Why we should use memes in education?

Memes are everywhere, but is there a place for them in education?

A controversial person might say that it creates an unprofessional atmosphere in class. Therefore, students can’t focus on the lecture and can’t learn. Well, I say it’s bullshit. What is the professional atmosphere in the first place? Suit&tie, listening to your professor in silence, feeling awkward? Then, who needs it anyway?

There are 3 main “knowledge emotions”, and memes happen to activate them all. Let me break it down for you.

Curiosity

It is scientifically proven that we memorize information better when we are feeling curious. It doesn’t even matter what leads to this excitement. The emotion matters. Interest makes learning faster, deeper, and more enjoyable. Overall, better. Now, how many of you are excited by logarithms, and how many are by memes? Exactly. Get excited(engaged) by memes, memorize logarithms better.

Openness, trust

Even though I would not trust Mister President, memes are able to make you feel more comfortable.

A very professional atmosphere is not only boring but emotionally uncomfortable. You need to feel good(safe) when learning, you need to feel like your teacher is modern, like-minded, cool, and trustworthy. Memes make you feel less nervous and more open. Of course, you learn better when you feel better.

Surprise

No, really, who wouldn’t be surprised to see their professor using memes in slides? Get surprised> get more engaged>memorize information.

Yes, but how?

Now, you might say that it won’t work if you use memes in every single class. Wrong. Let me illustrate by giving you an example from my school.

My Math teacher Sergey Sergeich manages the usage of memes in education pretty well.

Meet Sergey Sergeich. He graduated from one of the best universities in Russia, but he learned meme-making on his own. ‘Getting to know each other. Planimetrics. Geometry, grade 10, 1st lesson. 9/4/2020. Foxford Online School, S. Petrov’

• He prepares new memes every time which creates a sense of surprise
• There’s a problem/term on the slide and a meme. Looks like this picture down below

This slide might be a bit overloaded for an offline lesson, but it works just fine in my online school.

• Memes don’t have much text on them so it doesn’t take much time to understand them

‘One more problem’

• When he changes the slide, Sergey Sergeich gives us a few seconds to look through it so we are “back” and pay attention when he starts talking
• Memes are not on every slide, but about 60% have them. It’s a good balance.

‘What is the most popular theorem of geometry?’ Here’s the meme slide for it.

It always makes me smile. Oh, we also have a group chat on Telegram where we can share our beloved memes.

To sum up

Memes activate our brains and help us memorize better. It happens when we — get engaged, curious — feel relaxed and safe, open to receive new information — there's a moment of something unexpected.

After all, Elon Musk was right when he tweeted this:

Resourses:

Knowledge Emotions: Feelings that Foster Learning, Exploring, and Reflecting

Surprise, Curiosity, and Confusion Promote Knowledge Exploration: Evidence for Robust Effects of…