Long term memory
I have to challenge my students to retain medical terminology for use throughout thier career. I use daily reviews and the "medical term of the day" to re-enforce the retention of the information
Elinore,
Like your approach. You made me smile when I thought about going to the bathroom. You are helping your students to internalize terms that will be a part of them for the rest of their working days and you are doing it in a fun way.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I use the same technique as well. Throughout each of my classes I make sure to use medical terminology instead of laymans terms. For example, when my students have to use the bathroom, they now have to ask if they are allowed to "micturate". Using the language everyday really makes a difference, after a while it will become second nature.
Tara,
This is why using a variety of techniques that are based upon repetition is needed. The more relevancy you can help them see and application be made the greater the internalization of the needed information for the long term.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Our students come into our nursing program with no medical terminology. So, they are learning this as they go. It is very hard for the students to learn both medical terminology as well as their nursing courses together. Once they get it, then I stay on them to keep in into memory.
Davina,
This is why it is important to create connections for students between their life experiences and what they are needing to learn. The stronger the connections the greater the retention of content. Also, if you use memory techniques such a loci learning the retention rate is greater. So we instructors need to be creative and use different ways of getting our students to remember the essentials of our course.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Repetition certainly is a valuable tool to help students to learn and embed certain information into their long term memory. However, from my experience, many students, even with using repetition, will forget the information shortly after the examination.
I agree that repetition is a great tool as people learn faster by learning from thier mistakes.
William,
Yes, it does work and it is an essential part of my teaching strategy. One of the competencies they must have upon completing my course is knowing a certain number of words related to our field. I use a lot of different methods that involve repetition and 95% of the time my students leave knowing their words.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Having medical students trying to learn a whole new world of terms and wordmeaning I use constant repitition to help them retain new things It works
Scott,
Repetition is a powerful learning tool that is often overlooked. By creating fun drills and activities that get the students using the needed information over and over you are helping them to move the content into their working memories. Once the information is in their working memories it is easily pulled out when they are in real world settings.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I have the same type of problem since I teach technical students. I do a lot of repetitious practical activities as well as a review of the terms we discussed the day before.
