Students Will Not Always Remember What They Learned. Here’s How To Help.

However, when students do not have basic knowledge to which they can relate the new information provided, they may have difficulty in understanding the material.

Additionally, students who are pressured to memorize information without really understanding the material can hinder their future learning. Why? When students have to memorize information they don’t understand, “that’s going to be something you’re going to forget quickly,” Willingham continues. “Understanding is the cornerstone of remembering.”

Another reason why students can’t remember what they’ve learned is because people tend to forget things.

Cara Goodwin, a child psychologist, said there is an emotional reason why students don’t remember something they were there. The prefrontal cortex and hippocampus, brain regions responsible for memory consolidation and retrieval, are not fully developed until age 25, she said. “Our brain develops gradually during childhood, so … these memory skills should get better and better as children grow,” he said.

According to Willingham, “forgetting is a natural part of memory.”

Information storage teaching tools

Despite some forgetfulness, Conlon has her own toolkit to help her students retain as much information as possible, such as speaking Spanish for most of the class to make sure the kids learn more Spanish. He also creates activities and lessons that engage his students emotionally. “I think the more they invest, the more they’ll be able to learn that language, and pay more attention to the input they’re getting,” Conlon said.

For Conlon’s first- through fifth-graders, emotional learning is done through play, singing, dancing and reading stories. In Connecticut, where she teaches, play-based learning is mandated in pre-kindergarten and kindergarten, and schools are required to allow teachers to use play-based learning through fifth grade.

According to Willingham, one effective strategy for learning is low-stakes and fixed questions with a quick response. “Going into your memory and trying to find something, even if you fail, is a really good way to connect something to the memory that was there, but kind of weak,” he said.

Context clues can also be very useful when helping students find information they think they have forgotten. This is true for adults as well, Goodwin said. For example, if someone asks you what the capital of Virginia is, you might not remember, but if they give you a context clue like “it starts with the letter ‘R’” you might be able to guess that it’s Richmond, he continued. .

Year-to-Year Curriculum Alignment and Teacher-to-Teacher Communication

Teachers can help students retain information, but these practices need to be built into the curriculum, at appropriate times, Willingham said. If there is a skill or knowledge that should be retained by the time a student graduates from high school, but that student is acquiring this knowledge for the first time in middle school, “then that content needs to be updated periodically,” in ways that make sense, Willingham said. said.

Oftentimes teachers and other adults can forget what it’s like to be a student’s learning experience for the first time. The “curse of knowledge,” as Willingham describes it, makes it difficult to “bring yourself back into the mind of the stranger.” [certain information]so it seems like it should be a lot easier than it is.”

Conlon credited the district-wide push for strong direct-talk to the helpful mid-level discussions he’s had with other teachers in his department. Through these meetings, Conlon and his fellow elementary school teachers are able to meet with middle school teachers to discuss how students are preparing for sixth grade.

Conlon encouraged teachers to take an observation day to see what other teachers at different levels are doing in their classrooms. At the elementary level, you might see students playing, “but that play leads to learning, and language acquisition, and social emotional skills and all those things that hopefully set them up for success in sixth grade,” Conlon said.