Storytelling in 3D: interrogating engagement with oral storytelling in the school classroom

This paper outlines the researcher-devised QUEST method to clarify and identify children's engagement with oral storytelling. In a series of research challenges and solution-seeking processes, the storyteller worked with traditional storytelling approaches and also with contemporary digital recordings and analysis software to follow students' responses to storytelling experiences. As a result of deep analysis that looked beyond the raw data and questioned why certain responses occurred, a set of Indicators of Engagement were devised. Twenty-five indicators were identified that were further broken down in clusters of common types of engagement behaviors. These indicators can be applied to future studies, with both children and adults that investigate the intriguing phenomenon of storytelling.