Supporting Learners' Interaction by Means of Narrative Activities

Abstract

It is widely recognized that learners are empowered by interacting with peers on relevant, content-related matters, and are encouraged to feel involved in their own educational process. In order to really support learning, however, interactions need to be structured and organized by means of some suitable pedagogical approach. In this chapter, the author argues that narratives (in the form of both fictional stories and narrations of experiences related to the object of study) can provide a pedagogical framework suitable to exploit the educational potential of interactions. The narrative is an expressive form which is natural and familiar to both children and adults and validly supports meaning-making as well as personal engagement. Moreover, it is an inherently social activity, which makes it particularly suitable to support collaborative activities. This chapter analyzes several examples of narrative activities carried out in different collaborative contexts in order to exemplify how they can be organized to efficaciously support learner interaction.