1
one is the oral tradition of listening, retelling and recalling. 10 years ago we introduced storytelling into the curriculum of schools in Bangalore and we conducted a study in four of those schools - Kumaran Children’s Home, Sishu Graha Montessori School, Mahatma Montessori School and the Valley School. We divided the students into two groups; one where one batch of students were taught through the method of storytelling and others weren’t. We found that the children listening to stories learnt better and were able to apply wisdom and common sense to their course work. And more importantly, they were interested in reading more upon the subject/ concept. Whereas those who were taught via rote method just scored the necessary marks in EDU TALK Geeta Ramamnujam, co-founder of Kathalaya – House of Stories, in an interview with Moshita Prajapati, extols the virtues of storytelling as an effective educative learning tool Why did you focus on oral storytelling as a tool for learning? You see there is a kind of energy that one transmits when you directly address children with words, and that is of emotions. The main reason why I started Kathalaya in 1998 was to revive an interest for children and teachers in lessons and concepts in subjects, which were being taught in a monotonous manner. When I was a teacher (I would teach the subjects of History and English), I would tell my students a story related to that day’s lesson plan. I would then stop halfway and they would ask, “What happened next?” My reply was to tell them to turn to page 34 and read further to know what happened next in the story. For children, to start a book maybe boring, but if you give them a prod, they would continue to finish reading the book. How beneficial is storytelling in the learning process? What we do at Kathalaya is that our lesson plan is drawn on two aspects; language development of listening, reading and writing and the second I think if we can help students unlearn it would be lovely the subjects and moved on ahead. Did you face any hurdles whist implementing your learning plan? I still face challenges. Despite years of telling stories to children, it is still looked upon as a childish thing. When you tell them about story telling, the first thing school administrators ask is – “Oh so you are going to do puppetry? Are you going to use masks, enact and do drama?” The thing is we have fixed notions. Acting out stories is the most primitive form in which you tell a story as it is. You don’t have to raise your voice. It just involves speaking to the student. So I have had to break down barriers people had about storytelling and tell them the focus of storytelling is – it is a spoken word and a spoken word when spoken well does not require props to make a child listen. At a TED Talk event, you said that the current Indian education system lacks perceiving power and wisdom. What made you say that? Wisdom is a bridge between learning and knowledge. What happens is we are not able to perceive because learning now has become very rote. We are bombarding our students with information from all sides and I believe they are not able to handle and decipher all this information. See learning should be applicable for life. So if there is learning or education, which does not help one manage their own lives then what is the point in learning itself. So the wisdom to perceive is missing. What according to you is good education? I think practical learning, which is pedagogically sound is good education. Just because a man lands on Mars we don’t have to increase the syllabus for children in schools. Why do we have to bring telescopes and study of science for students who are four-years-old. They don’t need to know so much. What they need to know is to know how to comprehend it. I think that it is a great thing we need to equip them with rather than stuff with knowledge. I think if we can help students unlearn it would be lovely. 87 February 2015

Storytelling as an effective educational tool

Embed Size (px)

Citation preview

Page 1: Storytelling as an effective educational tool

one is the oral tradition of listening, retelling and recalling. 10 years ago we introduced storytelling into the curriculum of schools in Bangalore and we conducted a study in four of those schools - Kumaran Children’s Home, Sishu Graha Montessori School, Mahatma Montessori School and the Valley School. We divided the students into two groups; one where one batch of students were taught through the method of storytelling and others weren’t. We found that the children listening to stories learnt better and were able to apply wisdom and common sense to their course work. And more importantly, they were interested in reading more upon the subject/concept. Whereas those who were taught via rote method just scored the necessary marks in

edu talkGeeta Ramamnujam, co-founder of kathalaya – House of Stories, in an interview with Moshita Prajapati, extols the virtues of storytelling as an effective educative learning tool

Why did you focus on oral storytelling as a tool for learning?You see there is a kind of energy that one transmits when you directly address children with words, and that is of emotions. The main reason why I started Kathalaya in 1998 was to revive an interest for children and teachers in lessons and concepts in subjects, which were being taught in a monotonous manner. When I was a teacher (I would teach the subjects of History and English), I would tell my students a story related to that day’s lesson plan. I would then stop halfway and they would ask, “What happened next?” My reply was to tell them to turn to page 34 and read further to know what happened next in the story. For children, to start a book maybe boring, but if you give them a prod, they would continue to finish reading the book.

How beneficial is storytelling in the learning process?What we do at Kathalaya is that our lesson plan is drawn on two aspects; language development of listening, reading and writing and the second

I think if we can help students unlearn it would be lovely

the subjects and moved on ahead.

Did you face any hurdles whist implementing your learning plan?I still face challenges. Despite years of telling stories to children, it is still looked upon as a childish thing. When you tell them about story telling, the first thing school administrators ask is – “Oh so you are going to do puppetry? Are you going to use masks, enact and do drama?” The thing is we have fixed notions. Acting out stories is the most primitive form in which you tell a story as it is. You don’t have to raise your voice. It just involves speaking to the student. So I have had to break down barriers people had about storytelling and tell them the focus of storytelling is – it is a spoken word and a spoken word when spoken well does not require props to make a child listen.

At a TED Talk event, you said that the current Indian education system lacks perceiving power and wisdom. What made you say that?Wisdom is a bridge between learning and knowledge. What happens is we are not able to perceive because learning now has become very rote. We are bombarding our students with information from all sides and I believe they are not able to handle and decipher all this information. See learning should be applicable for life. So if there is learning or education, which does not help one manage their own lives then what is the point in learning itself. So the wisdom to perceive is missing.

What according to you is good education?I think practical learning, which is pedagogically sound is good education. Just because a man lands on Mars we don’t have to increase the syllabus for children in schools. Why do we have to bring telescopes and study of science for students who are four-years-old. They don’t need to know so much. What they need to know is to know how to comprehend it. I think that it is a great thing we need to equip them with rather than stuff with knowledge. I think if we can help students unlearn it would be lovely.

87February 2015