|
"Storytelling and
Interactive Education" by Dr Eric
Miller, August 2017 Telling stories to children has long been recognised
as a way to give them moral education.
In recent years, many people have also realised that stories and
storytelling can be used to teach any subject -- by giving vivid examples of
abstract ideas and processes; by adding human interest and drama to dry and
distant events, dates, and places; etc. It has also become clear that coaching young
people to tell stories is beneficial to the young people. Telling a story involves organising one's
thoughts, being able to gracefully adjust to ever-changing conditions, and
communicating inter-personally effectively.
Storytelling is a form of public speaking which may also at times
involve acting (when one speaks and moves as characters). I have realised that to me, storytelling, and
activities around storytelling, are means to more general goals, namely, to
help young people to develop and improve their thinking, feeling, and
communication processes. Thus, my vision and mission for storytelling
have become: 1) Storytelling, and activities around storytelling, can facilitate the development
and expression of one's self and
"voice." 2) Through storytelling, and activities around storytelling, each person can
speak and be heard -- this makes for a healthy society. In the field of education, it is often said
that the goal is to teach young people how
to think, not what to think. However, in practice, this ideal is often
not achieved or even seriously attempted. Education systems today are largely about
teaching young people to "copy-and-paste" -- copy what the
Instructor says, copy from the textbook, copy from a wiki page, etc. Absorbing material from expert sources is
an important step, but it is only a beginning of a thorough education
process. Young people should also be taught *** To think for themselves (from within themselves), *** To nurture and follow their own sense of
curiosity, *** To generate their own questions, state
their own preliminary answers (their hypotheses), and gather and present
evidence to support these answers. *** To come up with their own ideas and
projects. *** To communicate articulately and clearly. Young people should be filled with the
excitement of exploring and sharing their perceptions of the natural world,
history, ideas, and so on. For this to
occur, the young people must be given more responsibility and autonomy
(always under the supervision of an Instructor). When young people find schoolwork boring, it
is often because the schoolwork does not allow them to explore the world
based on their own approaches, and does not ask them to find or express
themselves. Education should also produce young people *** Who have high levels of emotional intelligence, as well
as other types of intelligence. *** Who know themselves to a good degree, and are aware of
their own strengths and weaknesses. *** Who are aware of their emotions, can monitor their
emotions, and can take the necessary internal steps of thinking and feeling
in order to avoid letting their emotions get the best of them, even in challenging
situations. These matters involve maturity. Storytelling involves a combination of the
Humanities, and as such can help in all of the above-mentioned areas. In the storytelling workshops I lead, part of
the training involves encouraging the storytellers (who are at least 6 years
old) to, after stories are told, lead discussions about the stories and the
way they have been told. Trainees are
prepared to in turn train their future
trainees to also lead discussions about stories and the way the stories were
told. Some of the questions I encourage storytellers
to ask -- of their listeners, and of themselves -- as they lead discussions
about the stories they have just told, are: 1) Tell one specific thing -- an image, an
action by a character, etc -- you liked about the story, or about the
way the story was told. 2) Tell one thing you found unsatisfying
about the story, or about the way the story was told. Might you like to modify the story in any
other way? Might you like to add
another episode? Might you have any
possible suggestions for improvement regarding the way the story was told? 3) Might the story remind you of some other
story (including possibly of a personal experience)? 4) Does the story seem
to teach any lessons? If yes, please
explain. This kind of discussion does not just involve
creativity and imagination. It also
involves logical, investigative, and critical thinking ("critical"
not in the sense of being negative about anything, but rather in the sense of
thinking about things from every conceivable angle). An Instructor telling a long story to a room
full of students is not the answer.
What is called for are Interactive,
activity-based, and small-group methods of teaching-and-learning. These methods are used with young children
(especially in Montessori and Waldorf schools), and are also often used in
Business Training. But for teaching
people who are approximately 8 to 21 years old (4th standard through
College), the primary teaching method remains lecture. A method of teaching interactively is: 1) The Instructor
introduces a subject. (5-10
minutes.) 2) The students go
into groups of 2 to discuss or debate some element of what was presented, or
to tell stories to each other relating to what was presented. Or, the students work individually
(writing, drawing, etc). (10-20
minutes). 3) The Instructor
leads a discussion with the entire group, with some students sharing what
occurred in their groups of 2. (10-20 minutes). By this method, most of the new material that
needs to be absorbed is absorbed by the students before class (via reading,
and watching and listening to recordings).
Some students might prepare better than others -- the ones who do not
prepare well could receive lower grades. Here the Instructor's mission is to place the
various pieces of knowledge in social and historical context, to help
students *** get an overview of the field, *** find meaning in the whole, *** and maintain perspective -- not lose sight
of the forest due to one's field of vision being dominated by large trees. This kind of interactive method could be used
to teach about stories and storytelling, or any other subject. Stories and storytelling could be used in
this method. The combination of
stories and storytelling, and interactive education methods can make
teaching-and-learning both rigorous and joyful.
|