Personality Of Teaching

“Professors known as outstanding lecturers do two things; they use a simple plan and many examples.” - W. McKeachie

We learn in the form of stories we are naturally connected to stories, that is what we are most familiar with. Our lives are one story right after another all blending together with no real end or beginning and so to apply a concept we don’t understand against something we are so familiar with makes a lot of sense.

The majority of our conversations are relaying stories to each other, whether they are the happenings of the day, past experiences in our lives or things we dreamed up during moments of relaxation. We love sharing each other’s experiences and are intrigued by their views and perspectives on life.

Teaching is the perfect place for a story because one of your goals as a teacher is to capture your audience’s attention, a simple truth is if you don’t have their attention you will never be able to teach them. Although we are teaching new concepts and ideas that is not what is going to be the factor that maintains the audiences’ attention. The audience, before they will ever take your words as truth, must feel a connection to you as a person rather then just a speaker. The fastest way to achieve that connection is to share a personal story from your life.

Stories you relate about other people can be effective to prove a point but a connection is established when you tell an entertaining or moving story that draws emotion from the audience. Sharing emotions together is how relationships start no matter how small or minimal the relationship is until a emotion is shared the relationship can not and will not ever exist. Stories bring emotion up in people because they are sharing in something together causing a relationship to begin to form between both the storyteller and the listener. That relationship is what will captivate your audience allowing to introduce new concepts and ideas with their full attention because now they are listening to someone they have formed a bond with, rather then a figure put on display.