51社区

In development and adoption of innovative teaching methods, it is important to create a relationship between instructor and student that supports intellectual risk. This comfort allows students to understand difficult subject matter and know it鈥檚 okay to make mistakes, creating an opportunity for deeper learning. One way to do this is to use storytelling in the classroom.

Storytelling allows teachers to enter the lives of students as they鈥檙e forming a sense of self- identity. It promotes a sense of community and belonging, enables relationship networking, allows participants to engage in sense-making, helps develop empathy and self-confidence, and facilitates learning (Zepeda, 2014).

Research shows that when individuals鈥� needs are being met and they feel a sense of security and trust, their environment is more conducive to academic development (Zepeda, 2014). In order to create a classroom environment that fosters this social growth and emotional development, curriculum design that includes elements of narrative offers obvious appeal.

One individual at 51社区 who is particularly impactful through her use of storytelling in the classroom is Dr. Lynn Harter, professor in the School of Communication Studies and co-director of the Barbara Geralds Institute for Storytelling and Social Impact. 鈥淚 typically start out my classes by talking to students about a paradox of safety and discomfort that I view as inherently a part of the classroom experience,鈥� Harter said. 鈥淚 view my job as creating a safe environment that allows students to feel uncomfortable.鈥� Harter holds herself accountable for not only creating this environment, but also for students to grow while feeling that discomfort.

While she makes sure to create a structure that introduces students to new materials and ideas, she emphasizes the importance for faculty to let go sometimes. 鈥淚n my finest moments as a teacher, and what I鈥檝e witnessed from other phenomenal teachers, is that simultaneous capacity to surrender,鈥� she said, 鈥渁nd to be present enough to veer off the predicted path and to know that the detour can be more meaningful than the planned route.鈥�

鈥淭hinking of classrooms as both structured and improvisational, and having a tolerance to stand amidst the thundering intersection of those experiences,鈥� Harter said, 鈥渟tudents might not appreciate it at the time, but I think that they come to.鈥�

For example, when students take part in service learning outside the bounds of a typical classroom, they experience vulnerability and uncertainty. 鈥淎s a teacher, I have a capacity to be present with that鈥攖o be comfortable so that students know this is difficult and messy, it鈥檚 okay to make mistakes, and we鈥檙e going to create a structure and organize and prepare, but then we鈥檙e going to surrender to the uncertainties that unfold when you鈥檙e learning in a community,鈥� Harter said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a beautiful process. Is it a scary process? Is it tricky? Is it messy? Yes. But it鈥檚 worth it for me as a professor, and I think it鈥檚 worth it for students.鈥�

How Storytelling Fosters Learning

Individuals rely on storytelling when making sense of expectations gone awry. Stories are shaped by individuals鈥� lived experiences and serve as a way to help them make sense out of the world and their place in it. Through careful watching and listening, teachers can learn about their students鈥� lives outside the classroom to help inform their day-to-day teaching. Studies have even found that storytelling is 鈥渟ignificantly more effective in facilitating recall of prose content than is television鈥� (George & Schaer, 1986).

In regards to storytelling and pedagogy, teachers can create opportunities for students to enter into the stories of other people; this may happen through case studies or simulations, where the goal of that experience is to invite students into the challenges of another person. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what the heart of the case study method is about,鈥� Harter said.

One way storytelling fosters learning among students is through entering into a storied experience of another set of characters. 鈥淚 view that as powerful, whether that鈥檚 in an essay form or a documentary or feature film,鈥� Harter said. 鈥淲hen you introduce and invite students into that narrative, it brings to life or personalizes otherwise distant and abstract theoretical ideas.鈥�

Learners have been found to retain more information when it is presented in a narrative style, suggesting advantages for a narrative/storytelling practice of instructional communication (Glonek & King, 2014). Additionally, Parker Palmer, author of The Courage to Teach, argues that transformative learning fundamentally happens at the intersection of the personal and the disciplinary, and at the intersection of the personal and the public.

Harter echoes Palmers thoughts in that storytelling is a way into the personal. 鈥淭heory is best realized by students when it moves from the abstract to the lived, when it鈥檚 answerable to life,鈥� Harter said. 鈥淚鈥檝e found that happens in and through the storytelling process.鈥�

Storytelling as a Teaching Strategy

The human need to communicate personal experiences makes storytelling a natural way to design lessons. Faculty can make conversational storytelling a regular feature of their classes to increase students鈥� interest, empathy, trust, and sense of connection. Robert Jones (2012) recommends classroom stories should focus on one simple event that gave rise to an emotional reaction (e.g., pleasure, surprise, fear, anger).

鈥淥ne of the best ways I communicate with students and learn with them is in and through my own experiences,鈥� Harter said. She finds great value in retelling instances of 鈥渢his really worked well鈥� or 鈥渓et me tell you about a story when I made a mistake and what I learned from that.鈥� 鈥淚t鈥檚 in and through those lived experiences that I think I鈥檓 at my best in helping to mentor other people who are developing their own teaching philosophies and their own understanding of what it is that they do as educators,鈥� Harter said.

鈥淥ne major takeaway for faculty is that they shouldn鈥檛 worry about what story to incorporate,鈥� said Hope Moore, instructional designer in the Office of Instructional Innovation. Moore鈥檚 work has focused on storytelling/narrative in course design and its effects on learning. She emphasizes that classroom stories don鈥檛 necessarily need elaborate details or fully fleshed-out characters; anecdotes, examples, and explanations of where students might encounter topics are a great way to use smaller stories in classrooms.

Moore emphasized that it's more important to have the elements of storytelling (character development to increase empathy, obtainable goals to work toward, building and releasing tension, rests between tasks, a slow buildup to a climax, a resolution that ties everything together, etc.) than what story is told.

In addition to being a professor and scholar, Harter is a filmmaker. She is particularly known for , a documentary she co-produced on pediatric cancer care. One way Harter creates a storytelling experience for her students is by inviting them to go on film shoots with her.

鈥淚f I鈥檓 teaching an interviewing class, I want them to develop an interview protocol for a conversation that they might facilitate,鈥� she said. Narrative-based pedagogies are incredibly powerful at fostering learning in a transformative way, such as entering into the stories of others, listening to the stories of peers, and creating a story together through problem-based or community learning. Harter has also found that if she can integrate concrete experiences into a course, students come alive and see the value of what they鈥檙e studying.

Storytelling has value in online courses, too. Moore mentioned how an instructor can incorporate narrative in a digital environment. 鈥淥nline tools such as VoiceThread and bulletin boards provide spaces where students and faculty can share stories that not only support or provide another view of the course content, but also increase empathy between classmates,鈥� Moore said, 鈥渨hich is sometimes lost when moving to an online environment.鈥�

Storytelling is applicable across contexts, from communication to economics to French. 鈥淭he learning experience has a role for narrative sense-making, irrespective of discipline,鈥� Harter said. 鈥淭here is a role for making sense of disciplinary traditions in the form of case studies, in the form of 鈥榟ow does this economic principle apply to rising gas prices that are connected to what鈥檚 going on in the Middle East?鈥� How can we think about those principles from a concrete, lived, storied standpoint? That鈥檚 what鈥檚 powerful.鈥�