In this project, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, Professor Heather Ferguson and colleagues examine whether fiction can be an educational source.
More about Professor Heather Ferguson
Related coverage, University of Kent and Leverhulme Trust
About
This is a three-year research project funded by the Leverhulme Trust focused on learning from fiction. It has often been claimed that fiction can be a source of truth and insight, and that it enhances moral imagination. However, other scholars express scepticism about the idea of educational fiction.
There is a lack of convincing empirical support for the claim that fiction can be an educational source and therefore this project aims to formulate significant claims about learning from fiction. It is particularly relevant for educational settings to clarify whether and how we can learn from fiction, and how we can encourage this in children.
Research objectives
The project aims to answer the following questions:
- Does reading fiction improve our moral sensitivity to others?
- Psychological insight: Do certain kinds of narrative enable us to understand other people’s minds, or are they likely to provide misleading pictures?
- Beliefs and attitudes: Does fiction enhance our understanding of the world, or generate false, even irrational views?
- Imaginative capacities: Does engaging with literary complexity exercise our imaginations in ways that matter in our ordinary lives?
Programme and methodology
- The project combines state-of-the-art empirical research with a philosophical framework for evaluating claims about learning from literature.
- Participants will complete multiple sessions with reading assignments in between.
- There will be several experiments in which the type of text, the duration of the reading assignment and the length of time between sessions will vary to determine short-term and cumulative effects.
- The study will employ cutting-edge research methods such as eye-tracking, heart-rate monitoring and facial emotion reading.
Findings
This is an ongoing project and findings are forthcoming
Impact
This project will offer new and important information on the educational benefits of reading fiction. The data will contribute to understanding the psychology of reading and learning, and to philosophical conceptions of the cognitive value of fiction. The results will inform new accounts of the different ways we do or do not learn from fiction.