Magic and communicative competencies in the educational context. A systematic review

Abstract

Illusionism and magic tricks can be used as pedagogical strategies to promote social, personal, and cognitive skills, but the effects of magic on the development of communication skills in the educational field continue to be explored, which is why this study seeks to investigate How the use of magic tricks in classrooms can contribute to strengthening communicative interactions between the teacher and students. For this purpose, through a systematic review of the literature, 28 documents obtained from the Scopus and ProQuest databases, written on any date in English, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish, were analyzed, discarding those of doubtful scientific credibility or those that did not contribute to answer the research question. The results reveal the symbolic power of acts of magic, which can become acts of language and, consequently, assume a pragmatic, cognitive and strictly communicational function, which facilitates the creation of a climate of trust and cooperation in the classroom and engages students both cognitively and emotionally. It is also inferred that the truly important aspect underlying the use of magic tricks in the classroom is the communicative impact that gravitates around them. The article ends by showing suggestions for future research aimed at deepening knowledge of this object of study.