Rule #6: Remember to Repeat

As an educator I am concerned with student learning. In my opinion that means aiding a learner to reach their full potential in a variety of areas; the core academic subjects, the arts, critical thinking, etc. This a long term view, for learning never really ends. But in this day and age much of our focus is student success on mandated test which is a short term goal with the underlying assumption that all students can learn the same amount of information in the same amount of time.

John Medina in the book Brain Rules explores long term memory. The following are some thoughts from the chapter 6 which caught my attention.

Long term memories are not permanent, or stable every time they are called into consciousness they become pliable. (pg 127)

This would explain why my family members do not all share the same memories around certain events. Our memories are tinged with our individual experiences in the intervening years.

“Deliberately re-expose yourself to the information if you want to retrieve it later. Deliberately re-expose yourself to the information more elaborately if you want the retrieval to be of higher quality. Deliberately re-expose yourself to the information more elaborately, and in fixed, spaced intervals, it you want the retrieval to be the most vivid it can be” (pg133)

As an educator this is very important and something I learned as a college student. I was trained by mother to review my notes every couple of days. I did, I never needed to cram for a test and I earned good grades. Some of my classmates were crammers and did not do as well in school. I was teased that I was just lucky or extra smart. I had different study habits which were apparently more successful. Educators as life long learners should realize that this also the reason we should attend professional development opportunities, we may have learned it once before but it does not me we know it and could not benefit from review. Repetition over time is more effective them cramming. Information linked with more examples is more elaborate and retrieved in more detailed. This is a principle we should apply to students’ learning and our own all the time.

“Today, students are expected to know certain things by certain grades. Curiously absent from this model is how durable that learning remains after the student completes the grade. Given that system consolidation can take years, might the idea of grade-level expectations need amending.” (pg 145)

Some of the state tests we give in MA cover 2-3 years of schooling. This model assumes that once a student it taught the material it is learned and remembered both in short term and long term memory. Each year more is added to the curriculum allowing little time for review. Key concepts should be repeated through out the school year and school career. In order to do this successfully we either need to length the time in school or pare down the curriculum.

What are your thoughts? Please add you comments below.