Incorporating Storytelling in Education

One of the earliest forms of communication is storytelling. Many communities and civilisations have used storytelling as a tool to pass down knowledge and traditions from one generation to others. In many communities, storytelling is still used as a major tool to bequeath knowledge. Storytelling is defined as a linguistic practice that facilitates learning as it enables people to communicate their unique perspective with other people and also stimulates certain agreements and arguments among them.

Storytelling has the ability to capture the attention of the audience and also to elicit various positive and negative emotions in the audience. It also has the ability to provide various life lessons and values to the audience that goes beyond the traditional teaching methods. In education storytelling can be provided through spoken word, written narratives, or digital platforms.

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Before recorded history, the main method of education was storytelling. And this traditional storytelling tends to include ideas from mythology, folklore, different values of the communities, etc. These traditional storytelling methods tend to promote or facilitate learning in the community and the modern story techniques facilitate the same goal. Modern storytelling which is incorporated in education is also used as a medium full learning.

Contemporary storytelling in educational settings usually consists of multimedia and personal narratives which allows people to think critically, develop cultural awareness and get the most out of the learning experience. One of the biggest advantages of storytelling is that it does not focus on passive reception of information, rather it helps the audience or students to engage critically with the material, and allows them to think for themselves. It can also help the students to stimulate their imagination and creativity.

Integrating storytelling into classrooms is very important as it not only makes the lecture more engaging, but it also enhances the learning experience for the students. When you are asked to recall the last movie that you watched, the chances are that you can recall each and every detail of this movie. Whereas if you are asked to recall your last lecture, you might not be able to recall it in as much as detail as you could recall your favourite movie. One of the reasons is because it is devoid of the element of storytelling. Jerome Bruner, a cognitive psychologist, stated that you are much more likely (22 times) to remember content if it is presented in a story format.

Now you might be wondering why that might be, one of the reasons for this is that storytelling elicits certain emotions in us, which helps us to create visualisations and It increases empathy for the story’s characters.. When someone tells us a story which is emotionally charged our mirror neurons are activated. These mirror neurons allow the listener to mirror the storyteller experience. Hence the listeners could experience these emotions as if they experience them first hand. This allows you to not just passively absorb the information, but rather deeply and emotionally engage with the content, which facilitates learning on a much deeper level.

Usually in subjects such as science, history, maths or philosophy, students find it difficult to understand certain abstract theories. In these scenarios, storytelling can actually be very important as it can make abstract and complex concepts into more tangible and simplified content. Apart from this, it can also enhance your social and cognitive development. Storytelling allows students to learn vocabulary, sentence formation, narrative patterns, etc in a more joyful manner. And it also allows them to develop empathy and understanding for human emotions and relationships.

Benefits of Integrating Storytelling

A. Improving Memory and Attention

Storytelling fosters a deep connection between students and the content that they are learning. When students engage with certain abstract or dry concepts in the form of storytelling, they tend to engage in it more vividly, hence they tend to remember the content better. Emotional connectedness with the content helps you to foster empathy and also remember it better. For example, when a history teacher tells the student about certain movements throughout history, they might tell a story about a young activist, who faces a moral dilemma. Presenting this in the storytelling format allows the students to empathise with the struggles of the individuals.

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They are not merely remembering the dates and events with. They are also emotionally engaging with the content which leads to a deeper level of understanding and also helps in memory retention. According to LeBar and Cabeza (2006) storytelling tends to significantly enhance our memory. When a particular content is emotionally charged, it tends to increase the norepinephrine levels which enhances the brain’s attention towards that information.

This actually improves the student’s selective attention, directing their attention entirely towards the information by engaging their previous frontal cortex. Also, our amygdala sends the signals to our brain when it takes a certain emotionally sealant stimulus. This in turn enhances the hippocampus’s ability to consolidate these memories, hence, making them more vivid and easier to recall.

B. Critical Thinking and Problems Solving

One of the goals of education is to prompt students to critically think and also to be good problem solvers. Unfortunately, today’s education system focuses more on learning and remembering the facts rather than fostering critical thinking and problem solving. Stories often include characters and protagonists who face various moral dilemmas and challenges, and through this narrative perspective, the students are prompted to think about and analyse the situation.

By telling stories which include moral and ethical dilemmas, students get an opportunity to engage with their practical reasoning skills on a deeper level. Practising this allows students to engage in their higher order thinking and also improve their judgement skills, they are more equipped with navigating real life problems where critical thinking is essential.

C. Cultural Understanding and Empathy

Storytelling can help the students to be familiar with and also explore different cultural norms, values, and traditions of individuals from various different cultural backgrounds. Also, when students are introduced to different cultural norms and values and expectations through a narrative perspective they are more likely to empathise with it, thus fostering understanding and acceptance towards different cultures.

Students can also learn how to respect differences through these diverse stories and understand the lived experiences of people in different parts of the world. For example, stories from immigrant families and how they adapt to life in a new country, can be shared as it helps to foster empathy and also awareness of the complexity of cultural integration.

Integrating Storytelling in Different Subjects

A. Science and Mathematics

Scientific and mathematical concepts can be very abstract and complex. Integrating storytelling into the subjects can help students to visualise the real world application of these concepts and theories. This can also help them to make the content more relatable and engaging to them. For example, if the teacher wants to teach the students the concept of the area of a rectangle, they can start by telling a story such as a garden who wants to plant a flower bed in their backyard.

The flower bed is shaped like a rectangle and the gardener needs to calculate how many flower packets they would need. The flower bed is 5 m and 3 m wide. How many flower packets would they need to get? By relating this concept to gardening, these students can see the practical use of the formula and also try to visualise the concept of the area of the rectangle.

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B. History and Social Sciences

With the help of storytelling, historical events can be made more vivid and relatable for the students. They can deeply emerge themselves in the stories about historical figures and events, which facilitates a deeper understanding about the past and these events.

Diary of a young girl by Anne Frank is a pertinent example of how storytelling can actually help us to connect emotionally with historical events in making that period more relatable. It helps the students to understand a broader implication of the historical actions and decisions rather than just reading about the facts.

C. Literature and Language

Whenever you think about storytelling, words such as language or literature come to mind. It’s natural as storytelling is quite fundamental to literature. Storytelling can help students to improve their vocabulary in this context. The teachers can integrate new words or complex words into the characters of the story, hence helping the students understand and remember their meaning. This also helps them to be engaged and motivated throughout.

Conclusion

Integrating storytelling in education can be a very useful tool for enhancing the learning experience of students. It can help students relate to and become more interested in abstract, difficult ideas. It can also foster emotional connection, critical thinking and cultural understanding. It can enhance the educational experience as it not only allows students to just learn information on the superficial level but also to absorb information and engage with it on a very deeper level. Storytelling stimulates our imagination, enhances our memory retention and attention, it also promotes empathy. We can incorporate his ancient traditional storytelling into our contemporary classrooms in order to make the learning experience more enjoyable and also to make the most out of it.