4 Ways to Ensure Your Lessons Stick with Students<\/p>\n\n\n\n
by Charan Ranganath<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Link to full article<\/a>. Excerpts below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Over a century of research on human memory shows that\u00a0we forget much of what we experience within a day<\/a>. The small proportion of things we do retain\u00a0weigh heavily on our future actions<\/a>.\u00a0As Nobel Prize<\/a>\u2013winning psychologist Dr. Daniel Kahneman put it<\/a>, \u201cWe make our decisions in terms of our memories.\u201d While writing my book, Why We Remember<\/em><\/a>, I faced the challenge of encapsulating over a century of research on the science of memory in a way that readers could understand and apply to their daily lives. Drawing upon that science, I came up with what I call the four Cs of memorable messaging. You, too, can use the concepts from memory science to craft engaging lessons\u2014whether it\u2019s a class activity, an assignment, or a discussion\u2014that will be likely to stick with students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The human brain can only keep a limited amount of information in mind at any given time<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n … To get around working memory capacity limits, we can use, \u201cchunking<\/a>,\u201d in which we explicitly tie together the points that we want to convey under the umbrella of a central idea. With this approach, your students can stitch the pieces together in a meaningful way and build a rich memory for that material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For instance, when people would ask me to explain how we can keep our memory functioning well as we get older, I used to give them a long list of things to do. Now, I just give them a simple answer: \u201cYour brain is a body part, so what is good for your body is good for your brain and your memory.\u201d I follow up this simple concept with the specifics, including what to do (aerobic exercise, Mediterranean diet, getting enough sleep, etc.) and what to avoid (chronic stress, infections, air pollution, etc.). By starting with one basic principle, and breaking it down into two subcategories, I organize a disconnected laundry list of facts into a cohesive network of knowledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When teaching a complex topic, you can make it memorable by using a concrete example. Research shows<\/a> that people find it harder to memorize an abstract concept, like \u201cjustice,\u201d than something that we can easily visualize or imagine, like \u201cgavel.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although I know this as a scientist, it took me a while to incorporate that advice in my own teaching. For many years, I taught classes in which I focused all my time on the concepts that I wanted students to learn. When writing Why We Remember<\/em><\/a>, however, I had to adopt a different approach to make the same material more accessible. So, I started off each chapter with an emotionally engaging story, embellished with sensory details to immerse the reader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Recalling something<\/a>\u00a0that we previously learned can make it stronger and easier to access when we will need it. This is why tests can be the most powerful educational tool in an instructor\u2019s arsenal. … In fact, you can test students before you have even taught them the answer\u2014pre-testing students<\/a>\u00a0on what they are about to learn can be just as effective as testing them on what they have already learned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n … We scanned people\u2019s brains while they were listening to stories, and at one point in each story there was a sentence that referred back to an event that was described a few minutes earlier. During the callback, we saw\u00a0greater activation of the brain circuitry involved in forming new memories<\/a>, and the callback helped our subjects\u00a0retain more information from the story<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n … Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we found that when people are confronted with a question and are curious to learn the answer, there is a spike in activity in areas of the brain that process dopamine. These brain areas seem to play a role in energizing us to chase rewards (like traveling a long distance to your favorite pizzeria). Moreover,\u00a0dopamine enhances the brain\u2019s ability to form new memories, which might explain why curiosity turbocharges learning<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Research suggests the key to stimulating that dopamine bump is to\u00a0highlight a\u00a0knowledge gap<\/em><\/a>. We all have gaps in our knowledge about the world, but we are often unaware of those gaps. By highlighting the gap between what your students know and what you want them to know, you can elicit a little error signal in their brains, leading to a state that is conducive to new learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This article<\/em><\/a> was originally published on <\/em>hbr.org<\/em><\/a> and has been adapted with the author<\/em>\u2019s permission.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhat makes a lesson memorable?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
1. Chunk it up<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
2. Make it concrete<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
3. Provide callbacks<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
4. Spark their curiosity<\/h3>\n\n\n\n