The Use of Storytelling to Promote Literacy Skills in Biology Education

Abstract

This chapter provides biology teachers with a cell division-based teaching sequence to develop the literacy skills of 10th grade students using the storytelling potential. The objectives are 1) to analyze the design process of this sequence and 2) to examine how it is implemented in two classrooms in terms of a communicative approach. The sequence design is informed by the didactical transposition approach. The authors analyze the transformation of reference knowledge, firstly, into a teaching sequence of four activities organized around authentic issues, such as cancer treatment or reproductive problems, and then, into taught knowledge. The results show that the use of storytelling in design could enhance students' scientific literacy, scientific discourse, and problem-solving competence, as it allows for their greater participation (80-90% of utterances). Interactive approaches (8/10 episodes) predominate in experts-learners discussions, improving students' view of science as a process and not as a closed set of notions.