Do you know someone who is an amazing storyteller? When they speak, you hang on each word as they slowly spin a story that is as thrilling as it is moving. Or maybe you know that in whatever tale they are telling, there is a deep nugget of wisdom or a belly laugh right around the corner.
Well, I am not one of those storytellers. In fact, in high school, my stories were consistently so bad that my friends regularly added “and then she found five dollars” to the end of them so that my wet rag of a story would at least have a minimally satisfying ending.
My lackluster storytelling ability aside, I’ve discovered that the science classroom is surprisingly full of stories. Some stories reveal how scientific research is often as much art as science. Others inspire students that they are capable of success in this daunting subject. Still others bring seemingly dry concepts to life in new and captivating ways.
This article is the first in a series that will explore the ways stories can, should, and already do play an important role in shaping our students’ experience with science.
Stories as Motivation
Every student is in your classroom for a reason. I don’t mean a teleological reason divinely orchestrated by God (although that may be the case too). I mean that, by and large, they freely choose to enter your classroom because something motivates them to do so. That motivation might be the sheer, unadulterated love of learning. Or it could be the begrudging acceptance that attending your class is better than being suspended. Most likely, it is something in between.
The nature of that motivation has a significant impact on their level of engagement in the class. Most teachers don’t need research to tell them that students who are more motivated to learn are more engaged in class and ultimately more successful.
If motivation leads to engagement, which leads to improved learning outcomes, then teachers would do well to reflect meaningfully on what their students’ motivations are for being in their class. Are there motivations that lead to positive engagement and deep learning? Are there ways we can shift or deepen their motivations in a more meaningful direction?
The Power of Story
Think of student motivation as the story they are living within. We are all living within stories. These stories inform the way we move through the world, and, to some extent, we get to choose the story.
A friend recently reminded me of the character Puddleglum from CS Lewis’ The Silver Chair. Puddlegum finds himself and two children trapped in the Underland. The witch who rules this subterranean land uses sweet-smelling incense to cast a spell on them, convincing them that the world above (Narnia) doesn’t exist at all.
Puddleglum valiantly resists the witch’s increasingly convincing narrative by asserting his own: “Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one. . . . I’m on Aslan’s side even if there isn’t any Aslan to lead it. I’m going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn’t any Narnia.”
I think this is what having faith in God truly means. It means to choose to live within God’s story–death has been conquered, healing is possible, redemption for all creation is coming–even if sometimes it is hard to see or feel it. This positioning is what motivates us to care for the orphan and the refugee, to offer our hard-earned money to the church, to plant a tree whose shade we won’t live to enjoy, or even to simply get out of bed. We are living within the Gospel story.
On a much smaller scale, your students are living within the story of your classroom. It’s a story that motivates them to enter your classroom (or not), to complete the assignments (or not), and to participate in class (or not). A student’s motivation impacts their level and type of engagement, which in turn affects their learning outcomes.
So what stories are your students bringing into the classroom? And how can you shape their stories to guide them toward deeper engagement and deeper alignment with God’s story?
Finding and Shaping Student Stories
Like the witch’s incense that swirled around Puddleglum and his friends, our students are surrounded by intoxicating stories about school. One narrative could be that their grades and academic achievement determine their value and life trajectory. Or maybe that school is a useless formality, an antiquated requirement that just needs to be survived. Neither of these stories are likely to ground the transformative experience we want for our students.
One year, I tried to help motivate my students to engage in Physics class by posting my carefully crafted course objectives on the wall for collective inspiration. After all, these objectives were motivating to me, and I truly wanted each of these things for every one of my students.
Shockingly, my students didn’t start popping out of bed thinking, “I can’t wait to get to Physics class so I can employ my quantitative analysis skills to analyze real-life situations!”
Clearly, what was motivating me as a teacher was not what was motivating them as students. This disconnect makes sense if motivation is fundamentally the story we are living within because generic, one-size-fits-all stories are rarely compelling. It is the particularities of a story that grab us and grab each of us differently. Stories speak to each of us differently as they connect with our unique experiences, views, and hopes. I was missing their stories and asking them all to live within mine.
If a student’s motivation to engage subject matter is a story they’re participating in, it shouldn’t be surprising that different students will need different stories to motivate them. Motivating stories will acknowledge and coincide with how they see themselves and the world. The story that will be most motivating will be the one that also leads students to a deeply held personal goal or hope.
In any given section, our classrooms are filled with a smorgasbord of stories. There is the grade-obsessed student who quantifies their worth on a 4-point scale. There is the disengaged student who sees no connection between your course and the concerns of their life. There is the disruptive troublemaker who feels like a thorn in your side but who desperately needs someone to invest and believe in them. And there is the inquisitive mind who has no idea how much potential is bubbling away below their surface.
Whether they know it or not, our students’ stories are also part of God’s overarching narrative. So, take some time to get to know your students’ stories. Why are they showing up each day? How might your class connect to the story they are living in and to God’s story? Remind them that, like Puddleglum, they can play an active role in shaping the story of their lives.
In Part 2, we’ll look at how the history of science provides not only technical insight into the content but also a nuanced understanding of the nature of scientific knowledge, the diversity of people involved, and the oftentimes complex ethical questions involved.
