You're struggling to engage students in the classroom. How can storytelling help you communicate effectively?

Humans are fond of stories, and the art of storytelling is a centuries-old technique to connect, socialize, and add meaning to the lessons we teach as teachers. Storytelling is a potential teaching tool to deliver a message or the flow of a chapter smoothly and engagingly. Students would be able to see through the idea not in the third person but in the first-person perspective. The storytelling is also helpful in retaining the power of attention and engagement throughout the session. The educator must have the art of storytelling, the skills to deliver the right, reliable, and validated data, as well as the skill to connect the day-to-day happenings with the academic topic one is teaching throughout.

Había una vez un profesor que luchaba por captar la atención de sus estudiantes. Un día, descubrió el poder del storytelling. En lugar de ense?ar solo hechos, comenzó a narrar historias. Las lecciones se transformaron en aventuras donde los conceptos difíciles se convirtieron en personajes y desafíos emocionantes. Los estudiantes, fascinados por las historias, empezaron a comprender y retener mejor la información. La clase se llenó de entusiasmo y curiosidad. Al usar storytelling, el profesor no solo ense?ó, sino que también inspiró a sus estudiantes, haciendo que el aprendizaje fuera más significativo y memorable. Y así, todos vivieron felices y aprendieron para siempre.

In my European Union class I teach the tales of the founding fathers and mothers. Each student need to pick one personality and inform themselves about his or her life and how their specific background contributed to European Union. By doing this students delve into real life tales and they try to understand what those pioneers inspired and motivated to challenge some of the biggest problems of their time!

Los cuentos pueden significar tardarse un poco más planeando la clase, pero realmente valen la pena, si los puedes escribir, genial, pero también vas a encontrar cuentos en la web o le puedes pedir ayuda a la inteligencia artificial para que te construya alguno a tu medida

In my teaching I use stories of pioneers, which were ahead of their time and changed the field of analysis significantly. How did those people feel back in time? What motivated them, what were their fears? Those people were once young too, and the task ahead was bigger than their life. I try to motivate students to think big and with courage! They are able to change the world the same way as the pioneers did!

La diversidad en la educación no debe ser entendida únicamente desde el color de piel o la orientación sexual del otro, sino que también debe contemplar las diferentes formas de aprender. Partir de las historias, la cultura, las creencias del otro es algo que en mi ejercicio profesoral es fundamental en la creación de un proceso educativo viable

In my European Union class we analyse the tales of the founding mothers and fathers of the European integration. The fascinating thing is that all those pioneers come from different countries of the EU and they all worked together on a common goal, a shared idea about the future of the EU. They had legimitate reasons to hate each other instead they choose courage and they worked on the foundations of the EU which delivered centuries of peaceful collaboration. It is a symbol of cultural bridges!

At university level there is a fine line between complexity and simplicity. There is also no way you can always put complex issues into a metaphor. As long as story telling is useful to deliver the content, one might use it. However, some content needs to be delivered complex. 30 minutes of a 90 minute session can be theoretical, and some part of it can also include story telling but a university class is also not a cinema!

En ocasiones la participación se puede ver afectada por la timidez de los estudiantes o también porque no todas las personas tienen el mismo interés, así, es clave que se generen espacios de interacción y de confianza dentro dle aula para que se pueda beneficiar esa participación y que adicionalmente se creen lazos entre los participantes.