Reflection: Storytelling

Challenge and Selection

One of the oldest tools for education is known as storytelling, but not every teacher

is conscious about its influence. For almost a decade I’ve been working with teenagers who

aren’t motivated towards a subject or even attending to school. As a result, these

individuals can have social repercussions; suffer from severe stress, low self-esteem, eating

disorders, anxiety or even depression (among other issues).

In order to prevent these problems, I certainly believe that stories can have a great

impact in education, and through storytelling, teachers can be able to strength skills, and

support weaknesses improving the motivation of the learner. Therefore, I have decided to

create a program applying this tool, which is directed to high school students between 15

and 18 years old, in pursuance to achieve a higher and personalized education in this

context. Likewise, I wanted to be focused in one of the most common subjects that generate

difficulties and complications, known as physics.

Application

Since Design Thinking is considered a process, it is important to highlight that

before implementing storytelling, one needs to know and understand the audience. In this

case, I am dealing with two individuals: educators and learners. On first instance, there is a

common denominator of strict and though high school educators, whose only concern is

having good grades, but are not really worried in the student’s education. On the other

hand, learners are known because of their concentration problems, their lack of interest, and

disrespectful manners. However, one can conclude that most of this behavior is due to their

demotivation towards subjects that are no longer attractive for them.

Taking into account the previous information, I developed a program in which

storytelling is the tool and physics the subject. This method provides educators a new form

of teaching by implementing stories in their classes, which can be made by different

characters and settings. Additionally, students can also be involved, since they can create

exhibitions explaining the most tedious topics, using some pedagogical aids, such as ludic

activities, costumes, theatre, and more (e.g., a 15-year-old boy, presents a story based on

the Gravitational Theory, using an Isaac Newton’s marionette and an apple). As a result,

not only the teacher, but also the student becomes a storyteller.

Figure 1.

Prototype made for the previous example: student and a marionette.

Insight and Approach

This program was indeed an effective method, and this subject was no longer a strict

and tough thing to teach or learn. In addition, these students were anxious to acquire more

knowledge and were attentive to something they did not saw any sense or importance

before. This insight, undoubtedly incentive many other educators in order to allow a

healthier environment in their classes, and the perception of making the learners

storytellers, improved abilities such as memory and thinking, developed creativity and

imagination, and least but not last, increased the level of motivation and interest of the

student.

For this reason, I think that storytelling is one of the best tools for education, and for

future activities I will try to implement it in other subjects, such as mathematics or

chemistry. Finally, I also learned that it is a great option that Design Thinking provides to

bring students a new and creative way of learning, accomplish goals, and solving problems,

not only in their class, but in their daily life.

