Technolandy

Day 56 (of 2024/25) forgetting about it – a ponder on short term cramming for tests vs long term core memories… inspired by @edutopia

Memory is a funny thing. Some things crystal clear… some moments re-lived… lots of new learnings… lots still unknown… if memory all worked the same, the industrial model of school might’ve been more successful. But the more we learn, the more we may need to unlearn – especially in thinking about the antithesis if memorizing… forgetting!

Full article: https://www.edutopia.org/article/why-students-forget-and-what-you-can-do-about-it?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Fall+24&utm_id=Fall+24&utm_term=forget&utm_content=research

Love this intro on memory: “We often think of memories as books in a library, filed away and accessed when needed. 📚 

But they’re actually more like spiderwebs, strands of recollection distributed across millions of connected neurons.”

Psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus found that without any reinforcement or connections to prior knowledge, information is quickly forgotten—roughly 56% in one hour, 66% after a day, and 75% after six days.

So what can be done to preserve the hard work of teaching? 

Two scientifically based ways to help students retain learning: making as many connections as possible—typically to other concepts, thus widening the “spiderweb” of neural connections—but also by accessing the memory repeatedly over time. 🕸️ 

When students explain what they’ve learned to peers, fading memories are reactivated, strengthened, and consolidated.

This strategy not only increases retention but also encourages active learning.

Instead of covering a topic, then moving on, revisit key ideas throughout the year. Research shows students perform better academically when given multiple, spaced opportunities to review learned material. Blended rather than silo’d units of study. 

Interleaving forces students to think on their feet, and encodes learning more deeply.

When similar problems are grouped, students tend to skip the first step and automatically apply the same solution over and over. So mix them up.

Combine Text with Images: It’s often easier to remember information that’s been presented in different ways, especially if visual aids can help organize information. 

Students are more likely to remember what’s been read *and* seen, instead of either one alone. Value of sketch notes?

But some other thoughts on thoughts – 

• Need to remember something? Draw it. Doodling is good when it is on task… we should probably ban it when it’s a distraction though… 
• A person’s oldest memory represents the first awareness of consciousness. For this reason, it may be disturbing to know that most first memories are false. Added to that, most times you are actually remembering your last remembering of it, making it even more diluted… 
• It is possible to learn while you sleep – it’s called hypnopedia and it does have limits. You can’t learn facts (that you ‘need’ to know for short term things like quizzes and tests
• Epigenetics suggests that memories may be inherited – maybe paternal ‘life memories’ are what comes up in hypnosis of ‘past lives’?
• Despite some of my online PLN hating this… math trauma is a thing. The brain likes maths… it doesn’t like timed tests, pushy teachers, regular comparisons – and the fear shuts down memory which makes even simple calculations nearly impossible!
• Are your memories words? Or images? Anybody think in numbers?
• Neuro-divergence is cool, but it helps reinforce why ‘one size/style will not fit all learners’. 
• More at https://listverse.com/2019/01/25/10-weird-things-you-did-not-know-about-memory/