The Impact of Storytelling on Learning
The benefits of storytelling in teaching and learning are well established — and digital tools can help make stories more interactive, boost engagement, and convey ideas more effectively. Here's how to make the most of technology and sidestep common mistakes in the use of storytelling for learning.
It is well understood and accepted that as humans, we enjoy hearing and often telling stories. Little children enjoy creative and magical stories and people of all ages enjoy hearing about real life happenings, sad or happy. Indeed, story books are still enjoyed, and new authors are published regularly. Yes, humans and stories are well connected. Many studies have been conducted over the years to explore the reasons why humans enjoy storytelling so much and there are various scientific conclusions in terms of psychological and hormonal responses to storytelling. Tom Corson-Knowles in an article for TCKPublishing writes:
"Stories are central to human cognition and communication. We engage with others through stories, and storytelling is a lot more than just a recitation of facts and events. As human beings, we are automatically drawn to stories because we see ourselves reflected in them."
While there is historic evidence that before we could read and write as humans, stories were what drew us together, explained ourselves, and informed our way ahead, stories remain a strong attraction for us all.
Storytelling and Learning
While we can relate on various levels to why we like stories and are drawn to them, how can storytelling actually benefit learning? Just as there are different types and styles of stories such as fairy tales, historic tales, real life happenings, specific interest stories, religious stories, biographies, and autobiographies for example, so too, how stories can benefit learning varies. In some learning environments, there are varied cultures and languages, there may be factual classes in which students are struggling to understand facts and scientific data, or there may be instances where instructors are trying to find ways to become more accessible and understandable to their students. In other words, just as the human experience is varied, so too are learning environments within which human students and instructors are trying to be understood, included or successful within the group. Vanessa Boris writes in a Harvard Business Blog:
"Telling stories is one of the most powerful means that leaders have to influence, teach, and inspire. What makes storytelling so effective for learning? For starters, storytelling forges connections among people, and between people and ideas. Stories convey the culture, history, and values that unite people."
Educators have realized for many years that learners vary in any class or learning group. Boris adds:
"In any group, roughly 40 percent will be predominantly visual learners who learn best from videos, diagrams, or illustrations. Another 40 percent will be auditory, learning best through lectures and discussions. The remaining 20 percent are kinesthetic learners, who learn best by doing, experiencing, or feeling. Storytelling has aspects that work for all three types."
That is because of how stories connect with our emotional and psychological thoughts and feelings, and through internal responses to pictures evoked through recognizable life experiences and mental pictures. Therefore, the highly involved aspects of stories engage more students and help them feel involved in their learning process. Instructors may use the phrase, "Let me explain it this way…" then use a story that includes the facts or data used within a course of study in a more recognizable setting that helps better explain the meaning of what is being learned. Additionally, asking students to share a story from their own lives or lived experience can help include students more directly into their own learning and provide them with an individual voice in the learning group.
Digital Storytelling
Although storytelling is not a new idea, using it as a serious learning tool has often been the case in more literary courses only. Or in classes of small children. The benefits of storytelling in learning are currently more widely scoped than that and now with digital tools, can become increasingly effective. Digital storytelling includes the same purposes and elements of regular stories but uses various digital tools to create and relay the stories. Interactive technology can immediately include the viewer to become a participant and even include their own information to the story. Research.com provides a lot of helpful information on digital storytelling, including a breakdown of the tools and media used to tell stories or present ideas: audio capture devices (e.g. microphones and voice recorders), image capture devices (such as digital cameras and scanners), computers (with multimedia capabilities and ample storage), and digital media software (for creating and editing image, video, and audio).