The Cranial Wall: Making it Stick

 After a hectic week of work of being a 4-H Educator, I sit down Friday night reviewing the schedule of events for the symposium for Teaching and Learning with Technology (TLT). I know that Saturday will be a crazy day for me, with having to get up at 4:45 AM to pick with the 4-H Livestock Judging Team to get them to the Snider Arena for the Spring PSU Judging Contest by 8 AM, along with rushing to the Penn Stater to attend this conference by 8:30 AM.

Photo Image: https://lafayettecc.org/

A chatty van ride up with mostly teenagers, made me oddly excited to attend this symposium to learn new tips, hacks and ideas to bring back to my 4-H program. Quickly checking in at the Penn Stater, name tag tossed around my neck, I rushed into the President Hall to find my colleagues seated dead center to the stage. Taking a deep breath, as they announced the key note speaker, Dan Heath, I opened my notebook to take notes on his presentation.

Dan Heath walked briskly on stage and began to give his presentation on "Sticky Ideas". His energy and non typical PowerPoint was immediately captivating. His acronym of SUCCES, was broken down into morsel size pieces that was easy to understand his theory behind making ideas stick. It brought attention that most of today's education is not designed to make learning objectives stick, and things that often stick are simple, unexpected, concrete, credible, emotional and a story (SUCCES). During his presentation, his one segment really had me spellbound. He mentioned about the Dream Course, that had professors attend to help revive their class syllabus. The question along the lines of "aving your dream student, what would they recall from learning from your class in 3-5 years? Most professors listed many things they wanted their students to know. Then the question was asked, how do these items are embraced in your syllabus? Everyone in the audience gasped and had the "Ah-Ha" moment.

This really struck me, as I think back to my 4-H programming I've developed and taught to many youth. How much information did they actually learn? What main points did I make "stick" with them? As Dan worked through the slides of how teachers create lectures by taking the text book, take the chapters, and break them into lectures by chapter topic, it began to make sense that most teachers have taken the wrong approach to teaching. This was eye opening, to think back to all of my undergraduate classes that were mirrored off the textbook. I think this presentation was extremely informative and eye opening in helping teachers/educators/instructors think about lesson planning.

I plan to take the key message of Dan Heath's presentation and apply it to my profession as an Extension Educator. Now, I am challenged to think first about what I want to "stick" with my students, then work towards the methods of how to make it stick.