The educational technology controls the teaching and learning environment through the use of Information Communication Technologies, a factor that has led to deterioration of the listening Interpersonal communication skills. Despite the increased use of display-based instruction, there is one practice that is slowly losing its presence and that is the *Story Circle*. This is a practice that was originally of great importance in the communities of the ancient time and can, therefore, be locally employed for enhancing the listening aptitudes of the students. This should be considered as a valuable tool in the classrooms today since the tool is simple and very effective.
What Is a Story Circle?
A Story Circle is a program where a number of people sit in a circle and they narrate personal experiences or traditional stories or round up jokes and anecdotes. In early binding cultures, this practice was used to disseminate knowledge as well as preserve culture and moral conducts in the society. All the members of the circle are expected to listen to the story being narrated and in some instances comment on the same or even relive a similar experience. Regardless of the nature of the narration and listening it is still a collective process that unites individuals into a single community.
It helps in remembering the stories that one hears or is narrated to them by someone else. As stories are normally passed down aurally, students have to be able to remember events and details when they contribute to a story. Organizing the information through repetition, use of visuals and connecting it to their own experience helps the information sink in well in the listener’s mind.
How Story Circles Improve Listening Skills
Another feature that can be attributed to strengths of the Story Circle is that it helps to enhance the listening skills. This is always the case especially when students are surrounded by different disturbances that make it difficult for them to concentrate and listen to what other people are saying. Story Circles ensure that listening becomes engaging making it an ‘action’ that requires an individual’s full concentration. Here’s how Story Circles enhance listening skills:Here’s how Story Circles enhance listening skills:
1. Promotes Active Listening
Story circles are opposite to the concept of passive listening where learners just listen without being active, in story circles, participants focus on the speaker’s words and moods. They did the active listening of the story and were keen to understand its literal meaning, gesture, and even the tone and silence that ensued after the story was told, among other parameters. However, in Story Circles, the participants know that they may be called upon to speak, or to share; listening is therefore central.
2. Encourages Empathy and Understanding
Naratives help to illustrate emotions, share experiences and thinking that can be different from the point of view of the recipient. Through Story Circles, students are able to understand personal and others’ emotions and their perception of these emotions as well. Apart from helping them in sharpening their listening skills, this ability in touching the emotional aspects of people improves the social and emotional well-being, important aspects in one’s life and in school as well.
3. Enhances Memory and Retention
It helps in remembering the stories that one hears or is narrated to them by someone else. As stories are normally passed down aurally, students have to be able to remember events and details when they contribute to a story. Organizing the information through repetition, use of visuals and connecting it to their own experience helps the information sink in well in the listener’s mind.This also helps the students learn ways of how to sift through information and select the best so as to enhance their overall understanding and Overpower their memory power.
4. Develops Patience and Focus
In Story Circles, a student is not allowed to interrupt his/her fellow students; she or he has to wait for his/her turn. This is a lesson learnt in patience and discipline. Therefore, by participating such conversations, the participants are able to appreciate the flow rather than spending much time waiting for the time when it will be their turn to speak. In a busy world where everyone wants things done immediately the practice of waiting one’s turn enhances concentration as well as patience.
5. Fosters Collaborative Learning
All forms of Story Circles can be described as group work –it is not a process in which students are taught by the tutors directly. This fosters fellowship among the learners and this helps in the sharing of interesting ideas with others. In the process of interaction and shared learning the students enhance the skills of involved communication, accepting others’ opinions and searching for the common idea.
Implementing Story Circles in the Classroom
Incorporation of the Story Circles in classroom learning requires least purchase and some preparation hence an effective method among teachers. Here are a few steps to successfully implement Story Circles:Here are a few steps to successfully implement Story Circles:
Set the Scene: Prepare and organize a calm area to eliminate distractions and get students to sit on a circle, preferably with desks. It should enable participants establish eye contact and make them feel at par with the rest of the learners.
Set Ground Rules: Have goals such as no interruption of each other while speaking, full attention for the person who is telling a story.
Choose Themes or Prompts: They can suggest individual topics which relate to the lesson like experiences that the teachers have had or the students can open up the discussion.
Reflect and Discuss: Finally, discuss what has been said During the Story Circle. It leads to reflection and strengthen the listening process because students are able to ponder about the information processed and relate it to their own lives.
Conclusion
When the strategies of the Story Circles are introduced into education, it has a great impact on the listening aspect of the learning process and allows the students to develop their listening, as well as empathic skills while collaborating with the peers. Through this, the forgotten art can be brought back into practice and education can be improved to enhance the delivery of more than academic knowledge to students that are in need yet fail to learn some of these skills. Therefore, when implemented in the classroom through what Story Circles referred to as ‘the art of sharing stories to create connection,’ is a great lesson in developing an emulation of interpersonal interactions that discourage miscommunication.
