By Raymond Lynch, Jennifer Hennessy and Merrilyn Goos
Summary points:
- There is often a reluctance within teacher education to acknowledge the essential role that fiction plays in learning and teaching.
- Fictitious, ‘as if’ philosophies are foundational to constructivist learning theories and underpin much contemporary educational practices but do not always receive appropriate recognition.
- Drawing on Hans Vaihinger philosophy of ‘As If’, our recently published paper attempts to “elevate the place of fictions within teacher education” by highlighting examples of its utility across multiple areas of study.
- The barriers to embracing the role of fiction within teacher education are multifaceted but, in this paper, we identify spaces where fiction may serve as a valuable resource for student teachers.
A recent paper published in Teachers and Teaching – “Acknowledging the role of fictions within teacher education”, written by Raymond Lynch, Jennifer Hennessy and Merrilyn Goos, critically examines the role of fiction within teacher education. Drawing on Hans Vaihinger’s work, the paper begins by outlining that everyone relies upon ‘as if’ assumptions from time to time to allow them to continue to function and interact with a complex world where limits to human knowledge always exist. Throughout our individual lives, as well as at points in the history of humanity, we make and act upon fictitious ‘as if’ assumptions when knowledge is incomplete. We often act ‘as if’ our model of the world is accurate and complete. Although this is a fiction, it has an important utility as it allows us to explore and better understand the world we live in. Such acknowledgment is even more pertinent when considering the stage and level of development that students are at when interacting with the education system and teachers.
To illustrate this principle, if you hold out a tennis ball in your hand. Most people would be able to articulate a level of understanding of why the tennis ball stays elevated in the air. Many may note an appreciation of the physiological mechanisms that keep the ball in the air, acknowledging that your muscles work in tandem with the skeleton to keep the ball elevated or something similar. Others may note the work done or energy expended by the body to keep it raised. However, through the use of Socratic ‘why’ questions one may soon reach the limit of what you would expect the average 13-year-old student undertaking 1st year in post-primary school would reasonably understand. Delving deeper with further ‘why’ questions will challenge more peoples’ understanding. Why does the tennis ball not float off into the air? In response some may demonstrate an understanding of Newtonian gravity, perhaps a smaller cohort may be able to articulate an understanding of Einstein’s theory of gravity. Extending the questioning further to ask why the ball doesn’t fall through your hand may require an understanding of the electromagnetic force, the strong and weak nuclear forces. As we delve deeper, we quickly reach the limits of most people’s understanding until you finally reach the limits of contemporary scientific knowledge, at which point, fictions can help science move forward. Furthermore, fictionalism allows us to continue to play an enjoyable game of tennis while acknowledging that we don’t have complete knowledge and understanding.
In this paper we highlight the fictitious nature of the heuristics one develops throughout their life and particularly through the educational process. We emphasize the very tangible impact that fictitious believes can have on individual learning outcomes through the mechanism of “self-fulfilling prophecies”. We note the important role that teachers can play in moulding students ‘as if’ beliefs and assumptions so that they may work for the betterment of student learning. We argue for the positive role of constructive fictions in cultivating teacher optimism. We also emphasize how fictional representations and/or oversimplifications form the very core of much of the content knowledge covered in schools. Although rarely explicitly expressed as fictions, such heuristics are designed to help meet students where they are at. In so doing, we acknowledge the difficult position teachers are faced with as they attempt to maintain their position as expert in the classroom while also balancing the reality of incomplete knowledge. Finally, the paper closes by underscoring spaces within teacher education where the positive role of fictions can be explicitly acknowledged and endorsed.
