The Long & Short of Instructional Storytelling

If you travel by a day-train in the suburbs of Delhi, you could learn a lot about the condition of Indian politics, the Indian cricket team, the most current series of murders…and everything else happening in our dear country. In the day-train, you need not worry about being bored while this learning is transferred. You will in all probability enjoy the entire session as different individuals provide you different perspectives on the same topic, in their own individual styles. Some would punctuate their sentences with colorful but highly illustrative expletives, while others would achieve effectiveness by adding fantastical twists to the scenarios under discussion. The fact remains that when you reach your destination, you would be feeling considerably more knowledgeable and entertained…and thus, light-hearted and happier!

The newspaper would give you the same news and in more detail – yet it may fail to make similar impact on your mind. What is it that makes the day-train experience considerably more enjoyable? The answer is simple…and you already know it. The day-train experience was meant to entertain – education was a by-product. Humans prefer to be entertained. Though, the main purpose of instructional content development is to educate or to train; yet we need to ensure that entertainment as an essential by-product.

Storytelling is probably one of the oldest instructional devices known to humankind; its beginning can be traced to our cave-dwelling ancestors and its future shall remain entwined with the future of our kind. Storytelling is probably one of most handy devices to create a suspension-of-disbelief in the listener’s mind. Yet it isn’t easy to use this device. Some excellent writers are poor storytellers for good command over language is just one of the skills needed to tell stories. Then what are those other skills that can make us write or tell great stories? Let us attempt to first list the characteristics of a good story, through which we will derive the characteristics (or the skills) of a good storyteller.

If I were to define the term story, I would define it as – A narration of an interesting sequence of events. Another definition that I found useful is:

“A retelling of events that led to an outcome which is of value to certain audiences.”
( Source - http://www.msdnaa.net/curriculum/glossary.aspx)

None of these definitions however tell us anything about what makes a good story. In other words they do not tell us anything about the elements of a good story. Our objective is to determine what makes a good story and then outline the relationship between instruction and storytelling (if there is one.)

Structurally, a story comprises the following five elements:

• The Theme
• The Plot
• The Character(s)
• The Setting
• The Conflict

These five elements are connected with one-another through narration, which may be implemented through a character or through someone “outside” the story.

Let us look at each of these elements from the perspective of the audience. The theme of a story is the author’s philosophy, which is reflected throughout the story. It is something that the audience “feels” through the plot and also through the conflict that the author creates in the story. The plot is a cause-effect sequence, which is effected through the characters in the story, which are the persons (or animals, even spirits etc.) who do the actions and help the plot develop. The setting is simply the place and times (at times the situation – political, economic, social etc.) in which the characters and the events are placed.

With this basic information about the structure of stories, we can accomplish great things in instructional design. We all know that instructional storytelling is primarily geared towards making learning happen – and because learning can take place only if the learner is interested in the process, we try different ways and means to arrest the attention of the learner. When we begin to use the different elements of storytelling and weave the content (facts, processes, concepts) into the warp and weft of these elements, we achieve what can be called “instructional storytelling”.

Let us try to review how a story manages to make a cognitive impression deeper than pure download of content. A story harnesses the reader’s attention through its characters and their conflicts that develop into a plot. It builds “an unfulfilled desire” into the reader’s mind – a desire to know the outcome of these conflicts. As the characters are rounded off to make them realistic and more convincing, the reader also begins to identify himself or herself with one or more of the characters, and thus begins to vicariously experience the thrills of the plot.

Then, the plot rises to reach a climax – the point at which the sequence of conflicts mounts to a point where resolution of the conflicts becomes a possibility; when the reader turns the pages of books with fingers that tingle with excitement. The climax then rapidly transforms into resolution. Because the learner “experiences” the entire plot, the retention is excellent. I agree that some stories are less memorable than others yet most stories are more interesting and readable than “learning content”!

We can use the structural mechanics of story writing to sustain the learner’s interest in our courses. It is true that most of our stories will fall short of the standards set by O. Henry, Somerset Maugham, JK Rowling, Dan Brown, or John Grisham – but then they would probably set standards for learning content. All we need to do is – carefully map the content type to the structure of a good story and fill in the details.

Recently, an IDCWC participant who works as a trainer in a training company stated that from a trainer’s angle a story should be crisp and short! In all honesty, I cannot aver. A story is a story – you need to build a suspension of disbelief; you need to provide enough details about the setting, about the character, and about the conflicts to make the story real! Yet, everything in the story should lead the learner to the discovery of the concept, or the fact, or the procedure – for that is the problem that the story seeks to present and then resolve.

I use the technique of storytelling in the courses that I develop and in the training programs that I design or conduct. It does mean a lot of work, as instructional storytelling is applied creativity. It is easy to be creative when you don’t have to achieve a pre-defined goal; but when you have a very specific objective to achieve, a very real competency to build in the learner; it isn’t easy. Still, the satisfaction derived from knowing that the learner learned the content, is an excellent reward for the effort.

At the end, I would like to state that Instructional Storytelling is a craft more than an art (though fictional storytelling may be more of an art than craft.) It is possible to learn how we can write a relevant, effective, and interesting story for any kind of content. It is possible to learn the process of instructional story writing and storytelling…and instructional storytelling can make your content interesting and effective instead of dry and boring!

If you would like to know more about it…click http://www.vibrantwavelength.com/instructionalstorytelling_training.htm :)

Author: Shafali R. Anand