What are the essential skills and/or learning outcomes you want your
students to know and be able to do that relate to cognitive learning?
I have been through many years of school and there is a lot of information that I have learned and been tested on that I could not recall and tell you about now. Is it not sad how much we learn but don't remember? There are several skills that I would like for my students to know in order to have the best learning outcomes that they can have. I want them to be able to remember as much of what I teach them as possible.
Many of my classes in college have seemed irrelevant to me. I often find myself asking, "when am I ever going to use this in real life?" Much of the information that I do not remember is information that I learned in those classes. If I do not see how the information is relevant to me or I cannot relate it to the real world, then I will not remember it. I feel that this is true for most students. One of the most important skills I can make sure my students know is how to relate what they are learning to real life. Part of that is the teacher's role when they begin the lesson. It is important for them to make the real-life connections so they will retain the information.
Another concept that builds off of that is constructivism. Students that use construction are more likely to remember information. This means that they are connecting what they are learning to previous knowledge and building off of it. This is also known as meaningful learning. This will be a very useful skill for them.
My main goal as a teacher will be to help my students store information in their long-term memory. I will need to teach them strategies for doing this. A lot of what I do not remember from college classes is what I memorized the night before a test. In order to store information in our long-term memories, we have to hear/see it numerous times and in multiple ways to effectively store it. When I am teaching, I will revisit the same information more than once before moving on to make sure that they are remembering it.
A very helpful method of storing information in our long-term memories is using mnemonics. Mnemonics are special memory tricks. One way to use mnemonics is by teaching a song to students. A great example of this is the ABC song that we all learn when we are little. Another example of mnemonics is My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizza Pies. Although this does not really work anymore because Pluto is not a planet, I learned this in elementary school to remember the planets and I still remember it to this day.
These are some skills that I want my students to know. Hopefully with their knowledge of these skills, most of what I teach them will stick with them for the rest of their lives. Here are a couple articles that have helpful mnemonics:
http://www.letkidslead.com/MemoryTricks.aspx
http://www.learninginfo.org/spelling-mnemonics.htm
You are absolutely correct in stating that we as students, need to be able to relate classwork to real life situations. Today's youth seems to need more and more of this relatability to do well in school. So many toys and ipads, etc are mad available to kids at a very young age. These devices also create simple scenarios that help the kids understand the math, reading, and many other skills required to do well in school. It appears that we have a similar view on how we learn and expect our students to learn. Our co-teaching should go well.
ReplyDeleteI have definitely learned over the years that when a class I take has no point in my real life, then I am not encouraged to learn anything. A lot of the gen ed classes were like this, like Geology. If there is no point, students will not want to learn.
ReplyDeleteIt is vital to show the connection of what you teach in class to the world outside. Students will be able to understand more and will want to learn if they see there is a reason to. If they see a reason, it is likely that what they learn will go to long-term memory storage because they attached meaning to it.
Like many college students, I have also taken classes that I have gotten really good grades in but have not been able to remember one fact from a year later. One of my favorite things about your post this week is that you hit on two big issues: making lessons relevant and helping students convert lessons to long-term memory. I think these are two concepts that both teachers and students struggle with every day, and I like that you addressed these in your post.
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