Tag Archives: Remember

Teachers, Training & Conferences

Put Working Memory to Work in Learning

Working memory involves the conscious processing and managing of information required to carry out complex cognitive tasks such as learning, reasoning, and comprehension. It has been described as the brain’s conductor. Memory has long been viewed as a key aspect of learning, but as the emphasis in educational standards has shifted away from rote memorization and toward the knowledge and skills needed to process new information, working memory is increasingly taking center stage.

There is an explosion of research today with the aim of understanding how this important function works and how to enhance it. However, the term working memory was first used more than 50 years ago to describe the role of recall in planning and carrying out behavior. In the 1970s and ’80s, British psychologist Alan Baddeley and colleagues developed a model of working memory that brings together how the brain accepts sensory input, processes both visual-spatial and verbal data, and accesses long-term memory; and how all of that input is processed by a function they referred to as central executive.

Working Memory in the Brain

Central executive monitors and coordinates input and decides which information we will focus our attention on. As with other cognitive processes that power executive function, the home base of working memory is in the prefrontal cortex. Researchers have detected increased activation in this area at the front of the brain when people are involved in thinking and problem solving that engages working memory.

Other areas of the brain that support working memory are the hippocampus, which is involved in long-term memory storage and spatial orientation, and Broca’s area, located on the left side of the frontal lobes and involved in language processing and verbal fluency.

Working memory is involved in a variety of learning and daily living tasks, such as reading, problem solving, and navigation. As such, it is sometimes referred to as the “brain’s workhorse.” In fact, brin-training authors, Tracy and Ross Alloway, contend that working memory is a better predictor than IQ of how well students will perform academically: “IQ is what you know. Working memory is what you can do with what you know”.

Thus, working memory is a key cognitive skill for students and their teachers. As an educator, you know well how you must to be able to maintain the mental skillfulness and agility to process many variables in everyday teaching practice, such as students’ prior knowledge, the primary purpose and goal of a lesson, sequence of learning activities, time constraints, interruptions throughout the school day, and on and on.

Students activate their working memory as they figure out the meaning of new words they encounter while reading, and as they decide which mathematical functions they will need to apply to a problem that their teacher has just jotted on the whiteboard.

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Workouts for Working Memory

The good news for teachers and students is that it is possible to improve our working memory. These strategies can help activate and, over time, enhance the central executive function of working memory:

  • Repeat after me.

Asking students to repeat what you have said or to paraphrase it in their own words is a simple way to both assess and increase their working memory. The acts of listening and speaking what they have heard focus their attention on the lesson content and activate several components of the working memory model.

  • Make a game of it.

Children and youth love to play games, and card games like Concentration, Crazy Eights, and Uno can help to build working memory. Better yet, design learning activities based on memory games to help reinforce key content.

  • Emphasize relevance.

Lead a class discussion on the importance of identifying and focusing on relevant data in learning. Life is full of irrelevant information and distractions. When researching a topic online, for example, it’s easy to get sidetracked by entries that are interesting but not relevant to the task at hand. A key aspect of improving working memory is developing your ability to attend to what’s important now.

  • Hone short-term recall through practice.

Provide plenty of learning activities that involve working with bits of information. Word problems in math require students to identify, remember, and process data.

  • Visualize it.

Learning to picture the components of a math reading problem (as just one example) in their minds is another strategy that engages and enhances multiple components of working memory.

  • Teach it to learn it.

The act of teaching also engages working memory. Through activities that involve peer teaching or learning in pairs and small groups, students can enhance learning by applying their working memory to the task of explaining and teaching new content to others.

Finally, as you teach students about working memory and how they can improve it, pair these lessons with explicit instruction on another cognitive skill — attention. Attention helps us focus on information so that we can work with it in working memory.[/box]

Students, Teachers, Training & Conferences

On this day…

guyfawkes

Remember, remember, the fifth of November

Gunpowder treason and plot

We see no reason

Why Gunpowder treason

Should ever be forgot,…..

It is an annual celebration observed on November 5th for more than 400 years following the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 when 13 conspirators planned to blow up Parliament and kill King James I.

Fawkes was arrested while guarding explosives the plotters had placed beneath the House of Lords.

People in London lit bonfires to celebrate the failure of the plot, and an act of Parliament was passed to appoint the date as a day of thanksgiving for the “joyful deliverance of James I”. This act remained in force for 254 years, until 1859.

To mark the occasion, here are some facts about Guy Fawkes, gunpowder and fireworks:

[box type=”shadow” align=”aligncenter” ]• Political protesters sometimes wear Guy Fawkes masks to protect their identity. You might recognize these masks if you’ve seen the film V for Vendetta, which is very loosely based on the story of Guy Fawkes.

• The only place in the UK that does not celebrate Guy Fawkes Night is St. Peter’s School in York. Guy Fawkes went there as a boy and they refuse to burn his image in respect for their former pupil.

• Guy Fawkes wasn’t the main conspirator in the Gunpowder Plot, but he had one of the most important roles. He guarded the gunpowder underneath the Houses of Parliament, and had he not been caught, he would have been charged with lighting it.

• Physicists from the Institute of Physics have calculated that the 2,500kg of gunpowder Fawkes hid would have wreaked damage almost 500 meters from the centre of the explosion.

• Fireworks were invented when a Chinese cook accidentally discovered how to make explosive black powder – the early origin of gunpowder – during the 10th century. The cook accidentally mixed three common kitchen ingredients – potassium nitrate or saltpeter (a salt substitute used in the curing of meat), sulfur and charcoal and set light to the concoction. The result was colorful flames. The cook also noticed that if the mixture was burned when enclosed in the hollow of a bamboo shoot, there was a tremendous explosion.

• Fireworks arrived in Europe in the 14th century and were first produced by the Italians. The first recorded display was in Florence. The first recorded fireworks in England were at the wedding of King Henry VII in 1486.

• Dummies have been burned on bonfires since as long ago as the 13th century, initially to drive away evil spirits. Following the gunpowder plot of 1605, the focus of the sacrifices switched to Guy Fawkes’ treason.

• It is said that the word ‘guy’ actually comes from the name Guy Fawkes. It originally meant “an ugly, repulsive person” but, throughout the years, simply became a synonym for “man”.

• One suggested origin for the word ‘bonfire’ is that derives from ‘bone-fire’, and comes from a time when the bodies of witches, heretics and other misfits were burned instead of being buried in holy ground.

• The Houses of Parliament are still searched by the Yeomen of the Guard before the state opening which has been held in November since 1928. The idea is to ensure no modern-day Guy Fawkes is concealed in the cellars. [/box]

[button color=”blue” size=”small” link=”http://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/10783340.10_facts_ about_Guy_Fawkes__fireworks_and_why_we_remember_ Gunpowder_Plot_on_November_5/” target=”blank” ]Source[/button]