I agree decoding and recoding is a big part of retention
Rickey,
Repetition and review are two powerful ways to increase content retention for students.
Gary
in most all classes i require the students to repeat the information given in lecture. socratic teaching styles work very well also.
John,
Spoken like a true story teller. Students love these stories as you well know for the very reasons you cite. They help in the development of rapport with the students as well.
Gary
Real life stories especially when they involve a field that is being studied is one of the easiest way, I find, to get that application part of learning into the learning zone of the students. And the beauty of it as you keep retelling the story, you learn to put some humor or self deprecating into the anecdote and you now have a common bond with the students. It makes you less of a boss and more of a coach
David,
You make a very important point about relevancy and application. If the students can see the ROI of these two words in their education they will be more engaged and focused.
Gary
Timothy,
Students love stories as you have found. Stories that give examples server to reinforce the content that is being shared leading to a much higher level of cognitive retention.
Gary
To elaborate on this, I try to get students to appreciate the opportunity they have and how it will benefit them. Even if the student has thousands of dollars worth of tools, to use them effectively will require proper training.
I find that telling a story relating to the subject that is funny or even trajic helps to burn important info into thier brains
Retention of learned material is always a challenge. In nursing, retention is a must. We build upon each lesson from the previous one. One way in whcih we can improve retention is by taking the contnet and breaking it into some pieces and then show how the pieces fit together.
I try to integrate information that they have already learned, or should have learned, into lectures throughout the course or courses. If we are discussing Vygotsky I can easily connect his ideas to those of Piaget as they had similar ideas about learning. Though, this is sometimes a stretch, when it is possible, it does help.
Michael,
Right you are so it is important to help the students review and apply the content throughout the course.
Gary
I feel that as instructors it is our duty to take the students that are not interested and find creative ways to spark their interest.
So then using case studies and practical examples could help the student apply the learned information that they have gained from decoding and recoding?
Decoding and recoding is important, but if they don't apply and relate to what they are being taught, the risk of losing the information is high.
I have great success by giving the students a second test or assessment a week after the graded assessment. These test are not part of the grade but only show the amount of information that has not become working knowledge. After a couple of eye opening drops in score the students independently change their learning strategies and the second test eventually works as a confidence builder for retention.
Helping students to decode and then recode information to use in their new vocation will help with retention.
Wilfred,
This is one of the challenges of teaching--helping students to see the value of the content in terms of future use. They need help with the ROI of content. When they see it they start to value it for a longer period of time and not just use it and forget it after the test.
Gary
I find that too, but one of the things I am able to do with the subjects I teach is build on what they are suppose to have known so it is constantly be thrown back at them. It is always going to be hard to have every student care about a subject because we all have different interests, but as long as they know your are there for them, they seem to do fine in the classes.
I agree. As an educator it is a real challenge to keep students interested enough to hold their attention throughout the entire presentation of information. i have tried everything in my power to do so and it seems like i always still lose a few. Some just are not interested in learning.
