According to the following article, cognitive science tells us that our brains are wired to learn from stories. In fact there are four basic elements to a story that we can incorporate into our training to help our students become engaged and learn from some of the boring topics we have to train on.
Those four elements are:
- Causality - there's a connection in how the story builds because the first element causes or initiates the next. For training, this element tells us how the agenda pulls everything together from beginning to end.
- Conflict - the story identifies an obstacle to overcome. For training, this element identifies the gap and the potential for failure if we don't meet the training objectives.
- Complications - the story takes us on a journey that isn't just a walk down the yellow brick road, there's elements that can throw us off that have to be addressed. For training, this element identifies the parts that we need to make note of and pay attention to.
- Character - this is the person that we're following. As the learner, I need to know if it's me or another role. The story tells me how I fit into the surroundings.
4 comments:
Interesting info on that website you linked to. I agree that the human mind seeks out connections and we learn and remember better if we can relate the information to ourselves or become invested somehow. My previous education in cognitive psychology supports this idea and my personal experience as well. If the leader of a training has some kind of anectdote it draws a person in, and if their lesson is in a story format as well, I can see how it would be memorable and more relatable than facts. I am sure this doesn't discount the other parts of training and outlining that is neccessary to teach, but is definitely something to remember when teaching/training.
I've always "known" this, but these four points give it good structure. Something personal is always more memorable.
Good stuff, Jeff. I think stories definitely tie into Adult Learning theory as well. For example:
Adult learners need direct, concrete experiences in which they apply the learning in real work; Adult learners come to learning with a wide range of previous experiences, knowledge, self-direction, interests, and competencies.
Great article. It's interesting how we learn and what we remember. My department recently revamped all of our training so that instead of training functionality, we have moved to scenario-based training. This way of learning is helping the associate remember how to use the functionality when they actually have to use it because they think about the scenario.
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