Stories are a vehicle through which experiences and events are communicated amongst people. Stories have the potential to influence people’s understandings and beliefs, and essentially, promote a societal and cultural change. Grounded in literature pointing to the value of narrative in supporting learning and the need to explore new modes of communicating science, this study explores the potential of narrative in science education. The aim was to explore the use of a Story-Based Learning Design in a Grade 4 Science and Technology classroom. Using a qualitative case study research design the researcher took on the role of participant-observer. Data were collected through observations, learner verbal and written descriptions of a final product and teacher reflective interviews. The findings of this study illustrate the value of stories, as learning tools, in science education. In this regard pertinent conclusions were derived, namely, that stories attract learners and have the potential to be used as a vehicle for learning scientific concepts and the target vocabulary, that stories enable learners to make meaning of abstract concepts and relate it to their world and finally that the use of the imagination assists learners to visualise concepts making learning relevant.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nmmu/vital:9458 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Kemp, Hermione |
| Publisher | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Faculty of Education |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Masters, MEd |
| Format | ix, 80 leaves, pdf |
| Rights | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University |
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