Sticky Teaching Adam Berman Heard about Course Design, Structure, Assessments Instructional strategies – Learning activities facilitated by technology Now we come to bringing it all together in your teaching style for every class session from the first to the last day. 3:00-3:05 ADAM slides 1 and 2 3:05 – 3:25 NYDIA slides 3-11 3:25 – 3:40 NYDIA slide 12 + discussion 3:40 - 3:45 ADAM slides14 3:45-4:20 ADAM slides 15-20 4:20-4:30 ADAM slides 22-24 4:30-4:45 ADAM slide 25

Today’s goals and agenda Teaching that Sticks The First Day Advice for the rest of the term This will be very tactical – concrete suggestions.

TEACHING THAT STICKS

Teaching that Sticks The curse of expertise Follow SUCCES Simple Unexpected Concrete Credible Emotion Stories Start out with the tapper exercise Choose two volunteers Have one volunteer tap out the rhythm to the song “The Start Spangled Banner” or Happy Birthday – no one else should know what they are going to “tap out” They can tap with their foot or on a table with their hand. The second person will try to guess what song it is. They will have trouble likely Why is it so clear to the tapper and not to the listener? More importantly how hard did the tapper think it would be for the listener to come up with the song? The curse of expertise is the reason why teaching can be difficult: When you already know something (a topic, a song etc) it is hard to imagine what it is like NOT TO KNOW IT The 6 principles address the Curse of Expertise, by applying them you can avoid falling into the Curse of Expertise From Teaching that Sticks by Dan and Chip Heath 2010 www.heathbrothers.com

Simple What is the core message of the class or what are the BIG questions to answer? Communicate as simply as possible Small units Use analogies or familiar concepts Point 1: This requires some tough decisions What is in and what is out? Point 2: Take baby steps – break concepts apart and/or use analogies to things that students already are familiar with Examples…. Try to memorize the following in 10-15 seconds J FKFB INAT OUP SNA SAI RS How to make it easy…. JFK FBI NATO UPS NASA IRS The second version is familiar simple and compact

Unexpected Present a puzzle to solve…a mystery Show what the students are missing in their understanding Piques interest Gives students a Huh? Moment before the Aha! Examples of “mysteries” What should a small start-up do in the face of competition from Google?” or

Concrete Appeal to the senses – sight, sound, taste smell, touch - to explain material Use demonstrations or hands-on experiences Start with a blank slide – ask participants: In math, what is a function? That funny thing that has the notation f(x)? Frequently, people describe it as a machine where you put one thing in and another comes out. This is much more CONCRETE than the mysterious definition ”A function associates one quantity, the argument of the function, also known as the input, with another quantity, the value of the function, also known as the output.” Why is it more concrete – immediately a picture comes to mind. Anything that appeals to the senses, makes material more accessible than just a thought or idea. Another example is of a high school teacher trying to teach the history of the Civil War – they talked about strategies, tactics, progress of the battlefront, political debates. The students were respectful, but not much more. Then he decided to try something different. He asked the student to imagine the sounds of war (the explosions, the rustle of uniforms, the occasional eerie quiet) and the smells of war (dust, gunpowder, blood, excrement) Now they began to understand some of the consequences of this event.

Credible How do we make something believable? Test it Experience it Statistics to show the relationships: e.g. The cost of water.. Bottled water costs about 8.4 cents per ounce. Municipal water in San Francisco costs about 0.0022 cents per ounce. When you read those two statistics, what you take away is this: Wow, there’s a big difference there. Bottled water costs a lot more than municipal water! If you bought and drank a bottle of Evian, you could refill that bottle once a day for 10 years, 5 months, and 21 days with San Francisco tap water before that water would cost $1.35.” Now your brain can begin to apprehend THE FULL SCALE of the difference between these numbers—it’s not a big difference, it’s a gargantuan difference! WHAT WE WANT STUDENTS TO REMEMBER ARE THE RELATIONSHIPS, NOT THE STATISTICS necessarily

Emotion Appeal to something other than their heads: What Emotion does for an idea—it makes people care. It makes people feel something. Hit them in the gut or in the heart!

Story Not surprising that everyone likes stories Did you know… Any story works, just try it The mental stimulation of visualization is the next best thing to practice for improving performance They are entertaining, relaxing, unthreatening but there are more reasons why they work as a device for teaching 1) Any story works – even a silly story just designed as a device for remembering accounting principles is more effective for learning than teaching those principles without the story. This is why CASE METHOD works well. 2) The mental stimulation of visualizing something acts like a low-tech simulation game

SUCCES: Try it out Think of one concept from your class Apply as many of the six elements as you can - Simple, Unexpected, Credible, Concrete, Emotion, Story Share what you came up with Break out by discipline: Econ/Fin/BPP, RE/Ops, Marketing, MORs, Entre, Acctg Have participants try this out Think of one concept from you class – give them about 3 minutes Take 5-7 minutes to apply the as many of the sixe elements as you can - Simple, Unexpected, Credible, Concrete, Emotion, Story They may balk but ask that they just try to think about how to approach even on topic in their class using this checklist Once they’ve used these principles, have them share with a partner what they came up with Stop to take a few questions Need to transition to the First Day

Teaching that Sticks Supported by best practices Easy to remember From the best Haas instructors From the larger world of education Easy to remember Can systematically apply to each class session to improve teaching overall The principles connect to the best practices that we’ve found that Haas instructors use and from the broader best practices in education The six principles can be used as a checklist—imagine the checklist written on a Post-It note, to the side of your desk as you plan out a lesson. Okay, for tomorrow’s lesson I’ve got to compare sedimentary and igneous rock. How can I make this Simple? Do students have some knowledge I can anchor in? How can I make it Concrete? Can I get a sample of the kinds of rock to show them? Can I show them photos? How can I tell a Story? Can I find a story of an archaeologist who used knowledge of the rock layers to solve an interesting problem?

THE FIRST DAY

First Day Why is the first day so important? Think-pair-share for the first question The first day: Piques’ student’s interest Let’s students know what to expect Sets the tone for the rest of the semester Creates a lasting first impression Brainstorm aloud for the second – make a list on the board Things to ask/expand upon based on the list made by the class: Build a sense of community Address students concerns – how hard is the class? How will it be graded? Set the tone Deal with the awkwardness by having a confident attitude

First Day What do you think an instructor needs to do on the first day of class? Think-pair-share for the first question The first day: Piques’ student’s interest Let’s students know what to expect Sets the tone for the rest of the semester Creates a lasting first impression Brainstorm aloud for the second – make a list on the board Things to ask/expand upon based on the list made by the class: Build a sense of community Address students concerns – how hard is the class? How will it be graded? Set the tone Deal with the awkwardness by having a confident attitude

Before First Day Send a welcome email prior to the first session Begin learning student names by reviewing photos Create a connection, show that you are interested and that you respect them. - Also this doesn’t mean that you are grading easily No music more beautiful to people’s ears than their name - start to learn them Do people have good suggestions for how to learn people’s names?? 16

First Day: General strategies “Sell” the course – discuss the BIG, meaningful questions that can be answered by this course Outline the partnership, including expectations, philosophy, and success criteria It will be awkward…you (and they) may be apprehensive – appear confident and enthusiastic How might you share your passion? What ideas do people have or what has worked well for people in the past? 17

First Day: General strategies Introduce yourself and course (number) Discuss the promises of the course Cover meaningful content (e.g. work through a problem or mini case) Usually means reviewing the syllabus… ADAM: Print out your four slides from first class outlining teaching philosophy, etc. Cover important deliverables and dates. Emphasize importance of case/class preparation, class participation and active listening as key ingredients to enhance learning. Remember to discuss the PROMISES of the course 18

First Day: Set expectations Review the structure of the course, objectives, grading scheme, workload’ Explain procedures for enrollment, sections and policies on attendance Look the part – distinguish yourself from your students Look the part means, yes being professionally dressed, but also being present as the instructor, not one of the students Expectations: Respectful, prepared and pushing toward excellence 19

First Day: Set expectations Give students advice for how to succeed in your class Discuss mutual expectations around conduct and communication: Respect, preparation, communication protocol, computers (or not), promptness 20

First Day: Create a positive environment Consider using an ice-breaker Ask small groups to discuss a topic and then share with the class Ask students to write their reaction to the first day – report to students next session and correct misconceptions Give an (ungraded) assignment for 2nd session THOUGHT QUESTION: How do each of these build a sense of mutual purpose for student learning? Can you think of others… or other things you’ve tried before? 21

THE REST OF THE TERM

Ongoing: Each session Organize the topics and corresponding learning activities Use the SUCCES principles to explain the content Review the timing for each part of the class – include time for questions at the end Know how you will finish – take-aways, what homework to assign, a preview of next time

Ongoing: feedback Get early and ongoing feedback Solicit Share Incorporate Give regular feedback to students Ask for feedback – this reinforces your interest in student learning in the minds of students AND gives you a way to monitor student perceptions of learning and satisfaction with the course Give regular feedback to students – What does this look like?

Last Class Review key take-aways: How did you answer the BIG questions? Give references for future learning of subject matter Motivate students to leave the course with excitement and passion for the material Parting advice Provide a motivation for students to stay engaged with material Parting advice Parting comments

Questions