Made to Stick

of the benefits of actual physical practice.
The takeaway is simple: Mental simulation is not as good as actu-
ally doing something, but it’s the next best thing. And, to circle back
to the world of sticky ideas, what we’re suggesting is that the right
kind of story is, effectively, a simulation. Stories are like flight simula-
tors for the brain. Hearing the nurse’s heart-monitor story isn’t like
being there, but it’s the next best thing.
S T O R I E S
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Or think about the Xerox E053 code story. Why is hearing this
story better than a warning about “misleading E053 indicators” in the
training manual? It’s better for precisely the reason that flight simula-
tors are better for pilots than stacks of instructional flash cards. The
more that training simulates the actions we must take in the world,
the more effective it will be.
A story is powerful because it provides the context missing from
abstract prose. It’s back to the Velcro theory of memory, the idea that
the more hooks we put into our ideas, the better they’ll stick. The
E053 story builds in emotions—the frustration of failing to find the
problem and being misled by the machine’s code. It builds in histori-
cal background—the idea that the recent change in the “XER board
configuration” led to this new error. At the end, it delivers a kind of
meta-level moral: You shouldn’t have complete faith in the error
code. This “code skepticism” is something the repairmen can apply
to every future job they undertake.
It’s easy for a doctor to treat appendicitis once it’s been diagnosed,
but the problem is learning to distinguish an inflamed appendix from
an upset stomach or food poisoning or an ulcer. Or think about be-
ginning algebra students, who can solve complex equations but grind
to a halt when they’re presented with a simple word problem that in-
volves exactly the same math. Problem X doesn’t always identify itself
as Problem X.
This is the role that stories play—putting knowledge into a frame-
work that is more lifelike, more true to our day-to-day existence.
More like a flight simulator. Being the audience for a story isn’t so
passive, after all. Inside, we’re getting ready to act.
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D e a l i n g   w i t h   Pr o b l e m   S t u d e n t s
T H E   S I T UAT I O N:  
Professors have to deal with the occasional nuisance
in class—an angry, aggressive, or challenging student. Many profes-
sors are caught by surprise and aren’t sure how to deal with the situ-
ation. In this Clinic we’ll compare two different messages that were
intended to share strategies for coping with these students.
• • •
M E S S AG E   1 :  
The first message was produced by Indiana University as
a resource for instructors.
• Remain calm. Slow down and regularize your breathing. Don’t be-
come defensive.
• Don’t ignore them. Attempt to diffuse their anger. Arrange to meet
them during a break or after class. During the meeting, acknowl-
edge the student’s emotions and listen. Talk in a professional and
courteous manner.
C O M M E N T S   O N   M E S S AG E   1 :  
Notice that there’s nothing unexpected
here—nothing that is uncommon sense. (And if dealing with difficult
students is common sense, then why do we need to publish tips for
dealing with them?) Most of the advice—“Remain calm”; “Don’t be-
come defensive”; “Attempt to diffuse their anger”—is both too ab-
stract and too obvious to stick. (Few teachers believe that you should
freak out in response to a problem student.)
• • •
C L I N I C
S T O R I E S
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M E S S AG E   2 :  
The second message was posted, informally, to a news-
group by a professor named Alyson Buckman, who wanted to share
her experience with other teachers in the group:
I had a student . . . who talked loudly and often in the back of the
class, generally when I was speaking. I could hear his comments at
the front of the room, and so could everyone else. He also disagreed
with me on every point I made, no matter what it was. Students began
very quickly to complain about his behavior in their journals and sug-
gest methods, generally designed to humiliate, of dealing with him. 
I tried several things from the beginning, but finally called he and
his confidante in class up to the front at the end of class one day and
scheduled appointments with me in my office. I made sure I had wit-
nesses to these appointments as well—one of the perks of being in a
shared office space. The confidante, I believe, had been trapped into
that role—the other student just utilized his body as a means to dis-
ruption.
When I met with the bully, he came in with sunglasses on and a
totally defiant behavior. I started with “Why don’t you tell me what’s
going on in the back of the room . . .” and he responded, “I disagree
with you.” I attempted to talk about this and met with silence.
It was not until I told him that other students were complaining
and suggesting treatments for the situation that he listened. His body
language totally changed as did his manner. I didn’t have a problem
with him from then on. My basic understanding of this little teaching
lesson was that students who display contempt for the teacher might
very well be brought into check by other students. After all, he
thought he was showing off for them and found that they didn’t want
to hear or see it.
C O M M E N T S   O N   M E S S AG E   2 :  
This story allows us to simulate the process
of dealing with a problem student. We follow along with Buckman as
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she works her way through the problem. Notice that many of the bul-
leted points from the first message are shown, rather than told, in the
story. The professor attempts to “diffuse” the student’s anger. She
arranges “to talk with the student in a more private setting.” She stays
calm throughout.
The solution—in essence, using peer pressure to get the student
under control—is both concrete and unexpected. It’s uncommon
sense. We might have expected a problem student not to care about
what his peers thought. We empathize with Buckman, which makes
us care about the outcome. It’s easier to care about a person than a
list of bulleted instructions.
S C O R E C A R D
Checklist
Message 1
Message 2
Simple
-
-
Unexpected
-


Concrete




Credible
-
-
Emotional
-


Story
-


P U N C H   L I N E :  
A few stories like Professor Buckman’s—flight simulators
for reining in problem students—would be much more interesting
and effective in training professors than the list of bullet points in
Message 1. This solution is not intuitive; nine out of ten training de-