The brothers Chip Heath and Dan Heath have explored this particular question in their book Made to Stick. In a nutshell, they argue that the main reason why people, such as teachers, fail to create effective, memorable - 'sticky' - messages or lessons is because what they call 'The Curse of Knowledge'. This refers to the notion that educators and presenters of information sometimes fail to see that abstractions, the wealth of knowledge which they have and which makes sense to them, may not make sense to the students. In order to ensure that their message, their lesson, become memorable and therefore 'sticky', according to the authors, we need to consider six simple principles which the Heath brothers call SUCCESs:
- Simplicity
- Unexpectedness
- Concreteness
- Credibility
- Emotions
- Stories
Another powerful point to consider are the simple questions What's the point of the lesson? and Why does it matter - will it matter to the students? It may seem obvious to many but it can be easy to forget when you have taught the same topic for several years. Why should they care about the skills of evaluation or synthesis? That is a fair question. If we cannot provide a good enought explanation then what is the point?
By considering these ideas, coupled with lashings of our own creativity, we can produce powerful, purposeful lessons which contains enriching tasks that will ensure skills and learning progression for all classes.
More over at Staffroomproject.com
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