The Stickiness Factor

Author Malcolm Gladwell coined this phrase in his book, The Tipping Point, to describe an idea's ability to stick in the mind of its audience.  His real world examples include how Sesame Street and Blues Clues hold children's attention and enable them to learn, as well as how advertisers make their marketing more effective.  I felt a natural correlation to the classroom and my desire to help increase the 'stickiness' of my big ideas for my students.  Though Gladwell is examining this idea largely from a psychological and sociological perspective, this idea reminded me a lot of the message from the keynote speaker at the last 21st Century Learning Conference who addressed it from her perspective as a neuroscientist and classroom teacher.  You can read my blogpost on that here.

Since Gladwell didn't address stickiness in the classroom, I looked for some people who did and wanted to share some good insights I came across.  First off, I found the following list for making 'sticky' products here;

Journal of Product Management (2000) shows us the ten critical factors that make any product sticky or infectious:

Uniqueness: clear one-of-a-kind differentiation
Aesthetics: perceived aesthetic appeal
Association: generates positive associations
Engagement: fosters emotional involvement
Excellence: perceived as best of breed
Expressive value: visible sign of user values
Functional value: helps goal attainment
Nostalgic value: evokes sentimental linkages
Personification: has character, personality
Cost: perceived value for money [You should probably throw this one out, but the rest all have some merit of usefulness in the classroom.]

And this short article says everything I was thinking, only in a well processed, clear and organized fashion.  And also with some extra stuff I wasn't thinking of yet but eventually probably would have thought of if I really wanted to.  Definitely worth a skim!

We are certainly not selling a product, but making small tweaks to your lesson or delivery has the potential to make a significant impact on student learning.