1) Prior knowledge plays an important role in learning new information and guides how students process new information. 2) A study showed that students with more background knowledge on baseball remembered more details from a passage on baseball, even if they were poorer readers, showing the importance of existing knowledge. 3) For long-term retention, teachers should help students make connections to prior knowledge, organize information, and process it at deeper levels rather than just memorizing superficial details.

1. Memory & Teaching By: Stephanie I.

2. Importance of Knowledge in Learning Knowing is more than just an end product of previous learning, it also guides New Learning Teachers need to keep this in mind and remember that students bring previous knowledge to a new learning situation “ Knowledge and knowing are the outcomes of learning” (Woolfolk, 2007, p. 249)

3. Example study of Knowledge and Learning A study by Recht and Leslie (1988) shows the importance of knowledge in understanding and remembering new information. Step 1: Junior High – identified very good or very poor readers Step 2: Tested students on knowledge of Baseball and found that it’s not related to reading ability Step 3: Grouped students on abilities and knowledge Step 4: Student in all four groups read a passage describing a baseball game and tested various ways to see if they remember the information Step 5: Results of how much was Remembered from the passage: Poor Readers/High Baseball Knowledge > Good Readers/Low Baseball Knowledge Poor Readers/High Baseball Knowledge = Good Readers/High Baseball Knowledge Poor Readers/Low Baseball remembered the LEAST of all other groups **POINT** A good basis of knowledge can be more important than good reading skills in understanding and remembering. Poor Readers/ Low Baseball Knowledge Poor Readers/ High Baseball Knowledge Good Readers/ Poor Baseball Knowledge Good Readers/ High Baseball Knowledge

4. Attention & Teaching 1 st Step in Teaching: PAY ATTENTION Students cannot process info that they do not recognize or perceive Info has to go through the working memory (aka: “Workbench”) where it is held temporarily and combined with knowledge from long-term memory to solve or comprehend problems Elaborative Rehearsal - is how a student connects info he’s trying to remember with something he already knows (Diagram adapted from Woolfolk, 2007, p. 256)

5. Long-Term Memory = The Goal of Teaching Long-Term memory holds the information that you have learned well. It’s the permanent storage of knowledge (Table adapted from Woolfolk, 2007, p. 257) Depends on representation and organization Propositional networks, schemata, productions, episodes, images Practically Unlimited Practically Unlimited Relatively Slow Long-Term Immediate Words, images, ideas, sentences Very Brief: 5-20 sec. Limited Very Fast Working Retrieval Contents Duration Capicity Input Type of Memory

6. Storing Information in Long-Term Memory The way a student learns info in the first place, strongly affects his recall later. Elaboration Builds extra links to existing knowledge Material that is elaborated when first learned will be easier to recall Teaching Tip: Have a student “make an idea their own” by having them translate info into their own words, create examples, explain to a peer, draw or act out a relationship, or apply the info to solve new problems Organization Material that is well organized is easier to learn and to remember than bits and pieces of info Structure serves as a guide back to the information when it needs to be recalled Teaching Tip: Especially for difficult or complex info – place a concept in a structure to help learn and remember both general definitions and specific examples Context Aspects of physical and emotional context – places, rooms, moods, who is with us – are learned along with other info It is easier to recall info when the current context is similar to the original one Teaching Tip: Help students to use context when recalling difficult information. Prompt “We discussed this two days ago in history during…” it might help trigger a memory to start the recall process

7. Retrieving Information from Long-Term Memory <<< Picture the Process: “ Think of long-term memory as a huge shelf full of tools (skills, procedures) and supplies (knowledge, schemas) ready to be brought to the workbench to accomplish a task. The shelf (long-term memory) stores an incredible amount, but it may be hard to find what you are looking for quickly. The workbench (working memory) is small, but anything on it is immediately available. Because it is small, however, supplies (bits of information) sometimes are lost when the workbench overflows or when one bit of information covers (interferes with) another.” (Woolfolk, 2007, p. 264) A few ways to retrieve info: Spreading Activation: Retrieval of pieces of information based on their relatedness to one another. Remembering one bit of information activates (stimulates) recall of associated information. Reconstruction: A cognitive tool or problem solving process that makes use of logic, cue, and other knowledge to construct a reasonable answer by filling in any missing parts. Now is the time for all good men to come to the aide of their country.

8. Levels of Processing Activity Activity: To display this theory and model the importance of “Critical Thinking” Questions. Ask students to sort pictures of dogs. 1 st : On the basis of the color of their coats Results should show that students probably won’t remember too many pictures (Surface Learning) 2 nd : Rate each dog on how likely it is to chase you when you jog Results should show that students will be able to recall more pictures (In-Depth Learning) **POINT** The 2 nd rating process requires “deeper” processing and more focus on the meaning of the information. When thinking about critical questions it helps to process the information in a different way. Usually it takes connecting different strands of knowledge to solve a problem. It helps in retention of information. Not simply regurgitating facts. Levels of Processing, as proposed by Craik and Lockhart, is an alternative to short/long term memory models. But this theory is strongly related to the notion of elaboration. **POINT** What determines how long information is remembered is how extensively the info is analyzed and connected with other information.

9. Memory Teaching Tips and Techniques Make it meaningful. Make sure to have students’ attention. (develop signals, use gestures, move around the room) Begin a lesson by asking a question that stimulates the topic. Help students make connections between new information and what they already know. (Elaboration, Organization, Context) Provide repetition and review of information. Present material in a clear and organized way. Focus on meaning, not memorization. Use Mnemonics. – Acronyms, peg-type mnemonics, keyword method, illustrations that display meaning

10. Citations Discovering Psychology. (2001). Remembering and Forgetting. Retrieved October 10, 2008, from http://www.learner.org/resources/series138.html?pop=yes&pid=1528# Woolfolk, A. (2007). Educational Psychology . Boston: Pearson Education.