Cognitive Development 2 February 7, 2010

Much of this weeks reading dealt with the information processing part of cognitive development.  Long and short term memory is an important part of information processing.  It is important to ask ourselves as teachers, what is the best way to get our students to learn and remember the information we expose them to.  One way that was brought up by several people  in the blackboard discussion for our class was repetition.  Presenting or reminding students of topics over the course of a unit make it more likely that students will transfer that info from short-term memory to long-term memory.  I gavve the example of names of people I have met for the first time.  I often find myself forgetting their name when I hear it just once.  If I make myself repeat it or put it into some kind of context then I am much more likely to remember it.  That brings us to the other important strategy for helping students remember that isn’t always under our control.  Student interest.  We can’t always control students interest in lessons we present.  We can however work to vary our presentation and try our best to generate interest.  I know I remember things I am interested in much better than those I am not.  Interest seems to make it more likely for us to transfer information from short-term memory to long-term memory.