Storytelling Methods in Education – Learn Everything

Language is a complex psychological process that one cannot evaluate and develop separately from thinking or perception. The educational material, presented as a beautiful, fascinating story, promotes the development of personal qualities, demonstrates the uniqueness of each child’s imagination, and allows you to be active and creative. As modern children spend a lot of time online, honest communication becomes an art that needs to be taught. The method of “storytelling” is perfect for this.

Storytelling (translated from English, story means story, and telling means to tell; therefore, storytelling is storytelling) is the art of captivating storytelling and transmitting the necessary information to influence the listener’s emotional, motivational, and cognitive spheres. This technique was developed and successfully tested on personal experience by David Armstrong, Chairman of Armstrong International. This technique can develop presentation skills, fast essay writing skills, and your ability to tell exciting stories, even at parties or family gatherings. 

In creating storytelling, David Armstrong took into account a well-known psychological factor: stories are much easier to perceive and more exciting and enjoyable than rules or directives. After a person has listened to you, he begins to trust you. It becomes much easier for you to convince them of something and motivate them.

Teachers and psychologists worldwide are interested in storytelling because explaining the material in the form of storytelling develops students’ imagination and logic and raises the level of cultural education. You can apply storytelling anywhere and anytime. Stories allow you to talk about how decisions are made and relationships are built. Through exchanging stories and building emotional connections, students and teachers create the right and better relationships.

Why is storytelling an effective method of teaching children?

Children like to listen to stories more than reports, descriptions, or definitions because they are easier to perceive (not only the rational side of information perception is involved, but also the imaginative one). Thus, the principle of accessibility of learning is implemented. There is a hero in the story who changes. These changes occur in struggle, hard work, performing complex tasks, etc.

The story is dynamic. Modern children with clip thinking will perceive the story better than text of another kind. The story affects the child’s feelings, and this increases the level of concentration. Therefore, everyone listens carefully to the educational material, perceives it, and can quickly reproduce it. The truth is also in the form of a story. Thus, the principle of the strength of knowledge and emotional learning is realized.

Using this technique makes it possible to describe your actions and feelings, analyze your efforts, evaluate the consequences and draw conclusions for the future. Storytelling is successfully used in business to promote brands and products. In 2006, this technology was recognized as the business idea of the year.

With the help of storytelling, you can get two significant results:

Revitalizing the atmosphere in the classroom, relieving tension, and creating a relaxed atmosphere; are one of the easiest and fastest ways to establish contact between teachers and students, attracting and retaining their attention.

The creation of stories is facilitated by: a demonstration of video materials with the sound turned off; independent selection of film fragments for storytelling in the classroom; demonstration of a familiar film, with the continuation and explanation of the student; independent comparison of the textbook material with the content of the film and expressing their point of view; independent writing of creative work on video material, etc.

Types of storytelling:

• Cultural – tells about values, morality, and beliefs;
• Social – the story of people about each other (you can tell children stories from the lives of famous people, which can be an example for them to build their lives);
• Myths and legends – they reflect the culture and remind us what to avoid in life to be happy;
• Jump story – everyone loves to listen to stories about mystical creatures when the unexpected ending makes you jump on the chair from fear; such reports help to overcome your fears;
• Family – family legends preserve the history of our families; these stories are passed from generation to generation and have an instructive character;
• Friendly – these stories bring friends together as they recall specific experiences they have had together;
• Personal – personal stories tell about their own experiences and feelings. This is an essential type of storytelling because such reports help you understand yourself and develop.

Storytelling is an excellent way to motivate and persuade students, inspiring them to take the initiative in the learning process.

For example, you can tell and analyze the history of the influence of the work of the French mathematician, physicist, philosopher, and theorist of science Jules Henri Poincaré’s “Science and Hypothesis,” which he published in 1902, on Einstein and Picasso. It turns out that the universal mathematician, a man who could embrace all the mathematical results of his time, inspired A. Einstein to create the theory of relativity and P. Picasso to create a painting and start a new trend in art – cubism.

Stories are a tool for developing friendly relations in a class or group and effectively conveying the content of a task or project to others.

Storytelling is creative storytelling. Unlike the actual story (retelling, description from memory), which is based on the work of perception, memory, and reproductive imagination, creative stories are based on creative imagination. The obligatory components of such a story should be new images, situations, and actions the child creates independently. At the same time, students use their experience and knowledge but combine them in a new way.

The story depends on the audience for which it is intended. Several fundamental principles in any account distinguish it from a simple statement of facts: the presence of a character, the company of intrigue, and the presence of a plot.

The components of a story are the hero, plot, theme, and idea. The hero of the report can be an object, person, phenomenon, fictional creature, nature, or symbol. The story should contain an exposition, a beginning, a development of actions, a climax, and a resolution.

Examples of educational stories:

• A historical story: how ancient artists painted their caves with paints made of berries, coal, and clay; how geometry appeared; how the first engine was invented; where the idea of pruning trees came from; the history of coordinate development (from a point and one-dimensional space to multidimensionality). You can enrich this story with historical information about Euclid, René Descartes, and Pierre Fermat, A. Einstein.
• A story about a specific process: for example, the method of measuring areas in Ancient Egypt or; the creation of mosaics.

The ability to tell instructive stories from history, from the lives of prominent scientists and artists, the history of discoveries in mathematics, physics, biology, and chemistry – all this should become not only a means of activating students’ attention in the classroom but also an effective tool for conveying and consolidating the meanings in the minds of students.

The art of storytelling is one of the most natural and, at the same time, the most effective ways to give the learning process an exceptional quality.