The use of narrative to promote primary school children's understanding of evolution

Emma Browning · Jill M. Hohenstein

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Evolution and Science Education Science Education and Pedagogy Digital Storytelling and Education

Abstract

This study explores learning about evolution when information is presented in either a narrative or an expository text (ET). Narratives engage the imagination, and consequently may allow children to overcome conceptual constraints that make evolution difficult to comprehend. Participants were 16 Year One, 21 Year Two and 25 Year Three pupils from a British primary school. Expository and narrative texts about evolution were read with children before assessing participants' understanding. Those reading the narrative showed a greater understanding of the book's contents about evolution than those reading the ET. Implications for using the imagination and narrative in the science classroom are discussed.

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References

1969A Grammar of Motives 2009International Handbook of Research on Conceptual Change 1993Experiencing Narrative Worlds 2018Experiencing Narrative Worlds 2003Intentional Conceptual Change 2004Psychological essentialism in children 2001Cognitive and Contextual Factors in the Emergence of Diverse Belief Systems: Creation versus Evolution 2005Qualitative differences between naïve and scientific theories of evolution

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2016The youngest readers’ dilemma: A review of children’s learning from fictional sources 2017Young children's near and far transfer of the basic theory of natural selection: An analogical storybook intervention 2017Tell me a Story : the use of narrative as a learning tool for natural selection 2022Darwin’s tales–A content analysis of how evolution is presented in children’s books 2020A RCT for assessment of active human-centred learning finds teacher-centric non-human teaching of evolution optimal

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