This summer provided a surprising new source of inspiration for the millions of 糖心动漫vlog and policymakers now heading back to school: Barbie.
In a world in which generative AI will be able to amass information faster than humans and in which essays can be crafted by computers, children must learn to think outside the box鈥攍iterally, in Barbie鈥檚 case鈥攏ot only about what is actual but also about what is possible. By embracing fantasy as an important tool in education, we help all children to create paths from the world as it is to the world as we鈥檇 like it to be.
Though not without problems, Barbie dolls have long been found to encourage the kind of open-ended, imaginative play that provides a rich context for learning. For example, preschool curricula that include active playful learning approaches in students鈥� academic and social development. Because play is , it can help students to engage with and focus on educational material.
And the recent 鈥淏arbie鈥� movie, which invites us to imagine Barbieland as a (very pink) world with plastic oceans and open-faced dream houses, might hold an important key to helping 糖心动漫vlog nurture children鈥檚 curiosity and creativity, from preschool through high school.
Schooling has traditionally rejected the inclusion of fantastical elements in favor of serious instruction鈥攁nd there are good reasons for doing that. But the 鈥淏arbie鈥� movie uses its fantasy setting to powerfully demonstrate a crucial function that unrealistic stories can play in learning: allowing us to see our own world from a different point of view. Only when we do that can we understand why things are the way that they are can we imagine the many ways that things could be, which enables us to make positive changes.
On one level, the 鈥淏arbie鈥� movie uses its fantasy setting to powerfully demonstrate the ills of a patriarchal society and the promises of a kinder, more matriarchal one. But the movie also demonstrates the role that fantasy can play in closing the gap between what is real and what is imagined. With respect to classroom learning, our research shows that exposing children to fantasy stories like this one has a wealth of educational benefits.
For example, children in learned new vocabulary words better when they heard those words in books with fantasy themes (like dragons) rather than with realistic themes (like farming). Work from our labs and others finds that children learn , , , and better from stories that contain fantastical elements (like a hamster that can walk through the walls of its tank) than from wholly realistic stories.
What is the reason for this ? Fantasy might be a particularly good educational tool because it encourages children to attend more closely to the learning context, motivating them to go beyond business as usual in their solutions to problems in math, literacy, and other subjects. In support of this argument, suggests that including fantasy elements in an educational story is more effective if these elements are linked to the plot of the story.
Another good example is from the Concord Consortium, which teaches the principles of genetic inheritance to middle and high schoolers using virtual dragons.
Interestingly, this effect may have its roots early in development: found that infants who saw a toy car perform an impossible action (rolling down a hill and appearing to roll through a solid barrier) learned new information about the car better than infants who saw it perform an ordinary action (rolling down the hill and stopping at the barrier).
So what鈥檚 the big lesson that schools can take from 鈥淏arbie鈥�? That fantasy offers an important way to nurture learning and problem-solving skills. Educators should feel free to lean into the fun of exploring fantastical worlds to capture and sustain students鈥� attention and to highlight important aspects of their lessons.
