Christy Dixon
Describe
Chapter 6 of
Slavin’s book, Educational Psychology:
Theory and Practice, it discusses how the human brain acquires, processes
and retains information. It also discusses the different processes of how the
brain retrieves information once learned. The book tells us that there is a
theory that the human brain goes through a series of “steps” in order to sort
through all the information (stimuli) it takes in. “This whole process may take
place consciously, unconsciously, or both.” Slavin R.E. (2012). The name of
this theory is the information-processing theory and it has been widely
accepted “since the mid-1970’s” Slavin R.E. (2012). This theory states that
“information that is to be remembered, must first reach a person’s senses, then
be attended to and transferred from the sensory register to the working memory
and then be processed again for transfer to long term memory.” Slavin R.E.
(2012)
The different
“steps” in the process are as follows. Step 1, information from the senses goes
to the sensory register. The sensory register takes in a lot of information at
once; but if the brain doesn’t do anything with that information, it is quickly
lost.
If the information
is not lost in step 1, it is then processed by the brain and sent to Step 2.
Step 2 is the short term memory, also known as the working memory. The working
memory is where information is held for a short period of time. There are
different strategies that a person can do to keep the information in the
working memory. One such strategy is rehearsal (doing, saying, or thinking
about something over and over). “Rehearsal is important in learning because the
longer an item remains in the working memory, the greater the chance that it
will be transferred to long-term memory.” Slavin R.E. (2012)
Another way to
hold information in the working memory is to organize the information that is
coming in, in a way that makes since to the person. The example the book gave
was a person trying to memorize a shopping list. The list had 24 items on it,
which is way more than the capacity of the working memory. Slavin R.E. (2012)
states that “we can think about only five to nine distinct things at a time.”
If this is true, you can take the list of 24 items and organize them into only
4 groups: breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert. Now your working memory is
dealing with smaller chunks of information, which makes it easier to recall.
If the information
is retained long enough in the working memory, it is processed to the last
step, the long-term memory. If the information is not processed to the
long-term memory, it is either repeated in the working memory, or lost.
The information
that makes it to the long term memory is stored in one of three different
sections. One section is the episodic memory, “the memory of personal
experiences” Slavin R.E. (2012). The second is semantic memory, the memory of
“facts and general knowledge” Slavin R.E. (2012). The third section is the
procedural memory, the memory of “how to do things” Slavin R.E. (2012).
The information in
the long-term memory stays there until it is necessary to be retrieved. The
brain can use a number of different ways to retrieve the information. The book
also discusses a number of different factors that can help or hinder the
retrieval of information.
In the last part
of the chapter, Slavin discusses various strategies that teachers can use to
aid students in the process of learning and retrieving. This is important because
the ultimate goal for educators is for their students to process information
and retain it in their long-term memory, where it can be easily retrieved.
Analyze
This chapter is a very useful chapter in my opinion.
Knowing how the brain processes information allows me (as an educator) to
better plan my instruction so that my students can have the opportunity to
process the new information properly, and hopefully store it in their long term
memory. In order to give my students that chance, I must incorporate multiple
teaching strategies. I can’t just use one way of teaching all the time.
During our group discussion I wrote the
following in a response to Mr. King. I said, “As an educator, it's easy to get stuck in a rut, to do what
is easiest for you. Unfortunately, I have seen it with fellow colleagues and
(I'm not going to lie) it's tempting to me at times. However, the one thing
that I remind my colleagues (and myself) is that it's not about you; it's about
the success and growth of your students.” This is something that all educators
need to keep in mind. We need to be willing to try new strategies and see how
they work. You may realize that one of the new strategies you tried, works
better than what you were doing before! I have found this to be true in my own classroom!
Another one of my discussion group members (Ms. Colman) said,
“I give myself a personal inventory. The inventory for myself,
which I have done before, gives me insight on my strengths and weaknesses to
help strengthen my classroom environment and teacher student relationship with
my students." I
think that's an excellent idea. That way, we can use our strengths to help
others and we can pinpoint our areas that need improvement and take action to
improve them.
Understanding the process of the brain and how
to properly assist my students in their learning, is essential for the success
of my students. It is also essential to understand my own strengths and
weaknesses. My students and myself, are all unique in our own way. We come to
the classroom with different capabilities and different types background
knowledge. It’s my job to get to know them and build on what they already possess.
Mr. King, made excellent point on this. He said “a great
way to ensure that you are using great instructional strategies will be to get
to know your students and to get to know which type of learner he/she
is". It is also my job to use my
strengths and my experiences to present clear, organized, strategically planed lessons
to my students in hopes that they will absorb and retain the information.
Reflect
How do you feel
about this concept?
Chapter 6 was a long
chapter, but it was very interesting to me. I really enjoyed learning about the
brain and how it works. As I read through the chapter, I kept thinking to
myself, “Wow, that’s describing me.” or “Oh...I see now, I notice this with my
students”. This chapter helped me to make connections and lead to a more
concrete understanding of myself and my students. Therefore, I believe that all
teachers should have to study the brain and its processes. It is relevant to
our career and it correlates directly with our profession. The more that I
understand about the brain, the better I can assist my students in the learning
process and the more successful they will become.
What did you learn
about this concept that you did not know prior to its presentation?
I knew that the brain had a process
for sorting through information. However, I never really knew the details of
it. I also learned a great deal about how it connects to the classroom and how
I can assist my students through various teaching strategies.
How might you use
what you learned to be a better teacher?
I plan to implement some of the
strategies from chapter 6 into my instructional plans. I already do a number of
them, but there are a few that I will be using more often because they lead to
deeper understanding and long-term memorization.
One such skill I plan to focus more
on is metacognitive skills “thinking skills and study
kills”. Slavin R.E. (2012) I believe that teaching these skills to students is
vital to their future academic success. In my discussion post I said, “Teaching
our students skills such as note-taking, underlining/highlighting, summarizing,
outlining, concept mapping, self-questioning, rereading, writing out what they
have learned, and how to make connections; all aid in simplifying the learning
process.”
How did this event
change or confirm your knowledge or beliefs about teaching?
It confirmed my belief that
educators are tremendously influential in the success of their students. We
have the abilities to help children become all they can be through the proper
understanding/use of strategies and theories.
Works Cited
Slavin, R.E. (2012) Educational
Psychology: Theory and practice (10th ed.) Boston, MA:
Pearson
Class Discussion Week 4 (Coleman/King)
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