Storytelling

I often tells stories of my experiences – good and bad – students do appreciate knowing you are a real person. As a VET teacher I have many experiences from previous employment that add to content delivery.

As a TAFE business teacher, I found that sharing my many years of work experiences
interest the students more than just providing them information from a textbook.
It creates great class discussions. The students that work can relate to my stories as they provide the class with their own experiences as well.

Terrific points below.
Some of my most enjoyable moments teaching is when students are felling comfortable to share their experiences – and they are actually relevant! The other students really take it in.

As an online learning designer, scenario-based learning is one of my favourite approaches to making learning engaging. Knowing that the online learners will not be in a classroom or with a teacher in person, using relevant stories and characters to build connection to the content and its relevance is vital. Creating simulated organisations that reflect real organisations, populating them with realistic workers and clients and giving the student a trainee role in that organisation sets the scene to build virtual relationships with co-workers and engage with clients is various related situations across multiple units in a course. Given the increasing… Read more »

As a learner myself I can recall stories my teachers have told much more easily than facts and figures. I can recall the reasons for the stories and the understanding that came with it.
I use the same idea with my students to illustrate how the content is relevant to our experiences. These are not generally stories of success but where I have learned lessons from something gone wrong. I agree that students see you as human and real if you can admit that you aren’t perfect, and it helps them remember the content of the lesson.

I teach at TAFE and also Le Cordon Bleu, including both domestic and international students. I find that the students definitely need to understand the relevance of what they are learning to their own goals as adult learners. It is essential to use my own experience and examples to earn their respect and to demonstrate that I am “current” in the industries in which they are working or seeking employment. We have some great class discussion with students offering their own insights and experience to each other, so yes being “flexible” is so important and being a “facilitator”.

I am an ESL teacher at TAFE, and I often use anecdotes to introduce topics and use my personal stories to expand on them. This allows learners to relate more to , and engage with the topic, while creating a sharing environment, as learners will often feel confident to tell their own stories.

I enjoy story telling and sharing my life experiences as a way to engage the students. Life experiences are both the successful and not so successful stories. This strategy helps to open discussion in a classroom.

As an English language teacher, i am always helping my students understand our language and culture by telling stories about myself, experiences and my family so the students can relate more easily to things. It often generates questions and further interest.

I feel sharing our own stories with students allows them to see that we as teachers are real too. It also models that we all need to continue to reflect upon our practices to develop our skills.

Story telling to link learning material to real life circumstance is easier with today’s “connected” students because they are in fact often aware of the practical application of the learning material. I teach accounting and there are plenty of real life stories of companies applying what we are learning. Often I tell the students stories of the real life application of what we are learning. Often students have stories of their own to contribute to the class discussion. So do both – Tell stories, also ask for stories.

I teach students how to become trainers so using storytelling is a great way to impart my real world experiences of what had worked well and what hadn’t worked well for me in the classroom. It adds real world examples and context to the lessons and normally creates lots of questions and discussion.

I love to use the concept of storytelling and since I am working in the early childhood field, sharing stories from the practice is always appealing to the students. Similarly storytelling with pre school age children that I also teach is beneficial too.

As a teacher, teaching adults, I use storytelling of my own experiences in class to help frame the learning and teaching experience that my students are receiving, but, more importantly, my storytelling adds real life context and scenarios to the lesson. It also makes in more personal and real, and students love to hear about my mistakes, so they learn from that, and hopefully do not make the same mistakes I did.

On meeting a class in a small city school for the first time students asked “Where are you from?” They corrected me – “Not where you live”. The next day another class asked the same question and this time I could answer “England, Ireland and Scotland”. I was lucky. They wanted to know my story and they then launched into sharing their own stories with gusto. I took this learning to my first country school class and took the initiative to launch with where my family came from. This group was more interested in where my relatives from Ireland (1800s)… Read more »

Storytelling is important when imparting skills, as it provides an example of how the tasks–whether theory or practical–fit into a job role in the real world. It shows that what they are learning now can be applied in the future.

Sharing stories also provides an opportunity for empathy – for students to “walk a mile in someone’s shoes”. The stories needs to be relevant and appropriate. I have used stories about other people to he illustrate an idea. A story I have heard or a story I was a part of but not the primary player. Sometime I refer back to old stories to remind students.

Storytelling is important because it helps in getting the message through. The story has to be relevant to the content being delivered so that the listeners can relate to it. Teaching through storytelling is an art and teachers need to plan well otherwise it will not have the desired effect. Having come from a different cultural background, teachers like myself might find it difficult to pick the childhood stories for their current students. However, it is possible to find stories relating to my early years in Australia. This involves re-learning almost everything to get “Australian experience”. Stories about studying in… Read more »

Sharing anecdotes from your life helps put the learners at ease, builds rapport and can set the context for the content of the session. Providing examples that illustrate particular teaching points aids engagement and understanding.

Story telling from experience is gold in a trade class as it helps students connect with you and other class mates.

I totally agree that stories are a powerful way to get all ages involved. I love to use stories to explain difficult concepts. I teach a WHS subject that is heavy with government and legal jargon and concepts. I now have a story about super car racing that includes all of the “hard” stuff that appeals to my mostly teen male students. If it has wheels and an engine they love it but the story weaves through the WHS concepts with quite remarkable retention.

I like to use stories to connect new learning to things the students already know. it is difficult to give an exact example as they are used in teaching moments that arise during classes. My preference is to solicit storied of lived experience from students through the use of facilitation skills and questioning. the success rate is pretty good but if the attempt falls flat i will read the room and either use one of my lived experience stories or move on. i also like to use stories to encourage perseverance because we all have experiences of learning something and… Read more »

I have found the most useful storytelling is when discussing topics such as discrimination or bullying with students in my class. Coming from a migrant family background, using those stories to help students understand how words can hurt, or how opportunity shouldn’t be taken for granted. These stories have really rensonated deeply with my students. I find if they can see the other sides persepctive through my story telling they are able to have more empathy, openness and understanding. When you share your experiences with your students there is more repsect, connection and understanding for one another.

During COVID my stories about when I was learning to deliver in a connected environment were critical to ensure teachers starting down that path understand it doesn’t need to be mastered all in one go….as well as giving them an understanding that those experiences are going to bring them closer to the class if they handle them in the right way.

I continue to reiterate my struggles I had in my trade and how I wish I had learnt to understand what was happening then just parrot learn – which did me no help at all as a tradesman. I am conscious of the road ahead for them, and the mistakes I have made and that’s what makes me passionate to share these experiences so they don’t fall into the same hole or embarrassment in the future. I personally believe that this helps me engage and be authentic with my students with regards to this

Stories are the vehicle where we link new learning. As an adult educator, my students have their own stores and experiences that they can link new learning s to. their experiences of successes and failure allow for opportunities of exploration and problem solving applying new techniques and positive learning experiences. I use my own stories to show experiences of positive learning as well as how to overcome negative learning experiences (changing negative learning by understanding its value as a learning experience and using it to improve or change learning).

I continually use stories from my experience to demonstrate examples of what I am teaching. It is very powerful because it is real. I don’t use the negative experiences very often but after listening to this advice I will try this.

I tell stories about how I have struggled to access websites that haven’t considered accessibility and the needs of their audience. And I usually explain how, with technical tricks and hacks, I can work around these. But I also explain that many users with special needs won’t be able to overcome these as easily and may abandon the site, and how this will impact their lives.

I teach photography and i often tell stories of my own career as a photographer which started in 1982 and continues to this day. Of course i relay stories of success but i think they get more from my stories where everything went wrong and mistakes i have made. I always say to them ” I made these mistakes so you dont have to”

I share stories all the time to relate the content I’m delivering to the workplace. The examples I provide help the students to understand the context of the content. Students are also invited to share their experiences as all workplaces are different. I have learned from their examples and stories.

I found when teaching TVET students that in the majority of cases they do not have a great deal of “life experiences” to share (some more than others). On a number of occasions when endeavouring to assist students to understand a particular concept or task I have shared a life experience of my own and this has added to the relevance of the topic and they were better equipped to understand and learn. I often use the analogy that much of what they are learning are “transferrable skills” in life and can be used in so many career pathways and… Read more »

Part of my subjects covers food allergies. I haven’t had any allergies but when I told them my story of an unexpected anaphylactic reaction I had recently, I had their undivided attention! It certainly was real and they could see the relevance and seriousness of why they would need to know this sort of information and how to apply it.

When discussing the use of food additives, in particular thickeners, I told my students about my work experience testing different thickening agents in chocolate topping formulations including the reasons for the investigations and my observations. I think this gives a good context for applying knowledge of food additives

Bringing stories or real life experiences into the classroom is so important to connect the learner to the subject and for them to see a use for the subject matter and how to apply it in their daily activities.

Appropriate shoes for work! As a girl I grew up with my mother telling me that when your outside, out working with the horses you need to have appropriate shoes on, always telling me every time I went to go outside. I did like a good girl I put on the right shoes for the job. Then one day came where I was on my way out to put the horses out and I had a friend with me, I was in thongs…… and I said to her my mother taught me better than to go outside to the horses… Read more »

Sharing an experience with the students that relates to them and the same industry is quite effective in getting their attention and keeping them engaged. If you have built a good relationship, they are always interested to hear your stories.

I think learners like to hear about someone else’s life – and the successes and failures. Isn’t this the way we learn ‘we are not alone’…

I teach Project management units and I always share stories of my past projects and thus bring interest and relevance to their learning. Students learn more when they listen these stories and they are able to make better connection to their learning.

As a first aid teacher I find the best way to engage the students is by telling my first aid stories. The most common question I get from students is “have you ever done CPR”. When I say “yes” and then relay the story I see that they become more attentive. Because this course is related to events that can happen in anyone’s life having my own stories to tell can make the learning more real and students will know what to expect if faced with a first aid situation.

By sharing my personal experiences through story telling with students gives them a deeper understanding of how lesson content over time relate to the trade skills that they are learning. People remember stories and experiences better than a set of facts especially if told honestly. By sharing ,i find that class trust and interest builds quickly .

i share stores when reading to students with intellectual impairments. so that they can grasp the reality of the topic. usually this story will related to real life situations. eg… use of money and not receiving the correct change when purchasing from food shopping.

By sharing experiences and story telling brings relevance to the learning material and allows the learner to connect. It becomes real and personal. It creates discussion and cohesiveness in the class.

Story telling in class is not new. In fact, story telling predates any class! Story telling has been the means by which pre literate people shared history and knowledge for aeons.

In a ESL class, the students learnt more language by listening and sharing stories than by writing word lists.

Context is key!

I often tell stories of patients I have looked after or experiences I have had nursing to illustrate a point.

I use stories in my classroom everyday, in vocational education I relate experiences both positive and negative that I had in the workplace to engage and encourage discussion, to provide relevancy to the learning and to develop the relationship with my students as an authentic person who makes mistakes and learns from them

I teach Medical Administration and have found that students benefit from hearing about the experiences that I have whilst working in a Medical Practice as it demonstrates the relevance of the the content which is being delivered within their course.

I teach Early Childhood Education and Care – our students enjoy hearing of experiences of my interactions with children in services and how even though times may change the level of play and care reman the same.

Teaching Finance & Accounting I tell different kinds of stories to suit the circumstance. It is a useful for demonstrating the application of concepts. I also relate incidents of unsuccessful endeavors both in industry and as a new teacher to walk the talk of my view that it’s ok to make mistakes because that is how we learn’. Then students feel comfortable to take the risk and ask a question in front of peers and this enhances everyone’s learning. The other situation for stories is after 8 pm when I can see the poor evening students struggling to stay awake.… Read more »

As a VET trainer in Accounting & Finance I use work stories lots to tie the theory to the practical applications of Accounting – whether this be about the technical topics, or discussions around workplace issues / politics in the workplace etc.

I am a Registered nurse you has been lucky enough to work in this profession both here and overseas. My current role is also a TAFE teacher in Health. I find that by being to put the theory into practice by relating that theory to my own experiences in practice, that student are so much more engaged bring the theory that they learn to life. By telling your story that incorporates theory and practical that students are learning makes their learning more real, tangible and relatable. This assist with student engagement and adds to the quest for even more knowledge.