THE NARRATIVE PARADIGM
by Walter Fisher

Group and Public Communication:

STORYTELLING

• People are storytellers
• Storyteller and listener
• Verbal and non-verbal accounts of events
• Learners assign meanings to sequence of events

Narrative Paradigm

• Life experiences = ongoing narratives
• Conflicts, characters, beginnings, middles and ends

The very fact that the narrative paradigm can be applied to a wide range of communication genres provides strong evidence of its validity.

Narrative Paradigm

• People can better relate to a compelling story rather than piled up evidence or a tight argument.
• Narratives that coincide with our good reason (values) will be persuasive

Narratives as the basis of all human communication.

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• Narrative rationality is determined by the coherence (internal consistency) and fidelity (reliability) of our stories

The world is a set of stories from which we choose, and thus constantly re-create, our lives.

Implications on Education

NP ON EDUCATION

• learning strategy
• teaching strategy
• evaluation

NARRATIVE PARADIGM

MBLS Characteristics

• Interactive
• Engaging
• Flexible
• Targets cognitive and affective learning domain

Storytelling can be used in presenting topics to learners for easy understanding and recall.

A good story will more likely catch the attention of the learners and sustain their interest regarding a particular subject matter.

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• Targets cognitive and affective learning domains
• Stories can provide a sense of relevance to the target audience with the use of relatable situations

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• There are topics best explained with the use of stories
• The logical sequence of events enhances critical thinking of learners

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• The use of characters and the plot give learners something to look forward to as the lesson is being directly or indirectly discussed.

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• In terms of evaluation, the learners can be asked with the use of different situations in narrative format and not just with the use of plain questions.

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• Stories usually promote certain values which can motivate learning through the affective learning domain.

Usually people are interested in good stories in which according to the narrative paradigm move people to action or change their behavior. With MBLS following this idea, it can be an effective tool in educating its target audience

Examples

• Puppet plays
• Big book
• ELMs (story-based)
• Video-based learning systems