How Does Memory Work?

 

How many times have we as teachers wondered why our students couldn't remember how to do something even though we just covered it or they seemed to know then, why not now? I don't think, I've ever had any professional development on this topic and I certainly never had any classes on it. So today I am discussing how the memory works in today's column simply because it is important to us so we can improve our teaching and their retention.

When we know how memory works, we can adjust our teaching methods to incorporate the knowledge so our students learn the material better. 

The first step to remembering is sensation. They have to sense the material which means they have to see it and hear it in the classroom but this doesn't always work because students and people in general only pay attention to what is going on about 50 percent of the time.  In addition, this step is quite fleeting.  Teachers need to create an atmosphere where they can sense the information such was having all the students face forward so they are facing the material.

The second step is for students to pay attention when the material is presented. If they don't pay attention, they won't get the information.  We refer to paying attention as being engaged. It is important to keep the classroom as free of distractions as possible and this includes having cell phones out of site.  The brain does not learn as well when it is trying to follow the presentation while trying to catch up on the latest twitter videos.

When students pay attention to the material being presented, the information is more likely to be encoded into the working memory but the working memory is not the long term memory. Working memory is more like a short term memory because how long the information remains, and how its processed is quire short. Your working memory is like a funnel because only so much information can make its way in without being lost.  If the design of the lesson is too complex or not explicit enough, students may not have enough space in the working memory to process it because they are focused on the wrong information.

The important step is to transfer the information from the working memory to the long term memory because the long term memory has fewer limits on the amount of information it contains and the length of time it retains the information.  Our goal as teachers is to help students shift the information into their long term memories. Unfortunately it does not automatically happen, certain things must happen for that to occur.  

Two of the best research based methods to help this happen are retrieval practice and spaced practice. Both methods require students to access the memories, use and apply the material. When students retrieve memories, they are moving them from long term memory to the working memory where they are used and then they return to the long term memory.  The more times students recognize and recall memories, the stronger and better the memories become. Furthermore, the more students use the memories, the longer they will retain the information.  When they don't use the material, the material fades away.  

On Friday, we'll look at retrieval practice and spaced practice since these are both part of brain based learning.   Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.