Mnemonic devices
I have a sibling who is a physician, and she has taught me a great deal about the importance of mnemonics in teaching.
I have also worked with the students a great deal in developing acronyms that make sense to them and work with their learning style to help them be successful. I am a true believer in memorization with mnemonics and acronyms.
I agree that using mnemonics is a great tool in teaching. In one class I taught, I created a picture slide show with several mnemonics for vocabulary terms, then assigned vocabulary terms to each student, and asked them to create mnemonics to share with the class. Some of the mnemonics seemed to have meaning only for the person who created them, but overall they had some really great mnemonics to share.
There is the continual need to look at course material and objectives from a student's perspective. I often talk about ways to associate concepts. Sometimes
talking about what does not fit into a category helps in the process of remembering what does belong. Being willing to say that some information, some concept, &c. is less important than another is often needed. Who could memorize a textbook and understand it too?
"What are ways to remember this?", I sometimes ask. Just posing the question may help students think about the importance of remembering.
Jean, so you develop the mnemonics with the students or do you create them yourself?
