Jason,
Good point about how we need to use as many different sensory inputs as we can with our students. The more they are involved physically and mentally the higher the content retention is going to be.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Understanding how the brain functions, especialy in relation to retention, will allow me to better serve my students by developing a lesson plan that will provide a more ballanced aproach. Focusing on lecture and demonstration while also allowing time for tactile involvement from the students.
Kelly,
Thank you for these good comments about how to reach students. The key in my opinion is reflection as you mention. By reflecting on the successes as well as the challenges we can continue our own professional development and get better in our instructional efforts each time we teach a class.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
To understand the process of learning helps us as instructors to collect tools that will allow us to implement this process effectively and efficiently. Without the understanding, we wouldn't know which tools were for what.
Example: I will take close inventory of the tools I have as to be able to use any modality necessary to reach each student in each class. Being prepared and reflecting on what has and hasn't worked, allows me the growth and inventory necessary to grow for my class to grow.
Edward,
You make a very good point about the need for students to select key concepts or content for retention. They need to develop study skills that will help them to pull out the essential content and store it in their working memories. This way they can retrieve the information as needed when they are making application of the concepts they have learned.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
David,
Instructors need to "read" their classes and by doing so will know how to adapt their instructional delivery to engage the students in the learning process. Your point is a good one concerning how you deliver your content.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
In the course that I teach, there is a lot of information to be had. I will tell students what they should focus on and what they should put away for future reference, since it may come in handy some day. This way they will not become overwhelmed and can grow into what they will need to know for the current class. A lot of this information is repeated throughout the course, so they will make the determination that it is indeed necessary because it is applicable to most everything that we do in this particular class.
By observing the reactions of student responses or by seeing the look on thier faces you can often tell wheather a student gets it or not.Switching up the way I present the information,wheather through visual,hands on,or practial application,often gets the results I am trying to achieve.
Bryce,
There is a saying that goes your comments and it is one that I have enjoyed for years as a life long learner. The saying is "To Teach is to Learn Twice". I really agree with this. I get to work and share content from my field with the next generation of learners and I get paid besides. This is a win win as far as I am concerned.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Deb,
Great to hear how you are connecting the various memory concepts to your instruction. The more connections we can make between the course content and student life experiences the greater the content retention there will be.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Leslie,
Your point is a good one because often times students seem to forget they are bringing extensive life experiences to the classroom and they can use these experiences to connect with the content being studied. When they see how they can make such applications they become engaged and focused on their learning.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Understanding learning is key to teaching. Without that it is hard to teach. The one thing I have found through my experiences is, the best way to learn something is to teach it.
Understanding the difference between short term and long term memory helps remind us of the importance of repetition and review of key concepts. The discussion of episodic and semantic memory reinforces the need to tie concepts and topics to students' previous experiences. Some of the best tips for working certain math problems have actually come from students in my classes.
Getting students to apply personal experiences or draw from personal experiences is very helpful in creating relevance to the material that is being presented. If there is relevance the student will be more likely to retain the knowledge learned. I love to draw from the experiences of my students.
Patricia,
Good analysis for how to approach the classroom and delivery content to your students. Common sense and your years of experience in the field serve you well as you continue your instructional efforts.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Robert,
You will like the results you get with this approach. Learners like change of pace and variety in their learning and this method allows for both.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Understanding basic learning, keeping in mine I am a professional not a tracer with no previous formal education in teaching adult, aid me in understanding how to help tea h them my professional by being basic , and understanding how much I learn on the job and not in the books. Kiss is the best proves
Understanding how students process infomation is a big help. I liked the stategy of letting the students know what is important and also guiding the student with frequent reviews and changing teaching mode every 8-10 min. to keep it freash.
Timothy,
Good to hear about how you are going to build even stronger connections between your content and the episodic memory of your students. These connections as you have experienced greatly enhance the retention of content by students.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Cynthia,
It is amazing how different each class is. Good point about how we must adapt and customize our instructional delivery to meet the needs of the current student group.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
