From grade school to college, Main street to Wall street, people of all ages are required to learn for their education and careers. But no matter how old we are, learning can be a difficult process. Storytelling can simplify that process, offering learners a clear path to professional and personal growth.
The Influence of Storytelling on Learning
For as long as human beings have been on this planet, we’ve been telling each other stories. Before we had a solid handle on the language, we drew primitive drawings on cave walls. Once we developed syntax and semantics, we were off to the races creating compelling narratives to share and understand our experiences.
That’s what storytelling is and what stories have always been for us – a means to explore the world and learn our place in it. For our early ancestors, stories were a powerful evolutionary tool to clearly understand and define what was safe and what wasn’t. Simply put, learning through stories kept us alive.
While we no longer need to use stories to warn of hungry saber tooth tigers approaching, we can still use them effectively to understand limitless topics on a deeper level.
Here are just some of the benefits of storytelling in learning:
Increased Engagement and Motivation
When information is shared with us through narrative, we are far more likely to absorb and relate to the message. This keeps us engaged from beginning to end and drives us to action. As examples, consider how powerful narratives from Shakespeare, ancient mythology, and the bible have been in shaping our lives and teaching us how to relate to one another. Stories are powerful!
Enhanced Critical Thinking Skills
Critical thinking is important for success in all facets of life from solving problems at work to making the right decisions for our family. Stories have a way of simplifying complex situations and characters, allowing learners to recognize situations and events and explore them for deeper meaning and context. This process helps learners think for themselves; to take the facts and questions, analyze, and evaluate them, and consider multiple perspectives.
Developing Empathy
For thousands of years, people have been sharing parables, fables, and legends to teach life lessons. And many of those lessons have been about how we should be in the world and treat one another.
Facts and data can help us gain knowledge but they cannot develop empathy. That requires stories, which help us see life events from another person’s point of view. Storytelling in education helps us identify others’ emotions and personally relate to them. This connects us to one another on a deep level, creating genuine care and compassion.
Empathy is not only necessary in our personal lives but also in our professional lives. Leaders that can show empathy gain trust and build connections with team members, motivating everyone toward a common goal.
Language Acquisition
Traditionally language has been taught via textbooks and computer programs. But what if that isn’t the best way to learn languages? After all, when we are young, we are told stories in our native language. This is how we were first exposed to language and how we learned how to speak and think!
Stories help us retain information better and longer. Learners can easily remember more vocabulary because there is a desire to understand what is happening to the characters in the story.
And what about grammar? That can be incredibly difficult to learn if you are simply trying to memorize specific rules. But by learning through stories, you simply recognize how grammar is properly used because you hear it used correctly over and over.
The Techniques of Storytelling in Learning
Just as there are a variety of learners, there are also a variety of techniques for storytelling in learning. Each technique has its own benefits and purposes and can be used to help facilitate ease of learning. Here are a handful of the most common storytelling techniques:
Narrative Storytelling
Perhaps the most commonly recognized storytelling technique, narrative storytelling has a beginning, middle, and end and characters often describe the events from their point of view. Narrative stories can be fiction or nonfiction.
Powerful narratives are the ones that illustrate how a character overcame a challenge or found a solution to his problem. In the beginning, the character’s problem and goal are established. In the middle of the story, the character battles obstacles as he presses on toward his goal/solution. And at the end of the story, the hero is triumphant. Narrative stories are powerful tools for learning as well as for leading teams and marketing products and services.
Case Studies
Case studies are another example of storytelling that invite the learners to analyze and solve a dilemma. Case studies are unique in that they are a form of research method but one with a purpose. By delving into a complex scenario, the learner develops deeper knowledge of a specific topic.
Case-based learning is commonly used by universities and enterprises to help students and staff develop problem-solving skills. Case studies are often the launchpad to deep conversations that bring about profound understanding.
Role Playing
Role-playing involves learners taking on the role of a character in a story and acting out specific scenarios. Role-playing is very useful for developing interpersonal skills as well as empathy.
What makes role-playing so powerful is that the learner is not simply listening to the story but taking part in it. They experience firsthand the emotions of the character. This, in turn, invites them to examine their own feelings toward others and their circumstances.
Storyboarding
Storyboarding involves creating a visual representation of a story, typically in the form of a series of sketches or drawings. Storyboarding can be used in subjects such as art, design, filmmaking, and other fields to help learners visualize complex concepts.
Why is storyboarding such a powerful learning tool? Science shows us that human beings are highly visual. Throughout our evolution, we depended on visual cues for survival. As we have become increasingly dependent on interacting with visual cues, our brains have evolved to leverage visual information in increasingly effective ways.
Digital Storytelling
Digital storytelling involves using digital tools such as videos, podcasts, social media, or multimedia to create and share stories. Digital storytelling can be used in a range of subjects and can be especially useful in developing digital literacy skills. Digital storytelling has been embraced by teachers, business executives, HR staff, and marketing gurus to drive action through meaningful narratives. In an age where most people have a digital screen in front of their faces 12+ hours a day, digital stories are often the best way to get in front of your target audience.
3 Awesome Examples of Storytelling in Education
What are some of the ways today’s educators and other leaders are using storytelling to help learners develop deep understanding? We’ve found 3 wonderful examples of how stories are being used to make learning fun and effective:
Stanford’s History Education Group’s “Reading Like a Historian”
In this curriculum, teachers use letters, diaries, and speeches to teach students how to analyze historical evidence and develop critical thinking skills. Each lesson centers around one specific historical question and learners are invited to investigate the question through reading strategies such as corroborating, contextualizing, and sourcing. While memorizing historical facts has, historically, bored students to tears, this curriculum energizes students and motivates them to learn.
The Harvard Business School Case Method
The Harvard Business School case method involves the use of case studies to teach business concepts and strategies to engage students in active learning and problem-solving. Students discuss and dissect real-life situations that many business executives have faced. Students work with their peers to analyze and solve problems.
This case-study method is powerful for learning because it combines case-study learning with role-playing. Students are placed in the role of a chief decision maker, encouraged to think fast on their feet to make critical decisions in real-time.
Choose Your Own Adventure Learning
Choose Your Own Adventure formats allow learners to make choices that impact the outcome of a story, immersing them in the narrative and engaging them in the learning process, which ultimately promotes critical thinking. This type of learning is also called “adaptive learning,” and because it requires the learner to participate, it increases the likelihood that he or he will retain the knowledge they acquire. In 2018, researchers at West Virginia University published the results of a 4-year study that looked at the effects of an adaptive online homework system.
Compared to the traditional online system, the adaptive learning model helped failing students receive a higher final letter grade. In addition, 69% of students reported positive changes in study habits.
Adaptive learning can facilitate good outcomes in both an academic and business setting.
Conclusion
Storytelling in learning is a powerful strategy for educators and business leaders. Stories can be used to teach, engage, influence, and inspire. Through stories, connections are made between people and between people and ideas. Storytelling in learning invites learners to think for themselves, have empathy for others, and dive deep into an almost limitless array of topics.
Are you ready to become the next great storyteller?
