ABSTRACT

One of the central challenges educators face today, especially in higher education, is the gap between warranted (domain-specific) knowledge and the prior beliefs students hold about certain concepts and phenomena (preconceptions). In the Internet age, students often self-directedly acquire knowledge from an increasingly large number of contradictory sources of information, many of which are biased or untrustworthy. Based on existing research, the study presented here explores the role of narratives in the context of student learning. We draw on an empirical study aimed at assessing students’ decision-making, the role of knowledge and belief, and students’ narrative competence. The performed qualitative analysis of cognitive interviews in which university students reflected on their information-processing and reasoning indicates that narratives can be central to unsettling the dichotomy between knowledge and belief. Students need to be equipped with the narrative competence to be aware of how narrative framing and metaphors used in texts guide their reasoning and decision-making not only at the cognitive but also at the affective level. After conducting a qualitative analysis of student’s answers, we discuss potentials for using narrative methodologies in instructional interventions and fostering students’ narrative competence in the higher education classroom.

摘要

教育工作者今天面临的主要挑战之一，尤其是在高等教育中，是有保证的（特定领域的）知识与学生对某些概念和现象（先入为主）持有的先验信念之间的差距。在互联网时代，学生往往会自主地从越来越多的相互矛盾的信息来源中获取知识，其中许多信息来源存在偏见或不可信。在现有研究的基础上，这里介绍的研究探讨了叙事在学生学习背景下的作用。我们借鉴了一项旨在评估学生决策、知识和信念的作用以及学生的叙事能力的实证研究。对大学生反思他们的信息处理和推理的认知访谈进行的定性分析表明，叙事可能是解决知识和信念之间二分法的核心。学生需要具备叙事能力，以了解文本中使用的叙事框架和隐喻如何不仅在认知层面而且在情感层面指导他们的推理和决策。在对学生的回答进行定性分析后，我们讨论了在教学干预中使用叙事方法和在高等教育课堂中培养学生叙事能力的潜力。学生需要具备叙事能力，以了解文本中使用的叙事框架和隐喻如何不仅在认知层面而且在情感层面指导他们的推理和决策。在对学生的回答进行定性分析后，我们讨论了在教学干预中使用叙事方法和在高等教育课堂中培养学生叙事能力的潜力。学生需要具备叙事能力，以了解文本中使用的叙事框架和隐喻如何不仅在认知层面而且在情感层面指导他们的推理和决策。在对学生的回答进行定性分析后，我们讨论了在教学干预中使用叙事方法和在高等教育课堂中培养学生叙事能力的潜力。