Overcome curve of forgetting

Some students may forget what we have taught two weeks ago.

There are also some who cannot remember what we have taught last week.

Teachers are always struggling to complete syllabus but they often find their students forgetting past content of what we have taught them.

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We may have noticed that our pupils are able to do better for questions that we have just learnt during a summative assessment.

The curve of forgetting gives us an idea of how our memory generally works and how we lose information each day.

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With more researches done related to our brains, neuroscience gives us ideas of how our brains work and what we can do to help our students to remember what they have learnt.

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Application of information

We often find ourselves confused or unable to process information when we are overloaded with too much information in a workshop or seminar.

Our brains remove information that we do not use actively. When new information comes in, the old information may just get pushed away.

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Just like our storage space at home. We often put the things we use often more accessible and things we do not use may be unreachable or we totally forget about them.

By using the information gained, our brains would keep the information that we use since we still need to use them.

I often find myself forgetting the names of my students from the previous year. I would have forgotten most of the names of students that I had taught more than two years ago.

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I can only remember the names of my students this year since I am using their names daily during lessons.

We can easily use the curve of forgetting as an excuse even for teachers when we forget our ex-students' names.

Intentional retrieval

We can play an active role in helping our students to remember important information through formative assessment or higher order thinking questions.

We want our students to dig into the information that they have learnt and figure how they can use them to answer our questions.

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By giving them opportunities to retrieve the information gained with higher order thinking questions, we are forcing their brains to process the information and think even beyond the information given leading to many meaningful connections.

With great effort used for retrieval, it leaves a greater impression in their memory.

Interleaved Learning

This is a good way to retain of information learnt for past topics.

This method enables teachers to provide their students with the need to apply what they have learnt for a few topics leading to the transfer of temporary memory to permanent memory.

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By doing so, we build a strong path for the information since it takes great effort to use them.

In simple, those we do not put in effort in using, we lose them but those we are forced to use them, we retain them.

Interleaved learning provides our students to use information from more than one topic leading to retaining the information for these topics more effectively.

Good study plan

For older students, teachers can advise and teach them how to make effective study plan.

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There are so many temptations nowadays for our students like their online computer games and mobile games.

Even their whatsapp can be a distraction since they may be chatting on their mobile devices for hours.

Our students need to set realistic study plan that they can achieve within the amount of time needed for revision.

Setting unrealistic study goals can only make our students discard the use of study plan since they are unable to fulfil their unrealistic goals.

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Teachers can introduce SMART goals that ensure their study plan is specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely.

By planning it well, students can develop a good habit of structured revision as well as time for their brains to rest.

In conclusion

There are many other ways to help our students to fight the curve of forgetting and retain what they have learnt.

Teachers can play an active role to help our students but students must develop their own responsibility to remember what they have learnt especially for older students.

Once we get our students to understand the need to use the information that they learn, they can develop the habit of effective revision that can benefit them in future.

Disclaimer: This is my personal reflection and I am not in any position to instruct anyone what they should do. I am not responsible for any action taken as a result of this post. My post can only be a reference for your further research and growth. By reading this post, you acknowledge and accept that. All images and pictures were taken from google images that are free from copyright under labelled for reuse.

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Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://fun2learn.vornix.blog/2018/12/07/overcome-curve-of-forgetting/

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