What is “Sticky Teaching”?

 Just what is Sticky Teaching???

Over the years, I’ve written dozens of articles and essays on the subject of “Sticky Teaching.”  I’ve given hundreds of workshops called “Sticky Teaching.”  I have read articles on the subject written by other people, and attended their Sticky Teaching workshops as well.  One of the more memorable had the attendees (my befuddled self included) sitting in circles and reciting the ten Grand Crus of Beaujolais while slapping our legs and snapping our fingers.  Perhaps that session should have been called “Snappy Teaching.”

I was reflecting on this “sticky teaching history” earlier this morning as I sat down at my computer to design yet another handout for yet another workshop on “Sticky Teaching.”  In this light, I thought it might be a good idea to come up with a new and improved definition of just what is meant by “Sticky Teaching”.  Keep in mind that this is my personal definition, reflecting my teaching style, and by that I mean that any other educator in the world is allowed to have their own definition of “sticky teaching” and I will respect it!

Here it is, the 2012 definition of Sticky Teaching, Bubbly Professor style:  Sticky Teaching is teaching that is engaging, understood, and memorable.

It’s simple:  in order to provide teaching that sticks, first, we need to teach in a manner that not only grabs the attention of but also nurtures the engagement of the audience over the long haul – the entire course of the class and beyond. Second, we need to make sure our lesson is simplified and organized in such a way so that the main points of the lesson are easy to comprehend.  While the  A+++ students may easily grasp the whole lesson including the details, we need to ensure that every student can and will understand the “gist”. Last but not least, we need to somehow present the topic so that it breaks through the limitation of short-term memory and becomes permanently embedded in long-term memory.     

When stated this way, the goal of sticky teaching sounds like it may take a lifetime to achieve, and it probably will. Teaching is a profession that lends itself to constant improvement.  Even the best teachers I know are always looking for ways to improve their teaching. Most likely, that is why they are the best teachers I know.

Since this topic is so near and dear to my heart, I plan on committing a good deal of time to writing about my personal bag of “sticky teaching tricks” here on the Bubbly Professor.  If you are an educator on the lookout for new and improved teaching tools, stayed tuned! I’d love to include some of your ideas as well, so let me know if you have some great sticky teaching techniques you’d be willing to share.

Some of the topics I plan on covering include:

 Sticky Teaching is Engaging:

• Use Dramatic Tension (keep them wondering “what happened next”)
• Create a Knowledge Gap (pique curiosity by setting up a “mystery”)
• Use concept testing (Have students make a prediction and then prove/disprove)
• Heed the ten-minute rule (Change the locus of attention every ten minutes)
• Challenge the audience (Make critical thinking part of every class) 
• Make it experiential (Replace abstract theories with concrete experiences)

Sticky Teaching is Understood:

• Identify your core message (Keep it easy to understand)
• Use statistics in understandable form (use the human scale principle)
• Provide Cognitive Guidance (point out what’s important to know)
• Use the power of Schema (put things in context)

Sticky Teaching is Memorable:

• Anchor information (tie new topics to information the student already knows)
• Use ECS (Emotionally Competent Stimuli)
• Use the narrative approach (Tell Stories)
• Use the PSE (pictorial superiority effect)
• Utilize dual coding (sync the visual and the verbal channel)

Obviously, some of these teaching techniques overlap categories. For instance, telling stories is a great way to be engaging, make your message understood and is memorable as well.  Story telling is a sticky teaching trifecta! However, in homage to what is probably the most important rule of sticky teaching – identify your core message – I did my best to create three categories and organize the topics within them (demonstrating another principle of sticky teaching, providing cognitive guidance.)

I hope you’ll check back for my series on sticky teaching. I’d also love to hear from you and share some of your sticky ideas.  I also hope you’ll remember the core message of this post:  Sticky Teaching is teaching that is engaging, understood and memorable.