An Emergent Narrative System to Design Conducive Educational Experiences

Abstract

The authors present concepts developed at University of Naples Federico II (Italy), where the Challenge Based Learning methodology (CBL) is utilised in a programme aimed at software development for the Apple technology ecosystem. The collaborative and self-guided, inquiry-based learning method focusses on intrinsic motivation of learners, working on real world problems organised in projects (Challenges in CBL) with an experiential and progressive approach. As entrepreneurship is best promoted through practice, the programme is a guided immersion into reality that is entrepreneurial in nature, rather than a simulation of hypothetical projects, and requires learners to take ownership of entrepreneurial skills to complete the course. Academic research has shown that use of storytelling is beneficial to learning and can foster engaging and more formative experiences. Additionally, scholars have developed systems to design unscripted narratives within educational contexts using emergent narrative concepts. This conceptual chapter describes an educational experience design system that encourages unscripted, emergent narratives for experiential education. It categorises the components for designing an educational experience that allows the learning progression to be affectively driven by learners. By focussing on setting parameters and giving learners autonomy as co-authors, the model describes mechanisms that allow powerful, unscripted narratives to emerge based on intrinsic motivation. The Emergent Narrative System developed by the authors is a contribution to innovation in entrepreneurship teaching and intends to empower learners towards building entrepreneurial and twenty-first century skills complementary to software development education in a conducive and experiential learning environment.

Citation

Recke, M.P. and Perna, S. (2021), "An Emergent Narrative System to Design Conducive Educational Experiences", Jones, P., Apostolopoulos, N., Kakouris, A., Moon, C., Ratten, V. and Walmsley, A. (Ed.) Universities and Entrepreneurship: Meeting the Educational and Social Challenges (Contemporary Issues in Entrepreneurship Research, Vol. 11), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 185-198. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2040-724620210000011012