Sample records for fictional works

  1. Science Fiction for Geographers: Selected Works.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Elbow, Gary S.; Martinson, Tom L.

    1980-01-01

    Explains how college level teachers of geography can use works of science fiction to help students understand geographical settings and create impressionistic pictures of a given region in their minds. Particular areas in which science fiction is useful include invented terrestrial landscapes, specialized extraterrestrial landscapes, disaster…

  2. Emotional Sentence Annotation Helps Predict Fiction Genre.

    PubMed

    Samothrakis, Spyridon; Fasli, Maria

    2015-01-01

    Fiction, a prime form of entertainment, has evolved into multiple genres which one can broadly attribute to different forms of stories. In this paper, we examine the hypothesis that works of fiction can be characterised by the emotions they portray. To investigate this hypothesis, we use the work of fictions in the Project Gutenberg and we attribute basic emotional content to each individual sentence using Ekman's model. A time-smoothed version of the emotional content for each basic emotion is used to train extremely randomized trees. We show through 10-fold Cross-Validation that the emotional content of each work of fiction can help identify each genre with significantly higher probability than random. We also show that the most important differentiator between genre novels is fear.

  3. The neurologic content of S. Weir Mitchell's fiction.

    PubMed

    Louis, Elan D; Horn, Stacy; Roth, Lisa Anne

    2006-02-14

    Silas Weir Mitchell (1829 to 1914), one of the most important neurologists in American Medicine, was known for his seminal work on the phantom limb syndrome, causalgia, and nerve injuries. He was also a prolific writer of novels and short stories. The neurologic content of this fiction has not been studied. To assess the extent that references to neurologic topics were present in Mitchell's fiction, whether these neurologic references reflected Mitchell's scientific interests and contributions, and whether his fictional accounts of neurologic topics would precede those in his scientific writings. The authors read Silas Weir Mitchell's novels and short stories. Seventeen (63.0%) of 27 fictional works contained neurologic references. Fifty-five (69.6%) of 79 references were brief (a single word or sentence). In two works, a neurologic theme was central to the plot. Some of the neurologic content was sophisticated (aphasia, brain laterality). Phantom limb syndrome, causalgia, and nerve injuries were not prominent in his fiction. Neurologic consequences of battle injuries were featured in 10 (37.0%) works. With the exception of "The Case of George Dedlow" (i.e., phantom limb syndrome), Mitchell's fictional accounts of neurologic topics followed his presentation of these topics in the scientific literature. The majority of Mitchell's fictional works contained references to neurologic topics but most contained brief references. The number of references to Mitchell's specific scientific interests (phantom limb syndrome, causalgia) was small, although more generally, references to the neurology of battle injuries occurred more frequently.

  4. Computers in Science Fiction.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kurland, Michael

    1984-01-01

    Science fiction writers' perceptions of the "thinking machine" are examined through a review of Baum's Oz books, Heinlein's "Beyond This Horizon," science fiction magazine articles, and works about robots including Asimov's "I, Robot." The future of computers in science fiction is discussed and suggested readings are listed. (MBR)

  5. To Work or Play? Junior Age Non-Fiction as Objects of Design.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Moss, Gemma

    2001-01-01

    Examines change and variation in the design of non-fiction texts which have a junior-age readership. Argues that different forms of presentation of non-fiction offer different ways of reading non-fiction texts, which as yet are neither fully described nor recognized. Suggests that non-fiction texts can be more or less firmly orientated towards…

  6. Emotional Sentence Annotation Helps Predict Fiction Genre

    PubMed Central

    Samothrakis, Spyridon; Fasli, Maria

    2015-01-01

    Fiction, a prime form of entertainment, has evolved into multiple genres which one can broadly attribute to different forms of stories. In this paper, we examine the hypothesis that works of fiction can be characterised by the emotions they portray. To investigate this hypothesis, we use the work of fictions in the Project Gutenberg and we attribute basic emotional content to each individual sentence using Ekman’s model. A time-smoothed version of the emotional content for each basic emotion is used to train extremely randomized trees. We show through 10-fold Cross-Validation that the emotional content of each work of fiction can help identify each genre with significantly higher probability than random. We also show that the most important differentiator between genre novels is fear. PMID:26524352

  7. Imaging the Alien - The Portrayal of Extraterrestrial Intelligence and SETI in Science Fiction

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Baxter, S.

    Concepts of extraterrestrial intelligence as explored in science fiction are reviewed. In particular, modern fiction based on the scenarios envisaged in SETI methodologies is described. The intention is to help make this work accessible to specialists such as the SETI and astrobiology communities. While SF is primarily fiction and is meant to entertain, the more thoughtful of such works may serve as a bank of thought experiments to assist in the development of future SETI strategies and policies.

  8. Indian - Inuit - Metis: Selected Bibliography.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Robinson, Paul

    Designed to show that native authorship is flourishing, that excellent books by non-native writers are available, and that many small and a few large companies publish these works, this bibliography of more than 200 fiction and non-fiction listings written between 1966 and 1979 contains: (1) non-fiction and fiction books and materials by native…

  9. Jane Austen's (1775-1817) references to headache: fact and fiction.

    PubMed

    Larner, A J

    2010-11-01

    References to headache in Jane Austen's works, both fictional and non-fictional, and in biographical works undertaken by Austen family members have been collated. These multiple references suggest that Jane Austen used headache as a narrative device to reflect not only physiological bodily processes but also psychological states, possibly based on her own experience of headache and that of female relations and acquaintances.

  10. Rocketry, film and fiction: the road to Sputnik

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Brake, Mark; Hook, Neil

    2007-07-01

    The launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957 was fuelled by science fiction as well as science fact. The field of early rocketry included the work of Russians Nikolai Rynin and Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, American Robert Goddard, and German engineers Herman Oberth and Wernher Von Braun. All were directly inspired and influenced by early science fiction that heralded a space age decades ahead of time. The work of these pioneers led directly to the development of the technology needed to boost Sputnik skyward. After the launch of Sputnik, the context of the nuclear arms race opened the floodgates for a new wave of apocalyptic fiction.

  11. Faulkner, Fitzgerald, and Pynchon: An Archetypal Approach to Modernism and Postmodernism in the Secondary School Curriculum.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Holsberry, Carmen W.

    This paper suggests that teachers and curriculum planners should offer an overview of American fiction that presents the recurrent archetypes of American fiction and yet also deals with the unique aspects of individual works of fiction. The major pattern of experience in American fiction is explained as the transaction of the innocent self with…

  12. From the wizard to the doubter: prototypes of scientists and engineers in fiction and non-fiction media aimed at Dutch children and teenagers.

    PubMed

    Van Gorp, Baldwin; Rommes, Els; Emons, Pascale

    2014-08-01

    The aim of this paper is to gain insight into the prototypical scientists as they appear in fiction and non-fiction media consumed by children and teenagers in The Netherlands. A qualitative-interpretive content analysis is used to identify seven prototypes and the associated characteristics in a systematic way. The results show that the element of risk is given more attention in fiction than in non-fiction. Also, eccentric scientists appear more often in fiction. In non-fiction, the dimension useful/useless is more important. Furthermore, fictional scientists are loners, although in practice scientists more often work in a team. In both fiction and non-fiction, the final product of the scientific process gets more attention than the process itself. The prototype of the doubter is introduced as an alternative to the dominant representations because it represents scientists and engineers in a more nuanced way.

  13. Expanding Knowledge Gaps: The Function of Fictions in Teaching Materials after the 2011 Swedish High School Reform

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Graeske, Caroline

    2016-01-01

    The aim in the study is to analyze how work with fiction is organized in six textbooks for senior high school in Sweden after the school reform 2011. Research into Swedish teaching materials has been neglected in recent years and there is a knowledge gap about how the work with fictions is affected by the reform in 2011. In the study quantitative…

  14. Available means: manifestations of Aristotle's three modes of rhetorical appeal in antinuclear fiction

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Mannix, P.J.

    1986-01-01

    The abundance of sympathetic scientists, military men and clergymen in antinuclear fiction reflects a public perception that authorities speak most knowledgeably about an issue. Other antinuclear works employ characters with less traditional ethical appeals: nurturing women, vital youths, and even infallible computers. Antinuclear fiction uses enthymeme and example to reflect the history of the nuclear weapons debate. Some works attach the immorality of the weapons by examining the moral dilemmas of nuclear scientists. Others admit the permanence of the nuclear threat. By arousing emotions, fiction is capable of mobilizing its audience's active support for the ideas it presents. The principalmore » emotions that various antinuclear works arouse highlight the close relationship between literature and rhetoric. The most dominant emotions, pity and fear, are the two Aristotle links to tragedy. Scorn, the principal emotion that Dr. Strangelove arouses - is the crucial emotion on which all satire depends. However, the other principal emotion in anti-nuclear fiction - hope - has principally a rhetorical function ensuring that the feelings the works provoke will be channeled constructively.« less

  15. Teaching Evolution with the Aid of Science Fiction

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bixler, Andrea

    2007-01-01

    Students obtain much misinformation from TV and movies. Teachers can use the analysis of science fiction to correct misconceptions about biology and spur students' interests in the subject. Suggestions for discussions and assignments based on literary-quality science fiction works are included.

  16. Fiction into Film: Learning Literature with a Movie Camera.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Costanzo, William V.

    1985-01-01

    Describes a "fiction into film" class course, in which students are brought to many significant insights about the workings of literature by collaborating on a short film based on a literary work. (FL)

  17. Do Women Who Write Science Fiction Do It Better?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    White, Bill

    1999-01-01

    Examines differences between male and female young adult science-fiction authors. Reviews and compares works by men and women, arguing that in many ways women handle the material better than men, despite the fact that science fiction has been a "male-dominated preserve." (AEF)

  18. Chronotopes and Timespace Contexts: Academic Identity Work Revealed in Narrative Fiction

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Pick, David; Symons, Christine; Teo, Stephen T. T.

    2017-01-01

    In this paper, academic identity work is explored through an examination of its portrayal in a work of narrative fiction using a conceptual tool from literary studies. It is found that such an approach provides insights that would otherwise be difficult to uncover by more conventional methods. The analysis reveals academic identity work as an…

  19. The medical science fiction of James White: Inside and Outside Sector General.

    PubMed

    Howard, Richard

    2016-12-01

    James White was a Northern Irish science fiction author working in the subgenre of medical science fiction from the mid-1950s to the end of the twentieth century. The aim of this article is to introduce White to scholars working in the medical humanities, pointing to features of interest and critiquing the more excessive utopian impulses of the author. The article covers White's Sector General series, set on a vast intergalactic hospital, as well as the author's standalone fictions. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

  20. Imagining the future: The Power of Climate Change Fiction

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Buhr Sullivan, S. M.; Kellagher, E.; Poppleton, K. L.

    2013-12-01

    Fiction has galvanized the public imagination around societal concerns throughout US history, on issues including slavery, worker abuse and animal cruelty. A growing body of fiction concerned with climate change, 'cli-fi', provides the opportunity for students to engage with climate science in more visceral and affective ways. The Inspiring Climate Education Excellence (ICEE) project ran a climate and energy book club from Spring 2012 through Winter 2013, in which educators, scientists and writers participated. The fictional works were intended for audiences ranging from youth through adult, with themes of dystopia, renewal, hope, oppression, and innovation. This presentation will describe the benefits, opportunities and caveats of using these works within science teaching contexts, highlight some of the works which stood out from the rest and provide an annotated bibliography of books which were included or considered.

  1. Chemistry and Science Fiction

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Stocker, Jack H.

    1998-11-01

    This lively collection looks at science as filtered through literature, film, and television. It discusses classic works in science fiction and provides an in-depth look at the chemistry depicted in popular culture, particularly in Start Trek , Star Wars , and Doctor Who . It includes an examination by Nebula Award winner Connie Willis of how science fiction authors use science, and reprints two tongue-in-cheek short stories by Isaac Asimov. The book also includes suggestions for using science fiction as an educational resource.

  2. The Female Rescuer in Newbery Fiction: Exploring the Archetype of Mother.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Roberts, Sherron Killingsworth

    2002-01-01

    Examines the identity of female characters who rescue male protagonists in three works of Newbery-winning fiction, and realizes their archetypal roles of Mother. Provides readers with a vehicle for revisiting the interaction among characters in young adult fiction. Presents a rationale for using literary criticism to help students explore how…

  3. Making James Joyce Contemporary: Recreating Classical Fiction

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Clay, Rebecca

    2015-01-01

    Can you make James Joyce's short story "Eveline" contemporary and create a modern short story based on Joyce's work? The purpose of this study was to provide a context to Joyce's short story "Eveline," illustrate the journey of my fiction writing, and expand the conversation on using classical fiction as a guide to modern short…

  4. Constellation Prizes: Using Science Fiction for Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Issues in College Classes.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Marchesani, Joseph J.

    An English professor used science fiction to introduce his students to a range of questions about alternative sexualities. While a course proposal for a science fiction class being taught as a "diversity offering" with an emphasis on gender and sexual orientation was working its way through the bureaucracy at Pennsylvania State…

  5. Are We Really the Prey? Nanotechnology as Science and Science Fiction

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bowman, Diana M.; Hodge, Graeme A.; Binks, Peter

    2007-01-01

    Popular culture can play a significant role in shaping the acceptance of evolving technologies, with nanotechnology likely to be a case in point. The most popular fiction work to date in this arena has been Michael Crichton's techno-thriller "Prey," which fuses together nanotechnology science with science fiction. Within the context of "Prey,"…

  6. Fiction for Adolescent and Young Adult Readers from Longacre Press, New Zealand.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Nixon, Helen; Comber, Barbara

    2001-01-01

    Explores fiction for adolescents and young adults published by Longacre Press, New Zealand, a small independent publishing house founded in 1994. Notes teenage fiction is a specialist area of this publisher although they also publish general nonfiction, historical, and art books. Discusses works published in the themes of clashes and coping,…

  7. Is dissociative amnesia a culture-bound syndrome? Findings from a survey of historical literature.

    PubMed

    Pope, Harrison G; Poliakoff, Michael B; Parker, Michael P; Boynes, Matthew; Hudson, James I

    2007-02-01

    Natural human psychological phenomena, such as depression, anxiety, delusions, hallucinations and dementia, are documented across the ages in both fictional and non-fictional works. We asked whether 'dissociative amnesia' was similarly documented throughout history. We advertised in three languages on more than 30 Internet web sites and discussion groups, and also in print, offering US$1000 to the first individual who could find a case of dissociative amnesia for a traumatic event in any fictional or non-fictional work before 1800. Our search generated more than 100 replies; it produced numerous examples of ordinary forgetfulness, infantile amnesia and biological amnesia throughout works in English, other European languages, Latin, Greek, Arabic, Sanskrit and Chinese before 1800, but no descriptions of individuals showing dissociative amnesia for a traumatic event. If dissociative amnesia for traumatic events were a natural psychological phenomenon, an innate capacity of the brain, then throughout the millennia before 1800, individuals would presumably have witnessed such cases and portrayed them in non-fictional works or in fictional characters. The absence of cases before 1800 cannot reasonably be explained by arguing that our ancestors understood or described psychological phenomena so differently as to make them unrecognizable to modern readers because spontaneous complete amnesia for a major traumatic event, in an otherwise lucid individual, is so graphic that it would be recognizable even through a dense veil of cultural interpretation. Therefore, it appears that dissociative amnesia is not a natural neuropsychological phenomenon, but instead a culture-bound syndrome, dating from the nineteenth century.

  8. Science Fiction: An Annotated Bibliography of Selected Resources in the University Libraries SUNY/Albany.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Osielski, Mary Y., Comp.

    This bibliography is a guide to sources of information in the field of science fiction which are available in the University Libraries at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Albany. Other libraries may find it useful as a reference tool for expanding their science fiction collections. Emphasis is on works which deal primarily with science…

  9. Conquering Fear: The Role of Fantasy and Horror Fiction in the Classroom.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Compora, Daniel P.

    Many English teachers face the widespread misconception that if a work of fiction is enjoyable, it cannot be good, or, conversely, if it is good, it cannot be enjoyable. Critics of horror fiction, for example, would likely argue that better reading materials are available for students to read. Inclusion of materials other than "classics" into the…

  10. Report from Middle-Earth: Fan Fiction Tasks in the EFL Classroom

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sauro, Shannon; Sundmark, Björn

    2016-01-01

    This study builds upon work in task-based language teaching and literary studies to explore the use of fan fiction as a pedagogical tool in a technology-enhanced university foreign language class. A task-based fan fiction project, The Blogging Hobbit, modelled on blog-based role-play storytelling found in online media fandoms, was carried out in a…

  11. Safety, Risk, and Recovery: Women and Men as Parents in Contemporary American Fiction. Working Paper No. 179.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gullette, Margaret Morganroth

    In contemporary American fiction, children are still dying. On the scale of innocence and guilt, there is a complete range, in 13 contemporary novels studied, from cases where the parents are clearly "innocent," to cases where they are clearly guilty. The novels are not about the children but instead are about the fictional midlife…

  12. Configuring Historical Facts through Historical Fiction: Agency, Art-in-Fact, and Imagination as Stepping Stones between Then and Now

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    den Heyer, Kent; Fidyk, Alexandra

    2007-01-01

    The historical fiction novel straddles the factual and the fictive recreation of past motivations that animate historical events. Through reading a work of historical fiction, Ursula Hegi's novel "Stones from the River," Kent den Heyer and Alexandra Fidyk offer a theoretical consideration of the following questions and their classroom…

  13. Writing Letchworth's War: Developing a Sense of the Local within Historical Fiction through Primary Sources

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Grant, Jon; Townsend, Dan

    2014-01-01

    Local history, historical fiction, and one of the most significant events of the twentieth century come together in this article as Jon Grant and Dan Townsend suggest a way to enable students to produce better historical fiction and improve their understanding of the history of their own area. They develop the work on historical fiction…

  14. Modern Middle Eastern Fiction: An Approach to Studying the Area.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Stone, Frank A., Comp.

    The annotated listing cites Middle Eastern fiction which has been translated into English and can be used in humanities or social studies classes at the secondary level. The eight works of fiction listed contain materials that can be used to investigate the following topics: 1) contrasts between urban and village styles of life in the Middle East;…

  15. More than "Cool Science": Science Fiction and Fact in the Classroom

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Singh, Vandana

    2014-02-01

    The unfortunate negative attitude toward physics among many students, including science majors, warrants creative approaches to teaching required physics courses. One such approach is to integrate science fiction into the curriculum, either in the form of movies or the written word. Historically this has been done since at least the 1970s, and by now many universities and colleges have courses that incorporate science fiction stories or film. The intent appears to be to a) increase student interest in physics, b) increase the imaginative grasp of the student, and c) enable a clearer understanding of physics concepts. Reports on these experiments, from Freedman and Little's classic 1980 paper to more recent work like that of Dubeck et al.,2 Dark,3 and Smith,4 indicate that such innovative approaches do work. I was curious as to whether a combination of science fiction and science fact (in the form of a science news article) might enhance the benefits of including science fiction. Below I describe how I used a science fiction story along with a science article on a related theme to pique the interest of students in a new and exciting area of research that was nevertheless connected to the course material.

  16. "Fist, Stick, Knife, Gun": Getting Real in Upward Bound.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Pace, Barbara G.; Adkins, Theresa A.

    2002-01-01

    Describes how a teacher found literature for Upward Bound students. Presents Geoffrey Canada's "Fist, Stick, Knife, Gun: A Personal History of Violence in America" as a nonfiction work to provide clarity and connections that might not have been available in a fictional work, yet it had elements of literary fiction that made the text…

  17. The Marble in the Water: Essays on Contemporary Writers of Fiction for Children and Young Adults.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rees, David

    The purposes of this collection of 15 essays on specific works of fiction for children and adolescents are threefold: to explore some of the similarities and differences in fiction for children in England and the United States; to point out some of the qualities of American literature that are of particular interest to children in England and to…

  18. The Chicana Subject in Ana Castillo's Fiction and the Discursive Zone of Chicana/o Theory

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Carson, Benjamin D.

    2007-01-01

    In the world of Chicana fiction, Ana Castillo has achieved the kind of status Maxine Hong Kingston has attained within Asian American discourse. Castillo's work is popular not only with the general reading public but in many academic circles as well. What sets Castillo apart from so many other Chicana fiction writers is that she is also a…

  19. Maurice Gee's Brilliant Borrowings of Maurice Gee and Significant Others: Realism and Postmodernism in Gee's Books for Children and Adults

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    van Rij, Vivien

    2013-01-01

    This paper examines the work of one of New Zealand's most acclaimed writers, Maurice Gee, and the use of his children's fiction as an experimental ground for postmodernist techniques further developed in his writing for adults. In particular, it considers Gee's borrowings of his own and others' non-fictional and fictional material, to produce…

  20. Case Study of Using Resources about Sonar Operators To Teach Instructional Design.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mclellan, Hilary

    1993-01-01

    Describes a fictional account of the work of a submarine sonar operator ("The Hunt for Red October" by Tom Clancy) that captures the practitioner in a complex real-world work context featuring sophisticated electronic technologies. Describes how fiction can be adapted for and used as a basis for instructional design students to explore…

  1. From County Cork to New York: The Emigration of Megan O'Rourke (A Work of Historical Fiction).

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Social Education, 2000

    2000-01-01

    Presents the story of Megan O'Rourke and her family from their life in Ireland, the experience of living through the Great Irish Famine, and their journey to New York City. States that this is a work of historical fiction. Includes a glossary of terms, questions, and activities. (CMK)

  2. Chemistry and Detective Fiction.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Labianca, Dominick A.; Reeves, William J.

    1981-01-01

    Describes an interdisciplinary program consisting of two courses. The first course deals with the chemistry of drugs and poisons; the second course focuses on fictional works in which these drugs and poisons are central to the plots. (SK)

  3. PUSH(ing) Limits: Using Fiction in the Classroom for Human Behavior and the Social Environment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mendoza, Natasha S.; Bonta, Kimberly; Horn, Philip; Moore, Erin; Gibson, Allison; Simmons, David

    2012-01-01

    The use of fiction and autobiography in social science course work has been shown to enhance students' learning experience. Using the novel PUSH, by Sapphire, we designed a curriculum supplement for the social work course, human behavior and the social environment (HBSE) that encourages students to integrate course content in an innovative way and…

  4. Passionate Virtue: Conceptions of Medical Professionalism in Popular Romance Fiction.

    PubMed

    Miller, Jessica

    2015-01-01

    Medical romance fiction is a subgenre of popular romance fiction that features medical professionals in their work environment. This essay explores the way professionalism is portrayed in popular medical romance fiction written during the early twenty-first century, a period of significant disruption in both the public image and self-understanding of organized medicine. I analyze a selection of contemporary medical romance novels, published between 2008 and 2012, demonstrating that medical romance fiction is a form of public intervention in apparently insular debates over medical professionalism. I conclude that they promote "nostalgic professionalism," a vision of physicians as a select group of highly educated, self-regulated experts who provide, with a caring and altruistic attitude, a vitally important service to society, while at the same time generating implicit critiques of it.

  5. Issues in Software System Safety: Polly Ann Smith Co. versus Ned I. Ludd

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Holloway, C. Michael

    2002-01-01

    This paper is a work of fiction, but it is fiction with a very real purpose: to stimulate careful thought and friendly discussion about some questions for which thought is often careless and discussion is often unfriendly. To accomplish this purpose, the paper creates a fictional legal case. The most important issue in this fictional case is whether certain proffered expert testimony about software engineering for safety critical systems should be admitted. Resolving this issue requires deciding the extent to which current practices and research in software engineering, especially for safety-critical systems, can rightly be considered based on knowledge, rather than opinion.

  6. Astrosociology and Science Fiction: a Synergy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Caroti, Simone

    2010-01-01

    Both astrosociology and science fiction have claimed outer space as their preferred turf. Astrosociology did so in order to study the impact of space on human societies, and to develop a set of protocols that earthbound governments can utilize to prepare us for the next phase of humanity's adventure outside our home planet. Science fiction, on the other hand, found in outer space a fitting environment for dramatizing in a work of fiction the potential outcomes attending the kind of decision astrosociology is trying to foster in actuality. This paper explores the relationship between the two fields, and examines ways in which science fiction can contribute to the creation of an astrosociological consciousness. Particular attention will be given to the most relevant commonality that the two fields share: both astrosociology and science fiction are earthbound disciplines, areas of inquiry created by those who never left earth for those who never left earth. They can potentially function as partners in the endeavor of educating the bulk of humanity on the subject of space flight and space colonization.

  7. Reading literary fiction improves theory of mind.

    PubMed

    Kidd, David Comer; Castano, Emanuele

    2013-10-18

    Understanding others' mental states is a crucial skill that enables the complex social relationships that characterize human societies. Yet little research has investigated what fosters this skill, which is known as Theory of Mind (ToM), in adults. We present five experiments showing that reading literary fiction led to better performance on tests of affective ToM (experiments 1 to 5) and cognitive ToM (experiments 4 and 5) compared with reading nonfiction (experiments 1), popular fiction (experiments 2 to 5), or nothing at all (experiments 2 and 5). Specifically, these results show that reading literary fiction temporarily enhances ToM. More broadly, they suggest that ToM may be influenced by engagement with works of art.

  8. The Science in Science Fiction: Using Popular Entertainment as a Gateway

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Basri, Gibor S.

    2011-05-01

    Science fiction on television and in movies reaches a wide audience of young people. Some of them are avid fans of particular stories, and more are enthralled by some of the special effects and other science fiction themes that have become ever more compelling as media technology improves. It actually doesn't matter whether the physics behind the science fiction is solid, the latest in speculative theory, or absolute nonsense - all provide a backdrop against which to present solid science. I'll talk about the opportunities provided by a few recent series and movies and how they can be woven into discussions of physics, astrophysics, or how science really works.

  9. Censorship in All Seasons: Considering the Fiction of the Past, the Present, and the Future to Help Students Understanding the Concept of Censorship in Our World Today.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Boreen, Jean

    A curriculum that asks students to consider the implications of censorship would include not only "Fahrenheit 451" but also other works of adolescent literature, Holocaust literature, and science fiction. Works written about the Holocaust, which can be considered a type of absolute censorship, help students to consider censorship's…

  10. Q&A: The sci-fi optimist

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Merali, Zeeya

    2014-09-01

    Best-selling science-fiction writer Neal Stephenson's works cover everything from cryptography to Sumerian mythology. Ahead of next year's novel Seveneves, he talks about his influences, the stagnation in material technologies, and Hieroglyph, the forthcoming science-fiction anthology that he kick-started to stimulate the next generation of engineers.

  11. Making Fanfic: The (Academic) Tensions of Fan Fiction as Self-Publication

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Murdock, Chelsea

    2017-01-01

    This article considers fan fiction as (self-)publication, particularly noting the tensions between institutional notions of textual production within academia and how fan writing works against paradigms of publishing espoused in higher education. Such tensions are indicative of institutional pressures for "legitimate" publications.…

  12. Looking Very Old Age in the Eye: A Nuanced Approach to the Fourth Age in Contemporary Irish Fiction: A Case Study.

    PubMed

    Zamorano Llena, Carmen

    2018-04-21

    Associations of young-old age with successful aging have contributed to relegating negatively perceived aspects of aging to very old age. This has prompted the formation of the social imaginary of the fourth age. Re-examinations of the fourth age foreground the diversity of aging experiences among the oldest old. In this sense, literature is in a privileged position to contribute individual narratives of aging to this field. The main aim of this article is to analyze Irish writer Jennifer Johnston's later fiction and how particularly two of her later fictional works contribute a nuanced re-examination of the fourth age through the narrativization of individual aging experiences of the oldest old in the contemporary Irish context. The work of sociologists and social theorists on re-examinations of the fourth age functions as the framework to analyze the selected fictional texts. The analysis of the oldest old characters in Truth or Fiction and Naming the Stars shows the contribution of literary texts to rethinking the fourth age as a time characterized by the inextricable combination of gains and losses, with emphasis on the diversity of the aging experiences of the oldest old and on the importance of sociocultural influence on individual aging. Combining longitudinal analyses with case studies, such as the ones suggested by these fictional texts, can provide a more accurate knowledge of the experience of advanced old age and the fourth age.

  13. Custom Orthotics Changed My Life

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Holeton, Richard

    2010-01-01

    The narrator relates his life's downward spiral and miraculous rebound from severe foot problems using animated bullet points, images, charts, and graphs. "Custom Orthotics Changed My Life" is a work of presentation fiction, or slideshow fiction, in the form of a video with an original soundtrack. The music was composed by David Kettler, a…

  14. Censorship in Young Adult Fiction: What's Out There and What Should Be.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Holland, Suzann

    2002-01-01

    Discussion of censorship of young adult books focuses on works of fiction that deal with censorship. Includes 14 annotated bibliographies; discusses stereotyped views of censors; and considers types of materials that have not been discussed in novels regarding censorship, including music and Internet filters. (LRW)

  15. Teaching Girls To Be Girls: Young Adult Series Fiction.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Motes, Julia J.

    1998-01-01

    Investigates messages readers are offered in young adult series fiction regarding female identity and roles. Finds blatant messages concerning females' relationships to themselves, to other females, and to males. Describes various classroom strategies to help readers work through texts and become conscious of the messages in the texts and what…

  16. Representing the Inuit in Contemporary British and Canadian Juvenile Non-Fiction.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    David, Robert G.

    2001-01-01

    Examines text and pictorial representations of the Inuit in juvenile reference books and in geographical and historical juvenile non-fiction works. Finds continuing prevalence of a wide range of stereotypes. Identifies strengths and weaknesses of a variety of such representations, aided by a discussion group of Inuit people. (SR)

  17. Illuminating Common Ground: Script Writing, Fiction and the 7Ws.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rike, Elizabeth K.

    1996-01-01

    Describes the ongoing work of a teacher whose Summer Institute for Drama/Teacher Education at the University of Tennessee provides training for both theater and classroom teachers. Focuses on her teaching method--improvisational drama--which simultaneously addresses elements common to fiction and script writing, and now contained in the language…

  18. Mathematical Fiction: Its Place in Secondary-School Mathematics Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Padula, Janice

    2005-01-01

    This article contains a small selection of mathematical fiction chosen with the teaching of mathematics in secondary school in mind. However, an attempt is made to classify the works and provide a few ideas about how these items may be used by mathematics teachers, sometimes, but not necessarily, in collaboration with science and humanities…

  19. Loving and Loathing: Portrayals of School Mathematics in Young Adult Fiction

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Darragh, Lisa

    2018-01-01

    Images of mathematics and mathematicians are often negative and stereotyped. These portrayals may work to construct our impressions of mathematics and influence students' identity with and future participation in the subject. This study examined young adult fiction as a context in which school mathematics is portrayed and constructed. I used…

  20. Online Fan Practices and CALL

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sauro, Shannon

    2017-01-01

    This article provides a narrative overview of research on online fan practices for language and literacy learning, use, and identity work. I begin with an introduction to online fan communities and common fan practices found in these online affinity spaces, the best known of which is fan fiction, fictional writing that reinterprets and remixes the…

  1. L Ron Hubbard's science fiction quest against psychiatry.

    PubMed

    Hirshbein, Laura

    2016-12-01

    Layfayette Ronald Hubbard (1911-1986) was a colourful and prolific American writer of science fiction in the 1930s and 1940s. During the time between his two decades of productivity and his return to science fiction in 1980, Hubbard founded the Church of Scientology. In addition to its controversial status as a religion and its troubling pattern of intimidation and litigation directed towards its foes, Scientology is well known as an organised opponent to psychiatry. This paper looks at Hubbard's science fiction work to help understand the evolution of Scientology's antipsychiatry stance, as well as the alternative to psychiatry offered by Hubbard. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

  2. Fiction reading has a small positive impact on social cognition: A meta-analysis.

    PubMed

    Dodell-Feder, David; Tamir, Diana I

    2018-02-26

    Scholars from both the social sciences and the humanities have credited fiction reading with a range of positive real-world social effects. Research in psychology has suggested that readers may make good citizens because fiction reading is associated with better social cognition. But does fiction reading causally improve social cognition? Here, we meta-analyze extant published and unpublished experimental data to address this question. Multilevel random-effects meta-analysis of 53 effect sizes from 14 studies demonstrated that it does: compared to nonfiction reading and no reading, fiction reading leads to a small, statistically significant improvement in social-cognitive performance (g = .15-.16). This effect is robust across sensitivity analyses and does not appear to be the result of publication bias. We recommend that in future work, researchers use more robust reading manipulations, assess whether the effects transfer to improved real-world social functioning, and investigate mechanisms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

  3. Asia: A Guide to Books for Children.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wiese, M. Bernice, Comp.; And Others

    This list of over 300 fiction and non-fiction books on Asian countries is designed as a tool for teachers who desire to select works which will foster in children an interest in Asian nations and a knowledge of customs, daily life and culture of the people. All facets of each country are considered -- the land, people, history, customs,…

  4. The Arab-Israeli Conflict as Depicted in Children's and Young Adult Non-Fiction Literature.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rock, Marlene

    Although the Arab-Israeli conflict has been ongoing for half a century, there exists no definitive annotated bibliography of relevant, educational, and representative non-fiction works for children and young adults. Worldwide interest in the Arab-Israeli conflict has prompted an increasing demand by librarians, students, scholars, and the general…

  5. Bringing the Book to Life: Responding to Historical Fiction Using Digital Storytelling

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kesler, Ted; Gibson, Lenwood, Jr.; Turansky, Christine

    2016-01-01

    Using participatory action research, the first researcher functioned as co-teacher in a fifth-grade class in a large northeastern city public school. The researcher and classroom teacher guided 28 students working in book clubs to compose digital stories in response to historical fiction. The research questions were: (a) What interpretations did…

  6. Clinical Supervision and Professional Development Using Clients from Literature, Popular Fiction, and Entertainment Media

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Schwitzer, Alan M.; Boyce, Debra; Cody, Patricia; Holman, Angela; Stein, Jackie

    2005-01-01

    The use of clinical supervision is central to mental health work. In this article, the authors propose using practice cases drawn from characters found in literature, popular fiction, biographies, television, and movies as one method for clinical supervision and professional development in the mental health skill areas of client assessment, case…

  7. Chemistry in Victorian Detective Fiction: "A Race with the Sun"

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Last, Arthur M.

    2012-01-01

    The late-Victorian era provided aficionados of detective fiction with an abundance of short stories belonging to this literary genre. Many of these works contained some aspect of chemistry, either in the execution of a crime or in the identification of the perpetrator. In the example discussed in this article, the gas-phase reaction of hydrogen…

  8. Adolescents Composing Fiction in Digital Game and Written Formats: Tacit, Explicit and Metacognitive Strategies

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    McClay, Jill Kedersha; Mackey, Margaret; Carbonaro, Mike; Szafron, Duane; Schaeffer, Jonathan

    2007-01-01

    This article reports on a study of 23 tenth-grade students who created fiction in digital game and written formats. The researchers observed them at work, analysed their stories in both formats, and interviewed selected students to learn what affordances and constraints they demonstrate and/or articulate in such authoring. The students used…

  9. Cognitive Fictions of Classroom Teachers about the Values They Possess: A Phenomenological Analysis

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bektas, Fatih

    2012-01-01

    The purpose of the present study is to examine cognitive fictions of classroom teachers about the values they possess. The study was designed with a phenomenological pattern, which is a qualitative research pattern. It was conducted with 20 classroom teachers who work in the central Yakutiye district of Erzurum who were chosen via criterion…

  10. The cognitive science of fiction.

    PubMed

    Oatley, Keith

    2012-07-01

    Fiction might be dismissed as observations that lack reliability and validity, but this would be a misunderstanding. Works of fiction are simulations that run on minds. They were the first kinds of simulation. All art has a metaphorical quality: a painting can be both pigments on canvas and a person. In literary art, this quality extends to readers who can be both themselves and, by empathetic processes within a simulation, also literary characters. On the basis of this hypothesis, it was found that the more fiction people read the better were their skills of empathy and theory-of-mind; the inference from several studies is that reading fiction improves social skills. In functional magnetic resonance imaging meta-analyses, brain areas concerned with understanding narrative stories were found to overlap with those concerned with theory-of-mind. In an orthogonal effect, reading artistic literature was found to enable people to change their personality by small increments, not by a writer's persuasion, but in their own way. This effect was due to artistic merit of a text, irrespective of whether it was fiction or non-fiction. An empirically based conception of literary art might be carefully constructed verbal material that enables self-directed personal change. WIREs Cogn Sci 2012, 3:425-430. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1185 For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  11. The neuroaesthetics of prose fiction: pitfalls, parameters and prospects.

    PubMed

    Burke, Michael

    2015-01-01

    There is a paucity of neuroaesthetic studies on prose fiction. This is in contrast to the very many impressive studies that have been conducted in recent times on the neuroaesthetics of sister arts such as painting, music and dance. Why might this be the case, what are its causes and, of greatest importance, how can it best be resolved? In this article, the pitfalls, parameters and prospects of a neuroaesthetics of prose fiction will be explored. The article itself is part critical review, part methodological proposal and part opinion paper. Its aim is simple: to stimulate, excite and energize thinking in the discipline as to how prose fiction might be fully integrated in the canon of neuroaesthetics and to point to opportunities where neuroimaging studies on literary discourse processing might be conducted in collaborative work bringing humanists and scientists together.

  12. The neuroaesthetics of prose fiction: pitfalls, parameters and prospects

    PubMed Central

    Burke, Michael

    2015-01-01

    There is a paucity of neuroaesthetic studies on prose fiction. This is in contrast to the very many impressive studies that have been conducted in recent times on the neuroaesthetics of sister arts such as painting, music and dance. Why might this be the case, what are its causes and, of greatest importance, how can it best be resolved? In this article, the pitfalls, parameters and prospects of a neuroaesthetics of prose fiction will be explored. The article itself is part critical review, part methodological proposal and part opinion paper. Its aim is simple: to stimulate, excite and energize thinking in the discipline as to how prose fiction might be fully integrated in the canon of neuroaesthetics and to point to opportunities where neuroimaging studies on literary discourse processing might be conducted in collaborative work bringing humanists and scientists together. PMID:26283953

  13. The Discovery of the Future: The Ways Science Fiction Developed. Miscellaneous Publication 13.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gunn, James

    This booklet discusses the development of science fiction, tracing its origins to the time of the industrial revolution. Many of the people of this time realized that life was changing and would continue to change, that there were new forces at work in the world, and that humankind should exercise some forethought about the direction in which…

  14. Some Fictional Stereotypes of Women in 20th Century American Fiction.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gladstein, Mimi Reisel

    The three last American writers to win the Nobel Prize represent American male novelists who have been unable either to come to terms with the "Otherness" of the female or to draw convincing portraits of women. As a result, women in their works are presented as female stereotypes of one kind or another. Hemingway shows a split attitude…

  15. The Image of War Correspondents in Anglo-American Fiction. Journalism Monographs Number Ninety-Seven.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Good, Howard

    The work of war correspondents involves violence, danger, and drama; and what they endure to get a story is often as interesting as the actual news itself. Anglo-American fiction tends toward an ironic, even cynical, view of combat reporting that serves as a corrective to the notion, fostered in journalists' autobiographies, that war is fun. It…

  16. Drug Themes in Fiction. National Institute on Drug Abuse Research Issues 10.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Diehl, Digby

    This essay is a survey of selected literary works of fiction with drug-related thematic content. The themes represented in the survey reflect popular American attitudes toward drugs from pre-World War II through the 1970's. The roots of these themes, beginning with 17th century French cultural attitudes are explained. The subject has been treated…

  17. The demonisation of psychiatrists in fiction (and why real psychiatrists might want to do something about it)

    PubMed Central

    Hopson, Jacqueline

    2014-01-01

    To encourage psychiatric practitioners to be aware of and to work to counteract the representations of the profession as evil manipulators in fiction, film and popular culture. A wide-ranging number of representative sources portraying psychiatrists are explored. It is demonstrated that psychiatry is overwhelmingly presented in a damagingly negative light. PMID:25237540

  18. Synthesizing Current Views of Audience: Notes toward a Fuller Understanding of Audience.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Roen, Duane H.

    The concept of audience has emerged as a central theme in many scholarly discussions. Walter Ong focuses on fiction and believes that what has been said about fictional narrative applies to all writing. Lev Vygotsky offers the view that students work in the zone of proximal development and observes that thought itself develops as a result of our…

  19. Active imagination and the analysis of film.

    PubMed

    Izod, J

    2000-04-01

    The emotions aroused by the pleasure-generating mechanisms of the cinema are usually benign because they refer to a virtual world. Experiencing affects aroused by fictions can resemble being drawn into a rehearsal for a possible, imagined future that just might (but more likely never will) occur in the individual's life in the real world. Movie-goers, no less than the readers of novels, actively engage with the symbols that film makers inscribe in the screen text. In so doing, they take a measure of control over elements of the fiction. Screened fiction has thus the potential to help the individual grow in self-awareness. Shifting its focus to the work of the film critic, the paper argues that, suitably adapted to the requirements of working with a pre-recorded film or tape, Jung's concept of the active imagination helps us to model, license, limit and endorse the subjective element in textual analysis. Because the method proposed makes it possible formally to recognize that the interpretation of fiction is inevitably integrated with the analyst's personality, interpretation is always a matter of a reader bringing a text into being rather than disinterring a pre-existing object.

  20. Languages of the heart: the biomedical and the metaphorical in American fiction.

    PubMed

    Oldfield, Benjamin J; Jones, David S

    2014-01-01

    The role of heart disease in American fiction has received less attention from scholars of literature, history, and medicine than have portrayals of tuberculosis, cancer, or HIV/AIDS, despite the fact that heart disease topped mortality charts for most of the 20th century. This article surveys manifestations of coronary artery disease in popular works of 20th-century American fiction to trace how authors and their protagonists grappled with the disease while knowledge of pathophysiology and therapeutics evolved. Countering Susan Sontag's mechanistic vision of patient encounters-where disease is absent of metaphor-we pair popular fiction with concurrent historical analysis to show that the proliferation of technological narratives of cardiac therapeutics could not displace the deeply symbolic nature of characters' encounters with heart disease. Because of the limited ability of the biomedical narrative to convey the meanings of disease and treatments, doctors and patients need to communicate through the rich possibilities of metaphor.

  1. Lend Me Your Ears: The Truth in the Fiction of The Glass Bees by Ernst Junger

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Goudreau, Kim

    2010-01-01

    "The Glass Bees" by Ernst Junger was first published in Germany in 1957. It is a speculative fictional work that foretells much of what today is the reality of life in a technological society. Of particular import is his portrayal of the ambiguity of human character and moral guideposts that leave only power to mediate human relationships. These…

  2. Free Speech and Human Rights: International Filmmaker Exchange as a Key Component For U.S. National Security and Promotion of U.S. and Global Values

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2009-06-11

    children see   87 Ibid.  88 Ibid.   54 or hear on TV (61%), in music lyrics (61%), video games (60%) and movies (56%).ඡ These revealing...writers of fiction, non-fiction, essays , playwrights, poets, journalists, and screenwriters from different countries to work on specific projects

  3. A "Fine Balance" in Truth and Fiction: Exploring Globalization's Impacts on Community and Implications for Adult Learning in Rohinton Mistry's Novel and Related Literature

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Jubas, Kaela

    2005-01-01

    Globalization continues to interest researchers and practitioners as it unfolds around us. This article contributes to the analysis of globalization's discourse, objectives and outcomes, by exploring the impact of globalization on community and its implications for adult learning. Using selected themes from a work of fiction to frame this…

  4. T. rex and Godzilla: Finding Science in Science Fiction

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Engelmann, G. F.; Chure, D. J.

    2017-12-01

    Works of fiction act as a powerful vehicle for inculcating an intuitive understanding (or misunderstanding) of scientific concepts in the audience. They can communicate information about scientific phenomena or how science is done. These entertainments can contribute to scientific literacy of the public and provide valuable outreach opportunities, but scientific accuracy is rarely even a minor consideration in developing fictional stories. Science educators can still make use of popular fiction to promote science education and outreach. Varied approaches have focused on the physical science in classic space operas, but historical sciences can make use of public interest in fictional tales involving prehistoric creatures and settings. Dinosaurs like T. rex inspire awe and widespread popular appeal that can nurture an interest in fossils but also serves as a gateway to all the other sciences on which paleontology depends, and to the scientific endeavor itself. But the portrayal of dinosaurs has met with negative criticism of details that is not likely to be productive of further discussion and learning. Perhaps it is not so important that authors and film makers didn't get it right; that "correctness" of terms and reconstructions is less important than the opportunity to improve public understanding of how science works; to cultivate a habit of critical thinking and an analytical approach to interpreting the world. Dinosaurs and other long extinct creatures can provide examples of how we know what we know; what kind of evidence is available and how it can be interpreted; how creative framing of hypotheses allows imaginative conjectures to be constrained by observations. They can open informative discussions of how scientists work in gathering data and developing and testing hypotheses. For example, how do paleontologists find fossils? Monsters, unrealistic fantasy creatures like Godzilla, have great charismatic appeal, and can prompt discussions of the obstacles posed by physical laws to the actual existence of such phenomena, such as the effects of such large scale on mass and inertia. Alternatively, one could undertake a scientifically constrained flight of fancy that considers what properties would be needed to make such fantastic beasts possible. Imagination and creativity can bring real science to fiction.

  5. [Santiago Ramon y Cajal in literature, cinema and television].

    PubMed

    Collado-Vazquez, S; Carrillo, J M

    2016-11-16

    The life and work of Santiago Ramon y Cajal has been portrayed in scientific papers, biographical and autobiographical works, comics, films, television series or documentaries that have attempted to reflect upon his life or his contributions to science and to bring him closer to the general public. To analyse the different ways Santiago Ramon y Cajal has been represented in literature, cinema and television, and to become more closely acquainted with this scientist through his fictional writings. A number of biographical works have been written about Santiago Ramon y Cajal, including scientific papers, comics, books for children and youngsters, as well as the autobiographical writings, essays and even science fiction stories, which provide a good introduction to the life of the scientist and his work. His life has also been adapted to film (Leap to fame) or television (Ramon y Cajal, historia de una voluntad; The butterflies of the soul), which have, with varying degrees of success and accuracy, made him better known to the general population. The numerous biographical writings, historical notes, articles, the scientific work itself, the essays and fictional works by Cajal, as well as the portrayals of the Spanish Nobel Prize winner produced for films and television, can be used to obtain some interesting insights into the scientist, teacher, science populariser, humanist physician and, in short, the man who made such important contributions to neuroscience.

  6. The effect of historical, non-fiction, trade books on third-grade students' perceptions of scientists

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Farland, Donna Lynn

    Researchers do not know what, if any, specific influence such stereotypical images have on the shaping of children's perceptions in science (Schibeci & Sorenson, 1983), but the indications are that stereotypical images translate into negative perceptions of science. Commonly held stereotypic images are in direct opposition to what students should understand about science as identified by the National Science Education Standards (1996) in which learning about 'Science as a Human Endeavor' begins as early as grades K--4. Nationally, many schools are moving toward kit-based science instruction, which generally consists of a series of guided discovery activities that lead children toward description and understanding of scientific phenomena. It is proposed that by supplementing these kits with historical, non-fiction, trade books, children will gain a broader understanding of the diversity of scientists, their work, and the variety of places science is done. No studies, to date, have been conducted to examine students' understanding of the concepts included in 'Science as a Human Endeavor' as they receive kit-based science instruction. This research has been designed to answer the following question: Does the inclusion of historical, non-fiction, trade books, presenting scientists as people working with or developing an idea, as part of kit-based science instruction influence third grade students' representations of the contemporary scientist and his/her work? It was found that students who were read historical, non-fiction, trade books in conjunction with kit-based instruction demonstrated significant differences in their drawings of scientists from those produced by students who were not exposed to the trade books with respect to two criteria; appearance of scientists, and the activity performed by scientists. This study also revealed that students were able to maintain the improvement in their representations of scientists four weeks after the intervention had ended. This study indicates that there is a need for explicit teaching of the concepts of 'Science as a Human Endeavor'. It is suggested that historical, non-fiction, trade books provide the means by which third grade students gain a broader understanding of who does science and what their work involves. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

  7. Traumaculture and Telepathetic Cyber Fiction

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Drinkall, Jacquelene

    This paper explores the interactive CD-ROM No Other Symptoms: Time Travelling with Rosalind Brodsky, usingtelepathetic socio-psychological, psychoanalytic and narrative theories. The CD-ROMexists as a contemporary artwork and published interactive hardcover book authored by painter and new-media visual artist Suzanne Treister. The artwork incorporates Treister's paintings, writing, photoshop, animation, video and audio work with narrative structures taken from world history, the history of psychoanalysis, futurist science and science fiction, family history and biography.

  8. The World of Science Fiction.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Schwartz, Sheila

    1971-01-01

    Science fiction is discussed from the following standpoints: What Is Science Fiction?; The History of Science Fiction; and The Themes of Science Fiction. A list of films, books, and records about science fiction is given. (DB)

  9. Adaptation of fictional and online conversations to communication media

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Alis, C. M.; Lim, M. T.

    2012-12-01

    Conversations allow the quick transfer of short bits of information and it is reasonable to expect that changes in communication medium affect how we converse. Using conversations in works of fiction and in an online social networking platform, we show that the utterance length of conversations is slowly shortening with time but adapts more strongly to the constraints of the communication medium. This indicates that the introduction of any new medium of communication can affect the way natural language evolves.

  10. Dogs and Monsters: Moral Status Claims in the Fiction of Dean Koontz.

    PubMed

    Smith, Stephen W

    2016-03-01

    This article explores conceptions of moral status in the work of American thriller author Dean Koontz. It begins by examining some of the general theories of moral status used by philosophers to determine whether particular entities have moral status. This includes both uni-criterial theories and multi-criterial theories of moral status. After this examination, the article argues for exploring bioethics conceptions in popular fiction. Popular fiction is considered a rich source for analysis because it provides not only a good approximation of the beliefs of ordinary members of the moral community, but also explores important issues in a context where ordinary individuals are likely to encounter them. Following on from this, the article then explores theories of moral status in the context of Koontz's novels. In particular, the article focuses on the novel Watchers and Koontz's Frankenstein series. Through these works, Koontz indicates that entities have moral status for a variety of reasons and thus presumably, he is a proponent of multi-criterial theories of moral status. The article concludes with an examination of what this might mean for our understanding of moral status claims generally.

  11. Categorizing moving objects into film genres: the effect of animacy attribution, emotional response, and the deviation from non-fiction.

    PubMed

    Visch, Valentijn T; Tan, Ed S

    2009-02-01

    The reported study follows the footsteps of Heider, and Simmel (1944) [Heider, F., & Simmel, M. (1944). An experimental study of apparent behavior. American Journal of Psychology, 57, 243-249] and Michotte (1946/1963) [Michotte, A. (1963). The perception of causality (T.R. Miles & E. Miles, Trans.). London: Methuen (Original work published 1946)] who demonstrated the role of object movement in attributions of life-likeness to figures. It goes one step further in studying the categorization of film scenes as to genre as a function of object movements. In an animated film scene portraying a chase, movements of the chasing object were systematically varied as to parameters: velocity, efficiency, fluency, detail, and deformation. The object movements were categorized by viewers into genres: non-fiction, comedy, drama, and action. Besides this categorization, viewers rated their animacy attribution and emotional response. Results showed that non-expert viewers were consistent in categorizing the genres according to object movement parameters. The size of its deviation from the unmanipulated movement scene determined the assignment of any target scene to one of the fiction genres: small and moderate deviations resulted in categorization as drama and action, and large deviations as comedy. The results suggest that genre classification is achieved by, at least, three distinct cognitive processes: (a) animacy attribution, which influences the fiction versus non-fiction classification; (b) emotional responses, which influences the classification of a specific fiction genre; and (c) the amount of deviation from reality, at least with regard to movements.

  12. Micromégas: Altered Body-Environment Scaling in Literary Fiction.

    PubMed

    Dieguez, Sebastian

    2016-01-01

    Architectonic embodiment postulates a bidirectional link between bodily awareness and the architectural environment. The standard size and features of the human body, for instance, are thought to influence the structure of interiors and buildings, as well as their perception and appreciation. Whereas architectural practice and theory, the visual arts and more recently the cognitive sciences have explored this relationship of humans with their crafted environments, many fictional literary works have long experimented with alterations of body-environment scaling. This so-called Gulliver theme - popular in the science-fiction genre but also in children's literature and philosophical satire - reveals, as a recurrent thought-experiment, our preoccupation with proportions and our fascination for the infinitely small and large. Here I provide an overview of the altered scaling theme in literature, including classics such as Voltaire's Micromégas, Swift's Gulliver's Travels, Caroll's Alice, and Matheson's The Shrinking man, closely examining issues relevant to architectonic embodiment such as: bodily, perceptual, cognitive, affective, and social changes related to alterations in body size relative to people, objects and architectural environments. I next provide a taxonomy of the Gulliver theme and highlight its main psychological features, and then proceed to review relevant work from cognitive science. Although fictional alterations of body-environment scaling far outreach current possibilities in experimental research, I argue that the peripetiae and morals outlined in the literary realm, as products of the human imagination, provide a unique window into the folk-psychology of body and space.

  13. 'Limbitless Solutions': the Prosthetic Arm, Iron Man and the Science Fiction of Technoscience.

    PubMed

    Smith, Susan

    2016-12-01

    Early last year, a non-profit organisation called 'Limbitless Solutions' modelled a 3D printed prosthetic arm on a fighting suit that features in the popular superhero film series, Iron Man (2008-2013). In addition, 'Limbitless Solutions' resourcefully deployed the fictional character and inventor of the Iron Man suit, weapons specialist and philanthropist, Tony Stark, played by Robert Downey Jr, in a celebrity/superhero endorsed promotional short film, showing 'Tony', the 'real Iron Man', gifting the futuristic military styled 'gauntlet' to Alex, a 7-year-old boy with a partially developed right arm. Engaging with scholarly work on the science fiction of technoscience, prostheses and the posthuman, and disability and DIY assistive technology, I analyse 'Limbitless Solutions' use of science fiction in a high-profile media event that problematically portrays an impaired child 'in need' of 'repair' and subsequently 'fixed' by technology. Overall, the aim is to integrate science fiction tropes, such as the wounded hero, the fighting suit and prosthetic arm, with disability studies, to highlight the sustained challenges that emerging theories of disability and technology face as contemporary economic, political and ideological forces endorse and promote militarised images of cyborg assimilation over human variation and physical difference. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

  14. Science fiction and human enhancement: radical life-extension in the movie 'In Time' (2011).

    PubMed

    Roduit, Johann A R; Eichinger, Tobias; Glannon, Walter

    2018-03-20

    The ethics of human enhancement has been a hotly debated topic in the last 15 years. In this debate, some advocate examining science fiction stories to elucidate the ethical issues regarding the current phenomenon of human enhancement. Stories from science fiction seem well suited to analyze biomedical advances, providing some possible case studies. Of particular interest is the work of screenwriter Andrew Niccol (Gattaca, S1m0ne, In Time, and Good Kill), which often focuses on ethical questions raised by the use of new technologies. Examining the movie In Time (2011), the aim of this paper is to show how science fiction can contribute to the ethical debate of human enhancement. In Time provides an interesting case study to explore what could be some of the consequences of radical life-extension technologies. In this paper, we will show how arguments regarding radical life-extension portrayed in this particular movie differ from what is found in the scientific literature. We will see how In Time gives flesh to arguments defending or rejecting radical life-extension. It articulates feelings of unease, alienation and boredom associated with this possibility. Finally, this article will conclude that science fiction movies in general, and In Time in particular, are a valuable resource for a broad and comprehensive debate about our coming future.

  15. Narratives of psychiatric malingering in works of fiction.

    PubMed

    Kuperman, V

    2006-12-01

    This paper argues that the representation of psychiatric malingering in literary and cinematographic narratives informs societal stereotypes, and thus influences the clinical phenomenology of malingering. The study aims to identify sociocultural models of malingering in contemporary Western society based on the narrative analysis of about 60 fictional and non-fiction texts. Two behavioural patterns derived from the Foucauldian categories folly and madness are recognisable in naïve conceptualisations of fake insanity. Fabricated significations of deviation originate in grand societal narratives rather than in medical discourse, and construct characters such as animal like underdeveloped simpletons or detached, irrational, violent madmen. Each pattern stems from its own archaic conceptual basis and dictates a distinct framework for strategies of malingering. The semiotic structure of artistic narratives of malingering is discussed in comparison with the symptomatology of existing psychiatric models.

  16. Facts and Fiction About the American Working Woman.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Crowley, Joan E.; And Others

    A national survey of personal interviews with 539 working women and 993 working men, was intended to test the reliability of the following stereotypes about American women who work: (1) American women work just for pin money, (2) Women work only for economic reasons, (3) Women are more concerned with the social aspects of their jobs, (4) Women…

  17. Science Fiction on Film.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Burmester, David

    1985-01-01

    Reviews science fiction films used in a science fiction class. Discusses feature films, short science fiction films, short story adaptations, original science fiction pieces and factual science films that enrich literature. (EL)

  18. The Missing Thread - How Fiction Cheats Mental Health Nursing.

    PubMed

    Bladon, Henry J

    2017-09-01

    Mental health nursing occupies an important place in mental health care, and nurses perform valuable work, yet fiction writers tend to rely on outdated imagery to portray the profession. This imagery reinforces negative stereotypes of mental health nursing. This article examines the problem and explores the implications for the profession, particularly in relation to stigma and public confidence. It outlines a significant gap in narrative literature, specifically in relation to the therapeutic relationship, and asks what can be done to encourage more realistic portrayals of the role.

  19. Children Working with Text in Science: disparities with 'Literacy Hour' practice

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Peacock, Alan; Weedon, Helen

    2002-02-01

    The National Literacy Strategy (NLS) provides a coherent plan of what and how children should be taught about non-fiction text. Nevertheless, the difficulties that children actually experience when using science texts are not fully addressed: in particular, the use and interpretation of the visual elements of science text is given limited attention in the prescriptions for teaching the 'Literacy Hour'. Such disparities identified by prior research and by a content analysis of the NLS Framework Document are considered alongside evidence of the difficulties encountered by a class of Year 5 pupils working with a range of non-fiction texts during science lessons. Pupils' text use is studied through observations and interviews with children, through interviews with their teachers and through a questionnaire about text use strategies. The findings suggest that (1) the pupils experienced considerable difficulty in making sense of the science content of non-fiction text, particularly in terms of interpretation of visual elements and their links to written text and (2) use of retrieval strategies taught during the Literacy Hour was not transferred to learning from text during science lessons. The study proposes closer planning of text use in science and literacy lessons.

  20. Micromégas: Altered Body–Environment Scaling in Literary Fiction

    PubMed Central

    Dieguez, Sebastian

    2016-01-01

    Architectonic embodiment postulates a bidirectional link between bodily awareness and the architectural environment. The standard size and features of the human body, for instance, are thought to influence the structure of interiors and buildings, as well as their perception and appreciation. Whereas architectural practice and theory, the visual arts and more recently the cognitive sciences have explored this relationship of humans with their crafted environments, many fictional literary works have long experimented with alterations of body–environment scaling. This so-called Gulliver theme – popular in the science-fiction genre but also in children’s literature and philosophical satire – reveals, as a recurrent thought-experiment, our preoccupation with proportions and our fascination for the infinitely small and large. Here I provide an overview of the altered scaling theme in literature, including classics such as Voltaire’s Micromégas, Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, Caroll’s Alice, and Matheson’s The Shrinking man, closely examining issues relevant to architectonic embodiment such as: bodily, perceptual, cognitive, affective, and social changes related to alterations in body size relative to people, objects and architectural environments. I next provide a taxonomy of the Gulliver theme and highlight its main psychological features, and then proceed to review relevant work from cognitive science. Although fictional alterations of body-environment scaling far outreach current possibilities in experimental research, I argue that the peripetiae and morals outlined in the literary realm, as products of the human imagination, provide a unique window into the folk-psychology of body and space. PMID:27148156

  1. AJ Cronin and The Citadel: did a work of fiction contribute to the foundation of the NHS?

    PubMed

    O'Mahony, S

    2012-06-01

    AJ Cronin (1896-1981) was a Scottish-born doctor-turned-novelist whose most famous novel is The Citadel, published in 1937. The book describes the struggles of an idealistic young doctor working in Wales and London in the 1920s and 30s. The novel was a global bestseller and its portrayal of a largely ineffective, corruption-ridden system of healthcare is thought to have directly influenced the foundation of the National Health Service in 1948. The Citadel anticipates such phenomena as evidence-based medicine and continuing medical education. This paper argues that the novel was never intended as propaganda for a state-controlled national health service. On the contrary, Cronin was against state control. Analysis of the novel is informed by recent biographical revelations about Cronin and the blurring of the margin between fact and fiction in Cronin's life and work is examined.

  2. From Fake to Fiction: Young Children Learn about Writing Fiction.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Taberski, Sharon

    1987-01-01

    Presents five strategies for helping elementary school students learn to write fiction: (1) stress topic selection; (2) use literature to teach fiction writing; (3) stress main character change or problem solving; (4) emphasize reality-based stories; and (5) encourage students to research their fiction. (SKC)

  3. Outlook Tower.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cosgrave, Mary Silva

    1979-01-01

    Reviews eight new adult books of interest to high school readers. The books include biographies, works of fiction, and books about dragons, Cubism and Futurism in art, and designing, knitting, and crocheting clothes. (GT)

  4. Fictional and real-world revolutionary heroes in the history of psychiatric politics.

    PubMed

    Zimmermann, Martina

    2012-12-01

    This article analyzes, firstly, how the representation of the psychiatric institution in Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest pioneered criticism regarding asylum politics during the 1950s and, secondly, how the reactions of R.D. Laing, an influential psychiatrist-critic of the time, impacted changes of asylum politics, as seen through his autobiographical considerations in Wisdom, Madness and Folly that were published in 1985. The key aim of this work is to compare the ability of a satirizing, fictional piece of writing and a medically focused, nonfictional work of criticism to influence a movement that extended during the 1960s and the 1970s, indeed shaping health care policies in the 1980s and the 1990s as well as our present-day view on institutional management.

  5. Horror from the Soul--Gothic Style in Allan Poe's Horror Fictions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sun, Chunyan

    2015-01-01

    Edgar Allan Poe made tremendous contribution to horror fiction. Poe's inheritance of gothic fiction and American literature tradition combined with his living experience forms the background of his horror fictions. He inherited the tradition of the gothic fictions and made innovations on it, so as to penetrate to subconsciousness. Poe's horror…

  6. The Ballantine Teachers' Guide to Science Fiction.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Allen, L. David

    A guide for teaching science fiction in secondary and college classrooms, this book contains an introductory essay that covers a variety of points about teaching science fiction, with a discussion of the audience, the correlation between science and fiction, and the changing role of science fiction. In a second essay, four categories of science…

  7. First Novels: Fall Firsts

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Witherell, Mary

    2010-01-01

    This article presents a list of new novels. The entire compilation is grouped into pop fiction, literary, thrillers, Christian fiction, mystery, romance, historical fiction, street lit, science fiction/fantasy/horror, and graphic novels.

  8. Collective Biography and Memory Work: Girls Reading Fiction

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gannon, Susanne

    2015-01-01

    Collective biography draws on memory work methods developed initially by feminist sociologists (Haug et al., 1987) where people collaboratively examined the social and discursive resources through which they take themselves up as particular gendered subjects in the world. Their own memories become resources to investigate processes of…

  9. Should psychiatrists write fiction?

    PubMed

    Bladon, Henry

    2018-04-01

    This paper looks at the relationship between fiction and psychiatry. Specifically, the idea of psychiatrists as fiction writers is explored, and reference is made to various fictional texts to illustrate the problems of stigma and negative imagery. These two main areas of focus are highlighted as ones that the practice of writing fiction might address, and some potential pitfalls are discussed. The paper suggests how psychiatrists might ameliorate the present problems by incorporating their unique clinical skills and knowledge into fictional narratives. Declaration of interest None.

  10. The psychologist, the psychoanalyst and the 'extraordinary child' in postwar British science fiction.

    PubMed

    Tisdall, Laura

    2016-12-01

    A sudden influx of portrayals of 'extraordinary children' emerged in British science fiction after the Second World War. Such children both violated and confirmed the new set of expectations about ordinary childhood that emerged from the findings of developmental psychologists around the same time. Previous work on extraordinary children in both science fiction and horror has tended to confine the phenomenon to an 'evil child boom' within the American filmmaking industry in the 1970s. This article suggests that a much earlier trend is visible in British postwar science fiction texts, analysing a cluster of novels that emerged in the 1950s: Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End (1953), William Golding's Lord of the Flies (1954) and John Wyndham's The Midwich Cuckoos (1957). It will be argued that the groups of extraordinary children in these novels both tap into newer child-centred assertions about the threats posed by abnormal childhood, underwritten by psychology and psychoanalysis, and represent a reaction to an older progressive tradition in which children were envisaged as the single hope for a utopian future. This article will ultimately assert that the sudden appearance of extraordinary children in science fiction reflects a profound shift in assessment criteria for healthy childhood in Britain from the 1950s onwards, an issue that had become vitally important in a fledgling social democracy. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

  11. What Works for Me.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wolf, Lori; And Others

    1994-01-01

    Offers 11 classroom tips from teachers for a variety of activities, including fictional movie reviews, haiku writing, questions to develop student journals, handouts, rewriting stories, and a "dirty trick" to get better research topics. (SR)

  12. The Emergent Reader's Working Kit of Stereotypes

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mackey, Margaret

    2013-01-01

    This article draws on a careful study of series fiction read in the 1950s to explore how stereotypes feature in the development of a young reader's competence in learning to process stories in print. Five categories of stereotype are teased out: "embodied stereotypes," understood through physical experience; "working stereotypes," discerned…

  13. African-American Vernacular Dance: Core Culture and Meaning Operatives.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hazzard-Gordon, Katrina

    1985-01-01

    Discusses the role of social dancing in the lives and culture of working class Black Americans. Focuses specifically on four aspects of its meaning: identity (self-esteem), cultural integrity, ingroup-outgroup, and political resistance. Bases argument on sociological, biographical, and fictional works by and about Black culture. (KH)

  14. Images of Pharmacy in the Arts: The Humanities in Pharmacy Education.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Poirier, Suzanne; Mrtek, Robert G.

    1985-01-01

    An undergraduate professional elective course emphasizing the study of literary and fine arts works portraying pharmacy and pharmacists, developed to give pharmacy students a variety of experiences with role perceptions, is described. Students examine, discuss, and critique fiction, drama, music, the visual arts, and other creative works. (MSE)

  15. Writing Assignments Based on Literary Works.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Matthews, Dorothy, Ed.

    1985-01-01

    The literature selections serving as the basis for writing assignments in the articles in this journal issue range from time-honored English classics ("Beowulf,""Sir Gawain and the Green Knight") and American standards ("A Farewell to Arms,""The Scarlet Letter") to contemporary fiction. The articles deal with works by women writers (Shirley…

  16. STEAM Education: Separating Fact from Fiction

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gess, Ashley H.

    2017-01-01

    Improving science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education (STEM) is an international imperative as countries work to improve life and prospects for their people. Countries recognize that to improve economic prosperity and national security, their citizens should be prepared to work in a global society that is characterized by digital,…

  17. What If They Just Want To Write?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gilmar, Sybil

    1979-01-01

    Writing workshops are held for gifted students (7 to 15 years old) and include journalism, guidebook, and fiction work with critical analysis of each other's writing. Sample exercises and brainstorming techniques are discussed. (CL)

  18. Science fiction and the history of the astro-department of Carl Zeiss Jena (German Title: Science Fiction und die Geschichte der Astroabteilung von Carl Zeiss Jena)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Beck, Hans G.

    This contribution uses the literary form of science fiction in retrospect, in order to display the initial conditions given in the run-up of the founding of the astro-department of the Zeiss factory. Written minutes (supposedly found during restoration works in the people's house in Jena) introduce the participants of a sort of founding party of the main actors Ernst Abbe, Otto Schott, Siegfried Czapski, Hans Harting, Albert König, Franz Meyer and Walter Villiger. Their contributions to the discussion yield a market analysis, based on the past development of the technology of astronomical instruments, the international competitors' state of the art, and the assessment of the future development in astronomy and especially of astrophysics. The contribution presents a piece of modern history of the year 1987; it was presented as a talk on May 13 of the same year, when Rolf Riekher celebrated his 65th birthday.

  19. Exploration of Space: Fact and Fiction.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Brice, William R.

    1977-01-01

    Discusses the use of science fiction as a part of a general astronomy course. The author describes how science fiction is used in conjunction with the study of the solar system. Suggested references and a science fiction reading list are also included. (HM)

  20. A character network study of two Sci-Fi TV series

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tan, M. S. A.; Ujum, E. A.; Ratnavelu, K.

    2014-03-01

    This work is an analysis of the character networks in two science fiction television series: Stargate and Star Trek. These networks are constructed on the basis of scene co-occurrence between characters to indicate the presence of a connection. Global network structure measures such as the average path length, graph density, network diameter, average degree, median degree, maximum degree, and average clustering coefficient are computed as well as individual node centrality scores. The two fictional networks constructed are found to be quite similar in structure which is astonishing given that Stargate only ran for 18 years in comparison to the 48 years for Star Trek.

  1. When Fiction Is Just as Real as Fact: No Differences in Reading Behavior between Stories Believed to be Based on True or Fictional Events.

    PubMed

    Hartung, Franziska; Withers, Peter; Hagoort, Peter; Willems, Roel M

    2017-01-01

    Experiments have shown that compared to fictional texts, readers read factual texts faster and have better memory for described situations. Reading fictional texts on the other hand seems to improve memory for exact wordings and expressions. Most of these studies used a "newspaper" vs. "literature" comparison. In the present study, we investigated the effect of reader's expectation to whether information is true or fictional with a subtler manipulation by labeling short stories as either based on true or fictional events. In addition, we tested whether narrative perspective or individual preference in perspective taking affects reading true or fictional stories differently. In an online experiment, participants (final N = 1,742) read one story which was introduced as based on true events or as fictional (factor fictionality ). The story could be narrated in either 1st or 3rd person perspective (factor perspective ). We measured immersion in and appreciation of the story, perspective taking, as well as memory for events. We found no evidence that knowing a story is fictional or based on true events influences reading behavior or experiential aspects of reading. We suggest that it is not whether a story is true or fictional, but rather expectations toward certain reading situations (e.g., reading newspaper or literature) which affect behavior by activating appropriate reading goals. Results further confirm that narrative perspective partially influences perspective taking and experiential aspects of reading.

  2. When Fiction Is Just as Real as Fact: No Differences in Reading Behavior between Stories Believed to be Based on True or Fictional Events

    PubMed Central

    Hartung, Franziska; Withers, Peter; Hagoort, Peter; Willems, Roel M.

    2017-01-01

    Experiments have shown that compared to fictional texts, readers read factual texts faster and have better memory for described situations. Reading fictional texts on the other hand seems to improve memory for exact wordings and expressions. Most of these studies used a “newspaper” vs. “literature” comparison. In the present study, we investigated the effect of reader's expectation to whether information is true or fictional with a subtler manipulation by labeling short stories as either based on true or fictional events. In addition, we tested whether narrative perspective or individual preference in perspective taking affects reading true or fictional stories differently. In an online experiment, participants (final N = 1,742) read one story which was introduced as based on true events or as fictional (factor fictionality). The story could be narrated in either 1st or 3rd person perspective (factor perspective). We measured immersion in and appreciation of the story, perspective taking, as well as memory for events. We found no evidence that knowing a story is fictional or based on true events influences reading behavior or experiential aspects of reading. We suggest that it is not whether a story is true or fictional, but rather expectations toward certain reading situations (e.g., reading newspaper or literature) which affect behavior by activating appropriate reading goals. Results further confirm that narrative perspective partially influences perspective taking and experiential aspects of reading. PMID:28983269

  3. [William Wilkie Collins: medicine as an aid for enriching the creation of fiction literature].

    PubMed

    Miranda C, Marcelo

    2011-10-01

    William Wilkie Collins (WWC) is a well-known prolific and innovative English writer of the Victorian age. After 150 years he is still being extensively read and all his main works are translated into Spanish. Furthermore, WWC has been acclaimed by famous writers such as JL Borges and TS Eliot as one of the best story-tellers of all times, and a master of the complexities of the plot of stories. WWC mentioned on his works many innovator aspects of medicine, demonstrating an uncanny power of observation and real interest in science. Notoriously, WWC described posttraumatic epilepsy, the clinical effects of opium, the introduction of people with sensorial deficits, such as blindness and deafness, as main figures in his novels. WWC also showed an interest in the management of mental disorders and the use of music as a potential therapy. In this review, we comment these interesting aspects of the creative work of this genius of the fiction literature.

  4. The paradox of fiction: Emotional response toward fiction and the modulatory role of self-relevance.

    PubMed

    Sperduti, Marco; Arcangeli, Margherita; Makowski, Dominique; Wantzen, Prany; Zalla, Tiziana; Lemaire, Stéphane; Dokic, Jérôme; Pelletier, Jérôme; Piolino, Pascale

    2016-03-01

    For over forty years, philosophers have struggled with the "paradox of fiction", which is the issue of how we can get emotionally involved with fictional characters and events. The few neuroscientific studies investigating the distinction between the processing of real and fictional entities have evidenced that midline cortical structures and lateral fronto-parietal regions are more engaged for real and fictional entities, respectively. Interestingly, the former network is engaged in autobiographical memory retrieval and self-reference, processes that are known to boost emotional reactivity, while the latter underpins emotion regulation. Thus, a possible modulation of the emotional response according to the nature (real or fictional) of the stimulus is conceivable. To test this hypothesis, we presented short emotional (negative and positive) and neutral video as fictional or real. For negative material, we found that subjective emotional experience, but not physiological arousal measured by electrodermal activity, was reduced in the fictional condition. Moreover, the amount of personal memories linked to the scenes counteracted this effect boosting the subjective emotional response. On the contrary, personal memories elicited by the scenes, but not fiction, modulate the emotional response for positive material. These results suggest that when a stimulus triggers a personal memory, the emotional response is less prone to be modulated by contextual factors, and suggest that personal engagement could be responsible for emotional reaction toward fiction. We discuss these results in the emotion regulation framework and underline their implications in informing theoretical accounts of emotion in the neuroscientific domain and the philosophical debate on the paradox of emotional response to fiction. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  5. Does a single session of reading literary fiction prime enhanced mentalising performance? Four replication experiments of Kidd and Castano (2013).

    PubMed

    Samur, Dalya; Tops, Mattie; Koole, Sander L

    2018-02-01

    Prior experiments indicated that reading literary fiction improves mentalising performance relative to reading popular fiction, non-fiction, or not reading. However, the experiments had relatively small sample sizes and hence low statistical power. To address this limitation, the present authors conducted four high-powered replication experiments (combined N = 1006) testing the causal impact of reading literary fiction on mentalising. Relative to the original research, the present experiments used the same literary texts in the reading manipulation; the same mentalising task; and the same kind of participant samples. Moreover, one experiment was pre-registered as a direct replication. In none of the experiments did reading literary fiction have any effect on mentalising relative to control conditions. The results replicate earlier findings that familiarity with fiction is positively correlated with mentalising. Taken together, the present findings call into question whether a single session of reading fiction leads to immediate improvements in mentalising.

  6. Understanding "Great Expectations": A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Newlin, George

    More than 100 years after being written, "Great Expectations" is still one of the most widely studied works of fiction. This casebook of historical documents, collateral readings and essays brings to life both Charles Dickens' masterpiece and the social issues surrounding his work. The interdisciplinary approach in the casebook offers…

  7. Books Still Worth Reading.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    McLeod, Alan M., Ed.

    1983-01-01

    The 10 major articles in this special journal issue deal with literary works designated by individual educators as "still worth reading." The works discussed are (1) "Madeline" by L. Bemelmans; (2) "The Assistant" by B. Malamud; (3) "The Pitfalls for Readers of Fiction" by H. Sample, the first of the pamphlet publications by the National Council…

  8. Over Land and Sea: Intermediate Science through Children's Literature.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Butzow, Carol M.; Butzow, John W.

    This book suggests an approach to science instruction that integrates literature as an alternative form of instruction or to enrich textbook instruction. It uses conceptually and factually correct works of fiction and outlines activities where students are allowed to do the majority of the work and the teachers act as facilitators. Though the…

  9. Women in the Business and Office Occupations as Depicted in the American Novel: 1890-1950.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sumner, Mary

    1979-01-01

    Sex-role stereotypes of what was considered the proper attitude toward working women are reflected in popular fiction between 1890 and 1950, according to this study. Despite increased educational and work opportunities, women are still affected by these stereotypes which limit their business aspirations and achievement. (MF)

  10. Creative Pedagogy of Play--The Work of Gunilla Lindqvist

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Nilsson, Monica E.

    2010-01-01

    This article presents the work by the Swedish play scholar Gunilla Lindqvist, particularly what she calls "creative pedagogy of play" and "playworlds." Creative pedagogy of play is an educational approach, which advocates the joint participation of children and adults in a collectively created and shared world of fiction--a playworld. Gunilla…

  11. The Effects of Age, Priming, and Working Memory on Decision-Making.

    PubMed

    Wood, Meagan; Black, Sheila; Gilpin, Ansley

    2016-01-11

    In the current study, we examined the effects of priming and personality on risky decision-making while playing the Game of Dice Task (GDT). In the GDT, participants decide how risky they wish to be on each trial. In this particular study prior to playing the GDT, participants were randomly assigned to one of three priming conditions: Risk-Aversive, Risk-Seeking, or Control. In the Risk-Seeking condition, a fictional character benefitted from risky behavior while in the Risk-Aversive condition, a fictional character benefitted from exercising caution. Although not explicitly stated in the instructions, participants need to make "safe" rather than risky choices to optimize performance on the GDT. Participants were also given Daneman and Carpenter's assessment of working memory task. Interestingly, although older adults self-reported being more cautious than younger adults on the Domain Specific Risk Attitude scale (DOSPERT), older adults made riskier decisions than younger adults on the GDT. However, after controlling for working memory, the age differences on the GDT became insignificant, indicating that working memory mediated the relation between age and risky decisions on the GDT.

  12. The Effects of Age, Priming, and Working Memory on Decision-Making

    PubMed Central

    Wood, Meagan; Black, Sheila; Gilpin, Ansley

    2016-01-01

    In the current study, we examined the effects of priming and personality on risky decision-making while playing the Game of Dice Task (GDT). In the GDT, participants decide how risky they wish to be on each trial. In this particular study prior to playing the GDT, participants were randomly assigned to one of three priming conditions: Risk-Aversive, Risk-Seeking, or Control. In the Risk-Seeking condition, a fictional character benefitted from risky behavior while in the Risk-Aversive condition, a fictional character benefitted from exercising caution. Although not explicitly stated in the instructions, participants need to make “safe” rather than risky choices to optimize performance on the GDT. Participants were also given Daneman and Carpenter’s assessment of working memory task. Interestingly, although older adults self-reported being more cautious than younger adults on the Domain Specific Risk Attitude scale (DOSPERT), older adults made riskier decisions than younger adults on the GDT. However, after controlling for working memory, the age differences on the GDT became insignificant, indicating that working memory mediated the relation between age and risky decisions on the GDT. PMID:26761023

  13. Why Writers Write of War: Looking into the Eye of Historical Fiction.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gauch, Patricia Lee

    1993-01-01

    Discusses why people write and read historical fiction, in particular historical fiction involving war. Uses the author's book "Thunder at Gettysburg" to illustrate how such fiction can illuminate the epiphanies people experience, brought on by the exigencies of battle and of survival. (SR)

  14. Hospital doctors' Opinions regarding educational Utility, public Sentiment and career Effects of Medical television Dramas: the HOUSE MD study.

    PubMed

    Haboubi, Hasan N; Morgan, Holly; Aldalati, Omar

    2015-12-14

    To evaluate the opinions of practicing clinicians on medical television dramas and the effects these series have on society as well as their own practice. Observational study using a structured questionnaire disseminated among doctors of all grades and specialties at one tertiary centre and two large secondary care district general hospitals in Wales, United Kingdom. Three hundred and seventy-two questionnaires were distributed over a 3-month period, with 200 completed questionnaires received (response rate, 54%). Frequency and reasons for watching these programs, and opinions regarding realism, educational value and public perception, evaluated by doctors' grades and specialties. Identification of work practice with any observed traits in fictional doctors was also analysed. 65% of doctors surveyed admitted to watching these programs on more than one occasion. Junior doctors (interns and resident medical officers) were more regular viewers. Most doctors who admitted to watching medical dramas did so for entertainment purposes (69%); 8% watched for educational purposes and, of these, 100% watched House MD, 82% felt that these dramas were unrepresentative of daily practice, and 10% thought that they accurately portrayed reality. Most of the positive responses were from junior doctors. 61% of doctors identified some aspect of their clinical practice with another doctor (fictional or non-fictional; most junior doctors identified with a fictional doctor, compared with non-fictional role models for more senior practicing clinicians. This survey shows that a large body of the medical workforce watches medical television dramas and that such programs exercise a growing influence on the practice of junior doctors, particularly those in physicianly specialties. The reasons for certain role model selections remain unknown and may require further evaluation.

  15. Alcoholism between Fiction and Reality.

    PubMed

    Carota, Antonio; Calabrese, Pasquale

    2013-01-01

    Alcoholism has always been emphasized in literature, narratives, and theater as its prevalence and related disability are very high, is found throughout the world, and affects women and men of all ages and social classes. There is a tragic or romantic fascination in the deep sense of personal failure that drinking is able to relieve and in the uncontrollable inability to stop drinking. These aspects have been portrayed well by fictional alcoholics in movies and novels. It has become evident that biological traits together with a complex series of psychosocial factors (e.g. negative life events, depression, anxiety, and other psychiatric or personality disorders), which are also well represented in novels and movies, can lead to alcohol addiction. Behavioral (euphoria, disinhibiting behaviors, aggressiveness) and neurological changes (confusion, bradypsychism, slurred speech, ataxia, blackouts) related to alcohol intoxication are also well portrayed by fictional characters. Delirium tremens, epilepsy, alcohol dementia, and Wernicke-Korsakoff disease, however, find less representation in literature and on the stage and screen. The treatment of alcoholic dependence is very difficult (as often reported by fictional and real stories), but should never be considered hopeless. It should be initiated at any stage of the disease. The support offered by Alcoholics Anonymous has always had great appeal for the public. Fictional works can portray alcohol addiction superbly and show some dark sides of human nature (negative emotions and autodestructive thoughts and behaviors), and, at the same time, the severity and pervasiveness of mental illnesses. The psychiatric and psychosocial aspects of alcohol addiction in movies and novels could be an inspiring source for new psychological studies and rehabilitation programs. Copyright © 2013 S. Karger AG, Basel.

  16. Science fiction and the medical humanities.

    PubMed

    Miller, Gavin; McFarlane, Anna

    2016-12-01

    Research on science fiction within the medical humanities should articulate interpretative frameworks that do justice to medical themes within the genre. This means challenging modes of reading that encourage unduly narrow accounts of science fiction. Admittedly, science studies has moved away from reading science fiction as a variety of scientific popularisation and instead understands science fiction as an intervention in the technoscientific imaginary that calls for investment in particular scientific enterprises, including various biomedical technologies. However, this mode of reading neglects science fiction's critical relationship to the construction of 'the future' in the present: the ways in which science fiction proposes concrete alternatives to hegemonic narratives of medical progress and fosters critical self-awareness of the contingent activity which gives 'the future' substance in the here-and-now. Moreover, the future orientation of science fiction should not distract from the function of medical science fiction as 'cognitive estrangement': the technological innovations that dominate science-fiction narratives are less concrete predictions and more generic devices that explain in historical time the origins of a marvellous world bearing provocative correspondences to our own, everyday reality. The editorial concludes with a series of introductions to the articles comprising the special issue, covering the print edition and a special online-only section. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

  17. How Does Fiction Reading Influence Empathy? An Experimental Investigation on the Role of Emotional Transportation

    PubMed Central

    Bal, P. Matthijs; Veltkamp, Martijn

    2013-01-01

    The current study investigated whether fiction experiences change empathy of the reader. Based on transportation theory, it was predicted that when people read fiction, and they are emotionally transported into the story, they become more empathic. Two experiments showed that empathy was influenced over a period of one week for people who read a fictional story, but only when they were emotionally transported into the story. No transportation led to lower empathy in both studies, while study 1 showed that high transportation led to higher empathy among fiction readers. These effects were not found for people in the control condition where people read non-fiction. The study showed that fiction influences empathy of the reader, but only under the condition of low or high emotional transportation into the story. PMID:23383160

  18. How does fiction reading influence empathy? An experimental investigation on the role of emotional transportation.

    PubMed

    Bal, P Matthijs; Veltkamp, Martijn

    2013-01-01

    The current study investigated whether fiction experiences change empathy of the reader. Based on transportation theory, it was predicted that when people read fiction, and they are emotionally transported into the story, they become more empathic. Two experiments showed that empathy was influenced over a period of one week for people who read a fictional story, but only when they were emotionally transported into the story. No transportation led to lower empathy in both studies, while study 1 showed that high transportation led to higher empathy among fiction readers. These effects were not found for people in the control condition where people read non-fiction. The study showed that fiction influences empathy of the reader, but only under the condition of low or high emotional transportation into the story.

  19. Using Fictional Sources in the Classroom: Applications from Cognitive Psychology

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Marsh, Elizabeth J.; Butler, Andrew C.; Umanath, Sharda

    2012-01-01

    Fictional materials are commonly used in the classroom to teach course content. Both laboratory experiments and classroom demonstrations illustrate the benefits of using fiction to help students learn accurate information about the world. However, fictional sources often contain factually inaccurate content, making them a potent vehicle for…

  20. Science Fiction: Serious Reading, Critical Reading

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Zigo, Diane; Moore, Michael T.

    2004-01-01

    Science fiction deserves a greater respect, serious and critical reading and a better place in high school literature classes. Some of the science fiction books by Isaac Asimov, Alfred Bester, Ray Bradbury and Octavia L. Butler and various activities for incorporating science fiction into the English language arts instruction classroom are…

  1. Guide to Science Fiction: Exploring Possibilities and Alternatives.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Paine, Doris M.; Martinez, Diana

    Designed to help teachers develop science fiction materials, this guide provides references to useful books, examples of various teaching techniques, motivation techniques, evaluation methods, and a rationale for the importance of science fiction in the secondary curriculum. Using science fiction themes along with special techniques, a teacher can…

  2. Which Fiction Genres Are Notable & Best from 2000-2005?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Clark, Ruth Cox

    2005-01-01

    The fiction genre novels published in the US for children as well as for young adults and their responses to contemporary realistic fiction are discussed. The novels from both the 2000-2005 Children's Notables and Best Books for Young Adults lists displays a strong preference for historical fictions.

  3. Hal in the Classroom: Science Fiction Films.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Amelio, Ralph J.

    The articles in this book provide political, social, sociological, psychological, sexual, mythical, literary, and filmic approaches to the study of science fiction film. "Journey into Science Fiction" by W. Johnson and "The Imagination of Disaster" by S. Sontag treat broadly the essentials of science fiction films. "For the Future: The Science…

  4. [Asperger syndrome in contemporary fictions].

    PubMed

    Pourre, F; Aubert, E; Andanson, J; Raynaud, J-P

    2012-12-01

    During recent years, fictions featuring a character with Asperger syndrome have been increasingly produced in literature, cinema and TV. Thus, the public has gradually discovered the existence of this specific category of autism spectrum, which is far removed from old popular representations of autistic disorders, often associated with mental retardation. To describe the reactions generated by these characters in order to identify their major functions and also to try to explain their recent increase in fictions. First, we explored international publications concerning this topic. A group of experienced clinicians systematically examined works of fiction produced between 2000 and 2010 that included a character with Asperger syndrome. More than 30 productions have been identified and analyzed using a method adapted from focus group. Over 30 productions have been recorded and analyzed. The reactions generated by these characters are described. They range from fascination to empathy; if these heroes sometimes induce laughter (because of comedy situations), they also lead us to question our vision of the world and ask ourselves about notions such as difference, normality and tolerance. We illustrate this phenomenon with examples from literature, cinema or television. Four hypotheses are proposed trying to explain the recent multiplication of these fictional characters with Asperger syndrome. The first puts forward authors' informative and educational motivations, these authors being aware of this issue. The second is supported by the "hero" concept, which has evolved gradually into the figures of the scientific world and the so-called "Geek" community. The third hypothesis, a metaphorical one, considers these heroes as symbols of a future society: a hyper systematized society, devoid of empathy, as if to warn of a risk of evolution of humanity toward a generalized mental blindness. The fourth and last hypothesis explores the personal resonance, supported by identification mechanisms. The dissemination of such fictional characters and their specific characteristics helps make Asperger syndrome a cultural component of our modern society. Such a wide distribution, supported or even promoted by associations, could contribute to better information and therefore to greater acceptance of these persons who frequently experience releases and harassment. Whatever the fate of Asperger syndrome in future classifications, the multiplication and the success of fictional productions demonstrate a growing and probably irreversible enrollment in popular culture. Copyright © 2011 L’Encéphale, Paris. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

  5. Diamonds in the Sky

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Brotherton, M.

    2004-12-01

    My first science fiction novel, Star Dragon, just recently available in paperback from Tor, features a voyage to the cataclysmic variable star system SS Cygni. My second novel, Spider Star, to appear early in 2006, takes place in and around a dark matter ``planet'' orbiting a neutron star. Both novels are ``hard'' science fiction, relying on accurate physics to inform the tales. It's possible to bring to life abstract concepts like special relativity, and alien environments like accretion disks, by using science fiction. Novels are difficult to use in a science class, but short stories offer intriguing possibilities. I'm planning to edit an anthology of hard science fiction stories that contain accurate science and emphasize fundamental ideas in modern astronomy. The working title is Diamonds in the Sky. The collection will be a mix of original stories and reprints, highlighting challenging concepts covered in a typical introductory astronomy course. Larry Niven's classic story, ``Neutron Star," is an excellent demonstration of extreme tidal forces in an astronomical context. Diamonds in the Sky will include forewards and afterwards to the stories, including discussion questions and mathematical formulas/examples as appropriate. I envision this project will be published electronically or through a print-on-demand publisher, providing long-term availabilty and keeping low cost. I encourage interested parties to suggest previously published stories, or to suggest which topics must be included.

  6. A Stepping Stone to Melville.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Johnson, Walter H.

    1984-01-01

    States that reading Scott O'Dell's popular juvenile book, "The Island of the Blue Dolphins," can increase high school students' comprehension and appreciation of Herman Melville's "The Encantadas," as both works are fictional treatments of the same historic event. (MM)

  7. Graphic medicine: comics as medical narrative.

    PubMed

    Williams, Ian C M

    2012-06-01

    Among the growing number of works of graphic fiction, a number of titles dealing directly with the patient experience of illness or caring for others with an illness are to be found. Thanks in part to the Medical Humanities movement, many medical schools now encourage the reading of classic literature to gain insight into the human condition. Until recently, the medium of comics (the term is used in the plural to refer to both the physical objects and the attendant philosophy and practice surrounding them) has received little attention from healthcare scholars, even though some authors argue that graphic fiction is, in fact, a form of literature. This paper suggests that it is time that the medium was examined by healthcare professionals and studies some acclaimed comic works. Drawing on the principles of narrative medicine, this paper will ask whether comics and graphic novels could be used as a resource for health professionals, patients and carers.

  8. Representing the Quantum Object Through Fiction in Teaching. The Ontological Contribution of Gamow's Narrative as Part of an Introduction to Quantum Physics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Héraud, Jean-Loup; Lautesse, Philippe; Ferlin, Fabrice; Chabot, Hugues

    2017-05-01

    Our work extends a previous study of epistemological presuppositions in teaching quantum physics in upper scientific secondary school in France. Here, the problematic reference of quantum theory's concepts is treated at the ontological level (the counterintuitive nature of quantum objects). We consider the approach of using narratives describing possible alternative worlds to address the issue. These possible worlds are based on the counterfactual logic developed in the work of D. Lewis. We will show that the narratives written by G. Gamow describe such possible worlds. Some parts of these narratives are found in textbooks in France. These worlds are governed by laws similar to but importantly different from those in our real world. They allow us to materialize properties inaccessible to everyday experience. In this sense, these fiction stories make ontological propositions concerning the nature and structure of the fundamental elements of our physical universe.

  9. Science and Science Fiction

    ScienceCinema

    Scherrer, Robert [Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, United States

    2017-12-09

    I will explore the similarities and differences between the process of writing science fiction and the process of 'producing' science, specifically theoretical physics. What are the ground rules for introducing unproven new ideas in science fiction, and how do they differ from the corresponding rules in physics? How predictive is science fiction? (For that matter, how predictive is theoretical physics?) I will also contrast the way in which information is presented in science fiction, as opposed to its presentation in scientific papers, and I will examine the relative importance of ideas (as opposed to the importance of the way in which these ideas are presented). Finally, I will discuss whether a background as a research scientist provides any advantage in writing science fiction.

  10. Family Resemblances: Human Reproductive Cloning as an Example for Reconsidering the Mutual Relationships between Bioethics and Science Fiction.

    PubMed

    Hansen, Solveig L

    2018-03-08

    In the traditions of narrative ethics and casuistry, stories have a well-established role. Specifically, illness narratives provide insight into patients' perspectives and histories. However, because they tend to see fiction as an aesthetic endeavour, practitioners in these traditions often do not realize that fictional stories are valuable moral sources of their own. In this paper I employ two arguments to show the mutual relationship between bioethics and fiction, specifically, science fiction. First, both discourses use imagination to set a scene and determine a perspective. Second, bioethics and science fiction share the family resemblance of expressing moral beliefs. I then consider how understanding bioethics and science fiction as interrelated discourses can be the basis of a methodology for inquiry into relational autonomy in the context of biotechnologies and medicine. As an example of this methodology, I analyse Fay Weldon's novel The Cloning of Joanna May (1989).

  11. Fiction Is Truth, and Sometimes Truth Is Fiction

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hess, Carol Lakey

    2008-01-01

    The art of fiction tells truth because it is the truth of life that goes into making good fiction: love, hate, fear, courage, delight, sorrow, betrayal, loyalty, confusion, choice, circumstance, luck, injustice. These essential qualities, says the author, are also the qualities of sound theology, with a sense of time and place; and raising…

  12. Science Fiction: The Academic Awakening.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    McNelly, Willis E., Ed.

    This book provides background information on science fiction for teachers of English at any level who are approaching science fiction for the first time. Contents are: an introduction by W.E. McNelly; "SF in the Classroom" by J. Williamson; "Second Thoughts on the Course in Science Fiction" by M.R. Hillegas; "Flatland and Beyond: Characterization…

  13. Science Fiction and the Community College: A Symbiosis.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Steelman, Nell Vale

    This paper discusses science fiction in general, and argues that science fiction is a method for exploring present and future potentialities, for educating people about the possibilities of the future, for helping people condition themselves to change. A science fiction course taught at the community college level as a humanities elective is…

  14. Faith Fictions: "The Word between This World and God"

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Le Tran, Mai-Anh

    2009-01-01

    The search for religious truth and depth in "fiction" invites a conceptualization of life and fictional narratives as "faith fictions"--narrative accounts of human experiences and the human condition that bridge this world and God. This article juxtaposes "Mother Crocodile", "Hunger", and "Lost in Translation" to highlight the ways in which they,…

  15. Science Fiction & Scientific Literacy

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Czerneda, Julie E.

    2006-01-01

    The term "science fiction" has become synonymous, in the media at least, for any discovery in science too incredible or unexpected for the nonscientist to imagine. One of the most common classroom uses of science fiction is for students to pick out flaws in science fiction movies or television shows. Unfortunately, this approach can result in…

  16. Fiction and Non-Fiction Reading and Comprehension in Preferred Books

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Topping, Keith J.

    2015-01-01

    Are the books preferred and most enjoyed by children harder than other books they read? Are non-fiction books read and understood at the same level of difficulty as fiction books? The Accelerated Reader software offers computerized comprehension quizzes of real books individually chosen by children, giving children (and teachers, librarians, and…

  17. Using Fan Fiction to Teach Critical Reading and Writing Skills

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kell, Tracey

    2009-01-01

    In this article, the author talks about fan fiction, which is defined by Jenkins (2008) as "original stories and novels which are set in the fictional universe of favorite television series, films, comics, games or other media properties." Fan fiction generally involves writing stories with a combination of established characters and established…

  18. The material co-construction of hard science fiction and physics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hasse, Cathrine

    2015-12-01

    This article explores the relationship between hard science fiction and physics and a gendered culture of science. Empirical studies indicate that science fiction references might spur some students' interest in physics and help develop this interest throughout school, into a university education and even further later inspire the practice of doing science. There are many kinds of fiction within the science fiction genre. In the presented empirical exploration physics students seem particularly fond of what is called `hard science fiction': a particular type of science fiction dealing with technological developments (Hartwell and Cramer in The hard SF renaissance, Orb/TOR, New York, 2002). Especially hard science fiction as a motivating fantasy may, however, also come with a gender bias. The locally materialized techno-fantasies spurring dreams of the terraforming of planets like Mars and travels in time and space may not be shared by all physics students. Especially female students express a need for other concerns in science. The entanglement of physics with hard science fiction may thus help develop some students' interest in learning school physics and help create an interest for studying physics at university level. But research indicates that especially female students are not captured by the hard techno-fantasies to the same extent as some of their male colleagues. Other visions (e.g. inspired by soft science fiction) are not materialized as a resource in the local educational culture. It calls for an argument of how teaching science is also teaching cultural values, ethics and concerns, which may be gendered. Teaching materials, like the use of hard science fiction in education, may not just be (yet another) gender bias in science education but also carrier of particular visions for scientific endeavours.

  19. [The image of animal magnetism in fictional literature: the cases of Poe, Doyle and Du Maurier].

    PubMed

    Bonet Safont, Juan Marcos

    2014-01-01

    In this article, we focus on the social image of the phenomenon known as mesmerism, or animal magnetism, through analysis of the works: The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar (1845) by Edgar Allan Poe, The Great Keinplatz Experiment (1885) by Conan Doyle and Trilby (1894) by George Du Maurier. We describe the stereotype of the mesmerist and the uses of mesmerism observed. We pay attention to the spaces and actors of the mesmeric transcript presented in the stories. We consider the reception of these stories by the public and the relationship of the authors with mesmeric and hypnotic knowledge. Nowadays, academic researchers in the discipline of psychology publish articles and books on popular myths about hypnosis in attempts to depict the distorted images related to this phenomenon. This distorted image of the hypnotic process and the hypnotist derives from "circus" hypnotism shows (stage hypnosis), the cinema, television and fictional literature. Works of fiction represent a unique and invaluable source of information, ideas, speculations, concerns and opportunities around animal magnetism and hypnosis, and the exploration and analysis of this literature is an essential chapter in any historical study of this topic. We see how the literary use of mesmerism by Poe, Doyle and Du Maurier is not chance or peripheral, with all three being intellectually interested in and stimulated by these ideas.

  20. Serving Boys through Readers' Advisory

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sullivan, Michael

    2010-01-01

    Based on more than twenty years' experience working to get boys interested in reading, the author now offers his first readers' advisory volume. With an emphasis on nonfiction and the boy-friendly categories of genre fiction, the work offers a wealth of material including: (1) Suggestions for how to booktalk one-on-one as well as in large groups;…

  1. The Use of Slave Narratives in a High School English Class.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Jolley, Susan Arpajian

    2002-01-01

    Notes that the key to making nonfiction work in the classroom is to connect it to the basic curriculum set forth by the school. Describes how the author's use of nonfiction slave narratives grew out of her teaching of two works of fiction. Discusses how she teaches slave narratives as a separate unit. (SG)

  2. This Land Is Our Land: A Guide to Multicultural Literature for Children and Young Adults.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Helbig, Alethea K.; Perkins, Agnes Regan

    This annotated bibliography of recent works of fiction, oral tradition, and poetry about the experiences and traditions of African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Hispanic-Americans and Native-Americans provides a one-stop selection tool. Only those works mainly about minority characters are presented, and inclusion decisions were made based on…

  3. Schooling the Dust Belt

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    McConaghy, Cathryn

    2006-01-01

    This article is a first person's account of working in a rural district affected by drought, economic recession and poor levels of services. It is a facto-fictional narrative describing a typical working day in the life of Peggy, the acting CEO of quality teaching, in what is locally referred to as an NIDA district (where everyone is acting).…

  4. Between Fiction and Reality: Maps and Cartographic Logic in the Works of Peter Sís

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cantavella, Anna Juan

    2017-01-01

    This article examines the use of maps in the works of Czech author-illustrator Peter Sís in order to consider the role that cartography plays in the construction of four of his biographical picturebooks: Follow the Dream: "The Story of Christopher Columbus" (2003/1991), "Starry Messenger: Galileo Galilei" (1996), "The Tree…

  5. Let's Write a Script.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Harding, T. E.

    Some problems of writing scripts for radio and/or television are discussed, with examples provided to illustrate the rules. Writing both fictional scripts and documentaries are considered. Notes are also included to help the freelance writer who wishes to sell his work. (RH)

  6. The Schrödinger Sessions: Science for Science Fiction

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Orzel, Chad; Edwards, Emily; Rolston, Steven

    In July 2015, we held a workshop for 17 science fiction writers working in a variety of media at the Joint Quantum Institute at the University of Maryland, College Park. ''The Schrödinger Sessions,'' funded by an outreach grant from APS, provided a three-day ''crash course'' on quantum physics and technology, including lectures from JQI scientists and tours of JQI labs. The goal was to better inform and inspire stories making use of quantum physics, as a means of outreach to inspire a broad audience of future scientists. We will report on the contents of the workshop, reactions from the attendees and presenters, and future plans. Funded by an Outreach Mini-Grant from the APS.

  7. Queen Cleopatra and the other 'Cleopatras': their medical legacy.

    PubMed

    Tsoucalas, Gregory; Kousoulis, Antonis A; Poulakou-Rebelakou, Effie; Karamanou, Marianna; Papagrigoriou-Theodoridou, Maria; Androutsos, George

    2014-05-01

    Cleopatra is a female figure widespread in Greece (especially in Macedonian territory), Egypt and Syria during the Hellenistic era. Ancient women doctors bearing the name Cleopatra have been identified by a systematic search through the ancient Greek, Latin and Egyptian bibliography, including original resources from the first century BC. Fictional and non-fictional figures have been distinguished and their works identified. Queen Cleopatra of Egypt, Galen's physician assistant, the outcast Metrodora, Cleopatra the Alchemist and Cleopatra the Gynaecologist deliver a story of medicine and name-giving that confuses researchers of the past and intrigues those of the present. © The Author(s) 2013 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav.

  8. Taking the trip of a lifetime

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pegg, David

    2008-01-01

    Upon receiving this book I was somewhat sceptical to see that the author, David Toomey, is not a physicist but instead has a PhD in English literature and teaches technical and non-fiction writing at the University of Massachusetts in the US. As I began to read it, however, my attitude changed. To many physicists, a book about time travel would be virtually indistinguishable from a piece of science fiction, particularly when there are no equations or experimental results provided. To have any chance of presenting the work in a convincing manner, therefore, any author of such a book must be quite skilled. Toomey not only accomplishes this, but also makes the book an enjoyable read.

  9. "A finer and fairer future": commodifying wage earners in American pulp science fiction.

    PubMed

    Drown, Eric

    2006-09-01

    Long-neglected by scholars, the pulp science fiction (SF) magazines of the Gernsback era (1926-1937) are due for re-examination. Presumed to be sub-literary stories for boys or, paradoxically, escapist leisure reading for practicing scientists and technicians, the SF from this period is actually neither. It is a powerful resource for understanding the ways ordinary people engaged with the promise and peril of industrial modernity. Published by a passionate entrepreneur seeking fame and fortune, composed by writers paid piecework rates and read by young science and technology enthusiasts aspiring to authentic remunerative work, the earliest pulp SF necessarily provoked inter-class discussions about labor, management, production and consumption.

  10. Fiction, History and Pedagogy: A Double-Edged Sword

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Clark, Penney; Sears, Alan

    2017-01-01

    There are many areas of overlap between history and fiction. Teachers of history have long recognized this connection and used a range of fictional accounts in their teaching. In this article, we argue that fiction is a double-edged sword that must be handled carefully. On the one hand, it presents compelling characters and accounts that provide…

  11. Science and Science Fiction

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Scherrer, Robert

    2006-03-29

    I will explore the similarities and differences between the process of writing science fiction and the process of 'producing' science, specifically theoretical physics. What are the ground rules for introducing unproven new ideas in science fiction, and how do they differ from the corresponding rules in physics? How predictive is science fiction? (For that matter, how predictive is theoretical physics?) I will also contrast the way in which information is presented in science fiction, as opposed to its presentation in scientific papers, and I will examine the relative importance of ideas (as opposed to the importance of the way inmore » which these ideas are presented). Finally, I will discuss whether a background as a research scientist provides any advantage in writing science fiction.« less

  12. Meeting George Bush versus meeting Cinderella: the neural response when telling apart what is real from what is fictional in the context of our reality.

    PubMed

    Abraham, Anna; von Cramon, D Yves; Schubotz, Ricarda I

    2008-06-01

    A considerable part of our lives is spent engaging in the entertaining worlds of fiction that are accessible through media such as books and television. Little is known, however, about how we are able to readily understand that fictional events are distinct from those occurring within our real world. The present functional imaging study explored the brain correlates underlying such abilities by having participants make judgments about the possibility of different scenarios involving either real or fictional characters being true, given the reality of our world. The processing of real and fictional scenarios activated a common set of regions including medial-temporal lobe structures. When the scenarios involved real people, brain regions associated with episodic memory retrieval and self-referential thinking, the anterior prefrontal cortex and the precuneus/posterior cingulate, were more active. In contrast, areas along the left lateral inferior frontal gyrus, associated with semantic memory retrieval, were implicated for scenarios with fictional characters. This implies that there is a fine distinction in the manner in which conceptual information concerning real persons in contrast to fictional characters is represented. In general terms, the findings suggest that fiction relative to reality tends to be represented in more factual terms, whereas our representations of reality relative to fiction are colored by personal subjectivity. What modulates our understanding of the relative difference between reality and fiction seems to be whether such character-type information is coded in self-relevant terms or not.

  13. The Effect of the Juvenile Fiction on the Reading Skills of Junior High School Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Turkyilmaz, Mustafa

    2013-01-01

    The main purpose of this study is to define the effect of the juvenile fiction on secondary school students' reading skills. In the study; 6th grade students', reading juvenile fiction, attitudes to reading, reading speed, comprehension ability of what's read are examined. The group of students reading juvenile fiction is compared to the ones not…

  14. Reading fiction during sick leave, a multidimensional occupation.

    PubMed

    Mårtensson, Lena; Andersson, Christina

    2015-01-01

    In bibliotherapy, the therapeutic gains of reading fiction are ascribed to the literature. Viewing reading fiction as an occupation may give other explanations of its therapeutic function. The aim of this qualitative study was to explore the experiences of reading fiction among women during a period of sick leave. A qualitative approach was applied. Eight women who had been reading fiction during sick leave were interviewed. An overarching theme: Supporting one's active self, comprised five categories of experiences: a prospect of ordinary life, a place of refuge, a life together with others, a source of power, and as supporting an active life. Based on the categories, reading fiction is seen to comprise intentional, functional, mental, relational, and personal dimensions. A tentative model of supporting one's active self is proposed, which may be helpful in clarifying the mechanisms of the process of change. The health-related dimensions of reading fiction suggest that reading fiction should be regarded as a significant occupation comparable with other, more highlighted ones. Understood in this way, it is argued that the results add to the knowledge base in occupational therapy focusing on how meaningful occupations connect to occupational life trajectories.

  15. The Critical Pedagogical Potential of Using Jacob A. Riis' Works about the Immigrant Poor in "Gilded Age" New York

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Templer, Bill

    2017-01-01

    The article seeks to contribute to working-class and social justice pedagogy by developing concrete angles on teaching/exploring some of the (a) short fiction, (b) journalistic-photographic work and (c) sociography of poverty by the Danish-born US immigrant, muckraker (http://goo.gl/6WeGtM) and social reformer Jacob A. Riis (1849-1914,…

  16. Preschoolers can infer general rules governing fantastical events in fiction.

    PubMed

    Van de Vondervoort, Julia W; Friedman, Ori

    2014-05-01

    Young children are frequently exposed to fantastic fiction. How do they make sense of the unrealistic and impossible events that occur in such fiction? Although children could view such events as isolated episodes, the present experiments suggest that children use such events to infer general fantasy rules. In 2 experiments, 2- to 4-year-olds were shown scenarios in which 2 animals behaved unrealistically (N = 78 in Experiment 1, N = 94 in Experiment 2). When asked to predict how other animals in the fiction would behave, children predicted novel behaviors consistent with the nature of the fiction. These findings suggest that preschoolers can infer the general rules that govern the events and entities in fantastic fiction and can use these rules to predict what events will happen in the fiction. The findings also provide evidence that children may infer fantasy rules at a more superordinate level than the basic level. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).

  17. Stranger than fiction: literary and clinical amnesia.

    PubMed

    Dieguez, Sebastian; Annoni, Jean-Marie

    2013-01-01

    This chapter broadly covers literary uses of amnesia and memory disorders. Amnesia in fiction offers authors an efficient and dramatic device to tackle themes such as identity, personal liberty, or guilt. We argue against the common complaint that fictional amnesia is scientifically inaccurate, pointing out that the goals of literature are different from those of science, that amnesia is still poorly understood, and that real-life cases can sometimes be stranger than fiction. The chapter provides examples from the neuropsychological literature, media reports, mythology, historical cases, detective stories, war stories, theatrical plays, and other genres. Special attention is given to retrograde and dissociative amnesia, as these are the most frequent types of amnesia portrayed in fiction, while other types of memory disorders are more shortly treated. We argue that the predominance of disorders affecting autobiographical memory in fiction is in itself a revealing fact about the mechanisms of human memory, illustrating how fictional treatments of pathology can inform back neurological and psychological research. Copyright © 2013 S. Karger AG, Basel.

  18. DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Hunsberger, Maren; Kirkwood, Bob

    The way the Death Star works in the fictional Star Wars universe has long been dismissed by scientists as something that defies our physical reality, but researchers at Lawrence Livermore's National Ignition Facility have found a way to successfully combine laser beams using plasma for the first time ever.

  19. Science in Science Fiction.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Allday, Jonathan

    2003-01-01

    Offers some suggestions as to how science fiction, especially television science fiction programs such as "Star Trek" and "Star Wars", can be drawn into physics lessons to illuminate some interesting issues. (Author/KHR)

  20. Processing Social Information in Messages: Social Group Familiarity, Fiction/Non-fiction Labels, and Subsequent Beliefs.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Slater, Michael D.

    A study examined how the relative familiarity of a social group described in a message may affect the impact of ostensibly fiction and nonfiction messages on subsequent beliefs about social groups. The 24 paid subjects each received one of four sets of prose excerpts. Each set consisted of four excerpts that were labelled as fiction or nonfiction…

  1. Engaging Adolescents' Interests, Literacy Practices, and Identities: Digital Collaborative Writing of Fantasy Fiction in a High School English Elective Class

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rish, Ryan M.

    2011-01-01

    This study investigates an elective English class, in which students in grades 10-12 collectively read and collaboratively wrote fantasy fiction in four groups. The purpose of the class was to have students consider the choices fantasy and science fictions writers, directors, and video game designers make when creating a fictional world. The…

  2. Fictions of Work-Related Learning: How a Hit Television Show Portrays Internship, and How Medical Students Relate to Those Portrayals

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Jubas, Kaela; Knutson, Patricia

    2013-01-01

    This article proceeds from three main premises. First, we assert that popular culture functions pedagogically and helps cultural consumers learn about work, even before they enter educational programs or workplaces. Second, we argue that exploring portrayals of internship is useful in understanding the "attributes of formality and informality"…

  3. Apocalyptic Fiction: Dealing with the End of the World in the Classroom.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Compora, Daniel P.

    The end of the world, or civilization, is probably one of humankind's most horrifying fears. The apocalypse has been explored by many writers, and the decision to include this type of literature in a curriculum depends on how the situation is presented and resolved. The work should offer some solution and hope. Two recent works of apocalyptic…

  4. Science Fiction across the Curriculum.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kay, Andrew L.; Golden, Michael

    1991-01-01

    Presents ideas on integrating science fiction into language arts, science, social studies, and math. Suggestions include an interstellar journey, imaginative language lessons, futuristic social studies, extraterrestrial life studies, intergalactic math, and science fiction story writing. (SM)

  5. Science Fiction: Coping with Change.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tymn, Marshall B.

    1979-01-01

    Notes that science fiction has evolved into a literature of serious social commentary while still preserving its origins of romantic escapism and intriguing gadgetry. Argues that science fiction now looks more closely at life on Earth. (FL)

  6. Psychopathic characters in fiction.

    PubMed

    Piechowski-Jozwiak, Bartlomiej; Bogousslavsky, Julien

    2013-01-01

    The theme of psychopathy has fascinated artists and the general public for centuries. The first concepts on psychopathy came from the parasciences, such as phrenology where anatomical features were linked to certain psychopathic/immoral behaviors. The concept of psychopathy was recognized by forensic psychiatry a few decades ago and this official recognition was followed by the emergence of scientific and clinical guidelines for the diagnosis and prognosis of psychopaths. These modern tools can also be used for historical purposes by allowing us to look back on fictional works and identify psychopaths in literature. Interpretation of fictitious psychopaths needs to be related to the historical situation in which the novels were written; such investigations can be both enriching and thrilling. Copyright © 2013 S. Karger AG, Basel.

  7. Science Fiction in the Political Science Classroom: A Comment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Landers, Clifford E.

    1977-01-01

    Science fiction can be used for introducing and analyzing political concepts at the undergraduate level for either a specialized theory-oriented course such as Political Science Fiction or an Introduction to Political Science course. (Author/RM)

  8. "Dreams Written Out": Libraries in Science Fiction.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gunn, James

    1995-01-01

    Through various classic texts, this article examines the concept of "library" and the many forms in which libraries are portrayed in science fiction. A sidebar contains a bibliography of recent anthologies of science fiction stories and novellas. (AEF)

  9. Molecular Robots Obeying Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics.

    PubMed

    Kaminka, Gal A; Spokoini-Stern, Rachel; Amir, Yaniv; Agmon, Noa; Bachelet, Ido

    2017-01-01

    Asimov's three laws of robotics, which were shaped in the literary work of Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) and others, define a crucial code of behavior that fictional autonomous robots must obey as a condition for their integration into human society. While, general implementation of these laws in robots is widely considered impractical, limited-scope versions have been demonstrated and have proven useful in spurring scientific debate on aspects of safety and autonomy in robots and intelligent systems. In this work, we use Asimov's laws to examine these notions in molecular robots fabricated from DNA origami. We successfully programmed these robots to obey, by means of interactions between individual robots in a large population, an appropriately scoped variant of Asimov's laws, and even emulate the key scenario from Asimov's story "Runaround," in which a fictional robot gets into trouble despite adhering to the laws. Our findings show that abstract, complex notions can be encoded and implemented at the molecular scale, when we understand robots on this scale on the basis of their interactions.

  10. Parapraxes in the plays of William Shakespeare.

    PubMed

    Mahon, E

    2000-01-01

    Parapraxes in the psychopathology of everyday life are "mistakes" that reveal the workings of the unconscious. (Obviously they existed before Freud's time, but it was Freud who gave them a name and dissected their complex psychological meanings.) When they occur in a great work of art (as in Shakespeare's plays) they are obviously not "mistakes" at all but carefully planted details of the artist's over-all aesthetic conception. Just as fictional dreams, as in Jensen's Gradiva, seem to follow the rules of nocturnal dream process and can be subjected to psychoanalytic scrutiny, fictional parapraxes are doubly interesting because they not only express the inwardness of a protagonist but reveal something of the writer's aesthetic method as well. This paper attempts to address these double points of entry into the mystery of Shakespeare's plays, posing the question, "Can the seemingly trivial or irrelevant (a handful of parapraxes in 38 plays) shed any light on the most complex characters in Western literature and the extraordinary mind of their creator?"

  11. Fiction: Simulation of Social Worlds.

    PubMed

    Oatley, Keith

    2016-08-01

    Fiction is the simulation of selves in interaction. People who read it improve their understanding of others. This effect is especially marked with literary fiction, which also enables people to change themselves. These effects are due partly to the process of engagement in stories, which includes making inferences and becoming emotionally involved, and partly to the contents of fiction, which include complex characters and circumstances that we might not encounter in daily life. Fiction can be thought of as a form of consciousness of selves and others that can be passed from an author to a reader or spectator, and can be internalized to augment everyday cognition. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  12. Darkness into Light: The Dream Journal of an Addicted Trauma Survivor

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Southern, Stephen

    2004-01-01

    This article applies dream work to the case of an addicted survivor of sexual abuse trauma using models of C. G. Jung (1974) and L. S. Leonard (1989). It then relates the dreams of the fictional client to St. Teresa of Avila's (1577/1989) classic model for spiritual growth, The Interior Castle. The goal of working with dreams in the context of…

  13. Los Angeles City College Celebrates Fifty Years of Bringing-Forth, 1929-1979: An Anthology of the Work of Faculty, Staff and Students.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Eisenstein, Sam A., Ed.

    Works by faculty, emeriti, staff, students, and alumni of Los Angeles City College (LACC) commemorate the 50th anniversary of the school. The anthology contains graphics, poetry, fiction, manifesto, reminiscences, humor, and essays. Certain essays focus on the history of LACC and individuals prominent in its history. In addition, short histories…

  14. Murder by the book: using crime fiction as a bibliotherapeutic resource.

    PubMed

    Brewster, Liz

    2017-03-01

    Crime is a popular genre of fiction, widely read but sometimes seen as 'throwaway'. Disregarding this type of fiction because it is seen as low quality does not take into account its value to readers. Reading has been established as a means of improving mental health and well-being-often known as bibliotherapy. This often focuses on fiction considered to have literary merit rather than genre fiction like crime. However, in framing therapeutic reading in this way, the impact of texts considered to have low cultural value such as crime has been concealed. Examining readers' responses as a starting point identifies some reasons why crime fiction fulfils a need. Readers in an empirical study spoke about the strong narrative as a distraction, the predictability as a comfort and the safe distance from events as a reassurance that left them feeling that reading crime fiction was a refuge from the world. In exploring readers' responses in relation to the academic literature, the paper argues that there is a need to think differently about how readers engage with texts and how they experience reading as therapeutic, with a role for fiction like crime. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

  15. Popular Fiction as Liberal Art.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Stowe, William W.

    1986-01-01

    Analyzes popular fiction, particularly the detective novel, using Ruth Rendell's "An Unkindness of Ravens" as an example. Calls detective fiction political literature and claims that it gives readers a chance to affirm or criticize the dynamics of the confrontation of society and crime. (SRT)

  16. An Interdisciplinary Bibliography for Computers and the Humanities Courses.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ehrlich, Heyward

    1991-01-01

    Presents an annotated bibliography of works related to the subject of computers and the humanities. Groups items into textbooks and overviews; introductions; human and computer languages; literary and linguistic analysis; artificial intelligence and robotics; social issue debates; computers' image in fiction; anthologies; writing and the…

  17. Accounting for Whiteness through Collaborative Fiction

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tanner, Samuel Jaye

    2016-01-01

    This arts-based, qualitative teacher-researcher study considers how a group of mostly white high school students worked with their white facilitators to consider whiteness using Youth Participatory Action Research in conjunction with playbuilding and drama pedagogy. First, the author locates his reflexive stance. Then, relying on critical race…

  18. Asian Short Fiction. Asian Studies Instructional Module.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Waugh, Susan

    This curriculum outline introduces the components of a course which explores the genre of short novels, including works by twentieth-century Japanese and Chinese authors. First, the catalogue course description and required texts are presented, highlighting the instructor's historical introduction to the development of Western, Japanese, and…

  19. A Scenario for the Future of Museums

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cunningham, Mary Kay

    2009-01-01

    More than any other staff member, museum educators' knowledge and experience working with visitors make them uniquely qualified to take on leadership roles as museums transform themselves into lifelong learning organizations. The article encourages museum educators to initiate discussions about change by offering a fictional scenario of future…

  20. Medieval Romances: "Perceval" to "Monty Python."

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Jehle, Dorothy M.

    A selection of romances from medieval literature can be used successfully in undergraduate literature classes to trace the appearance and relevance of medieval themes, motifs, and characters in works of modern poetry, fiction, and film. New scholarly editions, historiographies, translations, and modernizations give both teachers and students more…

  1. Truth & Beauty: Mathematics in Literature

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cohen, Marion D.

    2013-01-01

    Today there are many categories of mathematics literature, including fiction and poetry. Mathematics fiction appears in such anthologies as "Fantasia Mathematica" (Fadiman 1958, 1997) and "The Mathematical Magpie" (Fadiman 1962, 1997). In addition, mathematics fiction is featured at http://kasmana.people.cofc.edu/MATHFICT.…

  2. Booktalking Science Fiction to Young Adults.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Klause, Annette Curtis

    1990-01-01

    Identifies the elements of science fiction that might appeal to adolescent readers and offers suggestions for developing innovative book talks on science fiction books. A bibliography of 133 books, categorized by subgenres such as hard science, space travel, and mysteries, is provided. (eight references) (CLB)

  3. The Voyage between Truth and Fiction: Stories of the "Titanic."

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sanchez, Rebecca R.

    1994-01-01

    Describes the activities in a high school English class aimed at instructing students concerning the concept of "historical fiction." Outlines class activities in which students are asked to write fictional narratives based on the historical facts concerning the sinking of the "Titanic." (HB)

  4. Arab Stereotypes in Popular Fiction.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Terry, Janice J.

    1983-01-01

    Most popular fictional plots involving the Middle East--adventure stories, espionage, and themes of Western dependency on Arab oil--portray the Israelies as the good guys and the Arabs as the villians. People must be made aware that fictional literature is prejudiced and racially biased against Arabs. (RM)

  5. From fantasy to reality: managing biomedical risk emotions in and through fictional media.

    PubMed

    Cottingham, Marci D; Fisher, Jill A

    2017-01-01

    In this article, we explore the role that fictional media (film and television) play in evoking and managing collective and individual anxieties towards biomedical research. We draw on two data sets: fictional media depictions of human research subjects and interviews with Phase I clinical trial participants conducted in the USA in 2013. We show how fictional media provide an outlet for collective uncertainties surrounding biomedical research through depictions that mock and dehumanise research participants, using such emotions of shock, disgust, pity, amusement and humour. We analyse how themes from fictional media are also used to manage actual clinical trial participants' own anxiety concerning the unknown risks of research participation. By contrasting the reality of their research experience with fantasy derived from entertainment media, clinical trial participants minimise the seriousness of the side effects they have or may experience in actual Phase I clinical trials. We conclude that fictional media serve an important role in the collective and individual management of risk emotion.

  6. The Chinese Nail Murders: forensic medicine in Imperial China.

    PubMed Central

    Summers, W. C.

    1999-01-01

    Robert van Gulik was a respected Dutch sinologist and author who first translated a collection of traditional Chinese detective stories into English and then created additional fictional stories based on the same characters and setting in the Tang dynasty. One of these stories, The Chinese Nail Murders, draws on van Gulik's professional interest in law and his knowledge of early Chinese works on forensic medicine. This novel develops a common theme in Chinese detective fiction, murder by a nail wound to the head. The difficulty in detection of this mode of violence posed a particular problem for the examining magistrate because postmortem examination was mostly limited to external observations. This essay compares the development of Chinese and Western forensic medicine in the context of the nail murder motif. PMID:11138936

  7. Deafness as Conflict and Conflict Component

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Heuer, Christopher Jon

    2007-01-01

    Writers of D/deaf autobiographies or biographies face something of a dilemma when incorporating deafness into the stories they tell. This includes writers of D/deaf fiction because many such works are based on the same personal experiences from which autobiographies and biographies are derived. At heart, autobiographies and biographies are merely…

  8. Motion Pictures: An Update Survey of Reference Sources, 1982-1988.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Block, Eleanor S.

    1989-01-01

    Surveys motion picture reference materials published since 1982. Materials are presented in the following categories: encyclopedic works about films, filmmakers and the industry; film criticism; people on the screen and behind it; horror, science fiction and Westerns; literature on film; catalogs and filmographies; and special collections. (70…

  9. Ley, Willy (1906-69)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Murdin, P.

    2000-11-01

    Rocket scientist, writer, born in Berlin, Germany. Inspired by reading a work by the space pioneer, HERMANN OBERTH, Ley founded the German Society for Space Travel (1927), enrolled WERNHER VON BRAUN, and helped develop the liquid-fuel rocket. Fled to the USA, and became a science writer, including science fiction and film scripts....

  10. First Fiction

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Adults Learning, 2008

    2008-01-01

    In June last year, "Adults Learning" described how a small learning centre, based in an old storeroom at a bus depot, was working to transform the workplace and the lives of its staff. To boost English learning among workers, the centre launched a short story competition. The resulting stories were collected and published in the book…

  11. Books in School; Volume 1, Number 1, March 1977.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Moyle, Donald, Ed.

    The 59 books annotated in this issue are arranged under five headings: infant schools; junior schools; secondary schools; adult literacy work; and apparatus, games, and kits. The books for school-age children are further subdivided into reading and language development, fiction, and nonfiction. Each entry contains a subjective readability rating…

  12. Children's Books of the Year 1971.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Moss, Elaine, Comp.

    Selected from the reference library of current children's books housed at the National Book League in London, the 323 books in this annotated bibliography reflect the author's personal selection of those works which seemed most worth noticing from the publications of 1971. Books are categorized into picture books, fictional stories for five to…

  13. Children's Books of the Year 1972.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Moss, Elaine, Comp.

    Selected from the reference library of current children's books housed at the National Book League in London, the 323 books in this annotated bibliography reflect the author's personal selection of those works which seemed most worth noticing from the publications of 1972. Books are categorized into picture books, fictional stories for five to…

  14. Students As Environmental Consultants Simulating Life Science Problems

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Roberts, Megan; Zydney, Janet Mannheimer

    2004-01-01

    This article describes a project in which eighth graders at East Side Middle School in New York City used an interactive multimedia program called "Pollution Solution" in a science unit on environmental pollution. Students assumed the role of environmental consultants working at fictional corporations which were being investigated for…

  15. Top Audiobooks of 2009

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kuzyk, Raya

    2010-01-01

    The past year's best audiobooks, all recipients of starred "LJ" reviews, are more varied than ever--they include a posthumously published novel ("The Girl Who Played with Fire"), two debut works of hard-boiled fiction ("The Manual of Detection" and "Bad Things Happen"), a meditation on the wonders of nature ("Summer World"), and a joint…

  16. Inner Alienation: Diasporic Consciousness in Kamila Shamsie's "Salt and Saffron"

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Riaz, Humaira; Babaee, Ruzbeh

    2015-01-01

    The purpose of this study is to investigate the "diasporic consciousness" of the fictional characters, incorporated in selected work of Pakistani expatriate writer Kamila Shamsie through the portrayal of cross-cultural differences. This study attempts to unravel the inner-alienation that sustains through specific discourses and events…

  17. A Child's Delight.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Perrin, Noel

    The essays in this collection are about neglected classics of children's fiction. The essays first appeared in the "Washington Post" and the "Los Angeles Times." With a scope limited to those works (mostly from the 20th-century) already overlooked or in danger of slipping from view, the 30 essays lead the reader through a wide…

  18. Victorian Poets and Prose Writers. Goldentree Bibliographies.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Buckley, Jerome H., Comp.

    Intended as a guide to scholarship on Victorian writers, this selective bibliography covers all of the major figures and a substantial representation of the lesser ones. It excludes writers and works of fiction, except as such writers are essayists or poets. Omitted are unpublished theses and dissertations, most non-English articles and…

  19. Facing Life, English: 5113.30.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Singleton, Clifford G.; Rice, M. Paul

    The outline of a course in the investigation of literature (both fiction and nonfiction) which concerns youth facing and overcoming problems of life, with stress upon the novel and biography, is presented. The student is expected, through reading selected literary works, to (1) examine the problems confronted by youth, (2) examine youth's needs…

  20. Graphic Novels and School Libraries

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rudiger, Hollis Margaret; Schliesman, Megan

    2007-01-01

    School libraries serving children and teenagers today should be committed to collecting graphic novels to the extent that their budgets allow. However, the term "graphic novel" is enough to make some librarians--not to mention administrators and parents--pause. Graphic novels are simply book-length comics. They can be works of fiction or…

  1. Teaching Non-Fiction.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fleming, Margaret, Ed.

    1984-01-01

    Noting the general lack of attention to the teaching of nonfiction, this focused journal issue presents 11 articles containing suggestions for ways to incorporate various nonfiction materials into the English class. Article titles and authors in the journal are (1) "A Marriage that Works: Early American Literature in Context" (S. Bouley); (2)…

  2. Intersections of Spirituality, Religion and Gender in Children's Literature

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Trousdale, Ann M.

    2005-01-01

    This paper explores the intersections of spirituality, religion and gender in contemporary children's books published in the United States. Background for the discussion includes a history of religion in children's literature and the history of women's roles in the Christian tradition. Representative works of realistic fiction--historical and…

  3. Discovery and Change: How Children Redraft Their Narrative Writing.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Booley, Heather A.

    1984-01-01

    Fourteen year olds were introduced to a process model for writing and revising fictional narratives. Drafts were analyzed for evidence that they actively worked on cognitive, stylistic, and affective aspects of their narratives. Eighteen of 32 pupils made extensive or significant changes influenced by the process model. (SK)

  4. Great Books. A Collection of Titles Educators Swear By.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Urbanski, Adam; And Others

    1995-01-01

    Seventeen prominent educators recommend favorite works they think all teachers should read, explaining why. The books range from science fiction to morality to Ghandi. Several are newly published, some are classics. The article concludes with a list of the recommended titles, including publishers, suggested list prices, and phone numbers for…

  5. Growing Up Latino: Memoirs and Stories. Reflections on Life in the United States.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Augenbraum, Harold, Ed.; Stavans, Ilan, Ed.

    This anthology contains autobiographical and fictional short stories and excerpts from longer works by Hispanic-American authors about coming of age. Selections include reflections on Hispanic immigrant life in the United States, family life and relationships, school experiences, sexuality, Catholicism, identity formation, first experiences with…

  6. The British Novel: Scott Through Hardy.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Watt, Ian, Comp.

    This bibliography is intended as a convenient guide to scholarship in the field of Victorian fiction for graduate and advanced undergraduate students. The listings are selective, with emphasis on critical works published in the twentieth century. Contents include a preface explaining the guide, followed by the main sections: "Bibliographies,…

  7. Beyond Flash Gordon and "Star Wars": Science Fiction and History Instruction

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cooper, B. Lee

    1978-01-01

    Historical concepts can be taught through analysis of science fiction. Offers a class outline with science fiction resources to examine the boundaries of historical inquiry; six themes for student investigation based on specific resources; and a bibliography of 44 additional anthologies and books. (AV)

  8. "A Thousand Names They Called Him" Naming and Proper Names in the Work of S. Y. Agnon

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hadad, Shira

    2012-01-01

    This dissertation offers a study of proper names and naming as a conceptual and thematic anchor in the work of S.Y. Agnon. Proper names, I argue, constitute an underexplored and highly fruitful prism through which to read literature, and specifically Agnon's fiction. My study consists of a series of readings in several of Agnon's major…

  9. The twopenny library: the book trade, working-class readers, and 'middlebrow' novels in Britain, 1930-42.

    PubMed

    Hilliard, Christopher

    2014-01-01

    Twopenny libraries first appeared in North London in 1930 and quickly spread throughout urban Britain. Their innovation was to dispense with subscription fees and charge per loan. Unlike older commercial libraries such as Mudie's, twopenny libraries served a working-class clientele. Some twopenny libraries were standalone businesses. Many more were sidelines to existing businesses such as tobacconists' and newsagents' shops. Library services could be profitable in their own right, but often their main value to their proprietors was to bring customers into the shop more regularly. Established players in the book trade initially responded to twopenny libraries with alarm, but the threat they posed was limited. Their market was not the same as those of booksellers. Some public librarians made arguments along these lines about the twopenny libraries' impact on public libraries; certainly, the two types of institution coexisted. Twopenny libraries carried a lot of so-called light fiction, but they also lent working-class readers the 'middlebrow' bestsellers of the 1920s and 1930s. The wider significance of the twopenny library lies in the way it problematizes the distinction commonly made between a middle-class public for new hardcover novels and a working-class readership of fiction that appeared in cheap papers and magazines.

  10. Strategies for Improving Non-Fiction Reading Comprehension.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bell, Karen; Caspari, Amy

    This report describes a program for introducing students to strategies for improving their comprehension of non-fiction materials. The targeted population consisted of students of one third grade class in a small, middle class suburb, northwest of a large, midwestern city. Difficulty reading and comprehending non-fiction material was documented…

  11. Teaching English and History through Historical Fiction.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hicks, Alun; Martin, Dave

    1997-01-01

    Explores the appeal of historical fiction for young readers and describes its place within any school curriculum. Describes a project in Dorset Middle Schools which used historical fiction to teach medieval history and English. Notes that students' historical thinking was improved, their knowledge of medieval world advanced, and their writing was…

  12. Authentication Projects for Historical Fiction: Do You Believe It?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    McTigue, Erin; Thornton, Elaine; Wiese, Patricia

    2013-01-01

    Authentication projects, particularly for historical fiction, provide a means for students to explore literature and history while practicing critical literacy skills. The authors 1) present benefits and cautions for historical fiction use in elementary classrooms, 2) introduce authentication projects as a means to mitigate risks and enhance…

  13. Teaching and Reading Science Fiction in College.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Diskin, Lahna Faga

    This dissertation documents the different ways in which specialists approach science fiction. Descriptions of courses are presented for four universities, two four-year colleges, and one two-year community college. At all the schools, science fiction is a medium for social criticism. Otherwise the courses differ in content, format, and the methods…

  14. Indexing Serialized Fiction: May the Force Be with You.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Barr, Melissa M.

    The adult novel offers indexers an unusual opportunity to create a serialized fiction index. This research paper involved designing and creating a Character Index, Thesaurus, Glossary, and Abstract (with descriptors) for 21 novels based on the "Star Wars" movies. The novels are an unusual example of serialized fiction featuring main…

  15. Feminist Fiction and the Uses of Memory.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Greene, Gayle

    1991-01-01

    This essay concerns feminist fiction by Doris Lessing, Margaret Drabble, Margaret Atwood, Margaret Laurence, and Toni Morrison that utilizes memory as a means to liberation and explores this at the level of narrative form. In examining 1970s feminist fiction and metafiction, explores the importance of memory at particular cultural moments. (AF)

  16. Online Fan Fiction and Critical Media Literacy

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Black, Rebecca W.

    2010-01-01

    This article explores English-language-learning (ELL) youths' engagement with popular media through composing and publicly posting stories in an online fan fiction writing space. Fan fiction is a genre that lends itself to critical engagement with media texts as fans repurpose popular media to design their own narratives. Analyses describe how…

  17. Grokking the Future: Science Fiction in the Classroom.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hollister, Bernard C.; Thompson, Deane C.

    This book demonstrates how science fiction offers new insights into current social issues and helps students become more creative in their thinking about the future. Chapters begin with a discussion of science fiction through "what if" questions. From there chapters explore the concept of ecological balances through a combination of sciences…

  18. The Return of Historical Fiction

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rycik, Mary Taylor; Rosler, Brenda

    2009-01-01

    Recently, historical fiction has begun to dominate major children's book awards. This article describes the values of using high-quality historical fiction in the classroom and presents different ways to respond to this genre including using modern technology. Two tables, one of picture books and one of novels, with paired nonfiction texts, are…

  19. The Case for Digitizing Fiction with History.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Shires, Nancy Patterson

    2002-01-01

    Including relevant fiction along with digitized history helps the reader to deal effectively with the various letters, photos, and census records or the individual pieces of history revealed. For educational, social, psychological, and biological reasons, fiction is important in the study of history. Not only can novels and stories be valuable…

  20. Upper Elementary Students' Motivation to Read Fiction and Nonfiction

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Parsons, Allison Ward; Parsons, Seth A.; Malloy, Jacquelynn A.; Gambrell, Linda B.; Marinak, Barbara A.; Reutzel, D. Ray; Applegate, Mary D.; Applegate, Anthony J.; Fawson, Parker C.

    2018-01-01

    This research explores upper elementary students' motivation to read fiction and nonfiction. Using expectancy-value theory, the researchers developed separate surveys to measure motivation to read fiction and nonfiction. Researchers administered surveys to 1,104 upper elementary students (grades 3-6) in multiple locations across the United States…

  1. Promoting Transformative Learning through Reading Fiction

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hoggan, Chad; Cranton, Patricia

    2015-01-01

    This article is a report on research into the role of fiction in promoting transformative learning in higher education settings. Participants were 131 undergraduate and graduate students from two universities in the United States. To determine the type of learning promoted by reading fiction, we performed qualitative analyses on participants'…

  2. The evolution and extinction of science fiction.

    PubMed

    Hrotic, Steven

    2014-11-01

    Science fiction literature reflects our constantly evolving attitudes towards science and technological innovations, and the kinds of societal impacts believed possible. The newly popular subgenre 'steampunk' shows that these attitudes have significantly shifted. Examined from a cognitive anthropological perspective, science fiction reveals the cultural evolution of the genre as intelligently designed, and implies a cognitive mechanism of group membership reliant on implicit memory. However, such an analysis also suggests that genre science fiction as it was in the 20th century may no longer exist. © The Author(s) 2013.

  3. Group C. Initiator paper. Periodontal regeneration--fact or fiction?

    PubMed

    Bartold, P M

    2015-01-01

    Numerous techniques have been tried and tested to regenerate tissues lost to periodontal disease. While there has been some success to date, more work is required to move this to a reliable and clinically predictable procedure. Much of the future success for such treatments will rely largely on our understanding of the biology of both developmental and regenerative processes. Nonetheless, despite the noble goal of periodontal regeneration, the relevance of re-creation of a connective tissue attachment has been questioned. Since formation of a long junctional epithelial attachment to the tooth following a variety of periodontal treatment procedures has been shown to be no more susceptible to further breakdown than a non-diseased site, the question arises as to what purpose do we seek the ultimate outcome of periodontal regeneration? The answer lies in the "fact and fiction" of periodontal regeneration. There is no doubt that the regenerative procedures that have been developed can be shown to be biologically successful at the histological level. Furthermore, the results of periodontal regeneration (particularly guided tissue regeneration) have been stable over the long term (at least up to 10 years). However, the techniques currently under use which show the greatest promise (guided tissue regeneration and growth factors) are still clinically unpredictable because of their highly technique-sensitive nature. In addition, whether the slight clinical improvements offered by these procedures over routine open flap debridement procedures are of cost or patient benefit with regards to improved periodontal health and retention of teeth remains to be established. The next phase in regenerative technologies will undoubtedly involve a deeper understanding of the molecular signaling (both intra- and extra-cellular) and cellular differentiation processes involved in the regenerative processes. So in answer to the question of whether periodontal regeneration is fact or fiction, the answer clearly is that it is both. However, with more work it will become established fact with little fiction and the desired clinical endpoint of predictable regeneration of the periodontal tissues damaged by inflammation to their original form and function will be achieved.

  4. Teaching science through literature

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Barth, Daniel

    2007-12-01

    The hypothesis of this study was that a multidisciplinary, activity rich science curriculum based around science fiction literature, rather than a conventional text book would increase student engagement with the curriculum and improve student performance on standards-based test instruments. Science fiction literature was chosen upon the basis of previous educational research which indicated that science fiction literature was able to stimulate and maintain interest in science. The study was conducted on a middle school campus during the regular summer school session. Students were self-selected from the school's 6 th, 7th, and 8th grade populations. The students used the science fiction novel Maurice on the Moon as their only text. Lessons and activities closely followed the adventures of the characters in the book. The student's initial level of knowledge in Earth and space science was assessed by a pre test. After the four week program was concluded, the students took a post test made up of an identical set of questions. The test included 40 standards-based questions that were based upon concepts covered in the text of the novel and in the classroom lessons and activities. The test also included 10 general knowledge questions that were based upon Earth and space science standards that were not covered in the novel or the classroom lessons or activities. Student performance on the standards-based question set increased an average of 35% for all students in the study group. Every subgroup disaggregated by gender and ethnicity improved from 28-47%. There was no statistically significant change in the performance on the general knowledge question set for any subgroup. Student engagement with the material was assessed by three independent methods, including student self-reports, percentage of classroom work completed, and academic evaluation of student work by the instructor. These assessments of student engagement were correlated with changes in student performance on the standards-based assessment tests. A moderate correlation was found to exist between the level of student engagement with the material and improvement in performance from pre to post test.

  5. The Role of Mathematical Fiction in the Learning of Mathematics in Primary School

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Padula, Janice

    2004-01-01

    This article classifies and describes a selection of mathematical fiction. It also provides some practical activities teachers or parents can use to help make the mathematics more explicit and engaging for their children. Not many people, apart from primary teachers, are aware of mathematical fiction or mathematical picture storybooks, although…

  6. Talking Early Childhood Education: Fictional Enquiry with Historical Figures

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Selbie, Philip; Clough, Peter

    2005-01-01

    The use of fictional writing, and in particular fictional dialogue, has gained increasing credibility and popularity within the field of qualitative social science research (Clough, 2002; Denzin, 1997; Tierney, 1998) but research in early childhood education has yet to exploit such methodologies. This article asks: what is meant by the term…

  7. Octavia Butler and Virginia Hamilton: Black Women Writers and Science Fiction.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hampton, Gregory Jerome; Brooks, Wanda M.

    2003-01-01

    Notes that African American literature has always had science fiction elements in its focus on narratives of the alienated and marginalized "other." Contends that Octavia Butler and Virginia Hamilton are two African American writers of science fiction who examine the connections between the stories of a culture and the genre of science…

  8. Finding Time for Fiction.

    PubMed

    Johnson, Justin M

    2015-12-01

    With growing advances in psychiatric care come growing amounts of knowledge to be read by psychiatry trainees. This essay presents one resident's experience putting aside some of the official psychiatric literature during residency in favor of more fiction, and his self-perceived growth because of that. Fiction, in the author's perspective, can make us all better psychiatrists.

  9. Cartooning History: Canada's Stories in Graphic Novels

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    King, Alyson E.

    2012-01-01

    In recent years, historical events, issues, and characters have been portrayed in an increasing number of non-fiction graphic texts. Similar to comics and graphic novels, graphic texts are defined as fully developed, non-fiction narratives told through panels of sequential art. Such non-fiction graphic texts are being used to teach history in…

  10. Fiction as an Introduction to Computer Science Research

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Goldsmith, Judy; Mattei, Nicholas

    2014-01-01

    The undergraduate computer science curriculum is generally focused on skills and tools; most students are not exposed to much research in the field, and do not learn how to navigate the research literature. We describe how fiction reviews (and specifically science fiction) are used as a gateway to research reviews. Students learn a little about…

  11. The Affordances of Fiction for Teaching Chemistry

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Yerrick, Randy K.; Simons, Tiffany

    2017-01-01

    As science fiction has a way of capturing the human imagination that few other genres can rival, this study sought to investigate the effects of using science fiction on the performance and interest of high school chemistry students. An action research approach was used to guide the first author's practice as she studied two college preparatory…

  12. Graham Greene: The Films of His Fiction.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Phillips, Gene D.

    This book makes a comparative study of the prose fiction of Graham Greene and the films made from that fiction. Special attention is focused upon the "cinematic" style of Greene's prose, the effect of Greene's screenwriting on his novels, and the characteristics of Greene's filmscripts. The book is divided into considerations of Greene…

  13. Using Science Fiction To Teach Mainstream Literature.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fife, Ernelle

    This paper illustrates several examples of visual science fiction use in teaching literary classics, and is based on the philosophy that students share a visual cultural literacy through movies and television, types of representation with which they are more familiar than with literary texts. It claims that visual science fiction can be utilized…

  14. "Frankenstein" as Science Fiction and Fact

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    van der Laan, J. M.

    2010-01-01

    Often called the first of its kind, "Frankenstein" paved the way for science fiction writing. Its depiction of a then impossible scientific feat has in our time become possible and is essentially recognizable in what we now refer to as bioengineering, biomedicine, or biotechnology. The fiction of "Frankenstein" has as it were given way to…

  15. Far Out: Some Approaches to Teaching the Speculative Literature of Science Fiction and the Supernatural.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Los Angeles City Schools, CA. Div. of Instructional Planning and Services.

    This curriculum guide contains course descriptions (for minicourses and semester-long courses), outlines, and class projects for teaching science fiction and the supernatural in junior and senior high schools. The eight course descriptions include objectives, methods, activities, and resources and materials. Lists of science fiction books and…

  16. The Material Co-Construction of Hard Science Fiction and Physics

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hasse, Cathrine

    2015-01-01

    This article explores the relationship between hard science fiction and physics and a gendered culture of science. Empirical studies indicate that science fiction references might spur some students' interest in physics and help develop this interest throughout school, into a university education and even further later inspire the practice of…

  17. The Impact of Science Fiction Film on Student Understanding of Science

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Barnett, Michael; Wagner, Heather; Gatling, Anne; Anderson, Janice; Houle, Meredith; Kafka, Alan

    2006-01-01

    Researchers who have investigated the public understanding of science have argued that fictional cinema and television has proven to be particularly effective at blurring the distinction between fact and fiction. The rationale for this study lies in the notion that to teach science effectively, educators need to understand how popular culture…

  18. Science Fiction and Introductory Sociology: The "Handmaid" in the Classroom.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Laz, Cheryl

    1996-01-01

    Focuses on the uses of science fiction to teach sociology and develop critical and creative thinking. Maintains that in the last 20 years science fiction has become concerned increasingly with social themes. Concludes with a detailed description of the use of "The Handmaid's Tale" in an introductory sociology course. (MJP)

  19. Fiction from the Other Americas: Bibliographic Surveys and Classroom Applications.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mahony, Elizabeth

    This paper contains bibliographies of Latin American fiction and classroom applications for use in a 3-week unit in an introduction to fiction class. Section 1 discusses background research, selection of materials, choice of authors, translation issues, and plans for future study and course development. Section 2 contains an annotated bibliography…

  20. Real Teaching and Real Learning vs. Narrative Myths about Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gregory, Marshall

    2007-01-01

    All real classrooms are saturated in the fictional narratives about education from TV and movies that swirl about thickly and persistently in western culture, yet the influence that these fictions exert on real teachers and real students is seldom examined. This article argues that since these fictional narratives nearly always deal in recycled…

  1. A Fictional Dialogue on Infinitude of Primes: Introducing Virtual Duoethnography

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Zazkis, Rina; Koichu, Boris

    2015-01-01

    We introduce "virtual duoethnography" as a novel research approach in mathematics education, in which researchers produce a text of a dialogic format in the voices of fictional characters, who present and contrast different perspectives on the nature of a particular mathematical phenomenon. We use fiction as a form of research linked to…

  2. Toward Improved Collections in Medical Humanities: Fiction in Academic Health Sciences Libraries

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Dali, Keren; Dilevko, Juris

    2006-01-01

    Although fiction plays a prominent role in the interdisciplinary field of medical humanities (MH), it is physically and intellectually isolated from non-fiction in academic health sciences libraries. Using the Literature, Arts, and Medicine Database (LAMD) as a tool for selection and subject analysis, we suggest a method of integrating fiction…

  3. Independent Reading: The Relationship of Challenge, Non-Fiction and Gender to Achievement

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Topping, K. J.; Samuels, J.; Paul, T.

    2008-01-01

    To explore whether different balances of fiction/non-fiction reading and challenge might help explain differences in reading achievement between genders, data on 45,670 pupils who independently read over 3 million books were analysed. Moderate (rather than high or low) levels of challenge were positively associated with achievement gain, but…

  4. Future Think Program, San Jose City College, Spring Semester, 1974: Final Report of Evaluation.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    DCM Associates, San Francisco, CA.

    San Jose City College's Future Think Program consists of the following courses: Language, Culture, and Change; Third World Since 1945; Marriage and Family; Ecology and Man; Science Fiction; Introduction to Literature: Science Fiction; Introduction to Sociology; and Sociology/Fiction of the Future. An evaluation by an independent consulting firm…

  5. History and Literature: A Trial Separation.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Westfall, William

    1990-01-01

    Hypothesizes about the relationship between history and fiction. Discusses the contribution of history to understanding human affairs, stressing that history is true and fiction is not. Asserts that each generation uses the same materials to construct a new reality. States fiction gives only a partial view whereas history sees the world as whole.…

  6. Pairing Books for Learning: The Union of Informational and Fiction

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Baer, Allison L.

    2012-01-01

    This article aims to present an annotated bibliography of paired books--one fiction and one informational--about multiple topics in history and social studies that, when read together, can help support students' learning through experiencing the topic from multiple perspectives and voices. It begins with a brief rationale for pairing fiction and…

  7. A Journey into the Future: Using Sci-Fi Stories with EFL Learners.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Yang, Anson

    2001-01-01

    Discusses using science fiction stories in the English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) classroom. Presents experiences in a science fiction course with some successful methods in eliciting EFL students' discussion. Concludes that using both film and text versions of science fiction stories can be useful devices in helping EFL students participate…

  8. Reflections on Science Fiction in Light of Today's Global Concerns.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Aiex, Patrick K.

    Science fiction is a literary genre that can be used in humanities courses to discuss ideas, attitudes, ethics, morality, and the effects of science and technology on the world's population. One of the best examples of a "classic" science fiction novel which can provoke class discussion is Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World,"…

  9. Fact or Fiction? Libraries Can Thrive in the Digital Age

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Harris, Christopher

    2014-01-01

    Today's school library uses an increasing number of digital resources to supplement a print collection that is moving more toward fiction and literary non-fiction. Supplemental resources, including streaming video, online resources, subscription databases, audiobooks, e-books, and even games, round out the new collections. Despite the best…

  10. Blue Indians: Teaching the Political Geography of Imperialism with Fictional Film

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Madsen, Kenneth D.

    2014-01-01

    Fictional film provides an opportunity to breathe life into the application of academic concepts by capturing the attention and imagination of students. Using the 2009 hit movie "Avatar", it is argued that popular fiction has the potential to help students grasp the dynamics of imperial/indigenous relationships in part because it removes…

  11. Serial Monogamy: Extended Fictions and the Television Revolution

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mackey, Margaret

    2006-01-01

    Changes in television technology have fostered changes in how we view fiction on television. This article explores some of these changes in the context of the teenage series, "Felicity" (WBTV, 1998-2002). It draws comparisons with the experience of reading series fiction in print, referring to the children's print series, "The Beverly Gray College…

  12. Characters named Charles or Charley in novels by Charles Dickens.

    PubMed

    Barry, Herbert

    2007-10-01

    12 fictional characters named Charles or Charley are contained in eight of the 14 completed novels by Charles Dickens. Most of the author's namesakes have humorous attributes, an unusually close relationship with one or more other characters, and a happy subsequent life. Three stages of the author's adult life are youthful, mature, and after separation from his wife. The fictional namesakes are most humorous in the author's youthful stage and least humorous after separation from his wife. The 12 fictional namesakes of Charles Dickens are compared with the two fictional namesakes of Jane Austen.

  13. Visionary medicine: speculative fiction, racial justice and Octavia Butler's 'Bloodchild'.

    PubMed

    Pasco, John Carlo; Anderson, Camille; DasGupta, Sayantani

    2016-12-01

    Medical students across the USA have increasingly made the medical institution a place for speculating racially just futures. From die-ins in Fall 2014 to silent protests in response to racially motivated police brutality, medical schools have responded to the public health crisis that is racial injustice in the USA. Reading science fiction may benefit healthcare practitioners who are already invested in imagining a more just, healthier futurity. Fiction that rewrites the future in ways that undermine contemporary power regimes has been termed 'visionary fiction'. In this paper, the authors introduce 'visionary medicine' as a tool for teaching medical students to imagine and produce futures that preserve health and racial justice for all. This essay establishes the connections between racial justice, medicine and speculative fiction by examining medicine's racially unjust past practices, and the intersections of racial justice and traditional science and speculative fiction. It then examines speculative fiction author Octavia Butler's short story 'Bloodchild' as a text that can introduce students of the medical humanities to a liberatory imagining of health and embodiment, one that does not reify and reinscribe boundaries of difference, but reimagines the nature of Self and Other, power and collaboration, agency and justice. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

  14. A. E. van Vogt: In Search of Meaning.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Drake, H. L.

    A general semantics perspective of science fiction writer A. E. van Vogt is presented in this paper. The first major section of the paper contains a biographical sketch of van Vogt and traces the influence of A. Korzybski's work on general semantics, "Science and Sanity," on his writing, while the second major section provides an…

  15. Health Care for the Wongs: Health Insurance, Choosing a Doctor.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Thypin, Marilyn; Glasner, Lynne

    A short fictional work for limited English speakers presents a young family's experience in learning about the value of health insurance and the importance of having a physician when medical care is needed. Information is related regarding insurance acquired through one's place of employment and the availability of medical assistance, through…

  16. Literatura Chicana. A Comprehensive Bibliography (1980-June, 1984). Working Bibliography Series No. 1.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Trujillo, Roberto G.; And Others

    The 197-item bibliography on Chicano literature published from 1980 through June 1984 is presented in 10 sections: poetry (77 entries), novel (25 entries), short fiction (13 entries), theatre (7 entries), literary criticism (16 entries), anthology (24 entries), unpublished dissertations (13 entries), bibliographies and encyclopedia (6 entries),…

  17. Rethinking Texts: Narrative and the Construction of Qualitative Research

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Holley, Karri A.; Colyar, Julia

    2009-01-01

    This article outlines how a theory of narrative can be used to deconstruct qualitative research texts. Although research texts are a distinct genre in comparison with works of fiction, the basic components of literary activity are similar. Researchers structure and emphasize data and participants in various ways to tell a logical story. Narrative…

  18. The Galactic Spaceship Tour Challenge

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Engel, Bill; Schmidt, Diane

    2004-01-01

    A science fiction problem was placed before the students, they had to plan a profitable trip for Galactic spaceship tour and for which group of five students was made to solve the problem, which would encourage cooperative efforts, and different people in the group could work on different aspects. An important part of this problem is that students…

  19. The "Uncanny" Character of Race: An Exploration of UK Preparedness through Youth Performance

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chakrabarty, Namita

    2011-01-01

    Performance is a key tool in emergency preparedness and the rehearsal of professional response, simultaneously raising questions about the practice of cultural assumptions in this context. Usually the actors in preparedness exercises are civil servants who perform the work of the nihilistic imagination in often-apocalyptic fictional scenarios,…

  20. A Virtual Dig--Joining Archaeology and Fiction to Promote Critical and Historical Thinking

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cooper, David

    2003-01-01

    In this article, the author describes "Dr. Gesundheit and the Mysteries of Snake Valley," a mini-unit that he designed so that his middle-level students could learn to interpret archaeological diagrams, work cooperatively to discover relationships among their observations, and draw well-founded conclusions. The unit requires approximately four…

  1. Cinemabilia; Catalogue of Film Literature.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cinemabilia, New York, NY.

    The catalog lists and briefly annotates more than 3,500 current, second-hand, and out-of-print books about film that are available from Cinemabilia, New York City. The catalog is divided into 37 categories. The section on special genre lists works on horror, science fiction, Westerns, and Tarzan films, ranging from "Drums of Fu-Manchu" to "Movie…

  2. Creativity in Its Most Pure Form

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Valdata, Patricia

    2007-01-01

    The stereotype of the poet or novelist working in unappreciated solitude got a workout recently at the Carbondale campus of Southern Illinois University. The 9th annual Young Writer's Workshop brought 30 high-school students onto the campus for four intense days of poetry and fiction writing, critiques, panels and readings. The workshop is one of…

  3. From Castalia to Wikipedia: Openness and Closure in Knowledge Communities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Roberts, Peter; Peters, Michael A.

    2011-01-01

    This article explores different forms of openness and closure in two knowledge communities: the fictional world of Castalia in Hermann Hesse's great work "The Glass Bead Game", and the twenty-first-century cyberspatial universe of Wikipedia. These two worlds differ in some important respects, but they also share a number of educationally…

  4. Houghton Mifflin Reading©. What Works Clearinghouse Intervention Report

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    What Works Clearinghouse, 2015

    2015-01-01

    "Houghton Mifflin Reading"© is a reading program designed for grades K-6. The program provides step-by-step instruction in reading using Big Books (fiction and nonfiction literature), anthologies, Read Aloud books, and audio compact discs. The product is designed to be used as a full-year curriculum program with instruction on developing…

  5. Leaving the Land of Digital Natives

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Jimenez, Camilo; Corral, Will H.

    2012-01-01

    Camilo Jimenez taught writing and literature at the prestigious Universidad Javeriana in Columbia for nine years until his resignation in December 2011, for reasons explained in this article. Having found that only three out of thirty of his students in his "Assessment of Non-Fiction Texts" course could successfully summarize a work in one…

  6. Seeking New Civilizations: Race Normativity in the "Star Trek" Franchise

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kwan, Allen

    2007-01-01

    As with many science fiction works, the "Star Trek" franchise uses allegory to address contemporary social issues. Taking a liberal humanistic stance, it addresses race and racism using aliens as allegorical stand-ins for humanity. However, the producers of the "Star Trek" franchise were inadvertently perpetuating the racism they were advocating…

  7. Latin America: An Annotated List of Materials for Children.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    United Nations Children's Fund, New York, NY. United States Committee.

    This annotated bibliography of materials on Latin America is intended for children to age 14. South and Central America, Mexico, and the French, English, and Spanish speaking areas of the Caribbean are covered. Listings are by country and include history books, geography books, fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and folklore books. Some works in Spanish…

  8. Global 2000 Project. Pathways. Adult Diploma Program Student Books.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Continuing Education Inst., Needham, MA.

    This document contains 48 pieces of writing that were authored by employees of six different businesses who participated in an adult diploma program. A variety of genres are represented, including poems, personal narratives, book reviews, essays, letters, and fiction. The works are grouped under the following broad headings: goals, freedom,…

  9. Talking Grammatically: L1 Adolescent Metalinguistic Reflection on Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Watson, Annabel Mary; Newman, Ruth Malka Charlotte

    2017-01-01

    This study investigated the metalinguistic reflections of 12 students, aged 14-15 years, undertaking a unit of work focused on reading and writing non-fiction. The unit embedded contextualised grammar teaching into preparation for English Language examinations. Students were interviewed twice, with prompts to discuss a sample of argument text in…

  10. [Occupational risk for agricultural workers health, hygienic aspects of its assessment and management (literature review)].

    PubMed

    Novikova, T A; Spirin, V F; Mikhaĭlova, N A; Taranova, V M

    2012-01-01

    The authors analyzed the facts of contemporary work conditions of agricultural production, which are given in non-fiction. The results of analysis showed up occupational hazard factors of agricultural workers health. The authors determined foreground directions of effective managerial decisions developing, concerning its minimization and elimination.

  11. Yearning and Its Uses

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Vakil, Ardashir

    2013-01-01

    This article makes a case for the centrality of yearning in fictional representations of characters. With the help of illustrations from Adam Phillips, Olen Butler and Ted Hughes I argue that this key element may be missing from the creative work of students. This is my attempt, through exercises and other stimuli, to generate this yearning or…

  12. Love Is Bad for You: Parables and Practical Fictions in the Romantic Primary Classroom

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Galman, Sally Campbell

    2014-01-01

    This article presents tentative findings from an ongoing study of female preservice teachers' stories about love, gender, and work in primary level (K-6) teacher preparation. Analyses of data from 26 phenomenological interviews with White, female pre-service teachers enrolled in teacher preparation programs frames one sample participant "love…

  13. AxeCorp's "Team Challenge": Teaching Teamwork via 3D Social Networking Platforms

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Carmichael, Kendra

    2011-01-01

    To prepare business communication undergraduates for a changing work world and to engage today's tech-savvy students, many instructors have embraced social media by incorporating its use in the classroom. This article describes AxeCorp, a fictional company headquartered on the immersive social networking platform, Second Life, and one particular…

  14. What Shall I Read on Japan? An Introductory Guide. Twelfth Edition.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Marks, Alfred H.

    This highly selective annotated list of works may be read with profit by the serious beginning student or casual reader interested in things Japanese. As many entries as possible from the earlier editions have been retained. All new materials cited were reviewed. Included are reference books, guides, fiction, novels, translations, research…

  15. The Application of Project Management Techniques to College and University Admissions Activities.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bickers, Doyle

    1993-01-01

    The process of project management is illustrated through application to one activity, development of a new brochure, within the admissions program of a fictional college. The project life cycle is described, and a work responsibility schedule, project completion schedule, and critical path chart are used as planning and implementation tools. (MSE)

  16. Closet addiction in fiction: the search for Christiana Evans.

    PubMed

    Sibley, Gay

    2007-01-01

    Mary Ann Evans, who would later become the great nineteenth-century novelist George Eliot, takes up in her first three works of fiction a discussion of the use of alcohol in her own culture. However, it is in "Adam Bede" (1859) that a significant portion of the discussion (the alcoholism of one female character in particular) is so deliberately closeted -- so backgrounded -- that the structure of the text becomes a slippery portrait, not only of the extent to which the culturally pervasive alcoholism of women was persistently denied, but of Eliot's own mother's hidden substance abuse. An important minor character in "Adam Bede," identified by more than one biographer as having a kinship to Eliot's mother Christiana Evans, shows all the signs and symptoms of alcoholism, a phenomenon which even the story's narrator appears to be hiding from the reader.

  17. Curing "moral disability": brain trauma and self-control in Victorian science and fiction.

    PubMed

    Schillace, Brandy L

    2013-12-01

    While, historically, the disabled body has appeared in literature as "monstrous," burgeoning psychological theories of the Victorian period predicated an unusual shift. In a culture of sexual anxiety and fears of devolution and moral decay, the physically disabled and "weak" are portrayed as strangely free from moral corruption. Unlike the cultural link between deviance and disability witnessed in the medical literature and eugenic approach to generation, authors of narrative fiction-particularly Charles Dickens, but Wilkie Collins, Charlotte Yonge, and others as well-portray disabled characters as "purified," and trauma itself as potentially sanitizing. This present paper argues that such constructions were made possible by developments in the treatment of insanity. "Curing 'Moral Disability': Brain Trauma and Self-Control in Victorian Fiction," examines the concept of trauma-as-cure. Throughout the Victorian period, case studies on brain trauma appeared in widely circulated journals like the Lancet, concurrently with burgeoning theories about psychological disturbance and "moral insanity." While not widely practiced until the early twentieth century, attempts at surgical "cures" aroused curiosity and speculation-the traumatic event that could free sufferers from deviance. This work provides a unique perspective on representations of disability as cure in the nineteenth century as a means of giving voice to the marginalized, disabled, and disempowered.

  18. Teacher Read-Aloud Style and Delivery: Fiction and Nonfiction Texts

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wright, Jana D.

    2011-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to examine what read-aloud style and delivery of an elementary school teacher looked like, as well as how style and delivery varied from teacher to teacher. Both fiction and nonfiction texts were considered. The reading styles utilized by the teacher participants during two fiction and two nonfiction read-aloud events…

  19. Science Fiction Handbook, Revised: A Guide to Writing Imaginative Literature.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    de Camp, L. Sprague; de Camp, Catherine C.

    This book provides the general reader with an introduction to the field of imaginative fiction. The first two chapters describe the growth of science fiction from Aristophanes to Asimov and give the history of its parent literature, fantasy. The rest of the book affords the apprentice writer an overview of skills necessary for creating imaginative…

  20. Preschoolers Can Infer General Rules Governing Fantastical Events in Fiction

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Van de Vondervoort, Julia W.; Friedman, Ori

    2014-01-01

    Young children are frequently exposed to fantastic fiction. How do they make sense of the unrealistic and impossible events that occur in such fiction? Although children could view such events as isolated episodes, the present experiments suggest that children use such events to infer general fantasy rules. In 2 experiments, 2-to 4-year-olds were…

  1. Literary Fiction as a Tool for Teaching Social Theory and Critical Consciousness

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Weber, Christina D.

    2010-01-01

    In this paper, I discuss the possibilities that emerge from using literary fiction as a tool for teaching social theory and critical consciousness. Focusing on data from a social theory course I taught in fall 2007, along with my experiences teaching social theory, I evaluate the utility of utilizing literary fiction in the social theory…

  2. Mathematical Fiction for Senior Students and Undergraduates: Novels, Plays, and Film

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Padula, Janice

    2006-01-01

    Mathematical fiction has probably existed since ideas have been written down and certainly as early as 414 BC (Kasman, 2000). Mathematical fiction is a recently rediscovered and growing literature, as sales of the novels: "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time" (Haddon, 2003) and "The Da Vinci Code" (Brown, 2004) attest. Science…

  3. Gifted Girls' Passion for Fiction: The Quest for Meaning, Growth, and Self-Actualization

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Stutler, Susan Lee

    2011-01-01

    To illuminate the nature of the relationship that very able girls have with fiction, this is an interpretive account of the meanings that reading fiction holds for verbally gifted preadolescent girls. Ethnographic field methods were used to uncover the essences of the reading experience in the contexts of their daily lives. Data sources included…

  4. How James Kept the Pace?; A Look into the Organic Unity of "Daisy Miller"

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Movaghati, Sina; Comcar, Milad

    2015-01-01

    Many Critics believe that Henry James has set the definitive standards of modern fiction writing. Undoubtedly his groundbreaking article "The Art of Fiction," which published for the first time in 1884, has a major contribution in developing the theories of fiction writing. The term Organic Unity has derived from a major Formalist…

  5. Contemporary Ghost Stories: Cyberspace in Fiction for Children and Young Adults

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Harris, Marla

    2005-01-01

    This essay identifies a genre of popular fiction for children and young adults, prevalent in the 1990s and continuing into the early twenty-first century, that incorporates computers and the internet, e-mails and chat rooms, into its plots. However, along with a focus on technology, this fiction frequently features the supernatural. So, too,…

  6. Exploring our Country's History: Linking Fiction to Nonfiction. Literature Bridges to Social Studies Series.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Perry, Phyllis J.

    Fiction is a powerful tool that can motivate students to learn. This book is designed to assist elementary teachers in planning integrated units of study based on quality fiction titles about U.S. history. These titles build interest, illuminate specific eras, and lead students to related nonfiction titles. Organized in sections that cover…

  7. Telling It Like It Is--And Like It Is Not: Fiction in the Service of Science in Jay Hosler's "The Sandwalk Adventures"

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Porat, Michal

    2015-01-01

    Biologist and graphic novelist Jay Hosler has long been introducing young readers to biological subjects through entertaining narratives combining strongly fictional elements with nonfictional ones. Extensive application of fiction to nonfictional subject matter is uncommon, even in graphic novels, but Hosler's "The Sandwalk Adventures"…

  8. Science Fiction Movies as a Tool for Revealing Students' Knowledge and Alternative Conceptions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ongel-Erdal, Sevinc; Sonmez, Duygu; Day, Rob

    2004-01-01

    According to renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, "science fiction is useful both for stimulating the imagination and for diffusing fear of the future." Indeed, several studies suggest that using science fiction movies as a teaching aid can improve both motivation and achievement. However, if a movie's plot crosses the line between good…

  9. Using Fiction to Teach Introductory Anthropology.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ellenbaum, Charles O.

    A discussion of the role of fiction in a college level anthropology course is divided into two sections. The first section describes several advantages of using fiction rather than a text to teach anthropology. Teacher and students share more or less equally in the teaching process with this approach. The teacher is no longer an authority on a…

  10. Exploring Mars and Beyond: Science Fiction a Resource for Environmental Education.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Miller, Ryder W.

    The purpose of this article is to show how traditional science fiction, an empowering literature of social criticism, can be used by environmental educators to reach the traditional goals of environmental education. The sub-genres of science fiction are discussed along with ways in which they can be used to reach certain goals of environmental…

  11. Structural and Dialectal Characteristics of the Fictional and Personal Narratives of School-Age African American Children

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mills, Monique T.; Watkins, Ruth V.; Washington, Julie A.

    2013-01-01

    Purpose: To report preliminary comparisons of developing structural and dialectal characteristics associated with fictional and personal narratives in school-age African American children. Method: Forty-three children, Grades 2-5, generated a fictional narrative and a personal narrative in response to a wordless-book elicitation task and a…

  12. Textbook vs. Historical Fiction: Impact on Social Studies Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rider, Amanda

    2013-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of adding historical fiction novels as a supplement to the textbook in an eighth grade social studies course. This qualitative study focused on student interest and feedback as their social studies class was altered through the addition of historical fiction novels. The research questions were…

  13. Focus on the Science Fiction Film.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Johnson, William, Ed.

    This volume is comprised of a collection of essays about the origin and development of the science fiction film, its relation to other kinds of film and to science fiction writing, and its aesthetic value. The essays are arranged in four groups: "Beginnings: 1895-1940s,""Popular Years: The 1950s,""Taking Stock: Some Issues and Answers," and…

  14. American Authors, September 11th, and Civil War Representations in Historical Fiction

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bickford, John H.

    2018-01-01

    Scholars have hypothesized that historical fiction books are more a product of the author, author's nuanced world view, and the time period in which they were written than of the events and period depicted. This content analysis research examined how American historical fiction authors represented the Civil War and how the events of September…

  15. Does art imitate death? Depictions of suicide in fiction.

    PubMed

    Pridmore, Saxby; Walter, Garry

    2013-02-01

    To determine whether fiction (narrative products) deals with the issue of suicide and, if so, what it tells us about suicide "drivers". Accounts of suicide in narrative products were sought through web-based lists, book club members, other active readers and a prize-winning film writer and producer. Seventy-one depictions of fictional suicidal events were identified. In 12 suicides, the author appeared to indicate that the death was directly or indirectly due to mental disorder. In 15 suicides, the motivation could not be determined by the reader, and in 44 cases the motivation was social/situational factors. Suicidal events are depicted in fiction, and the features are broadly similar to the features of suicide in the real world. Should it be determined that cultural influences, including fiction, are important in suicide, any preventive activities aimed at modifying cultural influences will need to consider all forms of narrative product.

  16. Fact vs fiction--how paratextual information shapes our reading processes.

    PubMed

    Altmann, Ulrike; Bohrn, Isabel C; Lubrich, Oliver; Menninghaus, Winfried; Jacobs, Arthur M

    2014-01-01

    Our life is full of stories: some of them depict real-life events and were reported, e.g. in the daily news or in autobiographies, whereas other stories, as often presented to us in movies and novels, are fictional. However, we have only little insights in the neurocognitive processes underlying the reading of factual as compared to fictional contents. We investigated the neurocognitive effects of reading short narratives, labeled to be either factual or fictional. Reading in a factual mode engaged an activation pattern suggesting an action-based reconstruction of the events depicted in a story. This process seems to be past-oriented and leads to shorter reaction times at the behavioral level. In contrast, the brain activation patterns corresponding to reading fiction seem to reflect a constructive simulation of what might have happened. This is in line with studies on imagination of possible past or future events.

  17. "I listened with my eyes": writing speech and reading deafness in the fiction of Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins.

    PubMed

    Esmail, Jennifer

    2011-01-01

    While characters with disabilities appear frequently in Victorian fiction, deaf characters, specifically, are almost entirely absent. In fact, the only deaf characters who use sign language in Victorian fiction are Madonna Blyth in Wilkie Collins’s Hide and Seek and Sophy Marigold in Charles Dickens’s “Doctor Marigold.” Grounding its analysis in these two texts, this article contends that it is, in particular, a deaf character’s relationship to language that disqualifies him or her from conventional representation in Victorian fiction. Through reading Hide and Seek and “Doctor Marigold” in the context of Victorian deaf history, Collins and Dickens’s realist aims, and Victorian generic conventions rooted in transcribing orality, this essay argues that the absence of deaf characters reveals the investment of mid-Victorian fiction in a particular and normativized relationship between bodies, spoken language, and textuality.

  18. Psychopathy and the cinema: fact or fiction?

    PubMed

    Leistedt, Samuel J; Linkowski, Paul

    2014-01-01

    The authors investigated the relationship between cinema and psychopathy to describe and analyze the portrayal of fictional psychopathic characters in popular films and over cinematic history. From 400 films (1915-2010), 126 fictional psychopathic characters (21 female and 105 male) were selected based on the realism and clinical accuracy of their profiles. Movies were then analyzed by senior forensic psychiatrists and cinema critics. Secondary (71%) and manipulative (48%) subtypes were the most common in the female group, while secondary (51%) and prototypical (34%) were the most common in the male group. Corresponding to the increased understanding of clinical psychopathy by professional mental health providers over time, the clinical description of and epidemiological data on fictional psychopaths in popular films have become more realistic. Realistic fictional psychopaths remain in the minority but are very important for didactic purposes in Academic facilities, as "teaching Movies." © 2013 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

  19. What If?: Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers. Revised and Expanded Edition.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bernays, Anne; Painter, Pamela

    This book is designed to be a how-to-write-fiction guide that is long on specifics and short on theoretical material. Each section of the book deals with a separate element of fiction--characterization, dialogue, point of view, plot, etc. Every exercise in the book is introduced in an opening paragraph, followed by instructions for completing the…

  20. The Stuff of (Urban) Legends, and How It Can Help Students Appreciate Fiction.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cioe, Paul

    2000-01-01

    Suggests that educators rethink the ways in which they introduce elements of fiction. Considers how giving students the opportunity to show what they already know about the elements of fiction can lead them to a richer appreciation of the rewards of reading short stories. Notes that folktales and urban legends can provide familiar parallels to…

  1. Art and fiction are signals with indeterminate truth values.

    PubMed

    Rabb, Nathaniel

    2017-01-01

    Menninghaus et al. distinguish art from fiction, but no current arguments or data suggest that the concept of art can be meaningfully circumscribed. This is a problem for aesthetic psychology. I sketch a solution by rejecting the distinction: Unlike most animal communication, in which signals are either true or false, art and fiction consist of signals without determinate truth values.

  2. Readers and Mythic Signs: The Oedipus Myth in Twentieth-Century Fiction.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Moddelmog, Debra A.

    Offering a poetics for myth in 20th century fiction, this book argues that the nature of myth is to inspire interpretation, that every myth carries with it an intertextual body of theories regarding its meaning and yet remains capable of evoking new meaning. The book further argues that myth, when used in fiction, functions like a language, with…

  3. Who Gets to Be a Writer? Exploring Identity and Learning Issues in Becoming a Fiction Author

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gouthro, Patricia A.

    2014-01-01

    Drawing upon a research study on lifelong learning, citizenship, and fiction writing, this paper explores issues around identity and learning in becoming a fiction author. Five main thematic areas are discussed: (1) envisioning a writing career, (2) compelled to write, (3) learning the craft, (4) getting published, and (5) online identity. The…

  4. Selected Representations of Teachers and Teaching in Twentieth-Century Anglo-Irish Fiction and Memoir: Some Literary-Critical and Pedagogical Explorations

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hanratty, Brian

    2018-01-01

    This paper has two complementary objectives. After providing some theoretical perspectives on fiction generally, and on the teaching of fiction more specifically, it firstly evaluates, from a literary-critical perspective, a reasonably representative selection of the portrayal of teachers and teaching in some twentieth-century Anglo-Irish fiction…

  5. Comfortable Fictions and the Struggle for Turf: An Essay Review of "The Invented Indian: Cultural Fictions and Government Policies," Edited by James A. Clifton.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Deloria, Vine, Jr.

    1992-01-01

    Clifton's collection of essays attacks recent pro-Indian "fictions" (including Native spirituality and the relationship between the Iroquois League and the U.S. Constitution) as politically motivated romanticism and nonsense. The authors are struggling to maintain white intellectual authority over definitions of Indian identity and interpretations…

  6. Medical thrillers: doctored fiction for future doctors?

    PubMed

    Charpy, Jean-Pierre

    2014-12-01

    Medical thrillers have been a mainstay of popular fiction since the late 1970s and still attract a wide readership today. This article examines this specialized genre and its core conventions within the context of professionally-based fiction, i.e. the class of thrillers written by professionals or former professionals. The author maps this largely unchartered territory and analyzes the fictional representations of doctors and medicine provided in such novels. He argues that medical thrillers, which are not originally aimed at specialized readers and sometimes project a flawed image of medicine, may be used as a pedagogical tool with non-native learners of medical English.

  7. What Pauline Doesn't Know: Using Guided Fiction Writing to Educate Health Professionals about Cultural Competence.

    PubMed

    Saffran, Lise

    2017-01-07

    Research linking reading literary fiction to empathy supports health humanities programs in which reflective writing accompanies close readings of texts, both to explore principles of storytelling (narrative arc and concrete language) and to promote an examination of biases in care. Little attention has been paid to the possible contribution of guided fiction-writing in health humanities curricula toward enhancing cultural competence among health professionals, both clinical and community-based. Through an analysis of the short story "Pie Dance" by Molly Giles, juxtaposed with descriptions of specific writing exercises, this paper explains how the demands of writing fiction promote cultural competency.

  8. Sherlock Holmes and the case of the plagiarised paper.

    PubMed

    Kennedy, David

    2011-07-01

    Narrative pedagogy has the power to explore issues in a way that expository teaching cannot match. Moon and Fowler (2008, p.236), for example, point out that fiction has much to offer in focusing creatively on issues, exploring subtleties and discussing related emotional dynamics. But they comment that in nurse education fiction is 'a relatively untapped' (though valuable) resource for teaching. 'Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Plagiarised Paper' is a fictional account that responds to Moon and Fowler's challenge. It explores a controversial issue--student plagiarism. The narrative sets the discussion in a fictional context--an interaction between fictional characters and a real character. It explores difficulties that novice writers have in avoiding plagiarism. It debates how teachers may respond to student plagiarism. It contextualises student plagiarism in the wider world of academic plagiarism. Its purpose is to enable the reader to identify and act on these issues in a way that an expository examination of student plagiarism could not achieve. In response to suggestions from reviewers, the article has an Appendix which outlines some of the issues and techniques associated with the use of fiction in nursing education. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  9. 'Chaos is come again': Nothingness in Shakespeare's metadramatic time and space

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Oswald, John David

    The extraordinary advances of twentieth-century science, which overlay, and in some cases overturn, the Newtonian precepts upon which physics was founded, have captured a share of the popular imagination. Quantum mechanics, relativity theory, and chaos theory are the stuff of science fact and science fiction, of technological innovation and artistic invention. Intricate ``fractal'' images adorn poster art, and science fiction fantasy (long a niche market for popular fiction) is the genre of the blockbuster film and the television franchise. Astronomers and physicists are writing pop-science bestsellers for the layman, making theory accessible to those who cannot do the math. This work focuses on Shakespearean notions of time and space in selected metadramatic passages from three plays that feature embattled monarchs: Richard II, King Lear, and The Winter's Tale. Shakespeare's employment of metaphors that are also ``cardinal metaphors'' of science is examined to determine how his dramatic works fare under a post-deterministic paradigm. A chaos-theory model is advanced for theatrical performance, and analogies are drawn from scientific theory to discuss dramatic language and action (e.g., ``nothingness'' in different contexts is compared variously with black holes, dark matter, vacuum genesis in a spatial void roiling with virtual particles, the empty space within matter, etc.). Of primary importance are the notions of quantum observership (the impossibility of separating observation from participation in scientific experimentation) and complementarity (Bohr's theory to account for the dual behavior of radiation as both waves and particles). Shakespeare's persistent metadramatic emphasis is seen as an effort to draw his audience (observers) into conscious participation in the imaginative act of bringing his plays into being. Complementarity relates to the promotion of multiple perspectives in all three plays and to the dramaturgical structure of The Winter's Tale.

  10. Case studies on clinical evaluation of biosimilar monoclonal antibody: scientific considerations for regulatory approval.

    PubMed

    Kudrin, Alex; Knezevic, Ivana; Joung, Jeewon; Kang, Hye-Na

    2015-01-01

    The objective of this paper is to provide considerations based on comprehensive case studies important for regulatory evaluation of monoclonal antibodies as similar biotherapeutic products (SBPs) with a special emphasis on clinical aspects. Scientific principles from WHO Guidelines on SBPs were used as a basis for the exercise. Working groups consisted of regulators, manufacturers and academia. The following topics were discussed by the working groups: clinical criteria for biosimilarity, extrapolation approach and the overall regulatory decision making process. In order to determine typical pitfalls in the design of a SBP clinical programme and evaluate the gap of knowledge, amongst different industry and regulatory stakeholders on the appraisal of the data arising from SBP clinical studies, we have presented two fictional but realistic clinical case studies. The first case consists of the fictional development programme for an infliximab SBP candidate. The second case describes clinical studies proposed for a fictional rituximab SBP candidate. In the first scenario a highly similar quality profile has been taken forward into clinical studies whereas there was an important residual difference in functional attributes for the rituximab SBP candidate. These case studies were presented at the WHO implementation workshop for the WHO guidelines on evaluation of similar biotherapeutic products held in Seoul, Republic of Korea, in May 2014. The goal was to illustrate the interpretation of the clinical data arising from studies with SBP candidates and elicit knowledge gaps in clinical assessment. This paper reflects the outcome of the exercise and discussions held in Seoul and offers an analysis of the case studies as a learning opportunity on clinical development and evaluation of SBPs. Copyright © 2014 The International Alliance for Biological Standardization. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  11. Three laws of robotics and surgery.

    PubMed

    Moran, Michael

    2008-08-01

    In 1939, Isaac Asimov solidified the modern science fiction genre of robotics in his short story "Strange Playfellow" but altered our thinking about robots in Runaround in 1942 by formulating the Three Laws. He took an engineer's perspective on advanced robotic technologies. Surgical robots by definition violate the first law, yet his discussions are poignant for our understanding of future potential of robotic urologic surgery. We sought to better understand Asimov's visions by reading his fiction and autobiography. We then sought to place his perceptions of science fact next to the Three Laws (he later added a fourth law, the zeroth). Asimov's Three Laws are often quoted in medical journals during discussions about robotic surgery. His First Law states: "A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. " This philosophy would directly conflict with the application in surgery. In fact, most of his robotic stories deal with robots that come into conflicts with the laws. Robots in his cleverly orchestrated works evolve unique solutions to complex hierarchical conflicts with these laws. Asimov anticipated the coming maelstrom of intelligent robotic technologies with prescient unease. Despite his scholarly intuitions, he was able to fathom medical/surgical applications in many of his works. These fictional robotic physicians were able to overcome the first law and aid in the care and management of the sick/injured. Isaac Asimov published over 500 books on topics ranging from Shakespeare to science. Despite his widespread influence, he refused to visit the MIT robotics laboratory to see current, state-of-the-art systems. He managed to lay the foundation of modern robotic control systems with a human-oriented safety mechanism in his laws. "If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them " (I Asimov).

  12. "Come Here Jesus...Wonder What God Had in Mind:" Toni Morrison and F. Scott Fitzgerald as Narrators of (Anti-) Theodicy

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hess, Carol Lakey

    2009-01-01

    This article argues that realist and tragic fiction can and should play a central role in Religious Education in communities of faith and in theological education in schools of theology--thereby contributing to theological construction--"because good fiction produces truth". Fiction is a vital source for producing the questions that theology needs…

  13. Fiction to Fact: College Novels and the Study of Higher Education. ASHE 1987 Annual Meeting Paper.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Thelin, John R.; Townsend, Barbara K.

    The possible use of fiction about colleges as part of the study of higher education is considered, based on analysis of 80 student-centered college novels written by authors who attended the depicted colleges. The novels used colleges as either the subject matter or setting. Three criticisms of the idea of using fiction are discussed, including…

  14. Considering Popular Fiction and Library Practices of Recommendation: The Literary Status of "The Clique" and Its Historical Progenitors

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Pattee, Amy

    2008-01-01

    The Clique, a contemporary popular series for girls, has been criticized in the popular and professional media but includes thematic content similar to some of the more lauded mid-nineteenth-century domestic fiction for girls. By making a formal comparison of this popular series with domestic fiction for girls (much of which is now considered…

  15. Assessing Values in Historical Fiction Written for Children: A Content Analysis of the Winners of the Scott O'Dell Historical Fiction Award.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Edgington, William D.; Brabham, Edna Greene; Frost, Jami Bice

    1999-01-01

    Considers how teachers engage children in character education and analyzes core values in books winning the Scott O'Dell Historical Fiction Award. Finds that these books are rich sources for examples of core values that are common features of character-education programs. Observes many teachers using short stories and picture books to insert…

  16. Filling the Gaps: What's Happening in the World of Fan Fiction

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Collins, Tara

    2006-01-01

    When one reads and greatly enjoys a book, he or she would naturally want to repeat the experience. Readers seeking to do so can perhaps find what they are looking for in fan fiction if aspiring fan fiction writers are capable of supplying answers to questions left by the original author in a manner that does justice to that author's style or…

  17. The Non-Fiction Reading Habits of Young Successful Boy Readers: Forming Connections between Masculinity and Reading

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Smith, Susannah

    2004-01-01

    The reading experiences of six young successful boy readers were studied over a two-year period. In this article, their non-fiction reading is analysed and ways in which the boys make positive connections between masculinity and reading are identified. The boys' non-fiction reading centres on typical boy interest areas and hobbies (for example,…

  18. A Qualitative Case Study Comparing a Computer-Mediated Delivery System to a Face-to-Face Mediated Delivery System for Teaching Creative Writing Fiction Workshops

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Daniels, Mindy A.

    2012-01-01

    The purpose of this case study was to compare the pedagogical and affective efficiency and efficacy of creative prose fiction writing workshops taught via asynchronous computer-mediated online distance education with creative prose fiction writing workshops taught face-to-face in order to better understand their operational pedagogy and…

  19. Now I Get What It Was Really Like: Reading Historical Fiction to Understand History

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Schwab, Watts

    2005-01-01

    Encouraging students to read historical fiction can lead to greater interest in historical events and fictionalizing history enables young people to feel what it is like to be there. "The Bear that Heard Crying" by Natalie Kinsey-Warnock, "A Lion to Guard Us" by Clyde Robert and "Meet Felicity: An American Girl (Book 1)" by Valerie Tripp are some…

  20. A Picture of Burnout: Case Studies and Solutions Toward Improving Radiologists' Well-being.

    PubMed

    Restauri, Nicole; Flug, Jonathan A; Mcarthur, Tatum A

    This article uses case fictional case vignettes as a vehicle to discuss the complex way organizational and individual factors contribute to physician burnout. The article incorporates a review of the current literature on physician burnout focusing on work place inefficiency and ineffective leadership. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  1. Podcasting to Support Students Using a Business Simulation

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gorra, Andrea; Finlay, Janet

    2009-01-01

    Audio or video podcasts can be a useful tool to supplement practical exercises such as business simulations. In this paper, we discuss a case study in which different types of podcast were utilised to support the delivery of a course in international business. The students work in groups and run a fictional company using business simulation…

  2. Good Buy! Buying Home Furnishings.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Thypin, Marilyn; Glasner, Lynne

    A short fictional work for limited English speakers relates a young couple's experience in learning about buying home furnishings. The newly married couple need a comfortable place to sit in their living room but cannot afford to buy a sofa in one payment, and they do not qualify for credit cards. They consider the prices and credit arrangement at…

  3. Suited for Spacewalking: A Teacher's Guide with Activities for Technology Education, Mathematics, and Science.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Vogt, Gregory L.

    Space walking has captured the imagination of generations of children and adults since science fiction authors first placed their characters on the moon. The guide begins with brief discussions of the space environment, the history of space walking, NASA's current spacesuit, and work that astronauts do during spacewalks. These are followed by a…

  4. Untangling the Licensing Web and Other Copyright Questions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sparkler, Andrew; Poliniak, Susan

    2010-01-01

    Copyright law is a daunting subject for most lawyers, so it's no surprise that many music educators feel uneasy dealing with it as well. But in truth, obtaining permissions for using copyrighted works can be a very simple and straightforward process. This article walks the readers through the steps of obtaining permission for a fictional piece of…

  5. Communicating the Nature of Science through "The Big Bang Theory": Evidence from a Focus Group Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Li, Rashel; Orthia, Lindy A.

    2016-01-01

    In this paper, we discuss a little-studied means of communicating about or teaching the nature of science (NOS)--through fiction television. We report some results of focus group research which suggest that the American sitcom "The Big Bang Theory" (2007-present), whose main characters are mostly working scientists, has influenced…

  6. Haunting Masculinity and Frightening Femininity: The Novels of John Bellairs

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Heinecken, Dawn

    2011-01-01

    While developing scholarship around children's horror fiction has focused on the works of contemporary writers, this essay provides a close reading of the novels of John Bellairs, a leading and early practitioner of the genre. It argues that the first three novels in his Lewis Barnevelt series may be understood as addressing some of the same…

  7. Absurdities, Contradictions, and Paradoxes in Miguel de Unamuno's "Amor y pedagogía"

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Boyles, Deron

    2016-01-01

    This essay reconsiders Miguel de Unamuno's contribution to philosophy and education by focusing on his "Amor y pedagogía" ("Love and Pedagogy" [1902])--a piece of fiction considered by many to be the transition point in his work from the documentary realism of the nineteenth century to what Unamuno called "viviparous"…

  8. The Fictionalized Reader: Audiences for High-School Writers of Research Papers.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    DaGue, Elizabeth L.

    High school students writing research papers face the problem of finding audiences for their work, especially today when the consensus is that any kind of good writing requires some hypothetical audience or reader. Unless students are in a composition class where they write to someone special, they have difficulty grasping the idea of audience.…

  9. Children of an Earth to Come: Speculative Fiction, Geophilosophy and Climate Change Education Research

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rousell, David; Cutter-Mackenzie, Amy; Foster, Jasmyne

    2017-01-01

    Over the last 3 years, the "Climate Change and Me" project has mapped children and young people's affective, creative, and ontological relationships with climate change through an emergent and child-framed research methodology. The project has involved working with 135 children and young people from across Northern NSW, Australia, as…

  10. Challenging the Future through Young Adult Literature, Fiction Writing and Local History.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Brewbaker, James M.

    Columbus (Georgia) College's Challenge Squared program consists of three 2-week enrichment day camps for gifted students in grades 5 through 10. In past years, students have worked with an artist to create local history murals and have written and produced video plays in cooperation with a media specialist. Most recently, students were involved in…

  11. "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry": A Culturally Specific, Subversive Concept of Child Agency.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    McDowell, Kelly

    2002-01-01

    Presents a critique of Mildred D. Taylor's "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry" with regard to its positioning of the child subject. Proposes that the novel contrasts classic works of children's fiction by following a trajectory of child agency, which is enabled through the novel's racial specificity. Discusses the role of historical…

  12. How Prewriting Fits into the Writing Process.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Freeman, James A.

    However the initial germ of a written work arises, there usually follows a prewriting period of meditation. At this rehearsal stage in writing, the author must gain a sense of audience and grope with such variables as genre, point of view, voice, line, tone, and pattern. Many authors of fiction keep journals or notebooks as incubation places where…

  13. Chemistry and Crime: From Sherlock Holmes to Today's Courtroom.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gerber, Samuel M., Ed.

    The application of the principles of chemistry both for committing crimes and for tracking down criminals interests audiences of all ages and walks of life. This interest is the reason for the long-standing popularity of fictional works that describe crimes made possible by the criminal's knowledge of chemistry and crimes solved by the sleuth's…

  14. Intertextual Trips: Teaching the Essay in the Composition Class.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kline, Nancy

    1989-01-01

    Cites essays by Joan Didion, John Berryman, and Martin Luther King in arguing that the essay, no matter how serious, can be considered as a fiction and a playful, exploratory and deeply interesting rhetorical game. Describes how these works were used to teach students that the essay is a living document calling for interaction. (SG)

  15. True Tales: From Bee Behavior to the Life of Buddha, Not All Comics Are Fiction

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sanderson, Peter

    2004-01-01

    Although graphic novels are traditionally thought of as the domain of larger-than-life fantasies, for decades comics have also served as educational tools. One of the pioneers of American comic books, Will Eisner, worked for years creating instructional comics. Starting in 1941, the Classics Illustrated series introduced young readers to…

  16. Checking and Balancing: Banking and Budgeting.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Thypin, Marilyn; Glasner, Lynne

    A short fictional work for limited English speakers is presented that relates a young couple's experience in learning about managing their money more carefully by budgeting and maintaining a checking account. Since the couple did not have a checking account, they had to go to their savings bank in order to pay each bill and they had to keep cash…

  17. Spanish Books for Elementary, Intermediate and Advanced Studies: Elementary Schools, High Schools, Colleges, Libraries. Supplement.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    1968

    This bibliography, a supplement to the 1967 catalog of 2,400 items of Spanish culture and language, includes 4,165 listings and additional categories in: (1) Spanish and Latin American authors, (2) Spanish translations of international authors, (3) fiction-library selections, (4) anthologies-complete works, (5) individual author collections, (6)…

  18. Prentice Hall/Pearson Literature© (2007-15). What Works Clearinghouse Intervention Report

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    What Works Clearinghouse, 2017

    2017-01-01

    "Prentice Hall/Pearson Literature©" (2007-15) is an English language arts curriculum designed for students in grades 6-12 that focuses on building reading, vocabulary, literary analysis, and writing skills. It uses passages from fiction and nonfiction texts, poetry, and contemporary digital media. The curriculum is based on a textbook.…

  19. The Literature of Terror: A Theme-centered Mini-course.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Siegel, Gerald

    A successful, elective minicourse in the literature of terror and the supernatural examined various literary works in the light of six goals: to examine the terror motif in fiction (in print and other media), to try to understand the reasons for the continued appeal of the literature of terror, to investigate why representative authors have…

  20. "The Truth Is Funny": A Study of Jesse Stuart's Humor.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hall, Wade

    This study of works of Jesse Stuart treats in some depth the setting and background for the humor in his writings, his reverence for the eastern Kentucky hill country, and the various ways he uses materials from his own life and observations as subject matter for his fictional world. After establishing Stuart's kinship with earlier frontier…

  1. The Importance of Decision Making: A Gifted Case Report

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Nauta, Noks; Ronner, Sieuwke; Groeneveld, Benno

    2009-01-01

    In this article the story of a fictional young university-educated woman is presented who struggles with making choices in her career and in her life. In this case report background information on gifted people at work is provided. In addition to that jobs and companies which are appropriate for highly gifted are mentioned. Besides that…

  2. Shakespearean Intertexts and European Identities in Contemporary Black British Fiction

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Muñoz-Valdivieso, Sofía

    2012-01-01

    The article analyses the presence of William Shakespeare as intertext in three recent novels by black British writers which deploy the work of the Bard as they explore British and European identities. Caryl Phillips's "The Nature of Blood" recreates an Othello-like figure who in early Modern Venice struggles to come to terms with his…

  3. Hackneyed, Acned, or Just Plain Good: Perceiving Quality in Young Adult Fiction.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Agee, Hugh

    A rating scale was developed by Stephen Dunning for evaluating adolescent literature objectively. The distinguishing features of the scale's five categories are designed to produce a numerical score between 5 and 25 (each category a 1-to-5 ranking for poor/excellent quality), indicating the relative worth of a specific literary work. The first…

  4. Where Are the Facts? "Jason's Gold" Gives Meaning to the Yukon Gold Rush

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wasta, Stephanie; Lott, Carolyn

    2006-01-01

    This article discusses how fictional works can give a purposeful context and an appropriate venue for developing essential social studies concepts in middle-school students. The author uses the example of a National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) notable book, "Jason's Gold" that blends history with story to become historical…

  5. "Reports from an Absurdist"--An Analysis of Artistic Features of Ukraine Diaries

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Jing, Yang

    2015-01-01

    With 13 published novels and 5 children's literature books, which have been translated into 25 languages, Andrey Kurkov has been recognized as one of the most renowned Ukrainian writers in the world of literature, and "Ukraine Diaries" is his first non-fiction literary work. This paper attempts to focus on Kurkov's unique literary…

  6. The Siren Song That Keeps Us Coming Back: Multicultural Resources for Teaching Classical Mythology.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Earthman, Elise Ann

    1997-01-01

    Notes the presence of references to classical mythology throughout modern culture, and offers an annotated list of 43 works of contemporary fiction, poetry, and drama that use mythological sources and that can help close the gap between today's students and the gods and goddesses, heroes and monsters of long ago. (SR)

  7. The Continuity of American Letters in "The Scarlet Letter" and "The Beast in the Jungle."

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gottschalk, Jane

    1967-01-01

    Fictional works, of different literary periods, which share a common perception of man can be explicated and compared with each other to illustrate a continuing tradition in American literature. Such a basis for comparison exists between Hawthorne's romance, "The Scarlet Letter," which appeared in 1850, and Henry James' fantasy,…

  8. Modifiable futures: science fiction at the bench.

    PubMed

    Milburn, Colin

    2010-09-01

    Science fiction remains an alien dimension of the history of science. Historical and literary studies of science have become increasingly attentive to various "literary technologies" in scientific practice, the metaphorical features of scientific discourse, and the impact of popular science writing on the social development of scientific knowledge. But the function of science fiction and even literature as such in the history of scientific and technological innovation has often been obscured, misconstrued, or repudiated owing to conventional notions of authorship, influence, and the organic unity of texts. The better to address those close encounters where scientific practice makes use of speculative fiction, this essay proposes that we instead analyze such exchanges as processes of appropriation, remixing, and modification.

  9. The Radium Terrors. Science Fiction and Radioactivity before the Bomb.

    PubMed

    Candela, Andrea

    2015-01-01

    At the beginning of the 20th century the collective imagination was fascinated and terrified by the discovery of radium. A scientific imagery sprang up around radioactivity and was disseminated by public lectures and newspaper articles discussing the ambiguous power of this strange substance. It was claimed that radium could be used to treat cholera, typhus and tuberculosis, but at the same time there were warnings that it could be used for military purposes. The media and the scientists themselves employed a rich vocabulary influenced by religion, alchemy and magic. The ambivalent power of radioactive elements exerted a great influence on science fiction novelists. This paper will examine some significant works published in Europe, America and Russia during the first decades of the 20th century and their role in the creation of the complex imagery of radioactivity that seized the public imagination long before the invention of the atomic bomb.

  10. The Impact of Science Fiction Film on Student Understanding of Science

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Barnett, Michael; Wagner, Heather; Gatling, Anne; Anderson, Janice; Houle, Meredith; Kafka, Alan

    2006-04-01

    Researchers who have investigated the public understanding of science have argued that fictional cinema and television has proven to be particularly effective at blurring the distinction between fact and fiction. The rationale for this study lies in the notion that to teach science effectively, educators need to understand how popular culture influences their students' perception and understanding of science. Using naturalistic research methods in a diverse middle school we found that students who watched a popular science fiction film, The Core, had a number of misunderstandings of earth science concepts when compared to students who did not watch the movie. We found that a single viewing of a science fiction film can negatively impact student ideas regarding scientific phenomena. Specifically, we found that the film leveraged the scientific authority of the main character, coupled with scientifically correct explanations of some basic earth science, to create a series of plausible, albeit unscientific, ideas that made sense to students.

  11. Reading fiction and reading minds: the role of simulation in the default network.

    PubMed

    Tamir, Diana I; Bricker, Andrew B; Dodell-Feder, David; Mitchell, Jason P

    2016-02-01

    Research in psychology has suggested that reading fiction can improve individuals' social-cognitive abilities. Findings from neuroscience show that reading and social cognition both recruit the default network, a network which is known to support our capacity to simulate hypothetical scenes, spaces and mental states. The current research tests the hypothesis that fiction reading enhances social cognition because it serves to exercise the default subnetwork involved in theory of mind. While undergoing functional neuroimaging, participants read literary passages that differed along two dimensions: (i) vivid vs abstract and (ii) social vs non-social. Analyses revealed distinct subnetworks of the default network respond to the two dimensions of interest: the medial temporal lobe subnetwork responded preferentially to vivid passages, with or without social content; the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) subnetwork responded preferentially to passages with social and abstract content. Analyses also demonstrated that participants who read fiction most often also showed the strongest social cognition performance. Finally, mediation analysis showed that activity in the dmPFC subnetwork in response to the social content mediated this relation, suggesting that the simulation of social content in fiction plays a role in fiction's ability to enhance readers' social cognition. © The Author (2015). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  12. Multicolor-FICTION

    PubMed Central

    Martín-Subero, José Ignacio; Chudoba, Ilse; Harder, Lana; Gesk, Stefan; Grote, Werner; Novo, Francisco Javier; Calasanz, María José; Siebert, Reiner

    2002-01-01

    Phenotypic and genotypic analyses of cells are increasingly essential for understanding pathogenetic mechanisms as well as for diagnosing and classifying malignancies and other diseases. We report a novel multicolor approach based on the FICTION (fluorescence immunophenotyping and interphase cytogenetics as a tool for the investigation of neoplasms) technique, which enables the simultaneous detection of morphological, immunophenotypic, and genetic characteristics of single cells. As prerequisite, multicolor interphase fluorescence in situ hybridization assays for B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and anaplastic large-cell lymphoma have been developed. These assays allow the simultaneous detection of the most frequent primary chromosomal aberrations in these neoplasms, such as t(8;14), t(11;14), t(14;18), and t(3;14), and the various rearrangements of the ALK gene, respectively. To establish the multicolor FICTION technique, these assays were combined with the immunophenotypic detection of lineage- or tumor-specific antigens, namely CD20 and ALK, respectively. For evaluation of multicolor FICTION experiments, image acquisition was performed by automatic sequential capturing of multiple focal planes. Thus, three-dimensional information was obtained. The multicolor FICTION assays were applied to well-characterized lymphoma samples, proving the performance, validity, and diagnostic power of the technique. Future multicolor FICTION applications include the detection of preneoplastic lesions, early stage and minimal residual diseases, or micrometastases. PMID:12163366

  13. The Use of "Literary Fiction" to Promote Mentalizing Ability.

    PubMed

    Pino, Maria Chiara; Mazza, Monica

    2016-01-01

    Empathy is a multidimensional process that incorporates both mentalizing and emotional sharing dimensions. Empathic competencies are important for creating interpersonal relationships with other people and developing adequate social behaviour. The lack of these social components also leads to isolation and exclusion in healthy populations. However, few studies have investigated how to improve these social skills. In a recent study, Kidd and Castano (2013) found that reading literary fiction increases mentalizing ability and may change how people think about other people's emotions and mental states. The aim of our study was to evaluate the effects of reading literary fiction, compared to nonfiction and science fiction, on empathic abilities. Compared to previous studies, we used a larger variety of empathy measures and utilized a pre and post-test design. In all, 214 healthy participants were randomly assigned to read a book representative of one of three literary genres (literary fiction, nonfiction, science fiction). Participants were assessed before and after the reading phase using mentalizing and emotional sharing tests, according to Zaki and Ochsner' s (2012) model. Comparisons of sociodemographic, mentalizing, and emotional sharing variables across conditions were conducted using ANOVA. Our results showed that after the reading phase, the literary fiction group showed improvement in mentalizing abilities, but there was no discernible effect on emotional sharing abilities. Our study showed that the reading processes can promote mentalizing abilities. These results may set important goals for future low-cost rehabilitation protocols for several disorders in which the mentalizing deficit is considered central to the disease, such as Autism Spectrum Disorders and Schizophrenia.

  14. [Nursing in the movies: its image during the Spanish Civil War].

    PubMed

    Siles González, J; García Hernández, E; Cibanal Juan, L; Gallardo Frías, Y; Lillo Crespo, M

    1998-12-01

    The cinema had carried out a determining role in the development of stereotypes and in a wide gamut of models related to real life situations. The objective of this analysis is to determine the influence cinema had on the image of nurses during the Spanish Civil War from 1936-1939. These are the initial hypotheses: the role of Spanish nurses during the civil war was reflected by both sides in their respective movie productions; and the image of nurses shown in these films, on both sides, presents a conflicting role concept for women in society. Following strategies developed by specialists in film analysis (Bondwell 1995, Uneso 1995, Carmona 1991) a total of 453 movie productions, 360 on the republican side and 93 on the national side, were reviewed. These films were listed in the Spanish National Films Library records. After analyzing the Spanish cinema productions during the Spanish Civil War, data relating to 453 films were identified. The genre included documents, news programs and fiction movies. 77 were produced in 1936, 235 in 1937, 102 in 1938 and 39 in 1939. A tremendous difference exists between the republican productions, 79% of the total, and the national productions. By genres, the types produced on the republican side were: in 1936, 53 documentals, 4 news programs and 9 fiction films; in 1937, 186 documentals, 5 news programs and 19 fiction films; in 1938, 72 documentals, 1 news programs and 2 fiction films; in 1939, 2 documentals and 2 fiction films. On the national side, their productions were: in 1936, 10 documentals and 1 fiction film; in 1937, 22 documentals, 2 news programs and 1 fiction film; in 1938, 19 documentals and 3 news programs; in 1939, 29 documentals and 6 fiction films. During the Spanish Civil War, movies produced by both sides made an effort to reflect their ideal woman as a stereotypical ideal nurse. This ideal nurse showed the values, ideas, aesthetics and prejudices each side held in the war.

  15. Visions of human futures in space and SETI

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wright, Jason T.; Oman-Reagan, Michael P.

    2018-04-01

    We discuss how visions for the futures of humanity in space and SETI are intertwined, and are shaped by prior work in the fields and by science fiction. This appears in the language used in the fields, and in the sometimes implicit assumptions made in discussions of them. We give examples from articulations of the so-called Fermi Paradox, discussions of the settlement of the Solar System (in the near future) and the Galaxy (in the far future), and METI. We argue that science fiction, especially the campy variety, is a significant contributor to the `giggle factor' that hinders serious discussion and funding for SETI and Solar System settlement projects. We argue that humanity's long-term future in space will be shaped by our short-term visions for who goes there and how. Because of the way they entered the fields, we recommend avoiding the term `colony' and its cognates when discussing the settlement of space, as well as other terms with similar pedigrees. We offer examples of science fiction and other writing that broaden and challenge our visions of human futures in space and SETI. In an appendix, we use an analogy with the well-funded and relatively uncontroversial searches for the dark matter particle to argue that SETI's lack of funding in the national science portfolio is primarily a problem of perception, not inherent merit.

  16. Implementing Primary Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL) Small Group Interventions: Recommendations for Practitioners

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lendrum, Ann; Humphrey, Neil; Kalambouka, Afroditi; Wigelsworth, Michael

    2009-01-01

    This article presents an extended vignette describing a good practice model for implementing SEAL small group work at "Mellington Primary", a fictional school. The vignette/model was developed from in-depth case studies at five primary schools in the north-west of England during a national evaluation of primary SEAL by the authors. The…

  17. The "Unsavory Researches" of Helen Campbell: A 19th-Century Journalist's Investigation of Urban Women's Poverty.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Henry, Susan

    In 1886, the New York "Tribune" ran a series of articles by Helen Campbell, "The Prisoners of Poverty," which investigated the sufferings of working women in New York's slums. Initially a fiction and housekeeping writer, Helen Campbell's home economics orientation first pointed her toward the problems of the poor. In the late…

  18. Illness, Observation, and Contradiction: Intertext and Intrahistory in Alejandro Morales's "The Captain of All These Men of Death"

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Jiron-King, Shimberlee

    2009-01-01

    Numerous critics have marked Alejandro Morales's controversial career by its shift from the experimental novel to historical fiction as well as by what Morales himself describes as the connection between intrahistory and intertextuality. Morales's latest work, "The Captain of All These Men of Death," emphasizes the fictive nature of historical…

  19. Student Data Collection, Access, and Storage: Separating Fact from Fiction. Safeguarding Data: Briefs for Policymakers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Data Quality Campaign, 2014

    2014-01-01

    District and state data systems are constructed to ensure that individuals can access only the data that are appropriate for their role. Still, questions from the public about how these data systems work and how student privacy is protected have been increasing. A recurring concern is the feared existence of a "permanent record"--a…

  20. Mastering the Maestro: The Effective Maestro Asks Writers, Photographers, and Designers to Trade Places with Readers as They Plan.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cripe, Dennis

    1998-01-01

    Considers two very different fictional high school newspaper editorships to see how the "maestro" process works. Notes that the process is a management technique similar to brainstorming but in which one person keeps the planning meeting focused. Suggests that the effective maestro asks writers, photographers, and designers to trade places with…

  1. Teaching with Tupac: Building a Solid Grounding in Theory across the Social Work Education Continuum

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Elkins, Jennifer; Miller, Shari; Briggs, Harold; Skinner, Sara

    2015-01-01

    This article describes a collaborative and emergent approach utilizing Tupac Shakur's "Brenda's Got a Baby" to leverage theory education. This song/video uses a fictionalized account of a pregnant 12-year-old African American girl to chronicle the ecological realities of life in the inner city (e.g., teen pregnancy, drug addiction and…

  2. Critiquing "Calypso": Authorial and Academic Bias in the Reading of a Young Adult Novel

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Butler, Catherine

    2013-01-01

    The position of authors of fiction in relation to critical discussion of their work is an unsettled one. While recognized as having knowledge and expertise regarding their texts, they are typically regarded as unreliable sources when it comes to critical analysis, and as partial witnesses whose personal association with the text is liable to…

  3. Tibetans and Tibetan Americans: Helping K-8 School Librarians and Educators Understand Their History, Culture, and Literature.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bruno, Frank Alan; Beilke, Patricia F.

    2001-01-01

    Provides a review and listing of literature for K-8 school librarians and teachers that focuses on the geography, history, and culture of Tibet and the diverse experiences and folklore of Tibetans. Includes references, other recommended works, and an annotated bibliography divided into folklore, biography, culture and history, fiction, videos, and…

  4. Deconstructing, Reconstructing, Preserving Paul E. Meehl's Legacy of Construct Validity

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Maher, Brendan A.; Gottesman, Irving I.

    2005-01-01

    The question of the status of cause-and-effect explanations of human behavior that posit physically existing causative factors and those that, on the other hand, posit hypothetical entities in the form of "useful fictions" has a long history. The influence of the works of Jeremy Bentham and Hans Vaihinger, as well as the later influence of Francis…

  5. There, yet Not There: Human Relationships with Technology

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lloyd, Margaret

    2010-01-01

    There is a "reality" to being online which we know to be false. We are simultaneously "there" but "not there" as we talk, work and play with others in online spaces. We move between physical and virtual spaces in ways that realise the predictions made for computers in the mid-20th Century and enact scenarios from science fiction. We are left…

  6. Psychoanalysis and Transformation of Heroes in Mohsin Hamid's Novels "Moth Smoke" and "The Reluctant Fundamentalist"

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Awan, Abdul Ghafoor; Andleeb, Shaista; Yasin, Farhat

    2016-01-01

    Mohsin Hamid is an exponent of postcolonial characterization and possesses a specific touch of today's hero in local Asian context. His pen is fluent on social fiction portraying Indo-Pak culture. Few writers could rise to the height of fame right with only a couple of preliminary works. Hamid secured it through his first novel "Moth…

  7. Representing the Quantum Object through Fiction in Teaching: The Ontological Contribution of Gamow's Narrative as Part of an Introduction to Quantum Physics

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Héraud, Jean-Loup; Lautesse, Philippe; Ferlin, Fabrice; Chabot, Hugues

    2017-01-01

    Our work extends a previous study of epistemological presuppositions in teaching quantum physics in upper scientific secondary school in France. Here, the problematic reference of quantum theory's concepts is treated at the ontological level (the counterintuitive nature of quantum objects). We consider the approach of using narratives describing…

  8. Teaching "Shabanu": The Challenges of Using World Literature in the US Social Studies Classroom

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Crocco, Margaret Smith

    2005-01-01

    This paper discusses inclusion of global literature in social studies curricula, especially in teaching about women of the world. It analyses the attraction of, and difficulties with, a popular work of young adult fiction, "Shabanu," often taught in US middle-school social studies and humanities classrooms. It uses the framework of post-colonial,…

  9. "You Are a Flaw in the Pattern": Difference, Autonomy and Bullying in YA Fiction

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lopez-Ropero, Lourdes

    2012-01-01

    Though portrayals of bullying in children's books stretch back to Victorian public school stories, this article sees a new subgenre about bullying in young adult novels emerging in the post-Columbine years. Selected works by Jerry Spinelli, Walter Dean Myers, Jaime Adoff, Carol Plum-Ucci and Rita Williams-Garcia are examined, although the article…

  10. The Rub between Fact and Fiction: Ideology in Lois Lenski's Regional Maps

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Pond, Julia

    2011-01-01

    From the early 1940s until the late 1960s, Lois Lenski embarked on an exploration of American regions through children's books. This body of work, which has become known as Lenski's Regional Series, began by exploring the regions Lenski herself experienced each year as she traveled from Connecticut to Florida for her health. As Lenski realized the…

  11. Categorizing Moving Objects into Film Genres: The Effect of Animacy Attribution, Emotional Response, and the Deviation from Non-Fiction

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Visch, Valentijn T.; Tan, Ed S.

    2009-01-01

    The reported study follows the footsteps of Heider, and Simmel (1944) [Heider, F., & Simmel, M. (1944). An experimental study of apparent behavior. "American Journal of Psychology," 57, 243-249] and Michotte (1946/1963) [Michotte, A. (1963). "The perception of causality" (T.R. Miles & E. Miles, Trans.). London: Methuen (Original work published…

  12. Does reading a single passage of literary fiction really improve theory of mind? An attempt at replication.

    PubMed

    Panero, Maria Eugenia; Weisberg, Deena Skolnick; Black, Jessica; Goldstein, Thalia R; Barnes, Jennifer L; Brownell, Hiram; Winner, Ellen

    2016-11-01

    [Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported in Vol 111(5) of Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (see record 2016-50315-003). In the article, due to an error in stimulus construction, four items (three authors, one foil) were omitted from the ART presented to all participants tested by Research Group 1. These omissions do not undermine the results in the primary analyses, which all included ART and ART Condition (as covariates). Any variation across research groups, including this difference in reading exposure measurement, is accounted for in the multilevel analyses. Therefore, the Table 2 title should appear as Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) Scores by Condition and Overall Unadjusted Means for the Current Study and Kidd and Castano (2013), as Well as the Zero-Order Pearson's Correlations Between RMET and ART Scores Overall and by Condition. The ART data columns should be deleted, and the table note should begin as follows: RMET scores were transformed to correct for skew prior to correlational analyses. The section title above the Discussion section should appear as Comparison of Our RMET Scores to Kidd and Castano Data, with the first two sentences appearing as follows: To determine whether the responses in our sample were similar to what Kidd and Castano (2013) found, we compared our mean performance on the RMET to theirs. Our grand mean (26.28) was significantly higher than theirs (25.18), t (1=, 374) = 3.71, p < .001, d = 0.21. All versions of this article have been corrected.] Fiction simulates the social world and invites us into the minds of characters. This has led various researchers to suggest that reading fiction improves our understanding of others' cognitive and emotional states. Kidd and Castano (2013) received a great deal of attention by providing support for this claim. Their article reported that reading segments of literary fiction (but not popular fiction or nonfiction) immediately and significantly improved performance on the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET), an advanced theory-of-mind test. Here we report a replication attempt by 3 independent research groups, with 792 participants randomly assigned to 1 of 4 conditions (literary fiction, popular fiction, nonfiction, and no reading). In contrast to Kidd and Castano (2013), we found no significant advantage in RMET scores for literary fiction compared to any of the other conditions. However, as in Kidd and Castano and previous research, the Author Recognition Test, a measure of lifetime exposure to fiction, consistently predicted RMET scores across conditions. We conclude that the most plausible link between reading fiction and theory of mind is either that individuals with strong theory of mind are drawn to fiction and/or that a lifetime of reading gradually strengthens theory of mind, but other variables, such as verbal ability, may also be at play. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

  13. Reality = Relevance? Insights from Spontaneous Modulations of the Brain's Default Network when Telling Apart Reality from Fiction

    PubMed Central

    Abraham, Anna; von Cramon, D. Yves

    2009-01-01

    Background Although human beings regularly experience fictional worlds through activities such as reading novels and watching movies, little is known about what mechanisms underlie our implicit knowledge of the distinction between reality and fiction. The first neuroimaging study to address this issue revealed that the mere exposure to contexts involving real entities compared to fictional characters led to engagement of regions in the anterior medial prefrontal and posterior cingulate cortices (amPFC, PCC). As these core regions of the brain's default network are involved during self-referential processing and autobiographical memory retrieval, it was hypothesized that real entities may be conceptually coded as being more personally relevant to us than fictional characters. Methodology/Principal Findings In the present functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we directly test the hypothesis that entity-associated personal relevance is the critical factor underlying the differential engagement of these brain regions by comparing the brain's response when processing contexts involving family or friends (high relevance), famous people (medium relevance), or fictional characters (low relevance). In line with predictions, a gradient pattern of activation was observed such that higher entity-associated personal relevance was associated with stronger activation in the amPFC and the PCC. Conclusions/Significance The results of the study have several important implications. Firstly, they provide informed grounds for characterizing the dynamics of reality-fiction distinction. Secondly, they provide further insights into the functions of the amPFC and the PCC. Thirdly, in view of the current debate related to the functional relevance and specificity of brain's default network, they reveal a novel approach by which the functions of this network can be further explored. PMID:19277108

  14. Simulating fiction: individual differences in literature comprehension revealed with FMRI.

    PubMed

    Nijhof, Annabel D; Willems, Roel M

    2015-01-01

    When we read literary fiction, we are transported to fictional places, and we feel and think along with the characters. Despite the importance of narrative in adult life and during development, the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying fiction comprehension are unclear. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate how individuals differently employ neural networks important for understanding others' beliefs and intentions (mentalizing), and for sensori-motor simulation while listening to excerpts from literary novels. Localizer tasks were used to localize both the cortical motor network and the mentalizing network in participants after they listened to excerpts from literary novels. Results show that participants who had high activation in anterior medial prefrontal cortex (aMPFC; part of the mentalizing network) when listening to mentalizing content of literary fiction, had lower motor cortex activity when they listened to action-related content of the story, and vice versa. This qualifies how people differ in their engagement with fiction: some people are mostly drawn into a story by mentalizing about the thoughts and beliefs of others, whereas others engage in literature by simulating more concrete events such as actions. This study provides on-line neural evidence for the existence of qualitatively different styles of moving into literary worlds, and adds to a growing body of literature showing the potential to study narrative comprehension with neuroimaging methods.

  15. Simulating Fiction: Individual Differences in Literature Comprehension Revealed with fMRI

    PubMed Central

    Nijhof, Annabel D.; Willems, Roel M.

    2015-01-01

    When we read literary fiction, we are transported to fictional places, and we feel and think along with the characters. Despite the importance of narrative in adult life and during development, the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying fiction comprehension are unclear. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate how individuals differently employ neural networks important for understanding others’ beliefs and intentions (mentalizing), and for sensori-motor simulation while listening to excerpts from literary novels. Localizer tasks were used to localize both the cortical motor network and the mentalizing network in participants after they listened to excerpts from literary novels. Results show that participants who had high activation in anterior medial prefrontal cortex (aMPFC; part of the mentalizing network) when listening to mentalizing content of literary fiction, had lower motor cortex activity when they listened to action-related content of the story, and vice versa. This qualifies how people differ in their engagement with fiction: some people are mostly drawn into a story by mentalizing about the thoughts and beliefs of others, whereas others engage in literature by simulating more concrete events such as actions. This study provides on-line neural evidence for the existence of qualitatively different styles of moving into literary worlds, and adds to a growing body of literature showing the potential to study narrative comprehension with neuroimaging methods. PMID:25671708

  16. On the plurality of inhabited worlds: a brief history of extraterrestrialism

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Brake, Mark

    2006-10-01

    This paper delineates the cultural evolution of the ancient idea of a plurality of inhabited worlds, and traces its development through to contemporary extraterrestrialism, with its foundation in the physical determinism of cosmology, and its attendant myths of alien contact drawn from examples of British film and fiction. We shall see that, in the evolving debate of the existence of extraterrestrial life and intelligence, science and science fiction have benefited from an increasingly symbiotic relationship. Modern extraterrestrialism has influenced both the scientific searches for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), and become one of the most pervasive cultural myths of the 20th century. Not only has pluralism found a voice in fiction through the alien, but fiction has also inspired science to broach questions in the real world.

  17. "Does reading a single passage of literary fiction really improve theory of mind? An attempt at replication": Correction to Panero et al. (2016).

    PubMed

    2016-11-01

    Reports an error in "Does Reading a Single Passage of Literary Fiction Really Improve Theory of Mind? An Attempt at Replication" by Maria Eugenia Panero, Deena Skolnick Weisberg, Jessica Black, Thalia R. Goldstein, Jennifer L. Barnes, Hiram Brownell and Ellen Winner ( Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , Advanced Online Publication, Sep 19, 2016, np). In the article, due to an error in stimulus construction, four items (three authors, one foil) were omitted from the ART presented to all participants tested by Research Group 1. These omissions do not undermine the results in the primary analyses, which all included ART and ART Condition (as covariates). Any variation across research groups, including this difference in reading exposure measurement, is accounted for in the multilevel analyses. Therefore, the Table 2 title should appear as Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) Scores by Condition and Overall Unadjusted Means for the Current Study and Kidd and Castano (2013), as Well as the Zero-Order Pearson's Correlations Between RMET and ART Scores Overall and by Condition. The ART data columns should be deleted, and the table note should begin as follows: RMET scores were transformed to correct for skew prior to correlational analyses. The section title above the Discussion section should appear as Comparison of Our RMET Scores to Kidd and Castano Data, with the first two sentences appearing as follows: To determine whether the responses in our sample were similar to what Kidd and Castano (2013) found, we compared our mean performance on the RMET to theirs. Our grand mean (26.28) was significantly higher than theirs (25.18), t (1=, 374) = 3.71, p < .001, d = 0.21. All versions of this article have been corrected. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2016-44825-001.) Fiction simulates the social world and invites us into the minds of characters. This has led various researchers to suggest that reading fiction improves our understanding of others' cognitive and emotional states. Kidd and Castano (2013) received a great deal of attention by providing support for this claim. Their article reported that reading segments of literary fiction (but not popular fiction or nonfiction) immediately and significantly improved performance on the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET), an advanced theory-of-mind test. Here we report a replication attempt by 3 independent research groups, with 792 participants randomly assigned to 1 of 4 conditions (literary fiction, popular fiction, nonfiction, and no reading). In contrast to Kidd and Castano (2013), we found no significant advantage in RMET scores for literary fiction compared to any of the other conditions. However, as in Kidd and Castano and previous research, the Author Recognition Test, a measure of lifetime exposure to fiction, consistently predicted RMET scores across conditions. We conclude that the most plausible link between reading fiction and theory of mind is either that individuals with strong theory of mind are drawn to fiction and/or that a lifetime of reading gradually strengthens theory of mind, but other variables, such as verbal ability, may also be at play. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

  18. Studies in Intelligence. Volume 53, Number 2 (Summer Supplement 2009). Intelligence in Contemporary Media: Views of Intelligence Officers

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2009-07-01

    ences. But why devote space in an intelligence publication to teen fiction, even if it is about spies? First, what we read when we are younger...themselves necessarily jumping off the cliff. Finally, the best teen fiction contains all the elements of good fiction for adults, including compelling...success of the quintessential espionage genre with his teen spy thriller Storm- breaker. Like any good thriller, the book begins with a hook: “When the

  19. [Self-harm in fiction literature].

    PubMed

    Skårderud, Finn

    2009-04-16

    European literature contains fictional descriptions of self-harm and self-punishment over a time span of almost 2 500 years. This article presents such descriptions, from Sofocles' tragedy about King Oedipus to contemporary literature. Particular interest is dedicated to the Austrian Nobel prize laureate Elfriede Jelinek and the Norwegian author Karl Ove Knausgård. In Jelinek's fictional universe, self-harm is particularly related to the topic of autonomy in a family context; while Knausgård describes the role of shame in triggering and sustaining self-harming behaviour.

  20. Probing the limits of reality: the metaphysics in science fiction

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Taylor, John L.

    2003-01-01

    Science fiction provides a genre in which metaphysical questions concerning the ultimate structure of reality regularly arise. In addressing these questions, contemporary scientists tend to assume that the questions are of a scientific nature and should be handled solely by reference to our best theories. In this paper, it is argued that we cannot afford to neglect the role of conceptual analysis - a distinctively philosophical task - in thinking critically about the possibilities that science fiction claims to describe.

  1. From Pumps, Pearls, and Pleats to Pants, Briefcases, and Hardhats: Changes in the Portrayal of Women in Advertising and Fiction in "Ladies' Home Journal," 1960-62 to 1974-76.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Roberts, Nancy L.

    A content analysis of issues of "Ladies' Home Journal" drawn from the early 1960s and from the mid-1970s was conducted to determine if fiction and advertising in the magazines had shown any response to the women's movement and if there was a difference between fiction and advertising in their response to that movement. A total of 12…

  2. Popular Theatre for Science Engagement: Audience Engagement with Human Cloning Following a Production of Caryl Churchill's "A Number"

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Donkers, Martina; Orthia, Lindy A.

    2016-01-01

    Research into the role of fiction in engaging people with science is a growing area, but a little studied medium in this respect is "popular theatre," or non-pedagogic theatre that exists primarily as a work of art. This study investigated audience engagement with human cloning issues after seeing a performance of Caryl Churchill's 2002…

  3. The Generic Structure Potential of Science Nonfiction Selections in Four Basal Reading Series, Grades One and Two

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Anthony, Angela Beckman

    2009-01-01

    Basal reading series are used in a majority of classrooms in the United States. The purpose of this study was to examine the frequency of fiction and nonfiction genres included in four recently published first and second grade basal reading series and to compare the frequencies to studies of older basal reading series. Based on the work of…

  4. "What if This Really Happened?" Using Critical Literacy Practices and Dystopian Fiction to Mediate Self-Efficacy with At-Risk Readers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wilcox, Sherri Kirkland

    2015-01-01

    At-risk students are oftenn unmotivated and disengaged from literacy activities. They are sometimes below grade level and feel inadequate to accomplish the complex reading tasks with which they are confronted in high school; therefore, they often will not even attempt to do the work (Bandura, 1986). Students who are assigned to a Disciplinary…

  5. Weaving Webs of Intrigue: Classical Mythology and Analytic Crime Fiction in Rubem Fonseca's "A grande arte"

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ginway, M. Elizabeth

    2013-01-01

    This study focuses on some of the classical features of Rubem Fonseca's "A grande arte" (1983) in order to emphasize the puzzle-solving tradition of the detective novel that is embedded within Fonseca's crime thriller, producing a work that does not entirely fit into traditional divisions of detective, hardboiled, or crime…

  6. Never Let the Truth Stand in the Way of a Good Story: A Work for Three Voices.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Williams, Bronwyn T.

    2003-01-01

    Describes how the author's habit of fabrications and stories as a 10-year-old became a source for writing fiction. Notes how he pursued journalism as a profession, but was frustrated by its limitations. Considers how as a professional field, composition continues to contemplate and struggle with issues of power and representation in research and…

  7. Engaging in Dramatic Activities in English as a Foreign Language Classes at the University Level

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Algarra Carrasco, Victoria

    2012-01-01

    In this article, we discuss how, through dramatic activities, fiction and reality can work together to help the English as a Foreign language learner communicate in a more personal and meaningful way. The kind of activities proposed are designed to help engender a space where students can personally engage with each other in an atmosphere that is…

  8. A Failed Utopia in Marcela Del Río's "Proceso a Faubritten"

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Manickam, Samuel

    2014-01-01

    In Marcela del Río's science fiction novel "Proceso a Faubritten," utopia comes in the form of eternal life for all of humanity, thanks to Dr. Alexander Faubritten's "Bomba L." This polyphonic work includes diaries by Faubritten and his Mexican lover, María Corona. In my analysis of these two diaries, I will show how…

  9. No "Fear of Flying"? Worrals of the WAAF, Fiction, and Girls' Informal Wartime Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Spencer, Stephanie

    2016-01-01

    This article focuses on the series of 11 books about a young female pilot, "Worrals of the WAAF," by W.E. Johns, creator of Biggles. The Worrals books were published from 1941 when recruitment for the Women's Auxiliary Air Force was falling. Johns chose to ignore that the WAAF supported pilots through their work on the ground and did not…

  10. Studies in Historical Replication in Psychology IV: An Inquiry into the Psychological Research and Life of Gertrude Stein

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sirrine, Nicole K.; McCarthy, Shauna K.

    2008-01-01

    Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) is well known as an early twentieth century writer, but less well known is her involvement in automatic writing research. Critics of Stein's literary works suggest that her research had a significant influence on her poetry and fiction, though Stein denied any influence. A partial replication of Stein's 1896 study was…

  11. Gedanken fictions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gardner, Kate

    2017-07-01

    The 14 pairs of short story and essay in Thought X: Fictions and Hypotheticals have at their root the concept that thought experiments in science and philosophy tell stories as they build a scenario to prove a point.

  12. The Use of “Non-Fiction Novels” in a Sensation and Perception Course

    PubMed Central

    Gunther, Karen L.

    2011-01-01

    Scientific material can be difficult to relate to everyday knowledge. Textbook facts can be abstract. This Study of Teaching and Learning project examined the use of “non-fiction novels” (biographies and other books that read like novels but are true) in an undergraduate Sensation and Perception course in order to increase the concreteness of the reading material and to give the students a story on which to hang the facts learned in lecture. In Phase I (Fall 2009) non-fiction novels were used for half of the units and a standard textbook for the other half. In Phase II (Fall 2010) only non-fiction novels were used. The Fall 2009 class was very positive about the use of non-fiction novels, but exam scores did not mirror this enthusiasm, either on semester exam scores or on a four-month re-take of the cumulative final exam. In contrast, the Fall 2010 class missed having a textbook, but exam performance significantly improved over prior semesters, and performance on the four-month re-take of the cumulative final exam showed performance equivalent to the Fall 2009 class’s four-month performance on questions from textbook units. In both semesters, the effectiveness of the instructor in stimulating student interest was significantly higher than in prior years where only the textbook was used. In addition, 68% of the students said that reading the non-fiction novels made them want to learn more about our sensory systems. PMID:23626489

  13. The use of "non-fiction novels" in a sensation and perception course.

    PubMed

    Gunther, Karen L

    2011-01-01

    Scientific material can be difficult to relate to everyday knowledge. Textbook facts can be abstract. This Study of Teaching and Learning project examined the use of "non-fiction novels" (biographies and other books that read like novels but are true) in an undergraduate Sensation and Perception course in order to increase the concreteness of the reading material and to give the students a story on which to hang the facts learned in lecture. In Phase I (Fall 2009) non-fiction novels were used for half of the units and a standard textbook for the other half. In Phase II (Fall 2010) only non-fiction novels were used. The Fall 2009 class was very positive about the use of non-fiction novels, but exam scores did not mirror this enthusiasm, either on semester exam scores or on a four-month re-take of the cumulative final exam. In contrast, the Fall 2010 class missed having a textbook, but exam performance significantly improved over prior semesters, and performance on the four-month re-take of the cumulative final exam showed performance equivalent to the Fall 2009 class's four-month performance on questions from textbook units. In both semesters, the effectiveness of the instructor in stimulating student interest was significantly higher than in prior years where only the textbook was used. In addition, 68% of the students said that reading the non-fiction novels made them want to learn more about our sensory systems.

  14. Reading fiction and reading minds: the role of simulation in the default network

    PubMed Central

    Bricker, Andrew B.; Dodell-Feder, David; Mitchell, Jason P.

    2016-01-01

    Research in psychology has suggested that reading fiction can improve individuals’ social-cognitive abilities. Findings from neuroscience show that reading and social cognition both recruit the default network, a network which is known to support our capacity to simulate hypothetical scenes, spaces and mental states. The current research tests the hypothesis that fiction reading enhances social cognition because it serves to exercise the default subnetwork involved in theory of mind. While undergoing functional neuroimaging, participants read literary passages that differed along two dimensions: (i) vivid vs abstract and (ii) social vs non-social. Analyses revealed distinct subnetworks of the default network respond to the two dimensions of interest: the medial temporal lobe subnetwork responded preferentially to vivid passages, with or without social content; the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) subnetwork responded preferentially to passages with social and abstract content. Analyses also demonstrated that participants who read fiction most often also showed the strongest social cognition performance. Finally, mediation analysis showed that activity in the dmPFC subnetwork in response to the social content mediated this relation, suggesting that the simulation of social content in fiction plays a role in fiction’s ability to enhance readers’ social cognition. PMID:26342221

  15. Children's direct fright and worry reactions to violence in fiction and news television programs.

    PubMed

    van der Molen, Juliette H Walma; Bushman, Brad J

    2008-09-01

    To examine whether violence in fictional and news television content frightens and worries children. Mixed factorial. Type of reaction (fright, worry) and television programming (violent news, violent fiction) were within-subjects factors, whereas age, sex, and television viewing frequency were between-subjects factors. Participants included 572 children (47% boys), aged 8 to 12 years, from 9 urban and rural primary schools in the Netherlands. The main exposure was to descriptions of 8 threats frequently depicted in fictional and news programs (eg, murder, war, house fires). Children reported whether they were frightened or worried by these threats. Violent threats increased both fright and worry. These 2 reactions could be distinguished from one another in a factor analysis. When violent content was described as news, it produced more fear reactions than when it was described as fiction. Fright and worry were greater in girls than in boys, in younger children than in older children, and in light television viewers than in heavy television viewers. Pediatricians should inform parents, educators, policy makers, and broadcasters about the potentially harmful effect of violent programming on children's emotions, especially in the case of news programming.

  16. Feelings in Literature

    PubMed Central

    2010-01-01

    In this article it is argued that feelings are all important to the function of literature. In contradiction to music that is concerned with the inwardness of humankind, literature has, because of language, the capacity to create fictional worlds that in many respects are similar to and related to the life world within which we live. One of the most important reasons for our emotional engagement in literature is our empathy with others and our constant imagining and hypothesizing on possible developments in our interactions with them. Hence, we understand and engage ourselves in fictional worlds. It is further claimed and exemplified, how poetic texts are very good at rhetorically engage and manipulate our feelings. Finally, with reference to the important work of Ellen Dissanayake, it is pointed out that the first kind of communication in which we engage, that between mother and infant, is a kind of speech that positively engages the infant in a dialogue with the mother by means of poetic devices. PMID:20162383

  17. Dancing Lights: Creating the Aurora Story

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wood, E. L.; Cobabe-Ammann, E. A.

    2009-12-01

    Science tells a story about our world, our existence, our history, and the larger environment our planet occupies. Bearing this in mind, we created a series of lessons for 3rd-5th grades using a cross-disciplinary approach to teaching about the aurora by incorporating stories, photos, movies, and geography into the science in order to paint a broad picture and answer the question, “why do we care?” The fundamental backbone of the program is literacy. Students write and illustrate fiction and non-fiction work, poetry, and brochures that solidify both language arts skills and science content. In a time when elementary teachers relegate science to less than one hour per week, we have developed a novel science program that can be easily integrated with other topics during the typical school day to increase the amount of science taught in a school year. We are inspiring students to take an interest in the natural world with this program, a stepping-stone for larger things.

  18. Free-Fall Sex and Golden Eggs

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Burke, Michael C.

    1978-01-01

    Provides an annotated bibliography of science fiction literature suitable for use with secondary school students. Connections between science fiction and the science disciplines are viewed by the author as an excellent method by which to enrich science classes. (CP)

  19. Wright, Ellison, Baldwin--Exorcising the Demon

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bryant, Jerry H.

    1976-01-01

    Considers the relationship between the three writers' fiction and their temperaments, the role they play as artists in the black freedom movement, and the qualities that established them as three of black fiction's most important writers. (Author/AM)

  20. The Hero in Science Fiction.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    White, Bill

    1999-01-01

    Examines the characterization of heroes in science fiction, focusing on young males. Nine books are reviewed to describe various types of heroes, from common ordinary characters to those with exceptional skills and intelligence, including nonhuman characters such as cyborgs. (LRW)

  1. Beyond Historical Fiction: Speare's "The Witch of Blackbird Pond."

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Thuente, Mary Helen

    1985-01-01

    Reviews "The Witch of Blackbird Pond" by E. Speare to show how the full narrative power of the novel derives from the author's successful integration of two separate narrative genres: historical fiction and the folktale. (EL)

  2. Teachable Fiction Comes to Yellow Sky.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tietz, Stephen

    2001-01-01

    Proposes that teachable fiction is efficient, strategically sound, and very visual. Analyzes Stephen Crane's "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky" to show it fulfills these three characteristics. Suggests the story should be taught later in the semester. (PM)

  3. Skeleton Keys: Teaching the Fiction of Narrative Truth.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Felter, Douglas P.

    1994-01-01

    Describes the way one English teacher used a variety of stories to introduce students to the conventions of narrative fiction. Shows how students can be taught how great narrative artists manipulate the emotions of their audiences. (HB)

  4. Ordinary tales from endoscopic odysseys: fiction, ethics, and the gastroenterological journey.

    PubMed

    Meulenberg, Frans; de Beaufort, Inez D

    2014-04-01

    Fiction (i.e. novels, short stories, and movies) provides an opportunity for imaginative moral reflection and can serve as a basis for moral argument. Narratives play a role in moral reasoning because they are exemplars as well as tests. Those who care for sick people, should be interested in patient's and literary stories. Exploring the representation of gastroenterological ailments in fiction gives insight in the experience of undergoing colonoscopy, farting, pain, the borders of intimacy, hygiene and the lack of it, taboos and the doctor-patient-relationship. Included authors are, among others: Michel Faber, Alan Bennett, Charles Bukowski, Charlotte Roche and James Joyce. Several movies are discussed as well. Though in general gastroenterological problems don't seem often at foreground in fiction, in some cases they are represented in a more symbolic way, and touch upon some fundamental aspects of the human condition. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  5. Distinguishing fiction from non-fiction with complex networks

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Larue, David M.; Carr, Lincoln D.; Jones, Linnea K.; Stevanak, Joe T.

    2014-03-01

    Complex Network Measures are applied to networks constructed from texts in English to demonstrate an initial viability in textual analysis. Texts from novels and short stories obtained from Project Gutenberg and news stories obtained from NPR are selected. Unique word stems in a text are used as nodes in an associated unweighted undirected network, with edges connecting words occurring within a certain number of words somewhere in the text. Various combinations of complex network measures are computed for each text's network. Fisher's Linear Discriminant analysis is used to build a parameter optimizing the ability to separate the texts according to their genre. Success rates in the 70% range for correctly distinguishing fiction from non-fiction were obtained using edges defined as within four words, using 400 word samples from 400 texts from each of the two genres with some combinations of measures such as the power-law exponents of degree distributions and clustering coefficients.

  6. Fact vs fiction—how paratextual information shapes our reading processes

    PubMed Central

    Altmann, Ulrike; Bohrn, Isabel C.; Lubrich, Oliver; Menninghaus, Winfried; Jacobs, Arthur M.

    2014-01-01

    Our life is full of stories: some of them depict real-life events and were reported, e.g. in the daily news or in autobiographies, whereas other stories, as often presented to us in movies and novels, are fictional. However, we have only little insights in the neurocognitive processes underlying the reading of factual as compared to fictional contents. We investigated the neurocognitive effects of reading short narratives, labeled to be either factual or fictional. Reading in a factual mode engaged an activation pattern suggesting an action-based reconstruction of the events depicted in a story. This process seems to be past-oriented and leads to shorter reaction times at the behavioral level. In contrast, the brain activation patterns corresponding to reading fiction seem to reflect a constructive simulation of what might have happened. This is in line with studies on imagination of possible past or future events. PMID:22956671

  7. Chief Stephen's Parky: One Year in the Life of an Athapascan Girl. The Council for Indian Education Series.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chandonnet, Ann

    This book tells the fictional story of Olga, the wife of Chief Stephen, leader of a Tanaina Athapascan village on Cook Inlet, northwest of Anchorage, Alaska. Olga works for one full year with great courage and independence trapping ground squirrels and gathering materials needed to tan, dye, and sew furs to make a parka for her husband. She uses…

  8. "Wonder Women": Towards a Feminization of Heroism in the African Fiction--A Study of the Heroines in "Second Class Citizen" and "God's Bits of Wood"

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Agho, Jude; Oseghale, Francis

    2008-01-01

    Feminism, especially the womanist brand, has been a very popular critical tool that most critics, men and women alike, have employed in their critical appraisal of African literary works. This is decidedly a very fertile area of contemporary scholarship. The emergence of this critical methodology in the African context stems from the perceived…

  9. Developing a Storysack Project within a Sure Start Initiative: Reflections and Emerging Findings on Working Together with Parents To Produce a Community Resource.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Forde, Jan; Weinberger, Jo

    This paper explores a community project to develop "storysacks" within an area of identified economic and social need. (Storysacks are books sent home for preschool children in England to share with their parents on a regular basis; each sack contains a fiction book, a nonfiction book linked to the story, and a wide variety of props…

  10. The Voice of the Practitioner: Sharing Fiction Books to Support the Understanding of Theory of Mind in Deaf Children

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Beazley, S.; Chilton, H.

    2015-01-01

    In recent years, there has been increasing research interest in the development of theory of mind (ToM) in deaf children and young people and the conditions which might enable or suppress development of the set of skills involved. However, the views of practitioners working with deaf children have not been widely explored. This paper presents the…

  11. What Physiological Changes and Cerebral Traces Tell Us about Adhesion to Fiction During Theater-Watching?

    PubMed

    Metz-Lutz, Marie-Noëlle; Bressan, Yannick; Heider, Nathalie; Otzenberger, Hélène

    2010-01-01

    Live theater is typically designed to alter the state of mind of the audience. Indeed, the perceptual inputs issuing from a live theatrical performance are intended to represent something else, and the actions, emphasized by the writing and staging, are the key prompting the adhesion of viewers to fiction, i.e., their belief that it is real. This phenomenon raises the issue of the cognitive processes governing access to a fictional reality during live theater and of their cerebral underpinnings. To get insight into the physiological substrates of adhesion we recreated the peculiar context of watching live drama in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment, with simultaneous recording of heart activity. The instants of adhesion were defined as the co-occurrence of theatrical events determined a priori by the stage director and the spectators' offline reports of moments when fiction acted as reality. These data served to specify, for each spectator, individual fMRI time-series, used in a random-effect group analysis to define the pattern of brain response to theatrical events. The changes in this pattern related to subjects' adhesion to fiction, were investigated using a region of interest analysis. The results showed that adhesion to theatrical events correlated with increased activity in the left BA47 and posterior superior temporal sulcus, together with a decrease in dynamic heart rate variability, leading us to discuss the hypothesis of subtle changes in the subjects' state of awareness, enabling them to mentally dissociate physical and mental (drama-viewing) experiences, to account for the phenomenon of adhesion to dramatic fiction.

  12. Fluorescence immunophenotyping and interphase cytogenetics (FICTION) detects BCL6 abnormalities, including gene amplification, in most cases of nodular lymphocyte-predominant Hodgkin lymphoma.

    PubMed

    Bakhirev, Alexei G; Vasef, Mohammad A; Zhang, Qian-Yun; Reichard, Kaaren K; Czuchlewski, David R

    2014-04-01

    BCL6 translocations are a frequent finding in B-cell lymphomas of diverse subtypes, including some cases of nodular lymphocyte-predominant Hodgkin lymphoma (NLPHL). However, reliable analysis of BCL6 rearrangements using fluorescence in situ hybridization is difficult in NLPHL because of the relative paucity of neoplastic cells. Combined immunofluorescence microscopy and fluorescence in situ hybridization, or fluorescence immunophenotyping and interphase cytogenetics as a tool for the investigation of neoplasms (FICTION), permits targeted analysis of neoplastic cells. To better define the spectrum of BCL6 abnormalities in NLPHL using FICTION analysis. We performed an optimized FICTION analysis of 24 lymph nodes, including 11 NLPHL, 5 follicular hyperplasia with prominent progressive transformation of germinal centers, and 8 follicular hyperplasia without progressive transformation of germinal centers. BCL6 rearrangement was identified in 5 of 11 cases of NLPHL (46%). In addition, BCL6 gene amplification, with large clusters of BCL6 signals in the absence of chromosome 3 aneuploidy, was detected in 3 of 11 cases of NLPHL (27%). One NLPHL showed extra copies of BCL6 present in conjunction with multiple copies of chromosome 3. Altogether, we detected BCL6 abnormalities in 9 of 11 cases of NLPHL (82%). None of the progressive transformation of germinal centers or follicular hyperplasia cases showed BCL6 abnormalities by FICTION. To our knowledge, this is the first report of BCL6 gene amplification in NLPHL. Our optimized protocol for FICTION permits detection of cytogenetic abnormalities in most NLPHL cases and may represent a useful ancillary diagnostic technique.

  13. The Use of “Literary Fiction” to Promote Mentalizing Ability

    PubMed Central

    Mazza, Monica

    2016-01-01

    Empathy is a multidimensional process that incorporates both mentalizing and emotional sharing dimensions. Empathic competencies are important for creating interpersonal relationships with other people and developing adequate social behaviour. The lack of these social components also leads to isolation and exclusion in healthy populations. However, few studies have investigated how to improve these social skills. In a recent study, Kidd and Castano (2013) found that reading literary fiction increases mentalizing ability and may change how people think about other people’s emotions and mental states. The aim of our study was to evaluate the effects of reading literary fiction, compared to nonfiction and science fiction, on empathic abilities. Compared to previous studies, we used a larger variety of empathy measures and utilized a pre and post-test design. In all, 214 healthy participants were randomly assigned to read a book representative of one of three literary genres (literary fiction, nonfiction, science fiction). Participants were assessed before and after the reading phase using mentalizing and emotional sharing tests, according to Zaki and Ochsner’ s (2012) model. Comparisons of sociodemographic, mentalizing, and emotional sharing variables across conditions were conducted using ANOVA. Our results showed that after the reading phase, the literary fiction group showed improvement in mentalizing abilities, but there was no discernible effect on emotional sharing abilities. Our study showed that the reading processes can promote mentalizing abilities. These results may set important goals for future low-cost rehabilitation protocols for several disorders in which the mentalizing deficit is considered central to the disease, such as Autism Spectrum Disorders and Schizophrenia. PMID:27490164

  14. What Physiological Changes and Cerebral Traces Tell Us about Adhesion to Fiction During Theater-Watching?

    PubMed Central

    Metz-Lutz, Marie-Noëlle; Bressan, Yannick; Heider, Nathalie; Otzenberger, Hélène

    2010-01-01

    Live theater is typically designed to alter the state of mind of the audience. Indeed, the perceptual inputs issuing from a live theatrical performance are intended to represent something else, and the actions, emphasized by the writing and staging, are the key prompting the adhesion of viewers to fiction, i.e., their belief that it is real. This phenomenon raises the issue of the cognitive processes governing access to a fictional reality during live theater and of their cerebral underpinnings. To get insight into the physiological substrates of adhesion we recreated the peculiar context of watching live drama in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment, with simultaneous recording of heart activity. The instants of adhesion were defined as the co-occurrence of theatrical events determined a priori by the stage director and the spectators’ offline reports of moments when fiction acted as reality. These data served to specify, for each spectator, individual fMRI time-series, used in a random-effect group analysis to define the pattern of brain response to theatrical events. The changes in this pattern related to subjects’ adhesion to fiction, were investigated using a region of interest analysis. The results showed that adhesion to theatrical events correlated with increased activity in the left BA47 and posterior superior temporal sulcus, together with a decrease in dynamic heart rate variability, leading us to discuss the hypothesis of subtle changes in the subjects’ state of awareness, enabling them to mentally dissociate physical and mental (drama-viewing) experiences, to account for the phenomenon of adhesion to dramatic fiction. PMID:20838472

  15. Coming of Age: Sports Fiction for YAs.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Brown, Ron

    1982-01-01

    This annotated list of 26 citations covering sports fiction includes stories on football, basketball, wrestling, softball, hockey, volleyball, soccer, and baseball for young adults. It is arranged alphabetically by author with grade levels indicated. A brief introduction is provided. (EJS)

  16. Honor Listing Update, 1990: A Variety Pack (Books for the Teenage Reader).

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Nilsen, Alleen Pace; Donelson, Ken

    1991-01-01

    Reviews eight books on the 1990 honor listing for adolescents including historical fiction, biographies, fictional stories of farm families, a personal experience account, a fantasy/occult romance, and a collection of short stories. (PRA)

  17. Cancer Causes: Popular Myths about the Causes of Cancer

    MedlinePlus

    ... myths/antiperspirants-fact-sheet. Accessed Nov. 1, 2016. Science fact or science fiction? – 9 common cancer myths. Cancer.Net. http://www.cancer.net/blog/2015-03/science-fact-or-science-fiction-%E2%80%93-9-common- ...

  18. Our cosmic future : humanity's fate in the universe

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Prantzos, Nikos

    2000-04-01

    What is humankind's ultimate fate and destiny in the Universe? Can human life and intelligence go on forever? This captivating and unparalleled book explores the future of the human race in the Universe, for centuries, millennia, and eons to come. Nikos Prantzos, distinguished astrophysicist and popular science writer, focuses not on what will be done, but on what could be done in light of our current knowledge and the speculations of eminent scientists. While he employs many concepts from physics, Prantzos also provides historical accounts of such ideas as terraforming, asteroid mining, interstellar travel, astroengineering, and eschatology, discussing their philosophical and social implications. Moreover, he uses the work of well known science and science-fiction writers--including Verne, Wells, Clarke, Tsiolkovsky, and Dyson--to illustrate many possibilities and concepts. Our Cosmic Future offers compelling answers to such intriguing questions as: Should we return to the Moon and eventually colonize Mars and other planets in our solar system? Why haven't we encountered an extraterrestrial civilization up to this time in our history? How can we avoid various cosmic threats, such as asteroid collisions and supernova explosions? Could we escape the remote, yet certain, death of the Sun? What will eventually happen to stars, our Galaxy, distant galaxies, and the Universe itself? With its artful blend of historical, scientific accounts and themes from classic works of science fiction, Our Cosmic Future is a spellbinding work that will enchant all readers interested in space travel and colonization, cosmology, and humankind's future prospects in the Cosmos.

  19. Literature as Window: Developing Interracial Understanding through Fiction.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Merriam, Allen H.

    1988-01-01

    Using Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart" as a case study, demonstrates the evocative power of fiction to promote interracial understanding. Creative art, by appealing to the imagination, can evoke feelings and insights that make human relationships vivid and personal. (BJV)

  20. Sci-Fi Science.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Freudenrich, Craig C.

    2000-01-01

    Recommends using science fiction television episodes, novels, and films for teaching science and motivating students. Studies Newton's Law of Motion, principles of relativity, journey to Mars, interplanetary trajectories, artificial gravity, and Martian geology. Discusses science fiction's ability to capture student interest and the advantages of…

  1. Portrayal of Physically Handicapped Characters in Adolescent Fiction.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Stroud, Janet G.

    1980-01-01

    Reviews the portrayals of handicapped fictional characters for prognosis of the handicap, for effect on the subject and other characters, and for treatment of the disability. Twelve recently published books are examined for their readership interest for young people. (RAA)

  2. Miku's mask: Fictional encounters in children's costume play.

    PubMed

    Helgesen, Espen

    2015-11-01

    Children's engagement with Japanese toys and fictional characters has taken on new significance in the age of YouTube. Drawing on ethnographic research on technology-mediated play among 8- and 9-year-olds in Norway, this article shows how boundaries between "real" humans and "fake" non-humans are blurred and undermined when children take on the perspective of a fictional pop star known as Miku. I argue that YouTube provides a platform for children's playful experimentation with posthuman subjectivities, where they orient themselves toward the future not in terms of becoming adult but in terms of multiple becomings.

  3. Probing the Limits of Reality: The Metaphysics in Science Fiction.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Taylor, John L.

    2003-01-01

    Addresses metaphysical questions concerning the ultimate structure of reality and discusses scientific nature. Suggests that the world cannot afford to neglect the role of conceptual analysis in thinking critically about the possibilities that science fiction claims to describe. (Author/KHR)

  4. One to One: Interpersonal Skills for Managers.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Turner, Colin; Andrews, Philippa

    This book explores interpersonal skills for college administrators through analysis of fictional, but typical, scenes and dialogues set at a fictional "Elmdale College". The analysis and discussion use transactional analysis, gestalt psychology, and neuro-linguistic programming theories to help the reader understand the underlying…

  5. Historical Novels: Beyond the History Text.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Apostol, Constantine D.

    1982-01-01

    Despite the inadequacy of much historical fiction, these novels can awake students' imagination and interest. As records of individual and societal life, historical novels can provide a key to historical understanding and engage students' attention and sympathy. Provides a list of relevant Canadian fiction. (KC)

  6. [Further Distinctions between Magic, Reality, Religion, and Fiction. Commentaries.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Boyer, Pascal; Taylor, Marjorie; Harris, Paul L.; Chandler, Michael; Johnson, Carl N.

    1997-01-01

    Contains the following commentaries: "Further Distinctions between Magic, Reality, Religion, and Fiction"; "The Role of Creative Control and Culture in Children's Fantasy/Reality Judgments"; "The Last of the Magicians? Children, Scientists, and the Invocation of Hidden Causal Powers"; "Rescuing Magical Thinking…

  7. Campus Crisis Response at Viberg College

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Eaker, Rachel; Viars, Jamie

    2014-01-01

    This fictional case study examines crisis response in higher education settings. Information about current crisis response procedures, plans, and trends was gathered from informational interviews, current crisis management literature, and multiple college and university websites. The information was synthesized into a fictional case study using…

  8. "Vraisemblance" and the Western Setting in Contemporary Science Fiction Film.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Roth, Lane

    Analyzing the setting of six recent "blockbuster" films, this study outlines numerous instances of the Western's influence on several contemporary science fiction films, "Star Wars,""Battlestar Galactica,""Star Trek: The Motion Picture,""The Black Hole,""The Empire Strikes Back," and…

  9. Fact and fiction in spawntaking: Addenda

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Rucker, R.R.

    1949-01-01

    The work of Ellis and Jones (1939) indicated that a solution of comon salt would prolong the life of fish sperm, although the work of Schlenk and Kahmann (1938) indicated that a more complex solution must be used. I therefore tested on sperm many solutions which waried in composition, strength, pH, and temperature. None of these prolonged viability to the point where 100-percent fertillzation could be expected after a few minutes" exposure at best. There was no difficulty in prolonging the fertilizable life of the egg: a plain salt solution was found quite effective, as mentioned by Rutter (1904).

  10. Geometric integration for particle accelerators

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Forest, Étienne

    2006-05-01

    This paper is a very personal view of the field of geometric integration in accelerator physics—a field where often work of the highest quality is buried in lost technical notes or even not published; one has only to think of Simon van der Meer Nobel prize work on stochastic cooling—unpublished in any refereed journal. So I reconstructed the relevant history of geometrical integration in accelerator physics as much as I could by talking to collaborators and using my own understanding of the field. The reader should not be too surprised if this account is somewhere between history, science and perhaps even fiction.

  11. Primal scene derivatives in the work of Yukio Mishima: the primal scene fantasy.

    PubMed

    Turco, Ronald N

    2002-01-01

    This article discusses the preoccupation with fire, revenge, crucifixion, and other fantasies as they relate to the primal scene. The manifestations of these fantasies are demonstrated in a work of fiction by Yukio Mishima. The Temple of the Golden Pavillion. As is the case in other writings of Mishima there is a fusion of aggressive and libidinal drives and a preoccupation with death. The primal scene is directly connected with pyromania and destructive "acting out" of fantasies. This article is timely with regard to understanding contemporary events of cultural and national destruction.

  12. Mars: A Freshmen Year Seminar of Science and Science-fiction

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Svec, Michael; Moffett, D. A.; Winiski, M.

    2013-06-01

    "Mars: On the shoulder of giants" is a freshmen year seminar developed collaboratively between the physics, education, and center for teaching and learning. This course focuses on how scientific knowledge is developed through the lens of our changing view of Mars throughout history. Analyses of current studies of Mars are juxtaposed against historical understanding and perceptions of the planet found in scientific and popular literature of the day, as well as the movies. Kim Stanley Robinson’s "Red Mars" provides a unifying story throughout the course complimented by Fredrick Taylor’s "The Scientific Exploration of Mars" and Hartmann’s "A Traveler’s Guide to Mars." Based on the three-years of experience, the authors advocate the use of the speculative science-fiction novel and argue for its use in high school and undergraduate courses including those for science majors. Many of the students who selected this seminar went on to major in science and in subsequent interviews discussed the influence of science fiction on their decision to major in science. Science fiction provided story, science, and speculation that became a rich medium for critical-thinking skills and critical literacy. Student reflections indicated that science fiction served as a reminder of why they study science, a source for imagination, and exploration of science as a human endeavor. Based on this experience, we propose five elements for selecting science-fiction for inclusion in science classes: 1) Provides a deep description of the science content or technologies, 2) Describes science and technologies are plausible or accurate to the time period, 3) Contains a novum or plausible innovation that plays a key element in the speculation, 4) Exploration of the impact on society or humanity, and, 5) Shows science and technology as human endeavors.

  13. Acquisition Review Quarterly (ARQ): Volume 1, Number 1, Winter 1994

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1994-01-01

    OH. Horngren , C. T., & Foster, G. (1991). Cost Accounting , a Managerial Emphasis (7th ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Moniison, D. C. (1901, March). Deep...1), or are predicted to occur for the duration of their cost account ( s ) as planned on Work Package Planning Sheets (WPPS). The Narrative Variance...in dealing with similar business situations. Research 19- COST OVERRUN OPTIMISM: Fact or Fiction Major David S . Christensen, USAF "Wheii idken to

  14. Dominating Duffer’s Domain: Lessons for the U.S. Marine corps Information Operations Practitioner

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2017-01-01

    an IO working group session, the public affairs officer pointed out that we had more latitude for broadcasts that were not MISO influence products ...this Duffer’s Drift–inspired text does for information operations ( IO ) what the original did for defensive tactics: effectively communicate timeless...fiction are Marines with current or future IO responsibilities and at least some understanding of Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) staffing processes

  15. The Lazy Reader: Labor, Books, and Disease in Nineteenth-Century Germany.

    PubMed

    Aselmeyer, Norman

    Looking at nineteenth-century Germany, this article investigates the origin of the idea that fiction causes disease, among both the bourgeoisie and the working class. I argue that the socially constructed notions of reading addiction, which were consistent with medical concepts at that time, touched the bourgeois virtues of industriousness and health. However, little has been written about the transfer of the bourgeois attitudes towards reading to the German working class. The study of workers' autobiographies shows that social circumstances and the emulation of bourgeois values and attitudes resulted in appropriating the concept of lazy readers in the working class. The paper follows the paths from the early nineteenth century accusation of readers to the working class's perception of novels causing disease around 1900.

  16. Space Rescue

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Muratore, John F.

    2007-01-01

    Space Rescue has been a topic of speculation for a wide community of people for decades. Astronauts, aerospace engineers, diplomats, medical and rescue professionals, inventors and science fiction writers have all speculated on this problem. Martin Caidin's 1964 novel Marooned dealt with the problems of rescuing a crew stranded in low earth orbit. Legend at the Johnson Space Center says that Caidin's portrayal of a Russian attempt to save the American crew played a pivotal role in convincing the Russians to join the real joint Apollo-Soyuz mission. Space Rescue has been a staple in science fiction television and movies portrayed in programs such as Star Trek, Stargate-SG1 and Space 1999 and movies such as Mission To Mars and Red Planet. As dramatic and as difficult as rescue appears in fictional accounts, in the real world it has even greater drama and greater difficulty. Space rescue is still in its infancy as a discipline and the purpose of this chapter is to describe the issues associated with space rescue and the work done so far in this field. For the purposes of this chapter, the term space rescue will refer to any system which allows for rescue or escape of personnel from situations which endanger human life in a spaceflight operation. This will span the period from crew ingress prior to flight through crew egress postlanding. For the purposes of this chapter, the term primary system will refer to the spacecraft system that a crew is either attempting to escape from or from which an attempt is being made to rescue the crew.

  17. Thrills, spills and pills: Bond, Benzedrine and the pharmacology of peace.

    PubMed

    Goodman, Sam

    2010-06-01

    This paper examines the conjunction of pharmacological science and espionage fiction of the post-war era. This paper argues that, during the 1950s, the relatively new science of pharmacology propounded the possibility that illness and human deficiency could be treated in a way that better reflected the post-war zeitgeist. The use of pharmacological medicine, perceived as cleaner and quicker than more 'bodily' forms of treatment, represented progress in contemporary medical science. It is argued that this philosophy extended to more overt means of pharmacological application, directly related to the geopolitical concerns of the 'Cold War'. A growing form of popular literature in this period was the espionage novel. This paper argues that the benefits proffered by pharmacology were incorporated into the fabric of espionage fiction, specifically the James Bond novels of Ian Fleming. Here, it is demonstrated how Fleming used pharmacological knowledge of Benzedrine throughout his novels. His works illustrate a belief that the augmentation of the spy's natural ability with pharmacological science would award decisive advantage in the Cold War conflict played out in spy fiction. However, the relationship between public use of Benzedrine and awareness of its side effects changed during the period of Fleming's publications, moving from a position of casual availability to one of controlled prescription. It is argued that the recognition of the dangers associated with the drug were over-ruled in favour of the benefits its use presented to the state. The continued use of the drug by Bond illustrates how the concerns of the nation are given priority over the health, and life, of the individual.

  18. Is Robin Hood Alive in Your Classroom?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Royer, Sharon E.

    2002-01-01

    Considers whether the tales of Robin Hood should be presented as fact or fiction. Discusses the appropriateness of the tales for use in literature programs. Presents arguments for Robin Hood as fact and arguments for Robin Hood as fiction. Considers different versions of the tale. (SG)

  19. The Time Machine: Writing Historical Fiction.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Karr, Kathleen

    2000-01-01

    Discusses historical fiction for children and young adults from a writer's point of view and equates it to a time machine into the past. Considers the books that influenced the writer; larger-than-life characters; story ideas; and research to really know and feel the setting. (LRW)

  20. Assessing (and Addressing!) Motivation to Read Fiction and Nonfiction

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Malloy, Jacquelynn A.; Parsons, Allison Ward; Marinak, Barbara A.; Applegate, Anthony J.; Applegate, Mary DeKonty; Reutzel, D. Ray; Parsons, Seth A.; Fawson, Parker C.; Roberts, Leslie D.; Gambrell, Linda B.

    2017-01-01

    Literacy educators, spurred by curricular standards requiring increased attention to reading nonfiction, are compelled to consider text-specific reading instruction. As research supports the connection between motivation and reading achievement, these mandates beg the question, "Are children equally motivated to read fiction and…

  1. From "Teo" to "Harry Potter": Books in Spanish for Children and Adolescents.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Schon, Isabel

    2001-01-01

    Presents a listing of Spanish-language books for children and adolescents recently published in Mexico, Venezuela, Spain, Colombia, and Argentina. The books are categorized as biography, history, historical fiction, folklore, poetry, religion, fiction, and literature for the very young. (SM)

  2. All this happened, more or less: thoughts on 'truth', the role of fiction and its potential application in mental health and psychiatric nursing research.

    PubMed

    Biley, F C

    2009-12-01

    Fundamental differences in the philosophy of history as an academic discipline are briefly explored, primarily from two perspectives. The traditional psychiatric and mental health nursing historian objectively uses primary sources in order to be able to make 'truth' claims about the past. The post-modern psychiatric nursing historian, on the other hand, constructs truth claims, rather than discovers them, and in the process of doing so creates historical discourses that are different from the past. To the postmodern psychiatric nursing historian, all histories are fictions, created with the use of imagination, and have characteristics that are similar to the literary constructions that are more traditionally identified as fiction. A variety of literature is used in order to explore such claims, and the conclusion is drawn that, with caution and careful attention to the rigorous use of historical method, fiction can be used as a valid source for historical research in psychiatric and mental health nursing.

  3. Communicating stereotype-relevant information: is factual information subject to the same communication biases as fictional information?

    PubMed

    Goodman, Ruth L; Webb, Thomas L; Stewart, Andrew J

    2009-07-01

    Factual information is more frequently read and discussed than fictional information. However, research on the role of communication in shaping stereotypes has focused almost exclusively on fictional narratives. In Experiments 1 and 2 a newspaper article containing information about heroin users was communicated along chains of 4 people. No stereotype-consistency bias was observed. Instead, a greater proportion of stereotype-inconsistent information was communicated than was stereotype-consistent or -neutral information. Three further experiments investigated explanations for the difference between the communication of fictional and factual information. Experiment 3 ruled out the possibility that participants' beliefs about the validity of the information could influence the way that it is communicated. Experiments 4 and 5 divided information into concrete (a specific event or fact) or abstract (opinion). A stereotype-consistency bias emerged only for abstract information. In summary, linguistic abstraction moderates whether stereotype-consistency biases emerge in the communication of stereotype-relevant factual information.

  4. Science fiction/science fact: medical genetics in news stories.

    PubMed

    Petersen, Alan; Anderson, Alison; Allan, Stuart

    2005-12-01

    News media coverage of biotechnology issues offers a rich source of fictional portrayals, with stories drawing strongly on popular imagery and metaphors in descriptions of the powers and dangers of biotechnology. This article examines how science fiction metaphors, imagery and motifs surface in British newspaper (broadsheet and tabloid) coverage of medical genetic issues, focusing on press reporting of two recent highly publicised news media events; namely, the Hashmi and Whitaker families' plights to use stem cells from a 'perfectly matched sibling' for the treatment of their diseased children. It is concerned in particular with the extent to which journalists' use of certain literary devices encourages preferred formulations of medical genetics, and thereby potentially shapes public deliberation about scientific developments and their consequences for society. Understanding how science fiction sustains science fact, and vice versa, and how the former is portrayed in news media, it is argued, would thus seem to be crucial in the effort to understand why people respond so strongly to biotechnologies, and what they imagine their consequences to be.

  5. Media and the making of scientists

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    O'Keeffe, Moira

    This dissertation explores how scientists and science students respond to fictional, visual media about science. I consider how scientists think about images of science in relation to their own career paths from childhood onwards. I am especially interested in the possibility that entertainment media can inspire young people to learn about science. Such inspiration is badly needed, as schools are failing to provide it. Science education in the United States is in a state of crisis. Studies repeatedly find low levels of science literacy in the U.S. This bleak situation exists during a boom in the popularity of science-oriented television shows and science fiction movies. How might entertainment media play a role in helping young people engage with science? To grapple with these questions, I interviewed a total of fifty scientists and students interested in science careers, representing a variety of scientific fields and demographic backgrounds, and with varying levels of interest in science fiction. Most respondents described becoming attracted to the sciences at a young age, and many were able to identify specific sources for this interest. The fact that interest in the sciences begins early in life, demonstrates a potentially important role for fictional media in the process of inspiration, perhaps especially for children without access to real-life scientists. One key aspect to the appeal of fiction about science is how scientists are portrayed as characters. Scientists from groups traditionally under-represented in the sciences often sought out fictional characters with whom they could identify, and viewers from all backgrounds preferred well-rounded characters to the extreme stereotypes of mad or dorky scientists. Genre is another aspect of appeal. Some respondents identified a specific role for science fiction: conveying a sense of wonder. Visual media introduce viewers to the beauty of science. Special effects, in particular, allow viewers to explore the unknown. Advocates of informal science learning initiatives suggest that media can be used as a tool for teaching science content. The potential of entertainment media to provide a sense of wonder is a powerful aspect of its potential to inspire the next generation of scientists.

  6. Miku’s mask: Fictional encounters in children’s costume play

    PubMed Central

    Helgesen, Espen

    2015-01-01

    Children’s engagement with Japanese toys and fictional characters has taken on new significance in the age of YouTube. Drawing on ethnographic research on technology-mediated play among 8- and 9-year-olds in Norway, this article shows how boundaries between “real” humans and “fake” non-humans are blurred and undermined when children take on the perspective of a fictional pop star known as Miku. I argue that YouTube provides a platform for children’s playful experimentation with posthuman subjectivities, where they orient themselves toward the future not in terms of becoming adult but in terms of multiple becomings. PMID:26635445

  7. [Impact of interactivity on identification with characters in fiction].

    PubMed

    Soto-Sanfiel, María T; Aymerich-Franch, Laura; Ribes Guàrdia, Francesc Xavier

    2010-11-01

    The effect of interactivity on identification with characters in audiovisual fiction was observed. 310 participants were asked to watch a film in one of these two conditions: 1) interactive (they selected the plot), and 2) non-interactive (they consumed the fiction in a conventional way). After watching the movie, they completed a questionnaire with the EDI scale of identification and empathy with characters, created by Igartua and Paez. The capacity to intervene in the configuration of the plot (interactivity) affected identification with characters. The results provide data about the psychology of media and interactivity in communication and allow us to understand the processes of empathy and identification with characters.

  8. Egalitarian Fiction and Collective Fraud.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gottfredson, Linda S.

    1994-01-01

    Social science today condones and perpetuates the egalitarian fiction that racial and ethnic groups never differ in average developed intelligence (general mental ability). Enforcement of this lie and avoidance of real research into these issues is aiding bigots more than the truth would and is degrading intellectual integrity. (SLD)

  9. Children's Reading Preferences in Fiction.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Norris, Rob; And Others

    1979-01-01

    Children, ages 8-9 and 11-12, rated fiction they had just read. Boys preferred supernatural, adventure and mystery stories while girls rated fairy and pony stories highly. Both preferred characters of their own sex. Sex differences were smaller in the 11-12 age group (f=fiche number). (CP)

  10. Fictionalising Experiences-Experiencing through Fiction

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hannula, Markku S.

    2003-01-01

    Understanding and reporting students' affective experiences with mathematics is difficult if those experiences do not resonate with personal experiences. Utilising fiction-writing in narrative reporting can be a technique that helps both the researcher and the reader of the research report to immerse themselves in the student's experiential world.…

  11. Future Tense: Science Fiction Confronts the New Science.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Antczak, Janice

    1990-01-01

    Describes 10 science fiction stories for young readers whose contents address recent developments on the frontiers of scientific research, including genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, and robotics. The use of these materials to inform young readers about the issues and dangers involved in scientific developments is discussed. (CLB)

  12. Stress in Children Bibliography.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gerlach, Kent

    This annotated bibliography concerns itself with issues that may contribute to childhood stress, provides resource materials for teachers and parents, and covers a wide variety of fiction and non-fiction for students (K-12). The publication's organization along with examples of the issues included follows: (1) adolescence issues (substance abuse,…

  13. Sudden Fiction: What Is It?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tindall, James

    Initially an assignment for a library science class, this paper presents various definitions of the current creative writing phenomenon called "sudden fiction" (very short short stories with concise character sketches, and terse tales limited in length to several pages). The paper includes: (1) a list of well regarded sudden fiction…

  14. Science Fiction and General Semantics as Interdisciplinary/Cross-Cultural Teaching Aids.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Drake, Harold L.

    General semantics and science fiction are disciplines that can be incorporated in lectures for public speaking and other speech communication classes. Alfred Korzybski's theories of general semantics lend themselves to researching, preparing, delivering interpersonal communication messages, and establishing student interest in foreign languages,…

  15. Charting Relationships in American Popular Film. Part II.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Burke, Ken

    1998-01-01

    Explores the concept of genre evolution through the experimental, classic, refinement, and deconstructivist phases of American films. A series of detailed diagrams present a synthesis of influences and developments in the western, supercop, detective, gangster, futuristic science fiction, fantasy, outer space science fiction, horror, musical, and…

  16. Learning from Fiction: Applications in Emerging Technologies

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gordon, Ruthanna

    2009-01-01

    Understanding the development of public opinion about emerging technologies, when the scope of that emergence is still speculative, poses particular challenges. Opinions and beliefs may be drawn from conflicting experts in multiple fields, media portrayals with varying biases, and fictional narratives that portray diverse possible futures. This…

  17. Science Fiction Exhibits as STEM Gateways

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Robie, Samantha

    Women continue to hold less than a quarter of all STEM jobs in the United States, prompting many museums to develop programs and exhibits with the express goal of interesting young girls in scientific fields. At the same time, a number of recent museum exhibits have harnessed the popularity of pop culture and science fiction in order to interest general audiences in STEM subject matter, as well as using the exhibits as springboards to expand or shift mission goals and focus. Because science fiction appears to be successful at raising interest in STEM fields, it may be an effective way to garner the interest of young girls in STEM in particular. This research seeks to describe the ways in which museums are currently using science fiction exhibits to interest young girls in STEM fields and careers. Research focused on four institutions across the country hosting three separate exhibits, and included staff interviews and content analysis of exhibit descriptions, promotional materials, a summative evaluation and supplementary exhibit productions. In some ways, science fiction exhibits do serve young girls, primarily through the inclusion of female role models, staff awareness, and prototype testing to ensure interactives are attractive to girls as well as to boys. However, STEM appears to be underutilized, which may be partly due to a concern within the field that the outcome of targeting a specific gender could be construed as "stereotyping".

  18. Doctors in space (ships): biomedical uncertainties and medical authority in imagined futures

    PubMed Central

    Henderson, Lesley; Carter, Simon

    2016-01-01

    There has been considerable interest in images of medicine in popular science fiction and in representations of doctors in television fiction. Surprisingly little attention has been paid to doctors administering space medicine in science fiction. This article redresses this gap. We analyse the evolving figure of ‘the doctor’ in different popular science fiction television series. Building upon debates within Medical Sociology, Cultural Studies and Media Studies we argue that the figure of ‘the doctor’ is discursively deployed to act as the moral compass at the centre of the programme narrative. Our analysis highlights that the qualities, norms and ethics represented by doctors in space (ships) are intertwined with issues of gender equality, speciesism and posthuman ethics. We explore the signifying practices and political articulations that are played out through these cultural imaginaries. For example, the ways in which ‘the simple country doctor’ is deployed to help establish hegemonic formations concerning potentially destabilising technoscientific futures involving alternative sexualities, or military dystopia. Doctors mostly function to provide the ethical point of narrative stability within a world in flux, referencing a nostalgia for the traditional, attentive, humanistic family physician. The science fiction doctor facilitates the personalisation of technological change and thus becomes a useful conduit through which societal fears and anxieties concerning medicine, bioethics and morality in a ‘post 9/11’ world can be expressed and explored. PMID:27694600

  19. Irish Literature in Austria.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Faerber, Gerda

    After a brief description of some historical and cultural interchanges between Ireland and Austria, the paper examines Irish fiction that has been translated into German and Irish plays that have been performed in Vienna over the past 25 years. The paper also describes German translations of Irish children's fiction, including classics like…

  20. Streetwise Urban Fiction

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wright, David

    2006-01-01

    One of the hottest literary phenomena of recent years has been the explosion of what has been variously termed hip-hop, street, or urban fiction. Especially popular with younger African Americans, books in this genre are reaching an increasingly broad readership through ties to hip-hop music and culture. These crime stories generally revolve…

  1. Indexing the Comics: A Librarian's Perspective on Comics Research.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Scott, Randall W.

    The potential for computers in indexing popular fiction study materials is discussed, and specific examples of comic book indexing are provided through descriptions of projects and a bibliography. The 4-stage evolutionary development of popular fiction studies includes: (1) discovery and reading; (2) bibliography and collecting; (3) cataloging and…

  2. Teaching Science Fiction to Science and Technology Majors.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Diaconoff, Ted

    This paper describes the content and implementation of a course designed to teach science and technology majors about science fiction. Although many students had expressed little interest in the imaginative world of literature, the scientific content of the texts used attracted their attention and legitimized their involvement in something outside…

  3. Neglected Genres of Creative Writing: Why Care Who Killed Roger Ackroyd?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Beene, LynnDianne

    Arriving college students find themselves unprepared for the demands of academic writing. Despite the sometimes condescending critical attitudes of its literary worth and the pressures of composition specialists to use nonfiction texts as instructional aids, detective fiction, like any fiction, favors the underlying characteristics students…

  4. Stepping into Science Fiction: Understanding the Genre

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Barone, Diane; Barone, Rebecca

    2014-01-01

    This manuscript focuses on fifth graders' understanding of science fiction. It is argued that it is necessary for students to understand both reading strategies and the key elements of a genre for comprehension. Students read "The Giver" within literature circles and conversation and written responses about the book were used for…

  5. The Science in Science Fiction.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Nicholls, Peter, Ed.

    This 12-chapter book discusses the scientific facts behind the ideas included in the novels of Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Frederik Pohl, Arthur C. Clark and other science fiction writers. Areas explored in the first 11 chapters include: exploration of deep space; energy and exotic power sources; likelihood of extra-terrestrial life and the…

  6. Online Fan Fiction, Global Identities, and Imagination

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Black, Rebecca W.

    2009-01-01

    Based on longitudinal data from a three year ethnographic study, this article uses discourse analytic methods to explore the literacy and social practices of three adolescent English language learners writing in an online fan fiction community. Theoretical constructs within globalization and literacy studies are used to describe the influences of…

  7. Use of Ethnographic Fiction in Social Justice Graduate Counselor Training

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chung, Rita Chi-Ying; Bemak, Fred

    2013-01-01

    Ethnographic fiction is a technique for educating counseling students about the relationship of social justice to counseling practice. Preliminary data indicate it is an effective tool, with counseling students (N = 48) reporting an increased understanding and appreciation of clients' life experiences from a holistic perspective. Furthermore,…

  8. A COMPUTER ANALYSIS OF FICTIONAL PROSE STYLE.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    KROEBER, KARL

    FUNDAMENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF FICTIONAL PROSE STYLE WERE STUDIED THROUGH SYSTEMATIC AND OBJECTIVE ANALYSES OF NOVELISTIC SYNTAX AND VOCABULARY. SAMPLE PASSAGES FROM THE MAJOR NOVELS OF JANE AUSTEN, THE BRONTE SISTERS, AND GEORGE ELIOT AS WELL AS NOVELS BY 13 OTHER AUTHORS WERE ANALYZED. INFORMATION ON PASSAGE SENTENCES, CLAUSES, AND WORDS WAS…

  9. Narrative and Nature: Unsustainable Fictions in Environmental Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gough, Noel

    2014-01-01

    Environmental education owes its very existence to a particular interpretation of reality. The author's purpose in this article is to examine critically the "selected fictions" on which that view of reality is based--to examine the ways in which perceptions of environmental problems and issues are "conditioned by our position in…

  10. Pirates in Historical Fiction and Nonfiction: A Twin-Text Unit of Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Frye, Elizabeth M.; Trathen, Woodrow; Wilson, Kelley

    2009-01-01

    In this article, the authors outline an interdisciplinary unit of study using quality children's literatures, and they describe several instructional strategies and activities for reading and responding to historical fiction and informational texts. This "piratical study" integrates social studies and the language arts. Several social…

  11. Resistance Is Futile: Cognitive Dissonance, Temporal Refusal, and the E-Learning Environment as Cyborg

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rose, Lydia

    2015-01-01

    This study uses interpretive sociological methods to explore parallels between fictional accounts of cyborgs and educational technology-based practices currently present in some e-learning environments. Specifically, the cyborg in fictional accounts ("Star Trek" and "Doctor Who") and the cyborg in academic accounts (Donna…

  12. A Historical Note on the Use of Fiction to Teach Principles of Economics.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    O'Donnell, Margaret G.

    1989-01-01

    Compares contemporary economic fiction with the nineteenth-century tales of Harriet Martineau. Modern economic writers and Martineau all use the mystery story to attract beginning students and explain complex economic principles. Martineau, however, focused on classical economics, while modern authors emphasize microeconomic theories. (LS)

  13. Woman's Quest in Contemporary Fiction.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Semeiks, Jonna Gormely

    Depending primarily on Joseph Campbell's treatment of the quest or hero myth, this paper provides analyses of recent women's fiction in terms of contemporary women's quests for personal identity and freedom. Following discussions of a proposed definition of myth, its connotations, and its use as a literary device and as a tool for critical…

  14. Narrative Fiction and Expository Nonfiction Differentially Predict Verbal Ability

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mar, Raymond A.; Rain, Marina

    2015-01-01

    Although reading is known to be an important contributor to language abilities, it is not yet well established whether different text genres are uniquely associated with verbal abilities. We examined how exposure to narrative fiction and expository nonfiction predict language ability among university students. Exposure was measured both with…

  15. Religions in Fiction for Junior and Senior High Students.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Knafle, June D.

    2001-01-01

    Examines current adolescent fiction of award-winning and widely read authors according to religious themes concerning Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Native American religions, African spirit religions, and the occult, supernatural, and New Age. Finds that the portrayal of religions and its adherents is very mixed, depending upon the religion.…

  16. Teachable Anthologies of Short Fiction for Developmental Students.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ngovo, Bernard L.

    2002-01-01

    Explains the rationale for including short fiction in the curricula for two college developmental reading classes and describes the features of the anthologies used. Suggests the use of the middle and the advanced levels of "Best Short Stories" published by Jamestown Publishers. Notes that these anthologies contain features that make…

  17. Body Language.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Pollard, David E.

    1993-01-01

    Discusses how the use of body language in Chinese fiction strikes most Westerners as unusual, if not strange. Considers that, although this may be the result of differences in gestures or different conventions in fiction, it is a problem for translators, who handle the differences by various strategies, e.g., omission or expansion. (NKA)

  18. Accelerated Reader Program: What Do Teachers Really Think?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Smith, Amy Frances; Westberg, Karen; Hejny, Anne

    2017-01-01

    What do teachers really think about the Accelerated Reader program, a widely used supplemental, independent reading program in which their students read fiction and non-fiction books of their choice and take brief online comprehension quizzes about the books? The Accelerated Reader (AR) program was designed by Renaissance Learning Company to…

  19. Reading (and Rehabilitating) the Literature of Fact.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Winterowd, W. Ross

    1989-01-01

    Examines how Romantic psychology and subsequent literary theory devalued texts that were ostensibly factual rather than fictional. Argues that nonfiction literature--the literature of fact--is as rich and valuable as fiction. Explores Peter Matthiessen's "The Snow Leopard" to show how a reader can become aesthetically immersed in a…

  20. Fiction for Adolescents: Theory and Practice.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Davis, James E., Ed.

    1977-01-01

    The 12 articles in this publication discuss the following topics: an author's considerations in writing a novel for adolescents; the teacher as fictional character in adolescent literature; such themes of adolescent novels as institutional values, the illegitimate heroine, and the war experience; the importance of a cumulative study of literature…

Some links on this page may take you to non-federal websites. Their policies may differ from this site.
Top