Eine nordische Storyline-Konferenz fand im April 2008 in Göteborg statt.. Nähere Informationen unter: www.storyline.nu
Der nachfolgend gekürzt abgedruckte Vortrag beschäftigt sich mit nachhaltigem Lernen.
Ulf Schwänke (with collaboration of Rebecca Plaskitt)
Sustainable Learning – how Storyline can support it
What is “sustainable learning”? Isn’t all learning by definition
sustainable? No, there are forms of learning we would hardly call sustainable,
rote learning for instance. Or think of the huge amount of facts that schools
make students pick up even though we know that these facts are likely to get
lost within a short time. Just because we have the opportunity to learn all day
long the results are not necessarily sustainable. When I speak of sustainable
learning I rather think of the following:
1. Learning with consequences. Many
students call something learning what we would rather call “cramming for a
test”. They try to memorize as much information as possible but are unable to
apply it to a meaningful context. So it’s not surprising that some time later
most of the “learned” facts have mysteriously disappeared. Simple storage and
retrieval of information is obviously not a very effective form of learning. Much
more important is the ability to make connections and understand consequences
when learning new information. Sustainable learning incorporates changing one’s
behaviour as a result of acquiring new knowledge.
2. Life-long learning. This involves an attitude
that comprises learning as a kind of lifestyle. In a world where change is
getting faster (and where the threats to the existence of mankind are becoming
more and more obvious) we cannot afford to stop learning at the end of school,
not even at the end of our vocational career. If we want to continue to
contribute to society, we must keep learning until the very end of our lives.
3. Learning as an autopoietic process. A
persons’ identity can be viewed as a construction of the self, how we organize
our thoughts and actions as we acquire knowledge. We try to be or to become the
individuals we imagine we are and so we invent and reinvent ourselves again and
again. This “making of oneself” is called autopoiesis. And here we meet again
the concept of sustainability. Because what we call sustainable never ends but
always has to be reinvented, adapted and optimised.
4. Construction, reconstruction and deconstruction. Most content we learn sooner or later turns out to be different, more
complex, or simply wrong. It is said that roughly half of our school knowledge
becomes obsolete within 20 years after we have left school. So not only do we
need to learn new content but we must unlearn what we thought to be true. We construct
knowledge, if we actively learn. Reconstruction is the most common
form of learning at school. It takes place, for instance, when students listen
to information they get from their teachers and then make it part of their own
cognitive structure. Deconstruction is what happens if we correct an
idea that we previously thought to be true. In doing so we constantly rearrange
what we know and feel in order to accommodate the demands of an ever-changing
environment.
5. Social learning. Each one of us is a part
of and contributes to larger, more complex social systems. To exist we need a
group, a tribe or a society which forms a supportive environment. Since we are
not (at least not completely) controlled by instinct, we must also learn how to
become and remain a part of society, how to profit from the support of others
and how to create and contribute to an adequate environment for others. This is
what I call the fifth form of sustainable learning: learning how to become a
useful member of society – preferably of a sustainable society, a society with a
future.
6. Coping with change. With respect to the
original meaning of sustainability, sustainable learning can have an additional
meaning: It can be viewed as learning how to cope with situations which cannot
be fully controlled but are of predominant importance for the existence of
mankind. To make this a bit more precise, let me briefly name a few principles
of sustainability. Having decided to attend this conference you will be
familiar with most of them. The main question reads: How does our use of natural
resources effect present and future generations of mankind and other species?
An advocate of sustainability might answer this question with some of the
following hypotheses:
You can’t have your
cake and eat it too. Take for instance a
society where wealth is based on the ownership of cattle. As we can observe in
parts of Africa
and the Middle East , a
growing number of cattle soon devour the limited amount of grass in the
semi-desert. Consequently most of the cattle die leaving their owners in poverty.
Exponential
developments. Most processes which look linear at first sight
turn out to be exponential developments if you watch them for some time. It was
Gregory Bateson, one of the most influential thinkers of the last century, who
developed the idea that all processes can be viewed as slipping on exponential
curves. Think for example of the abundant amount of carbodioxide in the
atmosphere of our planet some 700 million years ago. When most of the carbon
was combined by the huge forests, the rate of carbon dioxide in our air
decreased rapidly and life became possible for mammals. Only over the last 50
years, when these deposits have been exploited as oil and gas, there has been a
dramatic increase in carbon dioxide again – due to our constant burning of
fossil fuels. Natural processes are typically non-linear and this applies to
many other processes as well; think for instance of the development in the
stock market.
Systems theory. For centuries man has believed that most processes are following causal
laws whereas systems theory convinced us that circular or interdependent
developments are much more predominant. Part of systems theory is the concept
of homeodynamics, the property of a system, which regulates
its internal environment in order to maintain a constant condition. Any system,
and especially each autopoietic system, has to become different in order to
stay the same – it ceases to exist as soon as it becomes resistent to change.
This is also true for ourselves. Were it not for millions of small changes in
our cells – including repair mechanisms preventing unlimited cell growth which
we call cancer – we would not live more than a few years.
The impossibility of
planning. For more than 7000 years – from the beginning of
agriculture in ancient Assyria to the counseling companies of today – we have been toying with the
idea that everything can be planned. Examples are – among many others – the
ever increasing number of laws and regulations, the host of software for almost
any computer application or the existence of pension funds. It seems we are
addicted to managing the future. We know from experience though that things
turn out differently than predicted but still we try to “plan what cannot be
planned”. I am not saying we should stop planning at all, but instead of
focusing only on the desirable aims we should rather give more attention to
possible negative outcomes – so called side effects.
In short, there is more than one definition of “sustainable learning”, but maybe
we can agree upon the view that learning under this headline
- is
more than just taking in information
- generates
knowledge that is not easily forgotten
- is
changing not only the learners’ thoughts but also his/her behaviour
- is
long term or even lifelong learning
- helps
to create an identity
- strengthens
the ability to become a useful member of society
- helps
us cope with the imminent threats to the human culture.
Let us now look at the main traits of Storyline in order to discuss how they
are connected to the sustainable learning ideas I have explained
above.
- A
Storyline is a kind of adventure. The
set for a Storyline is always a complex and/or problematic situation,
which to cope with needs more than the wisdom we normally require when
thinking about ideas presented in school books. As Erik Vos (1997) points
out, a Storyline is some sort of an adventure that can lead the whole
class, including the teacher, to a different goal than planned. Thus
children adjust to dealing with unforeseen situations and anticipate the
creation of new possibilities. If “intelligence is knowing what to do,
when you don’t know what to do” as Jean Piaget once put it, the Storyline
approach is most suitable to promote the students’ ability to consider
complex problems that arise in social systems as well as in ecological
systems.
- Key
Questions. Each episode of a Storyline starts with
open-ended key questions which require autonomous thinking on the part of
the learners. Rarely is there only one ”correct” answer to a key question.
Far more often there are a variety of “viable” answers. Sometimes the
teacher doesn’t expect a certain answer but will readily accept it because
of its plausibility. The requirement is not to present a standard solution
but a thoughtful, creative and appropriate idea. So the students not only
experience that sustainability sometimes needs new approaches instead of
“more of the same”, they also learn to ask key questions themselves, e.g.:
What would happen, if every human being on this earth was using as much
energy as the average European? Well – questions of this kind have become
quite normal in our post-modern era. Most educated people have the feeling
that we have already passed the point of no return – regarding
sustainability – years or decades ago. So the question whether the
European life style can be made a standard for the whole world sounds like
a rhetorical question without any impact on actual behaviour. In a
Storyline classroom however, this nonchalant ignorance would not be
tolerated. A story of despondence where there is no struggle between good
and evil (or between truth and lie) is simply not a good story. Why should
children want to investigate a situation where there is nothing else to be
done? So the Storyline in such a case will always ask a subsequent key
question aiming at the students’ behaviour, for instance: Even if we
passed the point of no return, what do you think you should do to
make the situation a little bit more agreeable for you and the other
people living in this world? In short: The idea of the key questions is it
to make the students think about meaningful choices. This leads us to the
next item.
- Ownership
and identification. The narrative on
which the Storyline is based always contains a number of characters. It is
vital for the teaching and learning process, that students identify with
one or more of these characters. Mostly this is achieved by having the
children produce small collage figures showing their character’s physical
appearance. The character is also given a name and a biography describing
their interests and/or personality. As soon as the students identify with
the character they created, they start to imagine the problems of the
fictitious people are their own. That is the moment, when sustainable
learning begins, when learning by discovery takes place in the sense that
students do not simply listen to the teacher, but actively work on solving
meaningful problems. That way they learn new facts as well as they start
to change their behaviour. The story – originally thought up by the
teacher – is propelled by actions and ideas of the students and thus
becomes eventually their story. So at an early age students accept
the responsibility for considering and acting upon difficult situations
and their resolution. The parallel to the item of sustainability is
evident: Only if a majority of people inhabiting this globe accept the
responsibility for preserving our natural resources will there be a chance
for sustainable development.
- Cooperation
and individuality. Storyline asks
learners (and teachers as well) to frequently decide whether a certain
task needs the interaction of two or more students or should rather be done
individually. Working together on the resolution of a given problem (and
problem solving is a typical form of learning in Storyline classes) helps
children to cope with the paradoxes of planning described above. Even more
important is the fact that children, who cooperate and share their visions
for the resolution of meaningful situations, practise the ability to
become useful members of society – one of the above mentioned forms of
sustainable learning.
- Models
and other representations. The Storyline teacher
asks the students frequently to build models, to design facilities for
different purposes, to invent shift plans or to produce a collage picture
and so on. All these products have to prove their applicability for a
certain purpose and in many cases mistakes will be discovered by the
learners themselves about how their product fits into the scheme of
things. So they find out by experience that planning is a never ending
process of surprise and optimizing. They learn to deal with unexpected and
unwanted “side” effects. The learners get used to viewing them as just
“effects” which should be expected as natural results of the overwhelming
complexity of reality. In other words: They develop a systemic perspective
on natural, historic, or social events and get used to distinguishing
between simple models, designed to improve understanding, and a complex
and irritating reality that cannot fully be managed.
- Meaning. One of the secrets explaining why Storyline works so well is
the fact that the underlying narrative helps the students understand the
meaningfulness of what they are asked to do. People who know, why they are
doing something mostly also accept that their activities have
consequences. At this point I would like to quote a German educator who draws
the connection to sustainability in a rather philosophical way. In an
essay on “death in a society of winners” Fulbert Steffensky (2007, p. 5)
wrote: “We are living in a society with weak wisdom and strong
instruments.” As an example he names the German car factory VW, who
exhibited a car at the Auto-Salon Geneva 2003 with a horsepower of 1000,
able to do as much as 400 kilometres an hour. “This is an example of
highly intelligent idiocy, a form of thinking having become its own
caricature. Nonetheless it is an idiocy that has become a matter of
course… How do we learn to ask for the consequences of this kind of
ability for our offspring and for the survival of the earth?” (ib.) Well –
I think with the Storyline approach combining key questions and the concept
of meaning, we learn to ask such questions. Children who get used to
finding out about their environment themselves will begin to ask questions
concerning their own future and the future of society. If they are brought
up in a classroom where action is encouraged, they will not restrict
themselves to just asking questions but they will want to know how to act
to get changes. I am convinced that Storyline is an adequate way of
empowering our children with voices that are heard.
Conclusion. A student from a Storyline
classroom who has become a sustainable learner as above mentioned, would not be
surprised to find that
- trend
extrapolation is very risky
- processes
are most difficult to control when it would be most desirable to control
them through planning that works properly (think for instance of the
present situation in Iraq )
- every
measure one takes produces unforeseen side effects
- in
many cases it depends on the point of view whether a certain trend is
positive or negative.
I am not saying – nota bene
– that all afore mentioned advantages of the Storyline approach cannot be reached by other methods of teaching and learning.
Nevertheless, in my opinion Storyline is a very suitable approach to
sustainable learning because the underlying narrative generates meaning more
easily than many other forms of instruction. In addition, a learner in a
Storyline classroom is trained in asking the right kind of questions and is
used to systemic views of our social, natural, or technical environment. Most
importantly, though in my opinion, is the fact that teachers and learners who
work together using the Storyline approach are developing an attitude of mutual
respect as well as responsibility for the world we all share.
Still one question remains unanswered: Will all our
efforts to enable future generations to cope with the imminent threats to the
basis of our life be in time? To draw nearer to answering this last question
all of us – teachers and students – have to become sustainable learners.
Literature
Bateson, Gregory (1999) Conscious purpose versus nature. In Bateson,
Gregory. Steps to an Ecology of Mind. Chicagog ( Chicago University
Press), p. 432 – 445.
Bell , Steve/Harkness,
Sallie (2006). Storyline – Promoting Language Across the Curriculum.
Royston (UKLA).
Egan, Kieran (2003).
The arts as “the basis” of education.
http://www.educ.sfu.ca/kegan/ArtsBasics.html
2003.
Egan, K.: Teaching
as story telling. An alternative approach to teaching and curriculum in the
elementary school. Chicago (The University of Chicago
Press) 1989.
Falkenberg,
Cecilie/Håkonsson, Erik (eds.) (2002: Storylinebogen. En håndbog for undervisere. Vejle (Kroghs Forlag) (3rd ed.).
Letschert, J.
(2006). Features of Storyline. In Letschert, J./ Grabbe-Letschert, B./Greven, J. (Eds.), Beyond
storyline. Features, principles and pedagogical profundity. Enschede (SLO), p. 10 – 34.
Reich, K. (2006). Konstruktivistische Didaktik. Weinheim (Beltz).
Schwänke, U. (2005). Die Storyline-Methode. Ein
innovatives Unterrichtskonzept in der Praxis. Donauwörth (Auer).
Schwänke, U. (2006). Storyline in Action. In
Letschert, J./ Grabbe-Letschert, B./Greven, J. (Eds.), Beyond storyline. Features, principles and pedagogical profundity. Enschede (SLO), p. S. 35 - 48.
Steffensky, Fulbert
(2007). Mut
zur Endlichkeit. Sterben in einer Gesellschaft der Sieger. Stuttgart (Radius).
Vos, Erik/Dekkers, Peter (1997). Verhalend
Ontwerpen, een draaiboek. Groningen (2nd ed.).
