Facts Don’t Stick - Feelings Do
We’ve all been in classrooms where the slides are clean, the syllabus is clear, and the room is… flat.
Because while traditional pedagogy emphasizes content delivery, real learning happens through emotional connection.
This semester, alongside my colleagues at Kristiania University of Applied Sciences , I've been exploring how to move beyond “engagement” as a checkbox and into what I consider advanced pedagogy.
Here’s what that looks like in practice:
What We’re Not Teaching Educators (But Should Be)
Most pedagogy courses cover active learning, flipped classrooms, or assessment theory. Useful, but surface-level.
Advanced pedagogy, especially in leadership education, requires something more:
🎤 Stage presence – Knowing how to hold attention, modulate energy, and lead a room.
📖 Storytelling – Using narratives to build empathy and embed learning in memory.
😂 Intentional humor – Not just icebreakers, but skillful levity that opens minds, lowers defenses, and makes concepts memorable.
These aren’t “soft skills.” They’re high-impact teaching tools, and they belong in the same conversation as learning outcomes and instructional design.
What Emotional Engagement Looks Like
In my course on leadership, we focus on connection first - connection to self, others, and ideas.
🪑 We sit together, not in rows.
🎙️ We discuss discomfort, not just definitions.
🎭 We make space for humor, reflection, and vulnerability - all in service of learning that sticks.
And it works. Here’s what students shared on their final exam when asked what they learned that wasn’t directly asked of them:
🗣️ “That how you work and nurture relationships reflects your leadership.”
🗣️ “That good leaders are mostly good humans.”
🗣️ “To care about learning more than a grade - it changed how I show up.”
🗣️ “That comedy in class made learning fun—and memorable.”
From Technique to Transformation
We often talk about innovation in education as a tech problem. But sometimes, it’s a teaching problem.
If we want to grow ethical, emotionally intelligent leaders, we need to:
✅ Include emotional growth in learning outcomes.
✅ Train educators in stagecraft, storytelling, and intentional humor.
✅ Build communities of practice that make emotional pedagogy sustainable - not dependent on one “inspiring” teacher.
P.S.
I'm grateful to Kristiania University of Applied Sciences for creating an environment where this kind of experimentation is not only allowed but encouraged.
Thanks to Eivind Brevik , Tor Morten Grønli , and Knut-Eric Joslin for supporting this direction.
If you’re a fellow educator - or someone who still remembers a class that changed your life - what made it stick? Let’s talk. 👇👇👇
