Professional Development

Tell Me a Story

By Anthony Rebora — September 03, 2010 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Dan Brown says that the best teaching books are driven by personal stories as opposed to abstract theories and generic technical illustrations:

When I read about an educator in the field, experimenting and developing her craft, I'm engaged. To me, the best professional development (PD) books are also steeped in the narrative of teaching. I think there's some human nature involved here; telling stories is at the soul of the human experience.

As someone who receives a lot of education books, I have to admit I’m very sympathetic to this. I love to hear that personal voice coming through—and dread slogging through seemingly endless bulleted lists and diagrams. I have also been known to argue that many education books, with their closely-packed type and wide pages, seem almost designed to discourage you from reading them cover to cover.

Related Tags:

A version of this news article first appeared in the Teaching Now blog.