Student stories as source of knowledge for decision-making – mix method study from the university

ABSTRACT

The paper discusses the results of the mixed-method study on the influence of stories on individual decision-making in the university environment. Seeing the research gap and the scarcity of empirical papers on the topic of the role of stories in decision-making, we initiated the study on how stories influence students’ decisions in the course and teacher selection process. A literature review preceding the study led us to three hypotheses. The research was executed as a mixed-method study. The quantitative part of the study answers questions if and how stories influence decision-making and works with three hypotheses. The qualitative part of the study provides information on why this happens. The study results discussed in this paper indicate that schoolmates’ stories are an important resource for students’ decision-making. Students prefer face-to-face sharing of stories and do not intentionally hide important aspects of the story though sometimes make it more attractive.

KEYWORDS:

• Story
• storytelling
• knowledge
• knowledge sharing
• decision-making

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.