis that they wanted to use for solving the same or a new problem, and had observations and discussion and so on for a year. From time to time we all gathered to discuss mutual experiences and new ideas. The next year we continued until they all received their ballet teacher certificates after having presented their own learning for the group and the ballet school leader. During the third year three new ballet teachers had another year of intense repetition until they also had completed this short education. The action learning part still involved many from the large group that year.

Evaluation Though the process was often postponed because these people had many ballet obligations, performances, travels and their daily teaching to tend to, we did have some substantial time, taking up several hundred hours during the project. They realised that profound understanding and learning was obtained during a combination with the use of what was introduced in a very lively way during the Storyline project. They knew that it had been a very good process and gave many examples of their new knowledge and new praxis. They realised that they probably had not been working so closely with their own praxis without exploiting themselves in the absence of the Storyline project. Had their ballet teaching improved? A few thought they had already been teaching well before and still did now in a more conscious and reflective way; indeed they were good. None of them thought that they had wasted their time. They all enjoyed the increased communication and openness about their teaching. The majority claimed that they had stopped fault-finding and now instead found some positive ways of improving the children’s conduct. Some said: “The difference between competencies and potential was eyeopening for me”. The fear of meeting parents was remarkably diminished after the communication part. They all felt more confident being able to explain their ways of teaching. Many had experienced that their pupils expressed their satisfaction with the new attitudes.

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Many showed their gratitude for the way we had planned this education. They had feared the earlier tendency of courses to make them feel stupid for not being able to understand the theory. This way of educating them had been particularly appropriate. This was one of the major reasons for choosing the Storyline approach to achieve this purpose.

Third project: “The Ideal Municipality” The task here was to help 120 youth workers working in school care institutions north of Copenhagen to plan a better life for 6-10-year-olds. They do not “teach” in a professional way since they are not trained for it. I worked with them in four groups of approximately 30 people in each. Each group had two full days for the first part of a much longer one-year project. Each group was allowed many more days over that year. I only conducted this opening for the project. Over these two days we worked through the following three steps using the Storyline approach’s typical creation of a fictional story for reflection:

First step Key question: “Who are the people in this story?” The fictive story goes “The emerging area north of here has evolved into a large new island! Here the residents, as an experiment, have to create an ideal society. They are free to build an institutional life for 6-10 year olds in the most appropriate way they can think of. The numerous agents are children, parents, adults working with children, leaders and politicians. They have the kind of background that people in Denmark normally have, but they have all signed up for this interesting project. Some of them have been pushed a little but they are pretty unbiased, creative thinking, the forward thinkers of this new small community in the year 2010.” The 30 participants sit in five groups of six and get a pile of large cards with photos of random persons in the upper corner. I asked them to choose one each that could be any of the 5 persons they are supposed to create: x x x x x

A child between 6 and 10-years-old A parent An adult working with 6-10-year-olds (a teacher or a youth worker) An administrative leader in the municipality A politician in the city council

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There can be two of any of the types of participants, or two can share a person: “Please write a biography for each person containing: Name, Age, Residency, Experience, Habits, Interests, Position, etc. Feel free to help each other and talk about them.” So they did.

Second step Key question: “What do these people want for the 6-10-year-olds from your person’s perspective?” All “politicians” now please form a group; all “parents” form a group… and so on. Present yourself in the new group one by one pretending to be your character. Your group now represents an interest group. Please come to a consensus on a number of points discussing the key question. After long discussions the groups found and displayed their priorities on large wall sheets. The group of “children”, the group of five “municipality leaders”, the “youth workers and teachers”, the “parents” and the “politicians” each carefully presented their points one by one. The other groups listened and posed questions. A fabulous discussion with passion and strong arguments from all sides!

Third step Key question: “What can they agree on all together?” Please form mixed groups again (a parent, a child, a politician, etc.). Introduce yourself in character to the new group and explain the views of your interest group by repeating your views (still available for viewing on the wall sheet). Now please find the three most important features for institutions for 6-10-year-olds and discuss them until you are able to come to a consensus. Display the three points on the wall and present them for all the others. There were many similarities between the major points for how to plan an ideal life for the 6-10-year-olds in the fictive municipality. As an example here are points three of the mixed groups put on their boards: The three most important points to work on in order to improve the after school time life for the 6-10-year-olds in our community are:

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Table 20-12. Work plan 1

Group 1 Building a structure for the cooperation between parents, teachers and the staff in the after school institution.

Group 2 Relations Thriving Keywords are x Trust x Confidence x Safety

2

Thriving x Health x Food

Learning x Motivation for learning what they must or want to learn

x Exercise x Physical frames x Working environment

3

Professionalism x Further education of staff

x Silence when working in the homework café x Socialisation

Physical frames x Playground

x Development (No 4: Healthy food)

Group 3 Thriving Health Exercise Food Mental health Socialisation Relations Bullying-free environment Co-operation Whole day school structure 7-9: Free play within the institutional frame 9-16: teaching and planned educational activities including some by choice (music, sports etc.) 16-17: Free play within the institutional frame Physical frames x Optimising the use of them x Working for political decisions

x Co-operation x Economic priorities The similarities with the three groups of 30 were high. At this point a university colleague of mine took over and worked over the next months with the four big groups on how to improve their own

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ways of dealing with the 6-10-year-olds. It turned out to be an effective process. Let me end this short description by addressing the following: Why use the Storyline approach? 1. Many professionals in after school care facilities have preconceived ideas about how children’s lives should be best organised. Through this Storyline project we introduced many other perspectives. Or, to be precise, they did it themselves in the roles of all concerned in the matter. 2. We got the most innovative thinking possible by not discussing their actual working conditions and problems directly but using fiction. 3. The subsequent work—one year to alter and improve the institutions in their own real community—had a much more diverse and qualitative foundation. 4. It implies activity, involvement and is more fun. The conclusion being that we reached a higher level for the project faster this way.

References Dewey, J. (1936). Democracy and Education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Dreyfus, H.L. and Dreyfus, S.E. (1986). Mind over Machine: the power of human intuition and expertise in the age of the computer. Oxford: Blackwell. Falkenberg, C. and Håkonsson, E. (2006). Storylinebogen—en håndbog for undervisere (4th edition). Denmark: Kroghs Forlag. Fenstermacher, G.D. and Soltis, J.F. (2004). Approaches to teaching, New York: Teachers College Press. Laursen, P.F. (2004). Den autentiske lærer. Copenhagen: Gyldendal. Gardener, H. (1983). Frames of Mind. New York: Basic Books. Hattie, J. (2009). Visible Learning. A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. London and New York: Routledge. —. (2012). Visible Learning for teachers. Maximising impact on learning. London and New York: Routledge. Lave, J. and Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Piaget, J. (1936). Origins of intelligence in the child. London: Routledge.

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—. (1937). La naissance de l’intelligence, La construction du reél chez l'enfant and La formation du symbole chez l’enfant. Paris: Delachaux et Niestlé. Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE STORYLINE APPLICATIONS IN THE UNIVERSITY WENDY EMO AND KENNETH R. EMO

Introduction If we want elementary and secondary teachers to be innovative and creative, teacher education students should see innovation and creativity modelled in their university programmes. Storyline provided us with a way to model innovative, creative practice to our teacher education students. This chapter shares our Storyline adaptation at the university level. We provide a few examples and also some of our doubts, questions, surprises and discoveries that arose from using Storyline. Like many other teacher educators, we already used many alternatives to lecture. Our students analysed teaching through viewing media, reading case studies, and writing autobiographies of their own past learning situations. Our students also processed information through role playing, writing reflections, questioning guest speakers and presenting research. Still we continued exploring teaching strategies that engaged deeper student participation.

Our goals We turned to Storyline as a way to develop a context for learning in our classes. Studies have shown that when using Storyline, motivation is high for students (Ahlquist, 2012; Mitchell-Barrett, 2010; Hofmann, 2007) and for teachers (Emo, 2010) and that student achievement is high as well (Tepetas, 2012). Storyline characteristics are present in many discussions of effective education design. In addition to “Backwards Design” for curriculum unit planning (McTighe and Wiggins, 2005), Storyline elements are present in constructivism, content area integration (Beane, 1997),

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problem-based learning (Duch, Groh and Allen, 2001) and project-based learning (Hosic and Chase, 1924; Katz and Chard, 2000). Storyline builds on and complements the Reggio-Emilia child learning philosophy (Edwards, Gandini and Forman, 1998). Because of these studies, we hoped that motivation and achievement would be high in our Storyline-enhanced classrooms. Our goals for using Storyline were similar. Ken wanted to provide concrete meaning to the abstract concepts taught in Educational Psychology. Wendy had no classroom observation component directly attached to her course, so she needed an element of practical application. Together we shared six motivations: x x x x x x

Increase student learning or understanding Increase student ownership of the curriculum Provide authentic/applied learning opportunities Raise the course rigour Align the course with their own teaching philosophy Provide an alternative to lectures

Our purpose in this chapter is to convey our own experiences, both successes and challenges, in using Storyline in a post-secondary setting in university courses. We relate our personal experiences as instructors using Storyline as well as the experiences of three university colleagues who also used this curricular strategy in their instruction.

What we do We use Storyline in university courses such as educational psychology, introduction to special education, inclusive practices and literacy courses, all of which are required for pre-service teachers. We have found that one of the richest attributes in using Storyline is the discussion that results from the scenarios co-created by students and instructor. These discussions provided meaningful contexts for learning abstract and possibly difficult concepts. Discussions begin with the setting. Our Storyline settings are always contemporary classrooms, either primary or secondary as appropriate for our courses. The rooms we teach our courses in are shared with many different courses during the week, so we have looked for alternative ways to create visuals of the Storyline setting. Generally we have class meetings in rooms somewhat typical of primary and secondary classrooms, so to

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some degree the visuals of the setting are less important than in a typical Storyline. Some university instructors do include well-developed visual settings. Our colleagues have had their students represent classrooms through small dioramas and bird’s-eye-view posters. Whether or not we establish a strong visual, we process with our students how the physical environment affects issues in classroom management and educational psychology. We continue these discussions with specific applications once the students develop their characters. Well-developed Storyline characters are essential to developing meaningful discussions. Our students create their characters as people typical of those found in the classes our students are preparing to teach. We ask our students to develop the character’s personality, interests, motivations and family; in short, to create a somewhat realistic, complex person. Sometimes these characters are similar to our students, but often the characters have entirely different ethnicities and backgrounds from the students’ own. In Wendy’s classes students create Storyline characters using craft materials; Ken has had students use composite imaging software. Ken usually pairs students to create one character, while Wendy’s students each create their own Storyline person. One goal in using Storyline is to broaden our students’ perspectives on the diversity and learning styles of the students they will have once they are teaching. To develop this, we write a list of the typical classroom population diversity. This list includes socio-economic status, first language, formally identified educational needs, physical limitations, and family issues such as recent divorce, foster care, or transience. Our students then randomly choose one of these issues to incorporate into their characters. At this point our students begin the story on their own; they begin to imagine how these issues affect each fictional person’s schooling and personal life. Even while creating their characters they begin talking about the characters’ feelings, and they start chatting about which characters are dating. We then build on these impromptu discussions. Discussion plays a key role in our stories. We use a combination of inclass and online discussions to engage students. For instance, Ken’s students respond to why certain teaching styles (of teacher-characters) appeal to certain students. We ask students to discuss their characters’ needs in various classes and how the characters’ personal lives are affecting their learning. The following prompts provide an example of how an online discussion was structured in Wendy’s course Creating Learning Environments. Students were also prompted to cite passages from their textbook in writing their answers.

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“Please respond on the forum to the following prompt: Your Storyline character feels that a certain class is worthless and challenges the teacher on this. The teacher views this as a ‘power struggle’.” “How does your character communicate this challenge? What class is this? Describe the student’s reasons for feeling that the class worthless.” “What common teacher behaviour in response to the student would be certain to make this situation worse?” “Before class on Tuesday, respond to at least 2 others in our class: What teacher behaviour in response would diffuse this particular power struggle, create a more meaningful experience for the student, and wind up with the student then supporting the teacher’s efforts?” Prompts such as these result in lengthy online comments. Students develop the characters well within these online discussions, and they want to continue the discussions in class. The fictional events and people we discuss allow our students to explore their philosophy of teaching and how it will affect their future students.

Doubts and questions Those who plan and implement Storyline at the university level anticipate similar benefits and have similar doubts about using Storyline (Emo, 2010). Instructors typically feel that the co-construction process is risky (“Will the students add misconceptions?”) and wonder if students will think that creating a fiction would feel too juvenile—aside from simply thinking that the Storyline would take too much time from learning content. Before beginning his first Storyline, Ken remarked on what he thought the students would experience: “What they’re going to have to do with Storyline is they’re going to have to make decisions. And they’re going to have to be involved in a creative activity where they themselves decide how the concepts should be applied. I really don’t know how it’s going to play out… It’s going to require a lot more synthesis, a lot more evaluation, a lot more application.” Ken anticipated quite a few benefits for his students: they would have to engage in higher order thinking, creativity, and concept application. His statement of uncertainty, “I really don’t know how it’s going to play out,” is perhaps a typical experience for Storyline teachers. This lack of certainty can be quite a challenge if we are used to teaching through lecture in a point-by-point, linear manner. Wendy had already experienced the uncertainty of Storyline teaching in primary schools. Her main doubt was wondering if the adults in her

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classes would “buy-in” to creating characters, particularly with the craft materials. Although we had doubts as to whether Storyline would actually work well, we also shared the hope that the co-construction would be academically beneficial as well as fun for both students and ourselves. Our colleague Kathryn articulated this, conjecturing that her pre-service teachers would find motivation in the intrinsic enjoyment of the Storyline process: “The whole point is that play pushes learning, needing to know, needing to learn.” This aspect of Storyline, the aspect of play pushing learning, became central to our courses. We have been surprised and challenged by the results of creating the stories, and we have discovered lasting changes in our teaching.

Surprises, challenges, discoveries, and lasting changes We found that the Storyline provided learning situations which had not previously occurred through our other means of teaching. Analysing our classrooms brought out several points regarding teaching with the Storyline method. We were surprised by the degree of student ownership of their characters and the story, we found that the difficulties we encountered resulted in deeper learning than would have been possible otherwise, and we discovered that students enjoyed our teaching in this alternative manner. Finally, we were also intrigued to find that teaching with Storyline affected our outlook on teaching in general. These findings have also been expressed by our colleagues, and in this section we use some of their words.

Surprises Our colleague Renae observed that while in a Storyline, her students developed an emotional connection to the curriculum which was not present in previous semesters. She remarked on her students’ experience with characters and randomly distributed diagnoses of special education disabilities: “Learning their child had a disability elicited strong emotions and students were motivated to learn about this disability because it was about their [created] child, not just because it was an assignment. They had to think about how it would affect a parent to learn their child had this disability and what fears, dreams and hopes they could have for their child.”

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Like Renae, we observed that students’ affective selves were strongly engaged. The visual, the created child, helped the students connect to the curriculum in the university class. Before beginning to use Storyline, we and our fellow colleagues wondered if our university students would consider the Storyline activities too juvenile, but our students did not show this attitude. The discussions that arose felt genuine; the students brought in what they already knew about students and schooling as they talked about education theory and the application of that in the Storyline classroom. Students talked about the characters as if they were actual people, and they were eager to develop the story. One student in our colleague Kathryn’s class said that the time spent processing Storyline events was “a good way to spend a Friday afternoon.” Renae summed up her students’ enthusiasm with this remark: “I’m still waiting for a student to say [regarding Storyline], ‘Why should we do this? Am I getting a grade for this?’”

Challenges Aside from surprises about the students’ connections with the curriculum, we found situations in which the student/teacher co-constructed nature of Storyline brought challenges. However, the challenges also provided potential for student development which may not have been brought out through other teaching strategies. For example, Ken observed that some students carry the fiction into silliness. He saw a way to turn the silliness into a learning opportunity: “I anticipated that there might be natural ‘saboteurs’ whose desire to have fun might challenge the design and intent of the assignment [of creating characters]. This did happen; students did create slightly problematic characters, such as Jewish ‘Jesus’ (not ‘Hay-soos’ [the common Spanish name]), whose mother was single and whose father was a carpenter, and Irish ‘Finney McFinnegan’, whose parents drank Irish whiskey and fought. In both cases I intervened to encourage the students to be mindful of unfair stereotyping. But I also anticipated that through working through the educational psychology of the fictional teens, the preservice teachers might develop more compassion for the unusual student in their classrooms.” The challenge for university instructors, just like other Storyline teachers, is to be flexible enough to accommodate the complexities of the characters that the students developed. Our colleague Kathryn shared with us an example of a challenge which required her to flex in her Storyline plan. The issue was not an element of silliness but rather an element of the

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students analysing the characters so well that the story events did not fit the fictional teen. Her students had suggested story events, randomly picked an event, and had to respond through the eyes of the student: “One of the random events written on slips of paper said that the student [character] would get in trouble because he or she took an inappropriate movie on an athletic [competition trip] bus… One of my students who got that said, ‘That would never happen. My teen would never do that!’ And then the students had to figure out how the movie got into the pack and how that affected the students.” Any curricular innovation can be challenging. Our challenges provided an opportunity for professional growth as we adjusted to our students’ increased involvement with the material. These challenges allowed us to become better teachers who involved the students in the classroom decision making processes, and this further encouraged student ownership in the class.

Discoveries We both had the vision that the Storyline plans would help us increase student understanding, increase student ownership and raise course rigour. To our surprise, the Storyline method of teaching worked better than we expected. By including Storyline we had a stronger affective element in class. Along with stronger student ownership, the Storylines allowed us to process course concepts in more effective, authentic ways than we could have done otherwise. We also were surprised to discover the degree to which our students enjoyed learning in this way. Survey feedback from former students has included the comment that, aside from actually being in the schools, the Storyline-taught course was “the most useful class taken at university” and “It makes us work with concepts in ways that I never thought I would work with concepts in a class.” Students have spontaneously remarked in subsequent semesters, “I really enjoyed that project that we did in Ed Psych, where we did the teens and we did the weekly postings” and “I loved that project. That was so much fun.” Comments like these encourage us to continue using Storyline in our teaching.

Changing one’s views and teaching practices It is not only the students who learn and benefit from the Storyline process. We have also learned from the use of Storyline. We have developed a stronger trust in our students to be active participants in the

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learning process. We have noticed that Storyline helps us keep the class emphasis on a perspective of “why” in teaching. One colleague, Lynda, summed this up: “In the beginning of this Storyline quest, I feared that I would sacrifice course content by neglecting my beautifully prepared PowerPoint presentations. Upon reflection, I realised that prepared lectures run the dangers of rigid content and passive learning. It was helpful in my first years of university teaching to prepare these outlines. Later I became a more responsive teacher who engaged the learners in more hands-on activities, but then I felt frustrated that I did not cover all of the content that I planned in the PowerPoint. “My teaching further evolved to become learner-cantered through my first year with Storyline. I abandoned PowerPoint and I instead required readings outside of class so students would come to class ready to respond and get involved. My image of the student changed from one who is there to learn from the teacher to one who is competent, one who has learned from a lifetime of being a student. “Because my teaching communicated this trust to my students, my students felt safe to engage in rich dialogue about their choices and own experiences. They became the experts and learned from each other. My job was to provoke them, to provide some incidents for them to carefully consider, research, and then develop their own responses. Storyline has brought new life into my teaching. I feel that I am now the teacher I always believed I wanted to be.” In this reflection, Lynda remarks on her concern of not getting to the entire required curriculum. The fear of not adequately covering the intended curriculum is a common insecurity of those considering the use of Storyline (Emo, 2010). With careful planning and mindful diligence to the story as it develops, we have found that we achieve good curricular coverage complemented by high student motivation and enthusiasm. As our colleague Renae shared with us: “Rather than using just the textbook and handouts, lecture, research and presentations to cover the content of the course, using the Storyline approach allowed me to integrate content, skills and concepts through a learner-centred, discovery approach while modelling and practising successful differentiated group work. I had a plan for what curriculum and content needed to be covered but it was truly brought to life through the imagination, creativity and work of the students.”

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Conclusion The experiences outlined above showed that we as teachers at the university level experienced issues in development similar to those of primary and secondary teachers. Self-initiated efforts at innovation, such as teachers choosing to teach with Storyline, are key contributors to positive professional identities, which is in turn essential to effective teaching (Day et al, 2007). That relationship of Storyline innovation and positive identity is shown particularly through positive student reactions and Lynda’s note that “I am now the teacher I always believed I wanted to be.” It can be tempting for university instructors to adhere to a proven syllabus and familiar methods. However, even prescriptive departments of education are asking primary and secondary teachers to innovate (Halpin et al, 2004). But for teachers to do this, they benefit from the modelling of their university instructors (Loughran, 2002) who incorporate innovative teaching into their classes. Our university structure allowed us to innovate with teaching methods and also encouraged collaboration between instructors. We and our colleagues created our own professional learning community in which we discovered complexities of Storyline teaching; we shared our doubts, successes and questions. Collegial and administrative elements of support were not essential to using Storyline, but they certainly created a risktolerant innovation atmosphere. The same elements of support are conducive to innovative teaching in primary and secondary classrooms (Fullan, 2007). We would like to encourage those considering using the Storyline structure for their university courses. We both used online elements to support the Storyline, but our students wanted to follow up on this with inclass discussions. Overall, the Storyline hypothetical situations complemented the theoretical issues addressed in class, and the students enjoyed applying theory to their characters. This helped them practise the academic language they needed to use in their teacher qualification examinations. We began our Storylines with doubts and questions, but we also began with motivation and vision. We knew that Storyline had inspired many primary and secondary teachers and students, and we found that we could adapt Storyline for our own situation. Using this fiction has helped our students develop a compassionate and helpful teaching attitude towards difficult Storyline characters who resemble real people in their future

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classes. We look forward to hearing how others use Storyline effectively in their own situations.

References Ahlquist, S. (2011). The impact of the Storyline approach on the young language learner classroom: a case study in Sweden (EdD thesis), University of Leicester, UK. Beane, J. (1997). Curriculum Integration: Designing the Core of Democratic Education. New York: Teachers College Press. Day, C., Sammons, P., Stobart, G., Kington, A. and Gu, Q. (2007). Teachers Matter: Connecting Lives, Work, and Effectiveness. Maidenhead, England: Open University Press. Duch, B, Groh, S. and Allen, D. (2001). The Power of Problem-Based Learning: A Practical “How To” for Teaching Undergraduate Courses in Any Discipline. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing. Edwards, C., Gandini, L. and Forman. G. (1998). The Hundred Languages of Children: The Reggio Emilia Approach - Advanced Reflections (2nd edition). Greenwich, CT: Ablex Publishing. Emo, W. (2010). Teachers Who Initiate Curriculum Innovations: Motivations and Benefits (PhD thesis), University of York, UK. Fullan, M. (2007). The New Meaning of Educational Change (4th edition). New York: Teachers College Press. Halpin, D., Dickson, M., Power, S., Whitty, G. and Gewirtz, S. (2004). Curriculum Innovation Within an Evaluative State: Issues of Risk and Regulation. The Curriculum Journal 15 (3), 197-206. Hofmann, R. (2007). Rethinking “Ownership of Learning”: Participation and Agency in the Storyline Classroom. In Bell, S., Harkness, S. and White, G. (eds). Storyline: Past, Present and Future. Glasgow: University of Strathclyde. Hosic, J.F., and Chase, S.E. (1926). Brief Guide to the Project Method. Yonkers-on-Hudson, NY: World Book Company. Katz, L., and Chard. S. (2000). Engaging Children’s Minds: The Project approach (2nd edition). Stamford, CT: Ablex Publishing Corporation. Loughran, J. (2002). Understanding Self-Study of Teacher Education Practices. In Loughran, J. and Russell, T. (eds.). Improving Teacher Education Practices through Self-Study. London: Routledge Falmer. McTighe, J. and Wiggins, G. (2005). Understanding by Design. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

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Mitchell-Barrett, R. (2010). An Analysis of the Storyline Method in Primary School, its Theoretical Underpinnings and its Impact on Pupils’ Intrinsic Motivation (EdD thesis), University of Durham, UK. Tepetas, G.S. (2012). A Proposal for an Instructional Practice Based on the Storyline Method that Supports Basic Concept Knowledge Levels of the 6-Year-Old. Presentation at Storyline International’s fifth conference, Reykjavik, Iceland, August 10-11, 2012.

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO STORYLINE AS A SPACE FOR SIMULATED PRACTICE: A TEACHING EXPERIMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION BIRTHE LUND, LONE TANGE JORGENSEN, HELLE PAGH FISKER AND HENRIETTE SKAARUP GEJEL JENSEN

Introduction In practice, the reform of professional bachelor degrees, introduced in Denmark in 2000, increased the academic focus of degree courses, requiring students to acquire more theoretical knowledge. Following this development, recent research, such as the Norwegian Kryssildsprojekt and the Danish Bridging the gap between theory and practice, has highlighted the challenge posed by the need to link theoretical and practical forms of knowledge within professional bachelor degree courses. The research revealed that to a certain extent it is up to the students themselves to build the bridge over to practice, and to translate their theoretical knowledge into the actual practice of the profession. This action learning project is based on a teaching experiment that has already been planned and implemented: the creation of a simulation space for educational practice as part of a course of teaching within the Social Education degree programme. By action learning, in this context we mean learning through and from the official practice placement, using Storyline as the method to observe and reflect on the students’ learning processes. This is part of a course in the theory and practice of education, and we primarily used video observations to collect data, supplemented by the students’ own oral and written evaluations, as well as our own field notes from the course.

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The teaching experiment was planned and carried out involving 38 students in their third year of studies. There was quite a large age range in the group (21-48), which was mixed gender, though with a majority of female students. The students had different backgrounds and life experience, but all had experienced two practice placements earlier in the course, lasting three and six months respectively. Several of the students were doing study jobs of an educational nature alongside their studies, but in fact all the students had some practical experience of social education. The purpose of the action learning project was to investigate whether using Storyline as a method within a course on the theory and practice of teaching can help link theoretical and practical forms of knowledge within professional degree courses in a new and more meaningful way, and thus help develop the students’ professional competencies. The idea was to find out whether the Storyline method could be used to create a simulation space for social educational practice—a kind of “make believe” practice, building on a practical approach to learning, kept close to practice by drawing on familiar and professionally relevant problem areas. The method requires students to use their own experience from practice. Could this setting support reflective, investigative learning processes and thus contribute to making the theoretical knowledge relevant to them?

The third space—simulated practice On the Social Education degree course, students alternate between study at the institution and professional practice—organised as three predetermined practice placement periods distributed throughout the course. This structure enables them to become acquainted with the practice of the profession and to bring these elements back into their studies at the educational institution. What we want to do using Storyline is to create a third space in which students move between, and across the boundaries of, the other two spaces (the educational institution and practice placement institution). The focal point of Storyline work is that students create a simulation space in which they have the opportunity to act as if they were in a practice situation. The fact that this is a simulation is an important point, as in this situation students are not under the kind of obligation to act that characterises actual social educational work in the field. The students find themselves outside “the realm of necessity”; there are no young people or clients present. This enables them to experiment, to investigate and scan the field as they try out various scenarios, and to come to realise that there are several possible courses of action in any given social educational context.

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Simulation spaces are often used in educational or training contexts, but generally with a view to developing particular skills, as in the case of a flight simulator to train pilots, or clinical training showing nursing students how to administer medicine or treat wounds. However, the kind of simulation space we are looking for is more reflective in nature, as we want to train the students to reflect on their own practice, and this means that the Storyline the students are presented with is based on problems which, though fictive, are close to reality—complex problem areas that students might easily encounter in practice. In the experiment, we as lecturers present key questions and real events that constitute the Storyline framework, but it is up to the students to create the content by drawing on their own experience of social educational processes. Our intention is that the simulation space should create a common ground for reflections on problems, hypotheses and lines of action closely related to practice. The simulation space may be seen as a parallel to Donald Schön’s idea of a “reflective practicum”, which is a setting designed for the learning of practice through exercises and reflection in and on action. Through reflection, students are able to simulate being in situations that are confusing, unique or conflictual, and which call for “knowing-in-action”. Thus the idea is that students in the simulated practice space, liberated from the obligation to act connected with the actual exercise of their profession, are given the opportunity to develop their powers of judgement through reflective and investigative processes. The term “knowledge” covers more than propositional knowledge. We assume that professional knowledge covers both theoretical and practical knowledge, and that both are to be learned by the students. Aristotle divided knowledge into three different types: episteme, techne and phronesis (practical wisdom). He distinguished between two Greek terms: episteme (knowledge); and techne (translated as either craft or art). These terms indicate assumptions about the relation between theory (the domain of knowledge) and practice (the concern of craft or art). Though Aristotle distinguished between episteme as pure theory and techne as practice, yet even he refers to techne or craft as in itself also a kind of episteme or knowledge, because it is a practice grounded in an “account” (something involving theoretical understanding): “There is an intimate positive relationship between episteme and techne, as well as a fundamental contrast.” (Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy). But Aristotle also used the term phronesis (practical wisdom). Phronesis includes considering all aspects of a situation, critical analytical reflection, and the scrutinisation of knowledge systems, practices and the effects of aims or goals. Phronesis requires experience, and alternates between general and specific knowledge.

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It is about making guesses and choices, and not only in terms of the knowledge of general rules. Phronesis is pragmatic, variable and dependent on the context—which makes it difficult to work within the framework of traditional educational settings. A sense of judgement includes the students’ phronetic knowledge; their ability to determine the right thing to do in specific circumstances. The intention behind the simulation space is to help develop students’ powers of judgement and thus to finely tune their action competencies in practice. Our observations provide examples that students draw on a great deal, using their practical forms of knowledge and to a certain extent theoretical concepts. In connection with a discussion about the importance of language for child development, for example, one student demonstrated theoretical knowledge (understood as episteme) of the development of language in children and an understanding of the concepts involved. She was able to link her theoretical knowledge and practical knowledge, thus demonstrating various nuances of knowledge and insight. She linked episteme, techne and phronetic knowledge, though without identifying the actual course of action such knowledge and insight would indicate.

Storyline as the framework for a teaching experiment Storyline was chosen as the framework for this teaching experiment because the method allows for a context without well-defined borders that gives students the freedom to experiment, to try things out by building on their own contributions and perceptions. The Storyline model presumes that participants enter actively into the social interplay involved, so participation is absolutely necessary if students are to get the full benefit of the learning process. Bruner (2004) emphasises that the way to learning is through dialogue, co-operation and negotiation within communities, all of which is covered by the Storyline method—by the use of key questions, for example. The constructivist learning principle, corresponding to Dewey’s idea of an experiential continuum, stresses that all learning builds on what the individual already knows. The individual student’s preunderstanding is a product of the general construction of meaning he or she brings to the work, and will affect the individual’s learning outcomes. Storyline renders the students’ experiences visible, making it possible to attach new knowledge to old. Pre-understanding is a general perspective underlying everything, and can be a hindrance to learning. In the case of some of the students, the teaching and learning culture to be found in Storyline was in conflict with their own perceptions of what is good teaching and how people learn best. For this reason, some of the students

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did not welcome the Storyline approach; they might have had very different experiences with this kind of learning, and therefore preferred more traditional types of teaching. This might be the reason why some students requested familiar “chalk and board” teaching. The actual Storyline unit covered five teaching periods, 20 lessons in all. The students were asked to set up a fictive institution (kindergarten, etc.) and create characters (children, social educators, parents) connected with this institution. The themes identified for this teaching unit were based on the official syllabus for teaching about childhood and youth, and included themes such as vulnerable children, co-operation with parents, play and learning and the transition from kindergarten to school. The students worked in groups based on the target group and type of institution they would be encountering in their coming period of practice placement. Using the Storyline model, students are given the opportunity to develop symbolic products. For example, when a student draws an institution, creates a whole cast of characters to fit it, and so on, a very tangible context is created, which can become a stimulating space for the student’s simulated practical activities. In this way students create artefacts, which according to Vygotsky (in Knud, 2009) mediate reality by coming between the direct object and the understanding of it, creating within the institution the conditions for a new way of learning about social educational practice. Institutions created in this way are an externalisation (an “oeuvre” in Bruner’s terminology) produced by the students acting together, which allows them to gain insight, become involved and take ownership of the product (Bruner, 2004). These artefacts and oeuvres may be seen as a concretisation of the thoughts, conversations and processes connected with the work. At the same time, the expository character of the work can make it more accessible for reflection. In this way, thought processes and the creation of the product are tightly connected with and woven into each other. Using Storyline we have observed that students, inspired by key questions and events introduced from outside, think reflectively, test hypotheses and ideas, display reasoning and list recommendations for action, thereby reconstructing their own experience. As one example of reflective thinking, we may mention a group of students who, in their description of the internal design of the institution they had drawn, came to discuss whether a water play area should be included. In the course of this, one student remarked: “But I don’t understand how all this works.” What she was saying here is that she was being asked to form an opinion about something which at first sight she was not able to respond to. So she chose to take up the challenge and, after a short period of reflection,

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remembered that on a preparatory visit to a practice placement institution she had noticed something that she could relate to the discussion going on in the group. This developed into an idea that she then presented for the others. Looking at this process from the point of view of Dewey’s concept of reflective thinking, we see that her habitual way of thinking was interrupted. She was in an unfamiliar situation and could in fact have chosen to walk away from the problem. Instead, though, she chose to investigate the problem and ended up getting an idea from a previous practice placement situation. This and similar examples indicate that Storyline inspires an experimental approach and the continual development of the students’ experience. The key questions and introduced events create that situation of disturbance and uncertainty which according to John Dewey is required to initiate an investigative process. Participation in such a process is a presupposition for learning and the formation of experience:

The investigative model is self-correcting. We learn by discovery and experimentation, caught up in a continual learning process which, however, must be made conscious before it can leave its mark on our experience. One key to the understanding of the dynamic nature of the learning process is the ongoing reconstruction of different forms of action and the experiences connected with these, though the processes of reconstruction or reorganisation presuppose what Dewey (2009) calls

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reflective intelligence or reflective thinking before they actually become experience. Important sources of potential learning are processes of co-operation and interaction, and the challenges and possible conflicts linked to these processes. Yrjö Engeström regards such tensions and antitheses as important opportunities for learning, since they clear the way for expansive learning, which can be facilitated through the analysis of contradictions (Knud, 2009). Such antitheses and tensions may be observed in groups, where individuals have divergent opinions about many things, for example, the primary task of a given type of institution, the central goals for the upbringing of children, and how children learn. From the point of view of Engeström’s version of activity theory, tensions and antitheses are not something to be avoided, though working within such processes poses challenges to lecturers and students alike. Whether or not such contradictions are so profound that they can lead to intellectual border crossings and expansive learning depends on the degree of involvement of the participants and on the significance accorded to these contradictions. One can in this way provide the basis for expansive learning processes, but in relation to the teaching experiment presented here, no examples of expansive learning can be documented. This may be because it is difficult to simulate the double bind situation called for in Yrjö Engeström’s theory, precisely because the simulation space does not provoke the necessary compulsion to act. The teaching experiment created an open framework for the planning of social educational practice, and aspects of this practice were worked through in the fictive institutions. Specific key questions and events were presented as the framework for the task, but it was up to the students to visualise their own ideas, and breathe life into fictional characters who were able to play out social educational problems, thus making tangible real social educational problems arising from the students’ knowledge and experience. The students were required to define the basic educational ideas behind the institution and its particular social educational profile, and to determine what qualifications the staff of the institution should possess. The students were therefore not able simply to reproduce familiar practice situations, but were obliged to negotiate about the way in which a new and unique practical situation was to be created. This required students to move into an imaginary universe and to create the rules according to which it could function; they had to draw on their own imaginations—a process that challenged their individual perceptions. Some students found the creation of such a universe

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“detrimental to learning”: in their view, the fact that things were possible in the imaginary world, but not in the real world, was unrealistic. This points to a real dilemma in relation to working with Storyline: on the one hand, the framework must be sufficiently realistic to allow students to enter into and get involved in the simulated universe in a meaningful way, while on the other hand, too realistic a framework may obstruct an investigative and experimental approach, compelling students to imitate familiar processes. In this case, they might simply reproduce practice instead of experimenting. However, our observations from the experiment reveal that we were able to engage the students’ practical skills and their powers of phronetic judgement. The students were placed in situations in which they exercised and trained investigative procedures, drawing on real problem areas. The actual events introduced into the Storyline process contributed to an expansion of the students’ imaginative and conceptual universes, thus instigating an investigation of that “uncertain” situation which is the prerequisite for critical, reflective thinking. Creative and reflective thinking supports the development of the students’ professional competencies; reflection is regarded as a key competence for all kinds of educational activity (Undervisningsministeriet, 2004). Storyline promotes a problem-oriented, investigative approach to practice and can in this way help students to develop their professional competences. In professional bachelor degree courses, it is important that students gain confidence in their own ability to identify problems, to reflect on them, formulate hypotheses and to practise an active, experimental approach. Making sure that students integrate a positive self-image and use this to fire their own internal motivation is regarded as an important aspect of their studies. The Storyline process challenges their personal perceptions as to what characterises a good institution, a good learning process for children, and a good social educator. It forces them to justify and experiment with these perceptions in relation to their professional and theoretical knowledge.

Conclusion As we have explained, the simulation space provided by the Storyline method is a third learning space. This third learning space differs from practice by there not being any obligation to act, but even so the simulation space is based on problems relevant to the profession and reflection on it. The teaching experiment we have carried out shows that students draw on their practical experience when working with Storyline.

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We have seen that students draw on their experience and theoretical knowledge in a co-operative process both within and between the groups, and that their fields of experience are widened through their mutual interaction and transaction—a transaction which, as Dewey (2009) stressed, is a reciprocal process. On the basis of this action learning project, we feel able to conclude that Storyline, in terms of learning and didactic considerations, has the potential to promote investigative and reflective learning processes. In the teaching experiment we were able in each group to facilitate the creation of a simulated practical situation. The framework provided by the Storyline method, with its professionally relevant, familiar key questions and events, invites students to step into a space that they are able to expand and investigate using their own experience—which greatly enhances their ability to become empathetically involved. In general, the students showed empathy, involvement and a sense of ownership towards the fictive practice situation that has been constructed. According to Schön’s “practicum” concept—with which we equate our simulation space—one of the virtues of a practicum is that it captures and simplifies the complexity of practice. Due to this reduction of complexity, the simulation room has, in terms of the teaching method employed, provided students with the opportunity to train and develop phronesis. Students can improve their own sense of judgement through the exchange of experiences in interaction with others, and they have used their own experiences as the basis for a co-operative process of investigation, with a view to discussing what professionally relevant actions and solutions might be feasible. The fact that this has taken place removed from actual practice has given students a greater opportunity to explore delimited problem areas in a context which closely resembled practice. Further, we have established that the simulation space helped students to be active in interaction with others, and to disseminate their knowledge and learning to each other within each group and between the groups, thus erecting a form of instructional scaffolding to support the reciprocal learning process. In this way, individual students were able to internalise the skills and competencies held in each group and in the community of groups, assimilating and incorporating them through participation in the learning community. The action learning project has shown us that Storyline has great potential for the development of professional competencies, offering an investigative learning process that can link together the theoretical knowledge and the practical experience of the participants. This potential is seen, for example, in the way professionally relevant problem areas can

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be explored in the third space constituted by the simulation space. As a method, Storyline has an inbuilt recognition of the students’ previous experience. Students practise imagining what the world might look like; they ask questions, formulate problems and allow their curiosity to be aroused. Since there is no correct answer as to what constitutes an ideal institution, students are compelled to define matters themselves, to reflect and formulate hypotheses. We may therefore conclude that Storyline shows students how learning is possible using an experimental approach that encourages the investigation of phenomena, drawing on elements borrowed from play—roleplay and storytelling. In this process, the students experience that the theoretical subject matter they have been taught influences and is relevant to the process they are participating in. So, on this basis we conclude that Storyline has a lot to offer as far as the students are concerned in terms of the creation of a third learning space that can contribute to strengthening the link between theory and practice in professional bachelor degree courses. Evaluating the project, more than a few students said that they felt ready and prepared for their coming practice placement, and that in their view the Storyline method had improved the skills and competencies they would need in the field. They also said that the theory they had been taught felt relevant, in that it was directly related to the problem areas they were working with, and that in the simulation setting it was easy to link theory and practice. During the concluding oral evaluation, one student commented that she felt that working with Storyline had qualified her not only for her coming practice placement, but also for her future work in the profession: “…it challenges you professionally—you feel you're learning something—you feel you’re in a real institution and it got me thinking what I’d do in a real situation…”. The Storyline method itself, because it involves working with visions and concrete manifestations of them, is able to promote students’ innovation and creativity. In addition, the experiences, social interactions and reflections of the participants are incorporated and challenged in an atmosphere of professional co-operation with lecturers and other students. However, whether the participants can enter into this context depends very much on the narrative framework and key questions presented by the lecturers. On the one hand, these have to be down-to-earth and realistic, but on the other hand able to open up to imaginative processes that allow participants to challenge and move beyond conventional ideas of social educational practice. The problems (events) presented must be such that they can point the way to decisive, ground-breaking, interprofessional and professionally relevant problem areas to which the students will then have

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to find solutions. Our experiment showed that too open a framework made some students very uncertain as to whether they would gain anything from participating, which was a barrier to their involvement and indeed their learning. In general, though, the degree of involvement of the students, the institutions they created and the way they took part in the process indicate that the fictive characters encouraged students to talk through their characters—but also to talk about them, moving in this way from fiction to fact and vice versa. In order to create the conditions for expansive learning, it will be necessary, if possible, to blend Yrjö Engeström’s model of expansive learning (Knud, 2009) with Dewey’s (1922) research model. One could do this, for example, by adding Yrjö Engeström’s concept of “significant sideways learning”. The students are confronted with events and challenges connected with their profession, which are analysed, further investigated using models and then trialled in the simulated space. All this takes place as interplay between testing, development and reflection—both within and between the groups. The framework used for this is Storyline—a method that helps students develop their professional sense of judgement, their phronetic ability to act, and their ability to reflect at all stages on actions related to the exercise of their professional skills and competencies in practice.

References Bruner, J. (2004). At fortælle historier i jura, i litteraturen og i livet. Alinea. Dewey, J. (2009). Hvordan vi tænker—en reformulering af forholdet mellem refleksiv tænkning og uddannelsesprocessen, Dewey Biblioteket, Klim. —. (1922). Human Nature and Conduct, her i Brinkman, S. et al (2007). Dewey i dag—en håndsrækning til læreruddannelsen, Unge Pædagoger. Schön, D. (2001). Den reflekterende praktiker, Forlaget Klim. Undervisningsministeriet (2004). Pædagogers kompetenceprofil.

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE STORYLINE AND PRE-SERVICE TEACHER PREPARATION PROGRAMMES OLIVIA MURRAY

Introduction Pre-service teacher preparation programmes around the world strive to employ innovative and research-based practices to develop highly qualified educators. Portland State University (PSU), in the state of Oregon, USA, is no exception. The Graduate Teacher Education Program (GTEP) at PSU is revising its programme and recently drafted a new vision statement: We strive to be a critical constructivist teacher preparation programme. The programme’s intent to infuse a critical constructivist perspective authenticates the way I shape an introductory course required of all trainee teachers. The course, Instruction and Technology, teaches students how to design a curriculum and apply instructional strategies. However, because the class precedes practicum or student teaching experience, most students lack the necessary background knowledge and experiences to make sense of the content. I wanted to provide appropriate scaffolding for my students so I attended a Storyline conference offered by Jeff Creswell and wrote a Storyline called An Ideal Classroom and Learning to Teach. My graduate students love it; they are highly engaged in the course, which actually has them experience Storyline. Learning outcomes are twofold: First, explicit teaching and learning tackles course objectives, such as unit and lesson design as well as differentiation. Second, implicit knowledge, skills and dispositions are shaped around Storyline as students experience it firsthand. This chapter describes Storyline as it unfolded in a teacher preparation course and offers student narrative to uncover course outcomes and illuminate student perceptions of their experience. I begin with contextual

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information and learning objectives for the course. Thereafter I describe the multiple episodes within the Storyline as they were presented. The culminating event is explained in detail before moving to a personal reflection of what went well and how this process can be improved. I conclude with two vignettes to showcase how students voluntarily combined the two course outcomes (learning about Storyline and acquiring knowledge and skills in curriculum design and instruction) by embedding Storyline in their work sample units.

Context and learning objectives In summer 2011 I led a cohort of students in the Graduate Teacher Education Program (GTEP) at PSU. I guided and instructed 20 newly admitted pre-service teachers from their initial entry into the programme to graduation and licensure. Students leave our programme with a Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction and a dual early childhood/elementary teaching licence. Upon enrolment, pre-service teachers are required to take a course titled Instruction and Technology. This introductory class is offered for 2 credits, or college units, in the summer and continues in the autumn for another 3 credits. As the course instructor, I intentionally infused Storyline as a means of providing appropriate scaffolding and contextual support for students who were not yet placed in the field. Students, in other words, experienced the summer course that required them to make curricular and pedagogical decisions with no direct exposure to (and perhaps no prior knowledge or experience with) a classroom or learners. Students met twice each week in the 5-week summer session for 4 hours at a time and once a week in the 10-week autumn session for 3 hour durations.

Sequence of episodes There are a total of eight episodes in the Ideal Classroom and Learning to Teach Storyline including the culminating event. I created this Storyline by referencing an outline originally created by Eileen Vopelak and her colleague (Storyline Design: Ideal Classrooms, n.d.). I altered and expanded this based on specific course outcomes and the needs of adult learners. Episode 1: The Classroom. The Storyline launched with the following key questions: What do you think you need to make an ideal classroom? What does an ideal classroom look like? What do you want your

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classroom to say (to learners and about learning)? After we brainstormed an extensive list of space and material considerations, each student sketched a floor plan of his or her ideal classroom. Triads and groups of four then formed to create a “Top 10 List” to include items such as a class library, computer station, and student and teacher desks. Students then brought these lists to life by collaboratively designing floor plans of ideal classrooms. These floor plans directly guided the same groups of students to construct learning environments using shipping boxes housed with 3D shapes and materials. This process was creative and engaging for students. As facilitator I roamed the room asking questions, such as, What does this say about your space? and Why did you choose to include this or put so and so there? When students finished construction they were required to present their ideal classrooms to the whole class and justify their pedagogical design. We used a portable document camera to project images of the spaces, which provided a virtual tour through the nooks and crannies of each classroom. Thereafter the classrooms were displayed for reference throughout the quarter. When asked what she had learned from this specific experience, course participant Julie Sautter said, “I enjoyed building our learning space. It required certain levels of creativity and playfulness that most learning in the university classroom does not include.” (Interview, January 12, 2012). Episode 2: The Staff. Once students built their separate classrooms, which together comprised our elementary school, it was time to hire teachers and support staff. Key questions that guided this process included: Who will be the staff for the school? What are some qualities (knowledge, skills and dispositions) of an ideal teacher? These questions generated lively discussion around the identity of a teacher and personhood in the teaching profession. Students created a member of the teaching staff using paper and recycled materials and mounted head portraits onto an 11x17 piece of black paper. To supplement their visuals, each student formulated a character biography that included: Full name, preferred gender pronoun, age, current position at school, family members, hobbies/interests, brief summary on personal beliefs about education, and an ending to the following clause: What I love best about working at the school is... As the course facilitator I made my own character who served as the school principal. Episode 3: The Curriculum. Establishing a curriculum was a natural next step after creating learning spaces and reflecting on individual teacher identity. This episode was initiated by a letter from the principal calling on his/her staff to prepare teaching portfolios and integrated units of design

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for the upcoming school year. Specific key questions included: What are examples of thematic units of instruction? What is involved in creating a unit of instruction? What components do you know or imagine need to be considered in designing a thematic unit? This lengthy episode provided necessary support and guidance of course outcomes by slowly introducing pieces of a unit of instruction (or work sample) including context about the school and learners, a set of unit goals around one topic or theme, a sequence of five consecutive lessons that work toward these unit goals, and pre- and post-assessments. These units of instruction produced during this episode served as documentation of a trainee teacher’s ability to effectively plan age-appropriate curriculum, utilise effective teaching strategies, assess student learning, and analyse the implications of the results for further instruction. The units prepared in this course are eventually implemented by trainee teachers during winter quarter student teaching. In some unfortunate cases students get derailed during the initial stages of this planning process due to miscommunication with their future mentor teachers or some other circumstance. A student named Alison Wood, for example, was asked by her mentor teacher to switch her kindergarten theme from Farms to The Life Cycle of a Plant mid-way through the course Instruction and Technology. Although it was difficult to suddenly change direction, Alison embraced the change and connected the learning experience to a benefit provided by Storyline. “One of my favourite aspects of Storyline is that it emphasises change, which is something rarely seen in classroom curricula. It teaches students to roll with the punches, and provides lots of problem-solving opportunities.” (Interview, January 12, 2012). Alison’s participation in Storyline resulted in the development of a professional disposition that she may have not otherwise acquired while in her teacher preparation programme. Episode 4: Technology Grant. As the name of the course implies, Instruction and Technology included technology instruction. Guided by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) standards, the course teaches technology integration as a way to enhance academic content and extend student learning. Upon entering the class one day several students noticed small manila folders on the teachers’ desks located inside the 3D classrooms frieze. Students read the small print to discover that their school had received a technology grant that the principal had applied for earlier in the year. I then entered the classroom in character acting as the school principal (I wore eye glasses which was previously introduced as a signifier). I reiterated the good news and took students down the path of addressing the following key questions: What

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kinds of technologies are in your schools? How can technology enhance teacher instruction and student learning? What are ideal ways to use technology in your schools and classrooms? After rich discussion I briefly demonstrated an array of technologies that I had borrowed from the campus library. Students spent the next two hours of class exploring the various technologies to make an informed decision about which one(s) we should purchase with our grant money. Students explored flip cameras, iMovie, voice recorders, podcast production, smart board/interactive white boards, Inspiration, Prezi, and various other gadgets and software. The class reconvened as a group to discuss how technologies were explored and to further imagine the possibilities of integrating these gadgets and software programmes in our classrooms. Here, conversation developed from the ways in which teachers use technology for instruction into how students can, and should, use technology to facilitate learning. This organic conversation led right where I had planned; finally, we had arrived at a focus on classroom learners. Episode 5: The Learners. Curriculum development was followed by implementation. But who was the curriculum for? It was time in our process to construct (and meet) the elementary school learners. Key questions for this episode consisted of: Who would come to our school? Who are the students in your class? Who were/are you as a learner? What do you need to know about your students in order to ensure their success? It was at this point in GTEP, within our Storyline, that local public schools opened their doors for another academic school year following a 3-month summer vacation. My students were consequently engaged in classrooms full-time for the next 4 weeks and were working with their mentor teachers and getting to know their actual learners. Thus, our Storyline moved ahead looking at the characteristics and interests of such learners. During this time course participants were also engaged in learning opportunities on campus that challenged them to reconcile their ideal spaces with their tangible classrooms. Simultaneously, within the Instruction and Technology course, students were introduced to conflict and power imbalances that often manifest among staff and colleagues working within an institution. Here, Storyline served as an apparatus to act out scenarios and discuss problems and solutions using our Storyline characters. Students created their learners using painted paper and scrap pieces. Their individual learners were accompanied by biographies that listed the following characteristics: Full name, age and grade, physical address, hobbies/interests, preferred learning style(s), educational aspirations, basic family information, and other information they wished to include. The

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learners were mounted to the wall next to the floor plans, 3D classroom models, and school staff. We quietly viewed them in a gallery walk before discussing the various and diverse needs of each learner. This led to a few lessons focused on differentiated instruction. Accommodations and modifications for learners with special needs, talented and gifted learners, English learners, and learners from diverse family, cultural, and social backgrounds were explored. Students imagined the educational experience from the perspectives of their Storyline learner characters. This provided insight into vital ways they needed to adapt their units of instruction to ensure active student engagement and learning gains. Episodes 6 and 7: Writing and Teaching an Ideal Lesson. Episode 6 required students to zoom in from the unit level to focus on lesson-level objectives and activities. Key questions that guided the learning and development of individual lesson plans included: What are the essential elements of a lesson? What does an ideal lesson plan look like? Setting this plan into action, Episode 7 posed the following questions: What is important to remember as you teach a lesson plan? What are characteristics of effective instruction? Pedagogical best practices were raised in this discussion; students noted the importance of modelling, providing explicit directions, utilising adequate wait time and pacing, and implementing questioning strategies that foster critical thinking. We then practised these skills using the 3D classroom models and picture cut-outs of Storyline teacher characters. Students “taught” their lessons with mindfulness toward their spaces, curricula, and the instructional strategies that were discussed within the episode. Culminating Event. I wanted to provide students with a professional opportunity to showcase their hard work and devotion to the learning to teach process. I reserved a banquet hall on campus, submitted a catering request, and sent invitations to course participants to our First Annual Teacher Colloquium. I also invited the students’ assigned university supervisors. The university supervisor serves as the major link between a trainee teacher’s field placement and PSU. These individuals observe trainee teachers in the field, facilitate evaluation conferences among the trainee teacher and his or her mentor teacher, and perhaps most importantly, evaluate work samples. I wanted to streamline the process of creating work samples on campus (evaluated for course credit by me) and the implementation of such units in the field (evaluated by university supervisors). Too often course instructors and university supervisors are not on the same page with regard to work sample expectations and this can unfairly position the trainee teacher in the middle, as well as cause major curricular backpedalling prior to implementation.

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In preparation for the culminating event, the Teacher Colloquium, I posed the following key questions: What do you think is the most important information to share with other teachers at the colloquium? Students voiced their desire to walk their university supervisors through the parts of their work sample to clarify and justify their curricular decisions. They were very excited to showcase their months of work in a portfolio and present these in a professional forum.

Lessons learned: The gifts and challenges of using Storyline in teacher education Storyline served as a medium to achieve course objectives (e.g. learning how to design a thematic unit and lesson plans). I planned course activities grounded in context provided by the Storyline and introduced episodes in a logical and engaging way. Storyline also presented a means for developing enthusiasm and knowledge surrounding the use of Storyline in the classroom. By experiencing Storyline first-hand, students were equipped with skills to foster Storylines of their own. Alysia Goodling, a student on the course, said, “Participating in our own Storyline helped me understand the preparation, scope and planning involved in creating a Storyline in the classroom and increased my desire to implement Storyline in my own practice.” (Interview, January 12, 2012). Storyline brought many more gifts to my teaching, as well as the students’ learning experience. The students revealed that Storyline afforded a way to reconcile progressive theory and practices they learn on campus with the harsh realities they experience in the field. Cut-throat standardised testing, bureaucratic policies, scripted curricula, and a loss of imagination in anti-constructivist institutions serve as a desert for which Storyline is a refreshing mirage. Abby Scott paraphrased her experience holding this tension: “I loved learning about the method as a way to engage students in what they are learning. School and the classroom can be so disconnected from the real world. Storyline seems to give students an opportunity to imagine and act out solutions to problems in a meaningful way. Instead of just learning about a concept, which could be so abstract and out of reach, students really live it through Storyline. I think, if done well, it could get students excited about most any subject and keep them engaged. As graduate students making our dream classrooms at the beginning of the programme and then going into real life once we started student teaching... what a contrast! But it was a hands-on and visual way for me to see the transformation of my thinking from my ideal to actual reality. And my

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ideal was formed before spending real time as an adult teacher in a public school classroom. I really liked seeing my original ideas...and comparing them to what I was experiencing in reality. The physical items we made in Storyline are the only concrete evidence I have of my previous vision. Having these is a gift because it makes it harder for me to forget... which is important because though I realise some of my ideas about how students learn and how classrooms should be are a bit unrealistic, I should not give up on my ideals.” (Interview, January 12, 2012). Storyline was viewed by course participants as a breath of fresh air. In contrast to lectures, a vastly popular instructional technique in higher education, students were highly engaged in the course and challenged to construct their own meaning. Capturing this, one student said, “I loved participating in an actual Storyline. It provided a hands-on way to learn and provided an authentic way to collaborate with others.” (Ashley Williams, interview, January 12, 2012). Another student, Alison Wood, voiced: “Creating characters and classrooms brought what we were learning to life. It gave us personal investment in the story. I like how it made each of us consider the bigger picture... concepts were not boxed into classroom lectures, but rather felt relevant, seamless, timely, and so interesting.” (Interview, January 12, 2012) Although numerous positive outcomes were identified from using Storyline in this college course, there were also some challenges and many lessons learned for future improvement. First, I think it took too long for students to consider and create their classroom learners. Next time I will insert The Students as episode two or three. I felt forced to sequence The Curriculum first because designing a unit and corresponding lessons is the main focus of the course—and the most time consuming—but I think it would have been more meaningful to consider particular learners as we designed unit goals and initial learning activities. A second lesson learned is a well-known caution to Storyline facilitators: Do not lose the thread. By this I mean Storyline requires a certain level of fidelity. As course facilitator, I fell into this pitfall—I lost the thread—as the second session of the course showed. Due to time constraints, my lessons slowly transformed from constructivist and inquiry-based to explicit teaching and direct instruction. A course participant, Sarah Karlgaard, noticed this phenomenon and commented: “I felt like our Storyline got left a bit by the wayside as the term went on (in lieu of other things, which I understand are equally important). I had hoped for a more authentic engagement through the episodes, events, and

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experiences of our Storyline; connecting it with our work samples.” (Interview, January 12, 2012) The third and final lesson learned shifts focus from what I can do as an autonomous instructor to systemic changes that must take place programme- and community-wide in order to better utilise Storyline as a pedagogical asset in teacher education. Storyline is not used in a systematic way in the Graduate Teacher Education Program at PSU. Although many local elementary schools in Portland, Oregon use Storyline—in part because Jeff Creswell (author of Creating Worlds, Constructing Meaning: The Scottish Storyline Method, 1997) resides here and offers Storyline workshops—the schools I specially partner with do not use Storyline. Thus, my students who experienced this course were not supplemented with Storyline implementation in their placements unless they initiated it. Also within the Graduate School of Education (GSE) instructors are not permitted to occupy consistent classrooms or wall space making the display of friezes and the storage of materials challenging. I was granted special permission from the GSE operations officer who was hesitant to permit my 3D classroom models and mounted characters, but acquiesced for “one quarter and one quarter only”. Despite the pitfalls outlined above, I assert with confidence that Storyline is a highly effective pedagogy in teacher education. It rejuvenated my personal investment in the course curriculum and engaged my learners in a joyful and satisfying way. Storyline provided a world of possibilities and helped me attain my two-fold goal: Teach individuals about curriculum development and instruction and teach future teachers about Storyline through experiencing it first-hand. Three course participants combined these goals to develop work samples that contained Storyline.

How course participants used Storyline in their student teaching Alysia Goodling prepared a work sample for her second grade placement at Winterhaven School. Her unit focused on watersheds and her supplementary Storyline was titled Stewards of the Environment: Designing Alternative Energies. The overarching goal for Alysia’s work sample was for students to learn about the characteristics of watersheds and the role they play in the environment and within specific habitats. Students explored the attributes of watersheds, including elements of the water cycle (e.g., runoff and infiltration) and tributaries. They also examined the ways watersheds impact on the habitats of salmon and other organisms. Alysia’s Storyline—rooted in environmental science, engineering

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and humanities—was launched directly after she implemented her work sample. Students applied newly acquired knowledge about watersheds and habitats within the following Storyline episode sequence: The town, the people, power, catching the wind, building windmills. In a Master’s thesis at the end of the year Alysia expressed her reasons for using Storyline: “I am highly interested in the effectiveness of authentic learning experiences because in my student teaching experience I struggled with (a) classroom management, (b) facilitating successful collaboration between students, (c) motivating students, and (d) fostering students’ pride in their work. As I grappled with these issues during my work sample, I began to consider how the units could be improved as part of a Storyline study or other authentic activities. I felt that by providing learning contexts and activities that resembled the real world, students would be more engaged and take more pride in their work, allowing me to assist students in need.” (June 22, 2012). When asked how Storyline influenced student engagement, Alysia said that her students really enjoyed constructing their characters and the town. She also conceded that students were eager to bring their siblings and families into the classroom to see the frieze. As a true reflective practitioner, Alysia also faced the challenges she encountered head-on. Students became less interested as the pieces from the district’s engineering curriculum were introduced. My interpretation of this is that students were very excited for the components of the Storyline that gave them ownership and made them feel connected to the content and lessons, and the curricular pieces were simply not tied well enough to what they had created and felt ownership for. Rather than a natural, fluid story or process, it felt more like isolated activities that were hardly related and dictated by me, rather than by the students. If I had this feeling, I can only imagine that the students felt it too. Clearly this was a structural flaw on my part, and one that taught me much that I will use the next time I have the opportunity to use Storyline. Two additional students used Storyline in their field placement as a result of their initial exposure in my course. Autumn DeMet and Maalaea Gustafson were trainee teachers placed within a triad at Jason Lee School. They worked with a mentor teacher in a fifth grade classroom. The three engaged in collaborative planning and shared instruction and management responsibilities in the classroom. Autumn and Maalaea introduced their mentor teacher to Storyline and used it to build classroom community and to design a structured curriculum to aid in classroom management and civic engagement. Autumn and Maalaea facilitated discussions with learners about student responsibilities and this led to the creation of a

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frieze of the classroom community, individual learners and classroom jobs. Students applied for classroom positions like coat manager, custodian, line inspector, and accountant, whose job it was to collect field trip and book order money. They submitted applications and interviewed for their desired positions. Once hired, students earned pay checks and eventually—because it aligned seamlessly with common core standards in economics—were required to pay taxes. This Storyline thread was used well after autumn and Maalaea implemented their units for Instruction and Technology. In fact, they used the Classroom Community Storyline throughout the entire year. Over time it evolved to include other units of instruction such as a unit on colonialism and westward expansion. It also provided the team of teachers with a safe forum to address conflict and concerns that arose throughout the year. Characters were able to personify characteristics or events that were too sensitive for students to personally connect with initially, such as reports of bullying. In determining whether my trainee teachers have successfully acquired the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to enter the field of teaching as novices, I often consider whether or not I would want them teaching my unborn child or future grandchildren. The answer to this question serves as a foolproof test to decipher if I am doing my job well. It also raises fundamental questions about the purpose of schooling and the minds of our learners. As the Graduate School of Education at PSU enters its final stages of revision before launching its stance as a critical constructivist teacher preparation programme, I wonder what role Storyline will play in this adventure. I have found that increased awareness about Storyline and its use in teacher education is critical to engaging in meaningful dialogue and engaging students in learning experiences that guide them through curriculum and pedagogical development as well as life lessons about reimagining who they are and what they bring to the teaching profession. Storyline has reinvigorated me as an instructor and illuminates the imagination within my students. I find Storyline to be at the heart of how I have come to define critical constructivism and the role I will take to transgress lip service to deliver instruction that provokes students to challenge systems of oppression and cast webs of sense making and deep, personal meaning.

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References Creswell, J. (1997). Creating Worlds, Constructing Meaning: The Scottish Storyline Method. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Goodling, A. (2012). Improving learning outcomes and fostering student engagement through situated learning and authentic learning experiences (Master’s thesis), Portland State University, USA. Vopelak, E. (2011). Storyline Design: Ideal Classrooms, http://www.Storyline.org/Storyline_Design/Resources.html.

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR STARTING STORYLINE TEACHING: EFFECTS ON TEACHERS WENDY EMO

Introduction When teachers begin teaching with Storyline, what benefits and difficulties do they anticipate? Are the realised benefits and difficulties the same as those anticipated? In Storyline workshops, teachers often have questions about how Storyline is really going to work in their classrooms. In this chapter I document the journeys of eight new Storyline teachers; four in K-12 schools and four in a university. I interviewed the teachers three times alone and in three group meetings as they developed, implemented, and reflected upon structuring their curricula with Storyline. First I will introduce a few relevant works from other researchers, particularly findings about teachers and innovation. I will then introduce the participants and how I collected the data. The findings from the interviews form the bulk of this chapter and are followed by a short discussion.

Theoretical framework Teachers often realise that organising their classes with Storyline feels innovative, in the sense of a fresh and unusual approach to education. An international survey of Storyline practitioners showed that 75% of respondents began using Storyline because it could provide learning experiences for their students that they could not otherwise provide. Many of the respondents depended on Storyline; 60% of respondents stated that Storyline was either “central” or “very central” to their teaching (Emo and Emo, 2012). As I thought about these survey results, I saw a connection between these findings and research into teacher innovation in general.

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Teachers’ attitudes toward innovation in the classroom may help explain why some teachers use and depend upon Storyline. In a study of 300 Swiss teachers, 40% of the teachers said that they had a strong desire for innovation in order to renew themselves and avoid becoming stale through routine (Grounauer, 1993). Teachers who innovate through diversification, change, and taking on new opportunities tend to avoid crises which would otherwise precipitate abandoning their careers. These teachers are likely to retain their curiosity and enthusiasm, and they end their careers with professional satisfaction and a harmonious teaching life (Huberman, 1993). Innovation may be essential to some teachers’ wellbeing. Although innovating may be essential for some teachers, classroom innovations can pose serious challenges. Teachers risk poorer student performance as a result of innovations which do not work out well. New teaching ideas and methods can threaten the teacher’s feelings of competence in subject knowledge and pedagogical capability; teaching in new ways can also threaten the teacher’s self-confidence and authority (Olson, James and Lang, 1999). Do the theories about teacher innovation and risk apply to those new to Storyline teaching? Do teachers new to Storyline feel that there is a possibility of failure but that the instability might prove quite effective in some areas? What do they discover in the end? In this chapter I describe how eight teachers navigated their new Storyline teaching experience. These teachers shared what they anticipated, what they risked, where they needed encouragement, and what they discovered as they designed and led students through Storylines.

Data collection Four university teachers and four K-12 teachers volunteered for this study after learning about Storyline. Seven of the eight participants were females; all taught in the upper Midwest of the United States. Their ages ranged from late 20s to mid-50s; their years of teaching experience ranged from 0 to 28 years and included one trainee teacher and one first-year teacher. All participants were initially unfamiliar with the way that Storyline asked them to organise, think about, and present the curriculum. The teachers in this study all used the classic Storyline format of characters and setting interacting to form a plot which contained the curriculum. Semi-structured teacher interviews, observations during a 32-hour planning workshop, and photographs of classroom work formed the data.

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Each teacher was interviewed before, during, and after the Storyline teaching; I digitally recorded these interviews. Below are the questions the teachers addressed in the interviews. • What is your motivation for using Storyline? • What benefits do you anticipate will result from using Storyline? • What difficulties do you foresee with using Storyline? • How are/were you affected by using Storyline? • Did your anticipated benefits occur? • What difficulties arose as the Storyline progressed? • What satisfactions and frustrations do you have with using Storyline? • What else would you like to tell me? The participants wanted to share their Storyline progress with each other, so I facilitated a professional learning community for them. I recorded these three group meetings. The purpose of recording the interviews and group meetings was to understand the teachers’ points of view, concerns and discoveries as the Storyline teaching innovation process unfolded. The research concern was not with how well the participants adhered to their plans but rather what they lived and experienced as they worked through the Storyline with their classes.

Results: anticipations and discoveries The teachers anticipated both specific benefits and specific difficulties which could arise out of teaching with Storyline. The benefits and difficulties fit into two categories: course-related and human areas. Course-related factors are those such as the specific curriculum to address in the course, the rigour of the course, providing concrete application of academic concepts, and other subject-oriented issues within pedagogy. Human factors are both interpersonal and intrapersonal. These include issues of classroom dynamics and student initiative and also the teacher’s own feelings and desires such as his or her desire to socialise with other teachers.

Benefits in course-related factors—Storyline will help improve my course In initial interviews, five of the eight teachers first addressed courserelated benefits—academic issues. These teachers remarked that they thought that Storyline would improve at least one of the following:

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concept application, raising course rigour, aligning the course with teaching philosophy, and providing an alternative to lecture. All five of these teachers were housed at the university (one of them was in the kindergarten housed on the university campus). An example of this type of comment is below: “This [Storyline] is a very concrete thing; instead of philosophy, you should go out and be constructivist and inquiry-oriented.” (Risa). Risa taught an introduction to special needs course; she was looking forward to lecturing less and teaching the course the way that she wanted her students to teach in the K-12 schools. For her, the Storyline allowed her to align her university teaching with her philosophy of K-12 teaching. The five teachers who anticipated an academic impact communicated in later interviews that the Storyline did meet these expectations for improvement in the course-related factors they had mentioned initially: concept application, raising course rigour, aligning the course with teaching philosophy, and providing an alternative to lecture. The other teachers did not mention that they thought the Storyline format would help them address academic issues better than would other teaching formats.

Benefits in human factors—Storyline will provide something for me Seven of the eight teachers remarked in their initial interviews that they anticipated a personal benefit from teaching with Storyline. These benefits included encouragement and collegial experiences as well as a chance simply to do something new. The teachers also discovered benefits in these areas which they did not anticipate. Each of these is explored with examples.

Anticipated encouragement and collegial experiences Two each expected that their Storyline would fill their personal needs for encouragement and the opportunity to work with others. Representative comments regarding these benefits are below, with the first about collegial opportunity and the second about encouragement: “I like the opportunity of working with others who are interested in the same things as I am, and so when Sara and Laura were going do it, too, that was something exciting... And then also, building the relationships with the teaching staff at the elementary school.” (Risa).

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“I needed that spark to look forward to coming to school every day. I’m feeling a lot of frustration with NCLB... There’s pressure for the teachers: we have to get rid of being creative. Storyline helps me to justify what I’m doing. Creative teachers get labelled, ‘oh, she’s not really teaching’.” (Moira).

Moira needed a justification for teaching with creativity rather than just training her students to pass the standardised tests. She particularly appreciated the Storyline planning format. Risa missed the collegiality of the K-12 school and enjoyed sharing Storyline teaching with both university colleagues and K-12 teachers.

Discovered encouragement and collegial experiences The participants, teachers of kindergarten through college age students, shared their Storyline triumphs with each other through the professional learning community that developed. The participants also shared their difficulties and questions with each other. Kurt’s comment below demonstrates the teachers’ willingness to ask others for help, in this case his concern that plot would actually develop: “I think the other thing that I’m struggling with, or dealing with, trying to figure out, is how to introduce plot that continues and grows. Otherwise I’m afraid it will just turn into an assignment. Oh, here’s another assignment with this thing. And I want it to be some kind of an on-going plot. I want to incorporate the students in developing that plot. And I’m not quite sure how to facilitate that, particularly with these three different sections. I’m very open to ideas.” (Kurt).

The others in the group asked Kurt questions and helped him figure out how to use the students’ ideas in plot development. This helping each other to clarify direction also occurred with other teachers in the group. Sara asked others what they thought about putting the forest Storyline in hibernation for the winter and resurrecting it in spring; feedback from the group helped Sara clarify her Storyline direction. Later she reflected on the group dynamics during this meeting of the professional learning community: “It wasn’t so much about them [each participant]; it was about what they were doing, in a comfortable way of sharing that enthusiasm... The enthusiasm was very obvious. I just watched, as the different people were sharing, their interest. I enjoyed that part of it, just that it was the same idea, just applicable to all different levels.” (Sara).

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The Storyline colleagues were interested in what others were doing and gave each other input and encouragement. The triumphs were more about the teachers’ enthusiasm with the student developments rather than with their own achievements. When the teachers shared their Storyline teaching experiences in both individual and group sessions, they used words like “excited”, “enjoying”, and “fun”. They had not anticipated these feelings. Remarks from three participants are representative: “We’re having so much fun that it’s not work.” (Moira). “My mother, my husband, my two good friends are all asking me, how’s the new course going? They know I’m enjoying it and want to share.” (Kristina). [Reaction to Storyline teaching:] “Creative and energising; uncomfortable and I’m feeling some tension but still it’s energising.” (Sara).

Not all the participants were comfortable with the Storyline demands for flexibility and creativity in planning. First-year teacher Gina noted this; at the same time that she was uncomfortable, she also noted that she needed to help her students be able to work with less teacher direction: “This is not my thing. Like just to be creative, I hated it in school... That was not me. I was, ‘Okay, what do I need to do? How do I need to get it done?’ And so it’s nice for me to get out of my box.” (Gina).

Gina’s remark provides the insight that Storyline teaching does not appeal to all teachers and perhaps also would not appeal to all students. Even though she did see the need to develop into a more creative teacher, she also related that Storyline teaching was better suited to other teachers, such as her previous mentor Moira, who was also in the study.

The opportunity for change Five teachers mentioned that they particularly enjoyed change and challenge within the classroom, and they felt that Storyline teaching would provide this change and challenge. Sara said that doing new things in the classroom appeals to her. Kurt said: “I really like new challenges, I really like changes. I find that I get bored doing the same old thing with any couple of years.” (Kurt).

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The trainee teacher, Diana, already had foreseen personal difficulty with using the provided curriculum exactly as written. She remarked on this while in the midst of a Storyline: “Do the vocab, do the worksheet, do the story, I mean, how boring is that for you as a teacher?” (Diana).

These five participants particularly felt that Storyline would provide them with personal satisfaction, in this case a personal teaching challenge. They found the Storyline teaching interesting. The seven participants who anticipated personal benefits found that what they anticipated for themselves did occur as they worked through the Storyline. They were encouraged in their teaching, they had the opportunity to socialise about teaching, and they had interesting challenges in that teaching. However, they had not anticipated benefits for their students in non-academic areas, and they were surprised by these effects. These are described in the following section.

Benefits in human factors—Storyline affected my students in ways I did not expect All teachers discovered and related specific instances of how Storyline teaching affected their students in positive ways. These instances were in areas of student interactions, student initiative, and the tone of the classroom. The following two incidents are representative. In the first, a kindergartener with Asperger’s syndrome made Monster Bat, a character which became a central figure through the natural events and developments of the forest Storyline. Sara related her surprise with this situation: “This boy who was pretty much a social outcast [due to his Asperger’s syndrome] inadvertently... developed this central character... that the other kids became fascinated with... [The Storyline characters] became friends and then, oh, the friendship in the kindergarten class became so important. I don’t think I had anticipated—I’m sure not—I am sure I had not thought about what it would do for the social interactions of the children.” (Sara).

Sara noted that the development happened naturally due to the Storyline. Throughout the Storyline, the students kept returning to Monster Bat and his influence on the Storyline events. For their culminating event, the children asked to write an opera about their Storyline, and Monster Bat became central to the opera plot. Sara later noted that at the beginning of

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the year she had been concerned that the boy could have been “invisible” in the class’s social interactions. Instead he became a well-accepted and central part of the class due to the Storyline. Similarly, in a fourth grade classroom, a very quiet boy became the centre of attention through his character and how he presented that character in the context of the story. Moira shared what his mother told her during the course of their Camelot Storyline: “His mother was sharing with me that he’s always been quite the introvert. But with doing the whole Camelot thing, she said, it’s just bringing out this whole other side of him... The [other] kids were all just so amazed.” (Moira).

The mother and the boy together made extra props for the boy’s Storyline diorama. This seemed to be the “norm” for the participant teachers in this study; all the teachers gave examples of students who developed related work beyond the course requirements and outside of class time. Nearly all of the participants mentioned that the quality of required student work was much higher than they had expected; below are comments from three teachers regarding this: “They articulated it perfectly. I have never had that happen before.” (Kristina, university). “What’s coming out of their mouths is so much more.” (Gina, kindergarten). “Holy cow... I was amazed at the amount of information that they gave.” (Risa, university).

High-quality student work and positive student interactions were just two of several areas teachers mentioned that Storyline teaching affected. Other areas the teachers mentioned as having been affected positively included classroom management and parent involvement. All participants noted that they received positive feedback from students regarding Storyline teaching. Student feedback was a particular concern for the university teachers, who thought perhaps their students would not “buy in” to the imaginative teaching. The next section addresses this in some detail.

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Difficulties in human factors—how will my students react? Teachers in this study anticipated a few difficulties in teaching with Storyline. These were generally related to potential negative feedback from students, parents and other teachers. One teacher anticipated that honouring student contributions to the story could be difficult. The four university teachers in particular were concerned that the Storyline structure would not adapt to their learners and situation. They wondered if their students would not “buy in” to creating the story. At this university, students evaluate their teachers; this can affect the teachers’ annual evaluations. These teachers anticipated negative feedback from their students. Kindergarten teachers also wondered if the Storyline would adapt to their learners’ ages (5- and 6-years-old), since it at first glance appears to be best suited for students aged 9 to 11. Two of the four elementary school teachers were concerned that others would judge their Storyline teaching as too creative to also have academic focus. Two representative comments communicate the concerns about what others would think regarding their Storyline teaching: “I am apprehensive of negative feedback—performativity... I am compelled to make sure there’s rigour in my programme.” (Sara). “What if my students’ attitudes are: ‘This is weird. She’s weird.’ [Our] students generally are pretty traditional and difficult to get out of their expectations.” (Risa).

Participant Moira also was concerned about others’ opinions of her teaching. She saw that the Storyline planning structure helped her show academic justification for using Storyline. The concern over how students might react was fairly significant for the kindergarten and university participants. They were surprised to discover that neither age group found Storyline learning difficult. On the contrary, in later semesters students returned to compliment the university instructors on using Storyline. Only one of the eight teachers had foreseen that honouring student contributions to the Storyline might be difficult. Kurt remarked, “There are going to be some students who [will]... create some feloniouslooking image with tattoos and scars and beards... With eighty-some students total who are going to be involved in this project in my sections, there are bound to be a few who resist the assignment initially and try to

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Kurt foresaw that this potentially difficult situation would provide an excellent learning opportunity for his students: “What will be interesting, over the course of time, is how they carry that through... Hopefully, those people will develop an appreciation for felonious-looking people because their creation will be one. I’m fascinated with how that all is going to play out.” (Kurt).

Although only Kurt foresaw this kind of difficulty, all the teachers discovered some difficulty with the issue of honouring student contributions. The teachers tended to see these difficulties as comical and interesting rather than as problematic. Moira provided an example of the discomfort she experienced with one student’s character: “There was one child [in the Castle Storyline] who didn’t want the shoebox [for his diorama setting], he wanted a big double box, you know, and he’s going to have this torture room, and you go down into the basement—and you know you’re kind of like, eeh, well.” (Moira).

Moira let this character stay as created, and this character became a source of fun for the class as a whole and a source of attention for the quiet boy who created this character, as mentioned in the section on positive social interactions.

Conclusion The teachers in this study were new to teaching with Storyline. As they planned and taught, they shared with me and with each other what they anticipated, what they risked, where they needed encouragement, and what they discovered. These teachers showed similarities in what they anticipated and experienced. While planning their Storylines, the teachers anticipated and appeared oriented towards course factors, particularly toward better student understanding through providing application activities and raising the rigour of the course. These are the areas which are typically assessed. The teachers did see these benefits develop in their classes through using the Storyline structure. All participants experienced far more benefits from their Storylines than they anticipated. The teacher-participants of this study found:

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x More benefits in course factors than anticipated x Many more benefits in the human-related areas than anticipated, including having fun in their teaching, feeling energised from classroom events, and experiencing positive student interactions x Honouring student contributions could be difficult x University teachers could use Storyline and find it effective and engaging for both teachers and students. Some teachers were oriented towards change and challenge, and the Storyline format gave them the opportunity to try a new teaching method. Of course, another new teaching method may have provided them with the same challenge element. Teachers who have opportunities which continue to keep them curious and enthusiastic are those who have a pleasant teaching career and end it with professional satisfaction (Huberman, 1993). For teachers who highly value challenge and innovation, the unpredictable nature of Storyline may provide a way for them to keep the element of novelty, curiosity and enthusiasm in their teaching. Starting an innovation like Storyline can be quite challenging, however. The teachers in this study primarily risked negative feedback from their students and not completing the scheduled curriculum. These difficulties did not develop; in fact, the teachers appeared surprised at how well their Storyline teaching worked. Teachers may need encouragement as they begin Storyline teaching. The teachers in this study requested and valued being able to discuss with each other their Storyline questions, problems and positive developments. They also used these discussions to clarify particular issues unique to Storyline teaching, such as how to help plot develop from the students’ ideas. Teachers new to Storyline will probably find it both helpful and encouraging to participate in a Storyline professional learning community. New Storyline teachers may have a vision for what will define the “success” of their efforts, but the possibilities for success with Storyline are greater and affect more aspects of the class than the teachers in this study envisioned when they first planned the Storylines. New Storyline teachers may find it particularly helpful to document what happens to classroom social dynamics, their own attitudes, and student attitudes during the Storyline.

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References Grounauer, M.-M. (1993). Caution and Years of Experience. In Huberman, M. (ed). The Lives of Teachers. New York: Teachers College Press. Huberman, M. (1993). The Lives of Teachers. Translated by Jonathan Neufeld. London: Cassell. Olson, J., James, E. and Lang, M. (1999). Changing the Subject: The Challenge to Teacher Professionalism of Innovation in OECD Countries. Journal of Curriculum Studies 31 (1), 69-82.

EDITORS

Peter J. Mitchell is senior lecturer and deputy dean for international affairs at the Faculty of Foreign Languages, National Research Tomsk State University (Russia), where his teaching and research focus on English Language Teaching, Translation and Interpreting, and Country Studies. He is also visiting associate professor of English Language Teaching at G.R. Derzhavin Tambov State University (Russia). Marie Jeanne McNaughton is senior lecturer at the School of Education, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Strathclyde (Scotland), where her teaching and research focus on Pedagogy, Teaching and Learning; Integrated, Cross-Curricular Studies and Creativity; Environmental Studies: Social Subjects, Technology, Science; Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship; and Educational Drama, Expressive Arts and Creative Pedagogies.

CONTRIBUTORS

Pamela Adamson is head teacher of Kinnaird Primary School, Scotland. Sharon Ahlquist is a senior lecturer at Kristianstad University, Sweden. Steve Bell is director of Storyline Scotland. Barbara Blair is an associate professor at Bergen University College, Norway. Jeff Creswell is president of Storyline International, United States. Griet De Baecke is an educational supervisor at the Institute of Pedagogical Counselling, Ghent, Belgium. Björg Eiríksdóttir is a teacher and consultant at Kársnesskóli, Iceland. Diana Ellis is a global education advisor at the West of Scotland Development Education Centre. Kenneth R. Emo is an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris, United States. Wendy Emo is an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris, United States. Cecilie Falkenberg is a lecturer at University College Copenhagen, Denmark. Andressa Portella Felipin is a teacher at the Anita Garibaldi Municipal School, Ijuí, Brazil. Helle Pagh Fisker is an educational advisor at Learning by Helle Fisker, Denmark.

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Svetlana K. Gural is a professor and dean of the Faculty of Foreign Languages, National Research Tomsk State University, Russia. Sallie Harkness is an educational consultant in Storyline Scotland. Hanne Jacobsen is an independent educational consultant in Denmark. Henriette Skaarup Gejel Jensen is a teacher at University College Lillebealt, Denmark. Jȩn Torfi Jȩnasson is a professor and dean of the School of Education, University of Iceland. Lone Tang Jørgensen is a senior lecturer at University College Lillebealt, Denmark. Doris Kocher is a senior lecturer at the University of Education, Freiburg, Germany. Birthe Lund is an associate professor at Aalborg University, Denmark. Marie Jeanne McNaughton is a senior lecturer at the University of Strathclyde, Scotland. Liudmila A. Mitchell is a lecturer at National Research Tomsk State University, Russia. Peter J. Mitchell is a senior lecturer at National Research Tomsk State University, Russia. Olivia Murray is an assistant professor at Portland State University, United States. Emily Nelsen is principal of Shoshone Elementary School, Idaho, United States. Irmgat Nielsen is a teacher at the IMEAB Municipal School, Ijuí, Brazil. Anna-Lena Østern is a professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

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Contributors

Tone Pernille Østern is an associate professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Rebecca Plaskitt is a teacher at ACS International School, Cobham, England. Simone Schmitt is a teacher at the IMEAB Municipal School, Ijuí, Brazil. Ulf Schwänke is a lecturer at the University of Hamburg, Germany. Joanna Smogorzewska is a lecturer at the Academy of Special Education, Poland. María Steingrímsdóttir is a senior lecturer at the University of Akureyri, Iceland. Liliane Van Acker is a counsellor at the Institute of Pedagogical Counselling, Ghent, Belgium.