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A synthesis of current research)
Methods of Enhancing Learning and
Recall
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Continual attention to students attention
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Generating retrieval practice—having students recall
information
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Spacing multiple opportunities to learn, study and be
tested over time is a very powerful method of enhancing long term learning
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Spacing the delivery of information rather then giving it
in mass—improves all aspects of learning
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Presenting key concepts from more than one standpoint and
demonstrating the relevance of key ideas in multiple context enhance long term
recall and the generation of new knowledge
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Providing structure to the days learning
activities—outline, set of questions, cognitive map all improve learning and
recall
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Having students generate their own outlines or maps from
the lecture or class activity
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Using visual images, mental imaging and other mnemonic
techniques( anything that assist memory)
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Use analogies, metaphors and similes regularly in your
teaching
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Have students generate elaborations of their
understanding
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Have students make predictions about outcomes in advance
of their experiments or problem solving activities
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Using open ended, relevant questions and insisting that
all students try to answer them
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Testing cumulatively—requires students to continually
revisit the course information
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Limit the amount of objective testing that allows for
short term “cramming”
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Vary the ways in which students are allowed to
demonstrate what they know about a subject
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Continually ask students to recall their knowledge about
a subject as well as their understanding of that knowledge—this produces
better Long Term Memories
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Students need activities that cause them to reflect upon
what they have been presented in class—these can include:
a. summary writing
b. predictions
c. problem-solving activities
d. mind map making
e. outlining
f. quizzing
g. comprehension papers
h. preparation for oral presentations
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Use of emotion in teaching and in assignments enhances
memory formation
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Limit the amount of information taught each day-3-4 main
points—and break it up in to small units
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If its brand new information build background to connect
it to
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The brain is an excellent copier—use this as a tool in
your teaching
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Keep as many of the class activities as possible focused
on using the frontal integrative cortex of the brain—where most of the
pleasure centers are.
Background on
the Brain and Improved Recall
(based on the work of James Zull, The Art of Changing the Brain)
Humans can’t understand anything unless they create
internal neuronal networks (NN) that reflects some set of physical relationships
that accurately map the relationships that exist in what we are trying to
understand.
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Start with concrete experiences—physical images
Concrete experiences contain much of what we need for understanding because it
produces images for our brain to analyze, rearrange, manipulate or turn into
action. Images enhance recall
Best Tools
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First hand experiences
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Visual images
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Metaphors—my office is a prison
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Similes—life is like a bowl of cherries
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Analogies—He is fishing without bait
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Examples—A good example of a high calorie dessert is banana
splits
Examples of concrete are:
a.
Starting with the problem not the tools to solve the problem
b.
If I am teaching medical education I start with the patient
c.
Starting with a story in history not the details
d.
Any first hand experience
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Try to determine what connections are missing
a.
Students backgrounds are not linear— they are more like a web with lots
of different pieces of information in different locations
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Teachers need to spend time finding out what background
information and skills their students have and do not have.
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Students need to be asked to explain, demonstrate, create
images of their understanding in order to discover what connections might be
missing
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Keep in mind students have neural networks for how they
believe school should be
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New learning activities will take time to become
integrated with their ideas about how learning should be.
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Any new activity will take multiple repetitions before
students will decide if they see it as important to their learning
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Students have been conditioned in K-12 to seek grades—it
will not be easy to shift that view
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Teach students how to observe—For students to focus on
the things teachers see as most important they must learn how to develop
habits of observation and abilities to create mental images of what they
observe
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The change in neural networks is directly related to:
§
The importance of the information to the learner
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How often the information is used by the learner
§
Most importantly the way in which it is presented to the
learner--as an image
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When two neural networks fire at the same time the result
is they get wired together (Hebb) in a whole new network. The blending of old
and new creates a whole new
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New networks don’t takes the place of old networks
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Information (or skills or behaviors) that may have been
wrong or incomplete or mythological) are not destroy but new knowledge
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Given the right circumstances the old NN or the old way
of doing things will return as it was before
The Back
Cortex—Place for Reflection and Meaning
Time and Learning
In the brain’s learning cycle the reassembling of the
sensory data into understanding takes place in the integrative back cortex of
the brain—this process takes time. This process was referred to by David Kolb as
“reflective observation” in his 1984 Experiential Learning Model.
What students do when they reflect is to seek an image that
fits their experiences—they look for unity—the teachers’ job is to give students
the right assignments that cause them to reflect on the right things.
Understanding can take minutes, hours, days or even
years—time to reflect on what has been presented and to see where it fits, and
its importance is necessary for deep learning to occur.
Long Term Memory
(LTM)—A Mostly Back Brain Function
We want students to remember
but not to memorize!
Memory will occur as a natural part of learning when the
information is important, practiced and connected.
LTM is a mixture of feelings and facts—it allows us to
construct information that comes from a life time of learning
LTM’s that we are conscious of are called Explicit—two
parts
LTM’s that we are not conscious of are called implicit—behaviors,
beliefs and feelings can all be stored in implicit memory
Memories are not stored in any specific location in the
brain but the process of memory has been localized in specific parts of the
cerebral cortex
Semantic memories are located in the left frontal cortex
and parts of the back brain on both sides.
Episodic memories are located in right frontal cortex and
back cortex.
The formation of explicit memories requires the work of the
hippocampus--it is the master assembler but it does not store memories.
Feelings and
Memories
Emotions can cause immediate memory formation that can last
a lifetime. Emotions can also impede memory formation and actually over long
periods of time damage the memory centers including the hippocampus.
Feelings can and do aid in memory recall and also trigger
false memories. How we feel about a learning activity has a tremendous affect on
the memories that are formed or not formed from it.
Adrenalin the neuro-chemical that is often released under
stress can improve the formation of semantic memory while at the same time
inhibiting the work of the frontal cortex.
Students under stress for exams can use the adrenalin to
aid in their memorizing but it will inhibit their taking action with the
information (a frontal cortex activity)—students can pass the test but not
really be able to use the information or have it later on. (James McGaugh,
http://www.irvineworldnews.com/Astories/dec4/mcgaugh.htm)
False Memories
The hippocampus will assemble memories to fit a given
context even when the sensory data is not present. If there is enough data to
create a context our brain will fill in what is missing. This can lead to
students’ feeling they are absolutely correct only to discover that the missing
data was really important and they are very wrong.
Working Memory
Working memory is one of the main functions of the front
integrative cortex.
Working memory helps people remember what they need to
solve a problem or develop an idea even if it’s mundane like getting to the
dentist on time or remembering to bring home the milk.
It is possible to hold quite a bit of information in STM if
we work hard and pay attention to it but that information can easily disappear
because the WM and LTM involve different pathways in the brain. (This is
the biological explanation of why cramming for test does not produce learning)
WM is limited in capacity, tenacity and time—it does not
hold tightly to anything and can be easily distracted. At the same time working
memory helps create new ideas and there appears to be no limit to those ideas.
The power of this limited part of the brain is almost inexhaustible.
It is a good thing that WM has its limitations as if it
could hold more information we would likely not reason as well, waste time on
irrelevant things, not notice important things, etc.
WM and Teaching
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Don’t overload it—the more things in working memory the
harder it is to focus on what is most important. If you are shoveling too much
new data in then the only result is that other data has to be leaving.
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Two to three main items per class period is reasonable.
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Teacher should break things up into smaller pieces. This
is what the brain does naturally anyway. Good students often find their own
ways to keep the parts of things divided into small groups that fit together
naturally.
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Working memory doesn’t mature. When something is brand
new it is like being in kindergarten again. Teachers need to remember what it
is like to be a novice learner.
WM and Thinking
The conscious rearranging and manipulation of items in
working memory comes closest to what we call thinking. This process is carried
out by the executive part of the front brain of which there are two parts:
As teacher we may want to focus on each part separately.
Learning by
Copying
Copying is of great value to the brain for survival.
Students mimic what they experience constantly. The same neurons fire when we
observe an action as when we do the action. (These are called mirror neurons).
Is copying learning? We get the basic raw material for
learning from others but it may be how we organize it or manipulate it that
creates learning.
Also we must consciously or unconsciously chose to copy or
mimic and it is at that point that we take ownership of the information.
We can often send students mixed messages about copying,
for example we want students to mimic our work ethic, honesty, reflection
process, etc but we don’t want them to copy others’ work—except sometimes we do
when their peers are showing them how to do something. The brain’s natural
instinct to copy is at work all the time.
Current Memory Research and Its Application to Instruction and Learning
(based
on the work of James Zull, 2002)
Pleasure seems to be associated
with the frontal cortex and the frontal cortex is all about action and movement.
Dopamine is the neuro-chemical linked to pleasure and it is found throughout the
frontal cortex. Dopamine is thought not be the pleasure reward itself but
gives the “GO” signal which leads to action which is the reward. What does this
have to do with MEMORY?
Well movement seems to equal
pleasure. This includes movement towards a learning goal, playing a game or
reaching an achievement—i.e. learning something new. Movement towards a goal or
leaning something new is what students need to feel pleasure. Discovering
something new or exploring new ideas are all pleasure generating activities.
Memory on the other hand including recall of information is associated with the
past and connected with the back part of the cortex—the receiving part of the
brain. This kind of learning, memorizing and recalling answers (worksheets) is
less pleasurable and more work for a student.
In imaging experiments when
learners were engaged in postulating answers and getting feedback on the answers
the basal structures (pleasure areas of the brain) were more active. When
students were simply asked to memorize associations the pleasure areas were less
active and the back cortex near the memory systems were more active. (Zull, Art
of Changing the Brain, 2002)
It may be that students don’t like
having to memorize not only because it is hard work and time consuming but
because it does not generate any pleasure.
What is Memory
Fundamentally, memory represents a
change in who we are. Our habits, our ideologies, our hopes and fears are all
influenced by what we remember of our past.
At the most basic level, we
remember because the connections between our brains' neurons change.
Each experience primes the brain
for the next experience.
Memory also represents a change in
who we are because it is predictive of who we will become.
We remember things more easily if
we have been exposed to similar things before.
So what we remember from the past
has a lot to do with what we can learn in the future.
Scientists divide memory into
categories based on the amount of time the memory lasts.
Modern computers encode memory as
digital bits of information that are "randomly accessible."
Functionally, this means that your
computer can bring up your best friend's phone number without accessing any
information about what your best friend looks like or how you met.
The human brain stores memory in a
very different way; recalling your best friend's phone number may very well
bring to mind your friend's face, a pleasant conversation that you had, and a
vacation you took together.
While computer memories are
discrete and informational simple, human memories are tangled together and
informational complex.
Unlike computer memories, a human
memory is an abstract relationship amongst thoughts that arises out of neural
activity spread over the whole brain.
The process from both a biological and a behavioral
perspective is critically dependent on
reinforcement.
Reinforcement can come in the form of repetition or
practice; we remember that two plus two equals four because we've heard it so
many times.
Reinforcement can also occur through emotional arousal;
most people remember where they were when they heard about the 9-11 tragedy
because of the highly emotional content of that event.
Arousal is also a product of attention, so memories can be
reinforced by paying careful attention and consciously attempting to remember.
The process of converting working memory into long-term
memory is called
consolidation, and again, it is
characterized by the loss of distracting information.
From a practical perspective, that means that we can
remember something best if we learn it in a context that we understand or if it
is emotionally important to us.
Mnemonic
strategies
Contextual
learning
Repetitive
rehearsal
Emotional
arousal
Are all good ways to ensure that we remember the things
that are important to us.
By focusing our learning strategies on the strengths of the
brain's memory systems, we may be able to learn more information in a shorter
amount of time in a way that is useful to our lives.
The brain is not good at remembering long lists of
unrelated numbers, dozens of nonsense words, or lengthy grocery lists.
The brain has an extraordinary ability to remember many
events in rich detail.(Ashish Ranpura Yale University)
The Changing Brain and Memory
Suppose you
learn a new manual skill, such as playing the guitar.After months of steady
practice, you take a look at your hands---they have not grown or shrunk, except
for maybe a new callus or two. But your brain has changed—it has been quietly
recruiting new neuron populations to support your guitar-playing skill. In
particular, the cortical maps for your hands have grown.
Practice Makes Perfect
Why are attention, repetition, and intensive practice the
prerequisites of brain plasticity?
Do we really have to listen to our teachers, go to class
every day, and do homework every night?
In 1890, philosopher and psychologist William James offered
his thoughts to those of us who might have preferred a lazier route:
"Millions of items of the outward order are present to
my senses which never properly enter into my experience," he wrote. "Why?
Because they have no interest for me. My experience is what I agree to
attend to. Only those items which I notice shape my mind - without selective
interest, experience is an utter chaos."
References
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Davis, B. (2001). Tools for Teaching, Jossey-Bass: San
Francisco
Elbert, Thomas, Christo Pantev, Christian Wienbruch, et.
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Halpern, Diane and Milton Hakel editors 2002. Applying the
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James McGaugh
http://www.irvineworldnews.com/Astories/dec4/mcgaugh.ht
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