The Utility of Storytelling Strategies in the Biology Classroom

Abstract

Conveying scientific information with high intrinsic cognitive load to students is a challenge.Often, students do not have the existing schema to incorporate the information in acomprehensive manner. One method that has shown promise is storytelling. Storytelling hasbeen successfully used to convey public health information to non-experts. Therefore, it wasof interest to determine whether storytelling could be used in the classroom to presentinformation with high intrinsic load to students in a meaningful manner. This study used apost-test only quasi-experimental study design to explore the utility of storytelling as aninstructional strategy in anatomy and physiology classes at a community college. Students inthe treatment group received instruction that used storytelling to present examples ofapplication. Both control and experimental groups were assessed through the use of aproximal formative quiz, distal multiple-choice questions, and a novel critical thinking exerciseadministered after the instruction. Results suggest that storytelling was as effective as theinstructional methods delivered to the control group. These findings suggest that storytellingmay be used as a means to convey complex scientific information in the classroom.