Storytelling

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Storytelling has come into use in designing human-computer interactions and in education and training as a research tool to access memories on experience that can then be used in reflective practices.

See also Narrative.

Stories in problem solving

Instructional design models as varied as methodologies such as Merrill's First principles of instruction, pedagogic strategies like Constructivism, Socio-constructivism, Situated learning and pedagogical scenarios involving microworlds all rely use storytelling to create a problem-solving context. Stories and storytelling are useful pedagogical tools for problem-based and case-based learning.

Jonassen and Hernandez-Serrano (2002) compiled a list of functions that have been attributed to stories. Among the most relevant in education are the ways in which telling stories:

• permit the negotiation of meaning and allow learners to perceive themselves in the place of another
• build, preserve, and alter memory
• allow reflection on past actions and intentions so as to form and inform future actions
• facilitate the building of arguments
• give vicarious experience and models to emulate or reject
• mediate the expression of identity within a community (see Community of practice)
• permits learners to explore a particular and situated experience from a specific perspective

Past experience and expertise is related by practitioners through stories rather than principles and stories are recalled when searching for solutions to specific problems. They can also substitute real experience giving learners possible options to resolve problems they have never personally encountered.

Stories in reflective practice

Stories and anecdotes have been used to engage students in reflection. (McGill, 2000) genre of anecdote is effective because of its capacity to :

1. force the writer to distill the essence of the event through writing and re-writing to adhere to the strict form of the genre (McGill, 2000)
2. the process provides opportunity for analysis, revelation of embedded stories, bringing to light and formulation of understandings previously unclear.
3. anecdotes are situated in context and detail, providing both examples and the building of a shared repertoire to use in the examination of one's belief systems and their evolution. See Community of practice.

Furthermore, anecdotes can be shared and written collaboratively to encourage critical thinking.

See Role of narrative in learning.

Storytelling in instructional design

Erickson points out that stories and anecdotes can be used to “reveal a users-eye view of the landscape, and, provide an extremely effective way for getting people--both users and designers--involved and talking with one another.”

Jonassen and Hernandez-Serrano (2002) consider the use of stories in case-based reasoning through their incorporation in the learning environment within a 'case-based library' with an indexing designed to reflect the process involved in the interpretation and solution of a problem.

References

• Erickson, T. (1999). Design as Storytelling. [1]
• Jonassen, D., Hernandez-Serrano, J. (2002). Case-Based Reasoning and Instructional Design: Using Stories to Support Problem Solving. ETR&D, Vol. 50, No.2, pp.65-77
• McGill, M. (2000) A Sting in the Tale: Use of Anecdote as a Research Tool. paper presented at AARE 2000 Conference [2]