My school is Hogwarts: Students' social behavior in storified classes

Abstract

<p>For decades, educators have been exploring various ways to, not only educate, but also to create engaging classrooms and to foster positive social experiences amongst students. To these ends, many educators have now taken steps towards utilizing storification in their pedagogy and classrooms in order to appeal students and positively impact their social relationships. Research, however, is lacking around how storification impacts students' social communities. Through grounded theory methods, 10-day ethnographic fieldwork, participatory observations, interviews with 11 educational staff and focus groups with 79 students at a middle school employing a Harry Potter story theme, this research implies that storification can hinder bullying and students' antisocial behavior. The values and messages teachers delivered through the employed story and change of learning environment and pedagogy manifested teacher dedication and effort to students, which fostered their prosocial behavior in the school.</p>