MARY WARD CENTRE THINK TANKS # 2 How to… Make your classes memorable

MARY WARD CENTRE
THINK TANKS
# 2 How to…
Make your classes memorable
1. WHAT IS MEMORY?
Facts About Memory
Definitions of Memory
•
the process by which information is acquired,
stored mentally and later retrieved
•
a telescope pointed at time (Schacter)
Types of Memory
•
Memory for facts about you - known in a "deep”
•
•
Memory for other facts - often learned in one
shot (what happened in 1066)
•
Memory for events in your life - do we recall
the events or our memories of them?
•
Flashbulb memory for significant events - e.g.
what you did when you heard about Princess Di’s
death
•
•
State dependent memory – We remember
better in the same physiological or emotional
state we learned in.
•
Context dependent memory – We remember
better in the same place or situation where we
learn.
•
Repressed memory - Memories of past events
can, for a while, be unavailable to consciousness,
and later become so. But we can develop what
we think are accurate memories for events that
never took place.
•
Massed versus spaced practice – Memory for
skills improves with spaced practice as opposed
to fewer blocks of longer practice, though
there is an initial benefit in massed practice.
•
Implicit learning - Learning can take place
Memory for skills - once learned, never
forgotten (how to swim)
•
Memory for procedures – cultural practices
without conscious knowledge of how we do it
(how we tell people’s age)
(what happens in a courtroom)
•
Memory for language structures - rules for
spelling and grammar
•
Memory of language meaning - deeply learned,
but access can be effortful (flightless New
Zealand bird)
Recency Effect - What we learn last we
remember better.
way (your name)
•
Primacy Effect - What we learn first we
remember better.
•
The magical number seven - Short-term memory
is limited to seven plus or minus two “chunks”.
•
Memory not a matter of simple storage – it’s a
motivated, volatile process involving a whole
person.
The “encoding, storage, retrieval”
model is a useful simplification, but it is a
simplification.
2. TIPS FOR TUTORS
•
Planning Tips
•
•
Remember
visual,
auditory
and
kinaesthetic modalities and allow students
to see, hear and feel what they learn.
There are active, theorist, reflective, and
pragmatist learning styles. Plan lessons so
people can do activities, reflect on their
experience, gain a theoretical context and
apply what they learn when you plan lessons.
Name labels or name plates can encourage
students (and you) to be less anxious about
using and practising names.
Presentation Tips
•
Repetition reinforces recall – say what
you’re going to say, say it, then say what
you’ve said
•
Alliteration alleviates awareness – repeat
the same letters in key phrases
•
•
Attention span affects memory, so plan
changes of pace and teaching style to
retain students’ attention.
Groups of three are memorable (especially
if they alliterate e.g. the last two bullet
points)
•
•
Fatigue impairs memory – don’t forget to
have breaks.
Breaks also mean more
opportunity for primacy and recency
effects.
Make up mnemonics – e.g. for course
domestics
WARD
=
WCs,
Alarms,
Refreshments,
Distractions
(cellular
phones)
•
Link topics from previous sessions where
appropriate, this combines repetition with
setting context and the larger picture.
•
Use colour, imagery, mnemonics, humour &c
to make enrich handouts
Activity Tips
•
Recall is better than repetition – “recap
sessions” at the start of lessons encourage
students to actively recall what was
covered last week
•
Memory exists across groups – pairs+ of
students will recall better than individuals.
•
Music can help to set mood and be part of
relaxation exercises – but the Mozart
effect on learning has been oversold.
Remembering Student Names
•
A pairs naming exercise at the start of the
first class helps names get used by several
people
•
Use a name three times in the first five
minutes (good for new students joining an
established class)
•
A name exercise at the start of second and
subsequent sessions reinforces names. (e.
g. introduce yourself with an adjective that
starts with the same sound as your name “I’m Gerald and I’m generous”)
Subject specific tips
•
In personal development courses, state
dependent memory suggests that if
students are in a different emotional state
(e.g. more relaxed) when they learn than
when they want to use that learning then
this may impair transfer of learning.
Conversely if you can make the learning
state more similar (e.g. slightly stressful
role plays) then learning might improve.
•
In language courses associating sounds with
symbols (phonetic alphabet) seems to
benefit learners despite the alphabet’s
apparent abstraction – it is a visual and
writable peg to link the sound to.
3. TIPS FOR STUDENTS
•
You may think you have “a bad memory” and
that’s a self-fulfilling prophecy, like being
told you’re bad at languages.
•
See if systematic reading methods (e.g.
skim, read through, review) work for you –
they do for some people.
•
If something’s on the tip of your tongue
and you recall the first letter pair it with
letter through the alphabet (beads on a
wire used to count starting with a – “aa..”,
“ab…” “ABACUS!”)
•
Make material meaningful to yourself
rather than learning by rote. Students
often think they have to learn by heart.
You may learn better by talking to others (
or the cat) about what you’re learning,
keeping learning journals. (“What have I
learned today?”)
•
If you have to memorise material ,
associate facts with a series of objects like
the doorways of your house, parts of your
favourite clothes or, best of all (as you
always have it with you) bits of your body).
•
Write key words on Post-It notes, stick
them round the house and remember where
they are.
•
Note taking helps some but not all
students, others prefer to attend just to
what’s said.
•
Notes can be text, flow charts or mind
maps – whatever suits you best..
•
Sleep, nutrition, fluids and
promote effective learning.
exercise
A Model of Memory (diagram
overleaf)
•
Sensory store - fast decaying micro-
memories exist as part of the sensory
system that e.g. explains how movies seem
to move.
•
Short term memory - memory store that
has capacity limitations and shows decay
now thought of as…
•
Working memory - focussed on processing
capacity rather than storage limitation
•
Phonological loop - slave system using
subvocal speech to maintain the memory
trace. Clinical studies show it plays a
particular role in language learning. Often
called the inner voice.
•
Visuo-spatial sketch pad - slave system for
maintaining and manipulating visual images.
Evidence from how we hold in memory
information such as our hand of cards.
•
Central executive - limited capacity
attentional control system controlling slave
systems and relating them to long term
memory.
•
Long term memory - a number of processes
associated with longer term storage of
memories that are implicit or explicit,
relate to facts or to one's past, and that
that may be visual or verbal. Implicit
memory is linked to conditioning, skills, and
priming while explicit links to facts and
experiences.
Example 1
Counting the windows on the front of your
house uses visuo-spatial sketch pad to imagine
house frontage and phonological loop to count
them all.
Example 2
Identifying a plant uses short term memory to
store the characteristics of leaf, bark &c,
visuo-spatial sketch pad to integrate them and
long term memory to generate a recalled tree
to compare tem with.
Further Reading
Baddeley, Alan Essentials of Human Memory
Psychology Press 1999
Bourtchouladze, Ruskio Memories are made of
this, Weidenfeld, 2002
Schacter, Daniel Searching for Memory Basic
Books 1996
A MODEL OF MEMORY
SENSORY MEMORY
Iconic
PERCEPTUAL
REPRESENTATION
SYSTEM
Haptic
Implicit
Phonological
Loop
WORKING MEMORY
Central
Executive
Visuospatial
scratch pad
LONG TERM MEMORY
Visual v verbal
Semantic v episodic
Explicit
Acknowledgements
This leaflet is based on a Mary Ward Centre Think Tank
held on 21 February 2003 and was compiled by Andy Kirby
Andy Kirby 2003
Tutor
Think
Tanks