Learn. By Having Fun.

Think back to your English or literature classes in high school. I’m sure that sentence evokes a sort of Vietnam style flashback where Shakespeare echoes through the corners of your mind while you wait for your classmates to finish reading a passage out loud for the class for some. While I empathize, I always liked or outright loved my English classes. While some of the coursework was focused on novels or stories I could care less about on a personal interest level, I still enjoyed the analysis and dissection of a book or story. That, however, pales in comparison to the love I had when we could flex our creative muscle to write an original story as an exercise. And it turns out that exercising your creative mind for writing could potentially be used as a means to help you learn.

I have a fun exercise that’s inspired by an actual exercise a graduate professor used for his class over a year long course. Create a “character” living in the Roman Empire. What would their name be? Their profession? Are they a legionnaire working to expand the borders or the empire or are they a citizen running an enterprise? You’ll have to research what a typical name may be during this time, of course, as well as the typical jobs, businesses, or duties in the profession you choose.

Source: Rosebud “Journaling: Definition, Benefits and FAQs”

After doing a little research, write a short page about your character. Who are they? What do they do? What are their goals and aspirations? After creating that initial page, try to write about your character every week, about how they grow and progress in their life, and how they pursue their goals. After a few weeks, pick a crisis that happened during the empires’ reign, and write about how it affects your character and how they worked through it. Give your character a life as accurately as possible to the time.

While this may sound like a Dungeons & Dragons players paradise, it actually is a cleverly disguised research assignment, driving you as a writer to research the details about the lifestyle, routines, professions, and events of history. This written narrative you’ve created requires you as the author and driver of your characters life to learn. And, in my opinion, it is a lot less drab and monotonous than sitting through a history lecture where you’re paying about thirty percent attention and the remaining seventy-ish on fighting the warm embrace of a nap.

The Actual Research Part of it

The professor who created the original exercise, Frances Garrett, that inspired the activity I proposed to you originally created his version as a means to study Buddhism without having some hyper-structured course. It allowed a more interactive, long-form exercise to drive his students to study the nitty gritty in a way they were personally compelled to pursue because they wanted their character to do well in life. And this style of exercise is not one of a kind, as it has been shown to be used to help students learn more about a topic or field of study. It’s been suggested that integrating creative writing exercises can help students, and you, the reader, learn about any given topic. Garrett explains in more detail, saying, “Character development research was in this way independently organized; required core readings for the course were intentionally light, with students expected to do a substantial amount of independent reading as the basis for their journal writing,” (Garrett 337).

In another study about integrating creative writing into a historical analysis environment, the researchers described the differences in methodology: “Instead of asking students to retreat into a text and its context, they require students to use a text as the starting point for a concern or issue that resonates with and is relatable to contemporary experience. In this process students remain focused on a source that is contextualized within geographical, cultural, linguistic, political, and economic conditions, but must make wider connections that take the student out of the specificity of time and place,” (Peterson and Graham 156).

Source: IMotions “The Importance of Research Design: A Comprehensive Guide”

All of this just boils down to one thing: research. Research is a vital part of learning, and these are just new methods of transforming the way we research. I know on a personal level that many people don’t really like doing research. This can be evident by your friend who just reads headlines and extrapolates a full conclusion about something just by some catchy headline. All jokes aside, while research isn’t the most enjoyable thing, it is a vital way to learn. And I think that if anything can make the process of research more enjoyable and fulfilling for us as people, it’s to make it personal. Think about it: when you have something you’re passionate about, you want to learn about it. You want to be able to drop some knowledge at your local trivia night to score some free wings or a coupon to a discounted cup of joe at the corner coffee shop. You want to impress your friends with knowledge of something close to you or be able to refute claims on that topic because you know are false because you spent that time learning about something you care about.

And what better way to make it personal than to use research and knowledge to create something that we are invested in? You are the author, who drives the story of your own making, and can create your own narrative that is tied to whatever topic you choose. It doesn’t have to be the Roman Empire. It can be practically anything you want. Maybe it’s the entertainment industry, about the secret lives of the film crews who go barely thanked during the end credits. Or it’s about sharks, as you are a die-hard shark week fan and just can’t get enough of the big guys. Take your interests and create something original to you, and incorporate it into your creative lens, making it even more personal.

And all of this isn’t just tied to you working on things as an independent entity. Think back to your high school English class I mentioned before (once you get passed those flashbacks I mentioned, of course) and ask yourself: do you remember what you learned, about the stories or works you covered? Obviously, I don’t know anything about the experience you had. I’m just sitting here, reflecting as I write, about my own personal experience. And I’ll make an assumption that you don’t remember much. But I’m sure you remember your favorite book you read during the same year of school or even the fan fictions you wrote about your favorite characters (not that I would know about doing that, I just know that fan fiction is very popular). I’m sure you remember these because they were something you had personal interest in and investment in. Something that you cared about. And I think if we inject some creative writing into some of those more “boring” topics or classes we don’t have much personal investment in; it can help tie students to the coursework.

So Easy, a Child Could Do it (Literally)

This may sound far-fetched, but you would be surprised to know that it seems to be an effective method, even at a very young age. When asked a question to figure out, children aged five and six were able to work through complex problems they found interesting (important stuff, like creating a new Pokémon) and figuring out ways to solve these “problems” through creative writing exercises (Brosseuk 6). Using a topic or idea that these children were personally interested in, they proved to be very invested in solving their problems, which led to real, tangible improvements in their ability to learn and write, as they had to undergo functional research methods to solve their given problems. And all of this leads to more methods of learning outside of merely meeting some standardized test or quiz requirements in testing your knowledge.

Make it Fun

Adopting new methodologies to facilitate learning is important, now more than ever. With the introduction of large language models and generative artificial intelligence, many students across any age range are using these tools as a crutch to ensure their grades and classes are being passed, while failing to actually learn any substance from a course. In an age where misinformation, AI, and short form content dominate the lives of people across the world, it is imperative that we adapt to the times and incorporate new methods of teaching, as education is vitally important to a person’s development and to the world as a whole.

I think these alternative methods of teaching by incorporating creative writing into our courses and personal lives can lead to better educational outcomes, as well as introducing new ways to learn about any given topic. Creative writing is something that anyone can do, everyone has some sort of imagination, which means there is no shortage in originality or scarcity of resources or topics. Not to mention, it can be used as a fun group activity on creating your own little corner or the Roman Empire. Just grab some friends and make it a group project. Now, if you’ll excuse me, Titus Caesetius Vedrix has a grand winery to run, as the droves of citizens in Roma are parched from their bathhouse time, and the senate calls for war.

References

Garrett, Frances. “Engaged Pedagogy through Role-Play in a Buddhist Studies Classroom.” Teaching Theology & Religion, vol. 21, no. 4, Oct. 2018, pp. 336–344, https://doi.org/10.1111/teth.12462.

Peterson, Janine Larmon, and Lea Graham. “Teaching Historical Analysis through Creative Writing Assignments.” College Teaching, vol. 63, no. 4, 2 Oct. 2015, pp. 153–161, https://doi.org/10.1080/87567555.2015.1052725. Accessed 27 Apr. 2019.

Brosseuk, Deb. “Mixing Pedagogies to Cultivate Joyful and Creative Young Writers in an Era of Standardised Writing Tests.” Early Childhood Education Journal, 31 July 2024, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-024-01726-5.