So says Joseph Campbell, the writer and intellectual who believed that stories have incredible power: to reveal universal truths, unite us across generations and time periods, and influence behavior. And I’d argue the same holds true in our work guiding professional learning for our teachers: we can leverage the art of storytelling to unleash impressive growth and development.
This core idea launches the third and final installment of our mini-series on the keys to facilitating effective adult learning. In part I, we uncovered a general framework, “learn from the exemplar,” that leaders can leverage in their workshops to increasingly push think ratio on their teachers; part II shared techniques leaders can use to build trust and rapport; in part III, we’ll outline ways storytelling can bring continuity and coherence to each development session. Because storytelling, it turns out, doesn’t just impact listener enjoyment.
Psychologist Jerome Bruner’s research has been widely cited for demonstrating that facts are 20 times more likely to be remembered if shared as part of a story. Unsurprisingly, there has been ample research on the power of storytelling in early education (Glonek & King, 2014), but it also extends to older grades and even to the world of STEM (Zhang, Wang, et al., 2024). Studies have even replicated these findings for adult learning (Caminotti & Gray, 2012). Across ages and contexts, the message is clear: communicating in a story framework facilitates and enables learning.
So, let’s head back to our Miami Dade College School of Ed classroom. It is spring, and degree candidates are engaged in a workshop on responding to trends in student work. How do master facilitators Paul Powell and Jesse Corburn leverage the power of “story” to catalyze learning? Let’s take a look at three distinct methods they use.
1. Look Back to Look Ahead
In this first clip, we watch Paul frame the day’s content by providing a refresher of previous workshops and connecting those learnings to the upcoming session agenda. This seemingly simple “look back to look ahead” move serves an important purpose: it activates previous learnings that are foundational to a continued growth trajectory. Here, participants need to remember the keys to effectively engaging students before they can successfully respond to trends in their work. In doing so, Paul also reminds teachers that their development sequence isn’t random, as each component intentionally builds to the next. Zoomed out, this tells an even larger story of teacher development that isn’t trapped within the bounds of this specific professional learning session.
2. Intentionally Transition
Next up, we watch Paul navigate a transition within his session: participants go from seeing examples of response to error to applying and practicing this themselves. At this moment, Paul weaves in the story of this PD, telling teachers what they’ve done and where they’re going. He uses the structure “now that we’ve , we’re going to ” to do so, thereby situating participants and creating a sense of sequence and coherence to the session as a whole.
3. Narrate the Why
In our final technique, Narrate the Why, we watch as Jesse goes beyond simply voicing over his slides and instead engages participants in a deeper exercise designed to remind them of the bigger story underlying this session. Jesse offers an example of the archetypal ineffective teacher – who doesn’t even feign to care about student learning – before asserting, “We’re breaking this pattern in American education.” Here, we see the power of storytelling to impart shared values. Consider those that Jesse shares in just this one moment:
- We are teachers who care about our students.
- We believe that caring about our students means caring about their learning.
- Caring about student learning means looking at and responding to student work.
Even if participants forget the ins and outs of a technique, these mindsets will live on.
PD often fails in implementation. It feels valuable at the moment but doesn’t quite translate into practice in classrooms and with students where it actually matters. Effective storytelling offers one potential solution for overcoming the implementation hurdle: it creates the structure, coherence, and shared values that lead to lasting learning. Try it for yourself this August and you might just see its outsized results.
Sending you much success in your school launch, and see you back next month.