Page 25 - Producing a Video to Communicate a New Model of Coaching to GAA Coaches

2.2 Narrative in Learning

‘Narrative is deeply appealing and richly satisfying to the human soul, with an allure

that transcends cultures, centuries, ideologies, and academic disciplines.’

Rossiter, M. (2003)

In addressing this theme I will attempt to provide the reader with a brief overview of

learning theory and the advance in constructivism, look at the origins of story and the
importance of narrative in learning and identify the key elements of a narrative

approach to learning.

2.2.1 Theories of learning and the advance of constructivism

There are many theories of education and a history of research into how learning
occurs. Alessi and Trollip (2001) outline changes in the focus of the psychology of

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learning throughout the 20 century, identifying the early dominance of
behaviourism, followed by an expansion into the ideas of cognitivism and the
advancement of constructivism. Both behavioural and cognitive theories of learning

are categorised as objective in nature (Mergel, 1998) and maintain that learning is
based on an understanding and application of objective rules by which the world

operates (Alessi & Trollip, 2001). On the other hand Alessi and Trollip (2001) report
that constructivism maintains that ‘knowledge is not received from outside, but that

we construct knowledge in our head’ (p. 31).

Aligning to the constructivist approach, Säljö (1979) defines learning as ‘making

sense or abstracting meaning’, and furthermore states that ‘learning involves relating
parts of the subject matter to each other and to the real world.’ The literature further

supports this definition by identifying key elements of the constructivist approach to

learning as being interaction, or the active role of the learner (Szurmak & Thuna,
2013), and the construction of meaning from experience (Clark & Rossiter, 2008).

Building on foundational work by Jean Piaget (1976), who advocated learning as an

independent constructive process, Vygotsky (1978) proposed a social constructivist
approach to learning where (potential) development is determined by the distance

between one’s independent problem solving capability and socially supported
problem solving, a concept he termed ‘the zone of proximal development’ (p. 86).

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