Sticky Principles

Module II Concrete
and Credible

Do You Hear What I

Hear?
The Tapper
vs. Listener
Exercise

Activity
Pick

a partner.
One of you is going to be a tapper and
one of you is going to be a listener.
Tappers need to tap out the song you
were given to your listener with index
finger.
Listeners get 15 seconds to guess the song
that is being tapped out.
Mark. Get set. Go!

So whats going on?

The Curse of Knowledge:
Its hard to be a tapper. The problem is
that tappers have been given knowledge
(the song title) that makes it impossible
for them to imagine what it is like to lack
that knowledge.
Once we know something, we find it hard
to imagine what it was like not to know
it.

So whats going on?

The Curse of Knowledge:
Our knowledge has cursed us. And it
becomes difficult for us to share our
knowledge with others, because we cant
readily re-create the state of mind of our
listeners and they dont get it!
Teachers and students suffer from this
because of enormous information
imbalances at play. I saw it in the lab!

Sticky Principle

Concrete

Concrete ideas are:

Real
Experiential
Tangible

Abstract ideas are:

Conceptual
Theoretical
Mysterious

Concrete Ideas
are Sticky
Velcro Theory of Memory:

How many of you start a lab or lecture

with a hook?
Concreteness etches ideas into our brain
and fights off the ill effects of the Curse
of Knowledge.

Sticky Principle: Concrete

According to Willingham:
1. The mind does not care for abstractions.
The mind prefers concrete.
2. We understand new things in the context
of the things we already know, and most
of what we know is concrete.
3. Concrete examples will only help make
abstractions complete only if they are
familiar to the learner.

Concrete Teaching Ideas:

Use

real world
common
examples and
stories.
Let students
experience it for
themselves.
Use specific,
tangible
language.

Concrete example
Abstract
You have two
minutes per
question to
complete the
online worksheet
for each chapter.

Concrete
Sit in class and
have them
experience 2
minutes.

Concrete example
Abstract
In order to classify
an activity as a
cardio ''exercise,''
you must be
working at 60-80%
of your maximum
heart rate.

Concrete
Have the students
calculate their max
rate (220 Age) and
then multiply by .60
and .80 to get the
range. Take resting
and calculate
difference. Run in
place for 30 seconds
and take pulse again
to see if in the range.

Concrete example in the lab

ABSTRACT:
Bake until Golden Brown
and Delicious

CONCRETE:
Bake at 400F to internal
temp of 195F

Sticky Principle: Concrete

Applied to the quantity food lab:
1. Pan fry the schnitzel until golden brown?
Replaced with 2 minutes per side.
2. Deep fry the sweet potato fries until
crisp? Replaced with timer at 3 minutes.
3. Greet the table? Replaced with,
Welcome to my class, I am a student
learning how to be a server today.
4. Comment card replaced with report card.

Sticky Principle: Concrete

Applied to the
sales class: The
students learn a
12 step process
to select a
product to sell to
the target market
that includes an
incentive dinner.

How is your teaching

CONCRETE?

What questions do you

have at this point?

Sticky Principle

Credible

Is this a credible tattoo artist?!

Credible ideas are sticky:

Finding Credibility
Family?
Friends?
News Anchors?
Mentors?
TV Chefs?
Teachers?
Religious Leaders?
Personal
Experiences?

Trust This Guy?

Credible?
What
happened
to this
womans
Credibility?

Credible?
How has this
woman
changed
animal
husbandry
for pork
producers?

Credible Teaching Ideas:

1.

2.

3.

Bring in
industry
experts who
make a living
doing the topic
you are
teaching.
Let students
see and
experience it to
believe it.
Use statistics

Sticky Principle: Credible

Applied to my teaching:
1. During orientation share credentials of
myself and other instructors.
2. Bring in guest speakers to underscore
what I teach in lab, sales, and HR class.
3. The 12 step process taught to bring
product to market and sell it successfully
is compared and contrasted to a
BusinessWeek article about Coach.

How can you apply

these two principles to
your teaching?