A story tends to have more depth than a simple example. A story tells about some event - some
particular individuals, and something that happens to them. Stories engage our thinking, our
emotions, and can even lead to the creation of mental imagery (Green & Brock, 2000).
Individuals listening to stories react to them almost automatically, participating, in a sense, in the
action of the narrative (e.g., Polichak & Gerrig, 2002). Bringing all of these systems to bear on
the material in your course helps student learning. Students are awake, following along, wanting
to find out what happens next and how the story ends. Bruner (1986) has contrasted the
paradigmatic (logical, scientific) and narrative modes of thinking, but these modes need not be
mutually exclusive in the classroom.