…of long-term memory.
Hello and welcome to the 92nd edition of our fortnightly newsletter, Things in Education.
Two weeks back, we wrote about “the powerhouse of our cognitive system: long-term memory”, which can be imagined as “a vast spider web of knowledge and experiences.” The more the connections between pieces of information in long-term memory, the deeper the learning. Additionally, the deeper and stronger these connections, the deeper the learning. We ended that edition by saying that learning may eventually be a rewarding process, but it is hard work. So how do we align our teaching to facilitate learning?
In this edition, we write about some robust strategies to increase the connections in long-term memory and make them stronger and deeper.
Increase opportunities for multi-sensory learning
Each sensory experience helps make more connections in long-term memory. For example, when teaching kindergarten children about a tree, just listening to a story about it might teach them words like “brown” and “leaves.”
But if they experience a tree with all their senses, they learn much more. Taking children to a garden to see a tree—touching its rough trunk and smooth leaves, smelling the fresh mud, and listening to the rustling leaves and chirping birds—helps them make many connections to the idea of a tree.
In the classroom, using multi-sensory tools like videos, tactile models, or sound clips can also deepen understanding. For instance, while teaching the water cycle, showing a diagram, performing a hands-on evaporation experiment, and watching a video of clouds forming make the topic much more engaging and memorable.
Make your instruction as multi-disciplinary as possible
Linking knowledge from different subjects helps create a strong web of understanding. Take the example of teaching about desert life in Geography. A regular lesson might cover facts about the terrain, climate and lifestyle of the people, which may still help students make some connections with existing knowledge. But a multi-disciplinary lesson goes further:
Geography : Students can analyse the desert’s location and infer its climate.
Science : They can discuss how the soil affects crops and nutrition.
History : They explore how historical events shaped the region’s lifestyles.
Mathematics : They can calculate distances between the desert and nearby cities.
This approach helps students connect new knowledge to what they already know. Our brain builds stronger, more lasting memories when we link new information to many other ideas, like creating a strong web with many threads.
Implement retrieval practice routines
We have said this before and we will say it again – our brains tend to avoid hard work. Creating long-term memory connections takes hard work. When you are walking through a forest, you need to put in effort to create a new path by removing fallen branches in the way, jumping over obstacles, etc. This is effortful. And if you don’t walk down the same path in the forest again and again, the pathway will not be made and more foliage will grow.
In the same way, creating a new connection between new information and existing memories is difficult and energy consuming. So the brain is going to “forget” this connection unless it is reinforced. To avoid this, we need to ensure that we make students recall what they have learned at regular intervals. These are called retrieval practices.
So what are retrieval practices? Practices that force students to recall what they had learned, instead of revisiting or re-reading what they had learned, are retrieval practices. For example, after a lesson on India’s independence movement, students should close their books and then a teacher asks questions like: “What role did the Salt March play in the freedom struggle?” or “How does the non-cooperation movement connect to satyagraha?” Two important aspects of retrieval practices are their timing and stakes, which we will write about in more detail in one of our next editions.
Ensure active and independent thinking
When students solve problems, debate or think independently, they use their long-term memory actively. For example, if they’re asked to design an eco-friendly classroom, they might use their knowledge of environmental science, suggest creative ideas and evaluate them, work with peers to refine their plans and so on.
Think of the forest and path again. By walking on the path, you will increase the chance of the path staying a path. In the same way, making the brain think actively makes the brain work hard and recall information, a skill, etc. This type of active thinking reinforces and strengthens the memory connections. Encouraging students to figure out steps or reach conclusions on their own ensures they remember what they learn for longer. On the other hand, if we just give information to students, while they are passively listening, they are going to make fewer connections resulting in lower learning.
So information in the long-term memory remains there and is easier to access if there are more connections between one element and others, and also if there are deep connections between one piece of information and others. These various and in-depth connections can be made by approaches like multi-sensory learning, multi-disciplinary teaching, active thinking, and retrieval practices, and active thinking.
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Edition: 3.40
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