Description
The focus of reading and discussion in EDAT 6115 this week
was about information processing and cognitive theories. It discussed memory and what processes help
or hinder short and long term memory. It
gave strategies that teachers can use to help students learn to their best
potential. Intentional teachers find
meaningful ways to present information so it better sticks in student’s memory.
They understand how information is processed, received, and stored.
Analysis
Research on the human memory has
helped teachers learn strategies to ensure understanding and retention of new
learning. Slavin (2012) reported, “The
finding that the brain’s capacity is not set at birth but is influenced by
early experience has had an electrifying impact on the world of early childhood
research and education policy” (p.154).
Knowing this as educators we realized that out impact on students is
more important to push students to their full potential. Students do not come to us with empty minds,
nor do they come to us with full minds. “Learners
are, in fact, neutral works in progress, altering themselves with every new
activity, every engagement, and every new skill acquired and fact learned”
(Slavin, 2012, p.158).
While it is important for teachers
to use many strategies to help students learn and retain information, there are
also factors that cause children to forget.
One factor that hinders children from remembering is interference. Interference is, “when information gets mixed
up with, or pushed aside by, other information” (Slavin, 2012, p.158). With so much to learn through the school year
at such a quick pace this is something that students may struggle with if
information is not presented in an approachable manner. Another factor that may cause forgetting is
retroactive inhibition. Similar to
interference, this “occurs when previously learned information is lost because
it is mixed up with new and somewhat similar information” (Slavin, 2012,
p.158). This stresses, again, the importance
of using a variety of strategies to approach new learning. If we use the same
approaches over and over again it will create more of an opportunity for
students to confuse the learning and forget some of it.
When we want to make learning relevant
and provide strategies to help students remember we need to provide opportunity
for them to activate their prior knowledge.
Three ways we can help students activate their prior knowledge is with
advance organizers, analogies, and elaboration.
Advance organizers “orient students to material they were about to learn
and to help them recall related information that could assist them in
incorporating the new information” (Slavin, 2012, p.173). Using these organizers can increase their
learning and help them structure their learning retention. Analogies are also helpful to help connect
information. Slavin (2012) states, “it
is more important that analogies be thoroughly familiar to the learner than
that they relate in any direct way to the concepts being taught” (p.174). Linking something to the content that is not
familiar to the child will not help them learn. They need to be linked to
something that is meaningful and familiar to them. Lastly, elaboration helps activate children’s
prior knowledge. Elaboration refers “to
the process of thinking about material to be learned in a way that connects the
material to information or ideas that are already in the learner’s mind”
(Ayaduray & Jacobs, 1997). Getting students
to talk about and elaborate on a topic just discussed helps them retain this
topic and their understanding.
Reflection
This
concept is significant concerning the context of my classroom because it
reminds me as I am lesson planning the strategies I need to keep in mind. Knowing how students process information
means I need to vary how I first present a concept and how I continue to
present that topic throughout the unit. I
need to appeal to all of my learners and think about what strategies will best
help them learn and retain the information.
At the beginning of the school year I give my students interest
inventories so I can better understand them as learners and the way they like
to learn best. This really shows a side
of the child I may not have realized about.
Often times we get so caught up in the day to day standards to teach we
miss out and seeing how creative our students can be.
Using
what I read this week I can become a better teacher by making my initial lesson
of each unit more meaningful. The initial
lesson of a unit sets the tone for how the rest of the unit will go. If we can get students excited and motivated
about the content, then they will be more likely to pay attention and retain
the information. Connecting what
students know to what they are about to know will also help them better connect
their past learning to their learning that will soon take place. Also many
other strategies that were given make me more excited to try and make sure to
use a variety of rather than the same ones I always use.
When thinking
about this chapter and the chapter about cognitive development it makes it hard
for educators these days. I feel as
though a negative aspect of this is at times we are expecting our students to
do things that they might not be fully capable of doing or learning. For instance, in second grade we teach about
the three types of government (president, governor, and mayor). These are hard concepts to teach students
because they are still trying to grasp that we live in a city, which is in a
county, which is in a state, which is in a country. Trying to teach children a concept that they
will remember when they do not have the cognitive development to see large
picture makes it more difficult.
Thinking
about study strategies that help students learn makes me think about how to
better prepare for upcoming assessments with my students. Since I teach younger students, modeling for
them strategies they can use to prepare for tests could help them in the
future. If we present students with
strategies that can be helpful to them they can then decide which strategy will
work best for them and grow with that strategy.
Teaching is not just about teaching the content, but also instilling
strategies into students that can help them better understand the content.
References
Ayaduray,J.,
& Jacobs, G. M. (1997). Can learner strategy instruction succeed? The case
of higher order questions and elaborate responses. System, 25(4), 561-570.
Slavin, R.
E. (2012). Educational
psychology: Theory and practice (10th
ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education.
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