BY SERİK YUNUS EMRE ANATOLİAN HİGH SCHOOL

13-02-2014 / BÜNDE / GERMANY

Knowledge Transfer from Short to Long Term

How do we learn?

Learning is a complex task that requires a student to use and apply a range of cognitive skills. A student’s ability to retain information while performing concurrent processing, often referred to as working memory (WM), is critical to the acquisition of increasingly more complex knowledge and skills.

WM is often linked to successful learning and student academic achievement. According to the academic literature, WM is a very useful measure of a student’s capability to acquire new information.

Most students are able to successfully respond to classroom instruction that requires them to rely on their WM to acquire new knowledge or skills. Unfortunately, some students struggle and ultimately fail to process information effectively which, in turn, negatively affects the outcome of instruction.

What is working memory?

WM requires students to move information from short-term memory to long-term memory, where it is stored indefinitely.

The term “working memory” is defined as a person’s ability to temporarily hold and manipulate information for cognitive tasks performed on a daily basis (e.g., following directions and performing mental math).

WM is frequently described as a “mental scrapbook” that allows a person to store and manipulate information while engaging in other tasks.

http://www.learnnc.org/lp/media/uploads/2011/03/working_mem.png

How should teachers read “WM”?

Most teachers can attest to the fact that some students have WM deficits, which results in their being slower and less accurate in processing classroom instruction in class. These are the students who have problems determining the most relevant information and screening and “blocking out” irrelevant information, a problem that diminishes their WM capacity. For that reason, limitations on a student’s WM capacity often are associated with academic deficits in reading, mathematics, writing, and in the area of social skills.

Working Memory in the Classroom

Students who have difficulty paying attention to specific information struggle with the encoding of information. Attention, the cognitive process that supports WM, is very important for students to make efficient use of WM in the process of learning.To be successful, a student must be able to move information from WM to long-term memory, where it is stored.20

What should teachers do to awaken WM?

Teachers should refer to attention as the cognitive process that allows WM to hold information when people perform cognitive tasks, and that regulates their behavior according to the demands of a particular task.

For example, a student’s thoughts about an after-school ball game might serve as a distraction during instruction. Furthermore, the constant demands placed on students’ WM during the school day may adversely affect their academic performance — especially those students who have WM deficits.If a teacher knows that students with WM difficulties need to make a greater effort to respond to daily classroom demands, they can take steps to lessen the challenges these students face — for example, by repeating directions before students are required to do the assigned tasks.

Differences Between Short Term and Long Term Memory

Information is only stored for a short period of time in your short term (working) memory. For no longer than 30 seconds usually. What, or how much is taken in depends on your attention span, but whatever that is, the information is mostly forgotten when new information comes along. On the other hand, your long term memory space can never be filled (it’s infinite), and information can be stored there for the rest of your life.

Conditions for Transfer of Information to Long Term Memory-#1

Your Attention: If you’re not focused on the subject you’re studying, it will be impossible to remember all the facts. Therefore, it is important to keep the learning curve in mind when you study. That is: we are more inclined to remember the information discussed at the start and end of a study session.

Conditions for Transfer of Information to Long Term Memory-#2

What the Information Means to You. The chance of remembering something increases significantly if the meaning is important or of relevance to you.

Conditions for Transfer of Information to Long Term Memory-

#3

How Well the Information Matches With What You Already Know. Existing memories are a magnet for related information. This is also why it’s important to re-read the material you study. Every time you go through the material, you will associate more of it with the knowledge you already have.

Conditions for Transfer of Information to Long Term Memory-

#4

How Unique or Exceptional Information is. Everybody remembers the most popular girl or boy in school, some can remember the least popular, but almost nobody will remember the average students. It’s the same with information. You automatically remember what amazed you or what spoke to your imagination, but the rest of the material takes a little effort.

Conditions for Transfer of Information to Long Term Memory-#5

If Information is Connected or Can Be Associated. We remember information that is linked to our senses, is repeated in the text, or is connected by rhyme or rhythm.

The Role of Attention

The inability to regulate attention is directly related to student academic performance.

Attention controls the amount of time a student needs to maintain information in WM, especially in visual WM.

Many factors influence student attention, such as motivation, anxiety, and fatigue.

If, for any reason, a students’ attention is disturbed, his or her opportunity to learn is diminished because attention is essential to maintain information in WM.

If a student cannot control his attention, interfering information will not be filtered out and learning will also be adversely affected.

Strategies for teachers to apply to prevent an overload

of a student’s WMs

Strategy #1: Provide short, simple, and sequential directions, one at a time.

Say:“ - Open your math book. - Find Page 78. - Do problems 1-5. - Wait for teacher’s feedback. - Do problems 6-10.”Don’t say:“Open your math book to page seventy-eight

and do the first ten problems.”

Strategy #2: Use visual cues and modeling to reinforce oral directions

or explanationsVisual cues: activate student’s prior

knowledgei.e. pictures, class rules, or any kind of posted reminder

Modeling: a very effective research-based instructional method demonstrating step-by-step how to perform a task or skill

Strategy #3: Use rehearsal, visual imagery, and coding as ways to facilitate the transfer of information from short-

term memory to WM to long-term memory

Rehearsal: the repetition of verbal information. Verbal rehearsal results in some learning but probably is the weakest of the three strategies for encoding information.

Coding: the semantic elaboration of information through strategies such as acronyms

For example, the mnemonic PENS can help students remember the steps of a sentence-writing strategy:

Pick a formulaExplore wordsNote the wordsSearch and check

Visual imageryWord to be learned: photosynthesisKeyword: photo – “a good photo needs sunlight”

Strategy #4: Use semantic maps or networks to connect a main idea to

related ideas

Strategy #5: When conveying visual information, use the spatial contiguity

principle.

Strategy #6: Make information meaningful by connecting the students’ prior experiences to the new information

Teacher: What do you know about rain forests?Students: It rains a lot. It is hot and humid all year around. It has lots of

trees. It has lots of plants and animals. It has rivers or oceans nearby.

Teacher: Good! We live in ____________________. Do we usually have a lot of

rain? Do we have rivers or oceans nearby? Do we have lots of trees? Is it hot and humid all year around here?

[Students respond]Teacher: How is where we live the same or different from a rain forest?[Students respond]

TeacherWhy do you need to learn about rain forests?StudentsBecause rain forests produce oxygen we need for

living. It gives us clean air and clean water.TeacherWhen and how can you use this information?StudentsWhen people want to clear the rain forest for

development or logging, we can argue that it will affect clean air and oxygen.

Strategy #7: Provide advance organizers prior to beginning a

lesson to help students more easily organize information to be learned.

Today we will learn about blood types.We will conduct an experiment.We will make conclusions about mixing blood types

Strategy #8: Teach organization of text such as story structure to

facilitate comprehension of narratives.

Title

Setting

Characters

Problem

Attempts to solve the problem

Feelings of characters during the attempts to solve the problem

Solution/conclusion

Strategy #9: Use hierarchy to organize information

Some other strategies…

Review information frequently.Implement teaching routines and provide

a structured and consistent environment.Divide study time into sessions.Have students practice the new skills in

the same context in which they will be assessed.

ARZU MACİTANTALYA-TURKEY

…THANK YOU…