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Teaching Tips January 1, 2009 |
One of the underlying abilities for learning is memory. There are actually three types of memory that impact learning: (1) short-term memory; (2) active working memory; and (3) long-term memory. We say that the child has learned something when it is in long-term memory and can be “drawn out” to be used again – also known as remembering.
How Memory Works Short-term Memory (STM) is the first stage of processing once material has been presented. The brain “captures” this information and holds it just long enough to decide what to do with it – usually only two to three seconds! Our short-term memory has a very limited capacity, so information must be condensed in order to retain it. Only a small amount of information – such as 7 numbers - can be held at one time. In a matter of seconds, the brain evaluates the information, decides how important it is, and then rewrites it in order to process it. This “paraphrasing” works much like a zip file on the computer, condensing information to process it faster. The “zip file” is then transferred to the Active Working Memory. Our Active Working Memory (AWM) is similar to the desk-top memory of a computer. It holds information temporarily while we are working with it. Larger amounts of information can be stored in active working memory. In fact, that’s the purpose – to mix information together and hold it temporarily while doing some task with it. An example is listening to a teacher show how to do a math problem. The Active Working Memory holds the actual numbers and the steps involved long enough to do the problem. It also stores it long enough for the child to be able to use it as a model to solve similar problems such as those found in the lesson exercises. Information can remain in AWM for a few minutes or up to 3 to 5 hours. Here’s the catch. Unless the information on your desk-top is saved to the hard-drive, it is lost once the computer shuts down. Likewise, we must interact with the information in our Active Working Memory in order to “save it” to our hard drive or Long-Term Memory (LTM). Ideally, what form this interaction takes depends on the child’s learning style. Practically speaking, however, most curriculum programs use written exercises such as multiple choice questions, fill-in-the-blank, open-ended questions, or sample problems. When these exercises do not match the child’s natural way of learning, they are often ineffective at moving the information into long-term memory. That’s why a student can do a lesson successfully that day but then not know the information the next day. It was not saved so it was lost out of Active Working Memory. Long-term Memory is our permanent storage system that includes a filing system and a retrieval system. There are different types of filing and retrieval systems just as different people develop different ways to organize files in an office or their desk at home. These different systems are part of a person’s learning style – specifically a person’s thinking style. Unlike the other stages of memory, LTM seems to be limitless and can store all sorts of information from facts, figures, and skills to feelings, emotions, and experiences in the form of “scripts.” In fact, it is generally thought that nothing is ever really forgotten from LTM, it is just lost in LTM. In other words, the storage system is working fine, it’s the retrieval system that has broken down. The purpose of LTM is to consolidate information into meaningful files. Related information can be “hooked” together to make it more useful. The process is similar to saving documents on your computer in directories, subdirectories, folders, subfolders, and files with different extension names. The more connected the files, the more efficient the computer. The point of running a Defrag Command on the computer is to ensure that information is being stored in an efficient manner. Our LTM works the same way. The more we can hook new information to what has already been learned, the greater the chances that it will be stored in LTM. If it is not hooked in a “logical” manner, then it can be stored as a fragment randomly by itself; when the information is needed, the brain has to search the entire system looking for it. In a classroom situation, the brain may not retrieve the information in time to answer the question. Have you ever forgotten a person’s name, only to have it “pop into your head” later? Your retrieval system didn’t work fast enough! Have you ever seen people who save every document to a separate file on the desktop? There is no rhyme or reason to the files; the My Documents list just keeps growing longer and longer. When the computer has to search for the file, it has to search through all the random files, rather than looking in a specific directory and folder. As you can imagine, this random filing system is not very efficient. Welcome to the world of random thinkers! Making Memory More Meaningful This is vital to learning. The child must consolidate the information in a way that makes sense to that student, in a way that matches the child’s learning style, in order to “cement” learning. For example, a visual learner will need to visualize information that has come in the form of a verbal lecture. A sequential learner will take visuals and diagrams and translate them into words or an outline. That’s why we recommend that the child interact with the material in a way that matches his/her learning style. The exercises or activities that are used to practice the skill should involve the child’s preferred sense, or at least more than one sense. Another interesting element to this consolidation process is that it can take anywhere from hours to days, and it works most effectively during the last stages of our sleep cycle. If the REM cycle is interrupted – as with children who have to wake up early to catch the school bus – then the information is never fully processed. To complicate matters, hormonal changes during puberty often throw-off the sleep cycle by several hours, making it difficult for teen-agers to fall asleep before midnight. Yet they often have to get up early due to class schedules. Some schools have recognized this tendency and begin classes later, but most schools are too tied to after-school sports schedules to be able to make this accommodation. The advantage for homeschoolers is that the schedule can be adjusted accordingly. More importantly, we need to schedule “down time” or “absorption time” to enable the brain to process information. Many families, including homeschoolers, pack so much into a day that this vital consolidation can’t take place. Students go through the motions of learning and doing the lessons, taking the tests and passing, but then promptly forgetting the material because it hasn’t been processed adequately into Long-term Memory. Memory Mishaps At each stage of memory processing, different types of information are handled differently. As we have already seen, information that matches a child’s natural way of learning will be processed much more efficiently. The reverse is also true – information that does not match a child’s natural way of learning will take more work and/or time to process. In fact, what most people consider to be lapses in memory or memory processing issues, are a result of learning style differences rather than actual physiological deficiencies. In a group classroom situation, little time is given to presenting material in different ways. Little time is given for practicing the information, let alone doing it in a way that will make sense to the student. Whatever isn’t finished is done as homework, often when the child’s brain is in “overload” or fatigued. Yes, the brain does tire. It also can become dehydrated. The brain connections fire using electrolytes in the body. In order for the electrolytes to function, they need to be replenished and have plenty of water in which to fire properly. Since the vast majority of students do not drink enough water in a day, this is a common problem (that usually hits around 1:00 or 2:00 in the afternoon). This brings us to another interesting fact about how the brain and memory work. Other factors impact how effectively STM and AWM function. For instance, anxiety actually takes up space in AWM. There is an actual physiological explanation for test-anxiety. Likewise, attention impacts how the information is received in STM and processed in AWM – it is hard to hold information together without adequate concentration. Distractions, emotions, and attitude can all inhibit Active Working Memory. If you think your child knows the answer but is not able to retrieve it when asked, then consider changing the type of interaction your student has with the material. For example, rather than have the student read a chapter and then answer the questions in the chapter review, have the student develop a visual organizer of the material. A visual organizer summarizes the information in much the same way as an outline, only it is visual or graphic. Give visual students colorful flash cards or visuals and allow time for the student to “see” the information in his/her head. Give an auditory learner time to verbalize the process or talk through the problem quietly as he/she works. If the breakdown seems to be happening while working on the lesson, then chances are the material was not “recorded” properly in STM. Perhaps the child wasn’t paying attention. Or the material was presented too quickly. But more often than not, the brain did not consider the information important enough to pass along; part of a child’s learning style is the type of information that gains attention and is considered important. Global learners, for example, form their own little view of the world, and this view rarely includes details found on tests! Global learners also have trouble following directions. When reading a math lesson, global students will listen to the directions but will not hear the actual steps involved. They only listen to hear the overall idea of what to do. You may have to repeat the instructions several times before the child even hears the steps involved. A visual learner may need a model or flash card with the steps diagrammed in order to do the exercises. If some particular task is giving the child problems, look at the material itself. What kind of information is it? Is it concrete facts, numbers or figures, or abstract ideas? Does it involve more than one step? Is the information graphic, as with a diagram or table? Or is it a hodge-podge of visual information? Does the information have to do with procedures or steps, or with rules or patterns? Is it totally new information? Is the information sequential, spatial (e.g. pictures), symbolic (e.g. language), or a combination? How does the information have to be used – by the body, expressed through language, applied to an idea, or as a behavior? Each type of information at each stage of the process is handled differently. So if you can isolate where breakdowns are occurring, if you can find a pattern to the types of memory problems the child is experiencing, then you can make adjustments in the material itself and how it is presented. Incidentally, children who have been “diagnosed” as slow-processors are typically encountering memory issues related to learning style. The teaching method involved is not allowing adequate interaction or processing time to move the information through the three stages of memory. KEY WORDS: memory, concentration, attention, ADD, ADHD, processing, processor, diagnosed |
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