ModAnnie: It’s 8pm! Welcome to the chat everyone.
Stannum: My main thoughts were about memory consolidation. How can we help students deal with having to recall lots of information over a long period of time.
Is revisiting the same topic regularly useful? Is it time critical. Should we recap every week? Or is there a metacognition approach where you assess your own knowledge better?
Liz: @stannum This has definitely been a hot topic in the “Ask a Question” section!
@stannum The short answer is Yes, it is useful to revisit topics, and to interleave that learning with other material. One of the best approaches is to do low-stakes testing. The timing depends on how long you’d like students to retain the info
http://www.learningscientists.org/interleaving
http://www.learningscientists.org/spaced-practice
Jo: here’s a response I gave earlier: Should we consolidate learning by regular revision of past topics throughout the year?
revisiting the same topic could be useful, as memories take time (and sleep) to consolidate
but also testing yourself (or your students) is more effective than repeating information
here is a link to an accessible article on how testing yourself is effective: http://tdtrust.org/testing-is-key-to-long-term-learning
stannum: Cool. Thanks. Haven’t browsed the questions section yet. But we were talking about this in our department meeting. We have regular test but they are only “end of topic” rather than synoptic.
Jo: yes, this is typical – but testing can be a useful way to boost learning rather than just an assessment – seems like you were already thinking this Gareth
Carolina: Distributed practice is a great way to start because it means that you systematically plan your study sessions.
The key is to take breaks between one session and the other…Information may be forgotten, but this is actually a good thing as retrieving information later will be more effortful which is important for stronger memory traces.
hannahmoloney: Hi, is there any current research which suggests that we can improve working memory? I am a trained dyslexia specialist but as far as I’m aware I still believe a WM deficit to be fixed. Is there anything I can do to improve my students WM?
Paul: i believe the overall picture from the existing research is that 1) any function that you wil train will improve, but 2) the *real* issue is whether this training generalises to other functions – here evidence – at least from computerised training regimes – is weak
what we DO have to bear in mind though is the methodology of the most of the employed studies
the large majority use gamified versions of cognitive visual tasks , such as N-back “count backwards in steps of 3 from 100” etc.
where these computerised cogntive regimes seems to have largely failed (that is, in the far transfer that i have just mentioned) – certain types of games have been surprisingly effective
playing games, especially action video games (most often studied are shooters, but racer share the same features), improve people’s sharpness of vision, ability to see in 3D, their ability to create representations of currently important information etc.
Jo: unfortunately the evidence suggests that while we can train working memory – i.e. we can get better at WM games – this doesn’t translate and improve other skills that use WM, such as reading or maths
Hi Hannah, this is an article that demonstrates that WM training does not benefit reading or maths: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4232921/
it is an academic article – does anyone have anything thats been written for a more general audience?
@Hannah – do you think your students with dyslexia have poor WM?
hannahmoloney: Can anyone explain why a few of my dyslexic students have a very good memory for music and lyrics, but not spoken word? Does it employ different parts of the brain together and, could this aid learning for some?
Jo: Yes I can!
dyslexia is a specific problem with phonology – speech sounds, and linking these to letters
so music should not be affected, and nor is language comprehension
unfortunately though there is not good evidence that musical training for example can help dyslexia. really you need to train phonology and letter-sounds.
This is a review from 2012 concluding that there is no good evidence for musical training: https://www.educationelf.net/cochrane-review-inconclusive-about-the-impact-of-music-education-on-the-reading-skills-of-children-with-dyslexia/
but that is not the same thing as saying it definitely doesn’t work, just that there is not good evidence for it
stannum: Thanks. And @hannah, my son is quite badly dyslexic and he has and excellent vocabulary and memory for anything spoken. And he is good at computer games! (just not reading)
Lucy: I guess a common theme here is that whatever you want to improve, the training itself needs to be quite close to it, or link to it in some way. Transferring learning is really hard!!
Paul: I agree with Jo, there is some work on training letter-sound pairing as being effective in reducing dyslexia
@Gareth there is one fantastic study on the effect of action video games on improving reading speed in DD (developmental dyslexia) kids – https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/7d78/24890b99d468fd63d13eb1b083666c93a144.pdf free pdf version, too 🙂
Jo: @Paul and @Gareth – be wary of this study
Sorry, I will have re re-read the action video games study but I know there was a lot of controversy about it at the time
Paul: @Jo that’d be fantastic and v informative, i held it quite highly
UPDATE:
I wanted to post a link to a blogpost by Dorothy Bishop about this study:
http://deevybee.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/high-impact-journals-where.html
And also to add that the original study was conducted with Italian children, but a follow-up study with English speaking children suffers from similar methodological problems as identified in Dorothy’s blog. Small numbers of children, there is no independent verification of children’s reading problems (they were included if their parents said that they had a dyslexia diagnosis), the action video game and control group are not matched initially for reading ability, and the reading tasks are administered in a non-standard way, which makes you worry, as they may not be measuring what they are supposed to measure.
Stannum: Am I correct in thinking that exercise and social interaction scores more highly in improving peoples working memory?
Rather than getting better at sudoku!
Paul: @Gareth- there was a Q on links between exercise and academic achievement, which I’ve answered: /learning-zone/2018/01/08/is-there-a-connection-between-athletic-ability-and-language-proficiency/
the gist is that aerobic exercise has an overal positive, although a bit weak positive effect on learning and grades in school
kohlmand: Can you tell me what is the best way of delivering information/rehearsing information to make it stick. I understand the idea of interleaving and retrieval practice but what specific activities work best?
I always tell students converting information from one form to another is valuable e.g. words to picture but have I made this up!?
Liz: @kohlmand One approach is to link the material to something meaningful/emotional
Lucy: @kohlmand I was going to say the same thing. Anything you can do to make material stand out should make it more memorable
stannum: @kohlmand lol. I tell them the same thing. I hope I am correct in saying that simple recitation/copying is a poor way to revise, but that processing the information by answering questions, shortening, diagrams helps more.
ModSu: My 2 teens are encouraged by their school to use mindmaps and spidergrams to help with revision. Is there any research about these methods of remembering?
Paul: @Kohlmand the overall research points to the idea that the larger number of manipulations you do on the material, the richer the way in which the brain represents it and so can recall it by afterwards
our work in adults have shown that known information that has been presented both visually and auditorily is better remembered afterwards than informaton presented just visually
in kids we are not getting as reliable results, note
Liz: And you’re absolutely right; multisensory processing is also helpful for stronger memory encoding. @Paul can likely elaborate on this, as I know he works on multisensory processing
kohlmand: @Paul @ liz oh phew multi sensory is good. I find the emotional relelvance is hard to deliver and can distract from the content
Paul: @Kohlmand I’d say multisensory is very good
it’s how we naturally all represent objects in our brains
kohlmand: @paul why do you think the results in young people are different?
Paul: these are unpublished data, so I’m careful with drawing conclusions
one point is that the data has been collected across a wide range of ages
affecting numbers within smaller age ranges
Kohlmand: I just wonder if the info has can be via a video with both auditory and visual info, or if it’s more effective from a live adult in the room that can respond and interact
Lucy: @kohlmand Shaaron Ainsworth at Nottingham has done lots of research looking at visualisations to help learning which might be of interest, e.g. http://science.sciencemag.org/content/333/6046/1096
Paul: intuition would dictate that teacher is better, but there is some v recent work from Suzanne Dikker that pupils report watching videos more engaging which in turn was linked to better retentions of the presented material
higher levels of NFC are linked to generally more in-depth processing of the presented material
Lucy: @kohlmand I heard about a study (not sure if it’s been published) where the main factor that improved performance was having a live adult teaching rather than just a video
niki: I heard a really good talk from Duncan Astle yesterday (about neuroscience and Education), in this talk, he mentioned a study about how curiosity can help retention. Any thoughts or pointers?
Paul: @niki,there is certainly a v interesting construct called “need for cognition”, which describes drawing pleasure from cognitively effortful activities
stannum: I guess “engagement” and “curiosity” are simlar?
Paul: I’d say that curiosity is more internally driven and a general trait, while engagement is something more malleable by effective practice ?
Lia – Wellcome: @niki and @all could this be a useful starting point? https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19619181
Paul: @niki this one is a bit old so maybe a bit outdated but its a fascinating review – Dispositional differences in cognitive motivation: The life and times of individuals varying in need for cognition
@niki there’s another ref, even more directly linked to your Q – pape called The psychology of curiosity: A review and reinterpretation.
again a little old and I dont know of a good updatre
Stannum: Has anyone got any thoughts/data on gamification of learning? I seem to remember reading about a schools where students “levelled up” and chose what they wanted to do that day based on what they needed to do to “level up”? Also seem to remember that in computer games players were willing to tackle a problem several times to defeat a “boss” but they wont try a harder question!
Jo: Paul Howard Jones does research on gamification of learning
https://research-information.bristol.ac.uk/en/persons/paul-a-howardjones(eb5fe54a-2996-4b40-b957-cd0bca339e6c)/publications.html
@stannum https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266945518_Neuroscience_and_education_Myths_and_messages
@stannum towards the end there is a section on dopamine and gaming and learning etc.
Paul: @stannum different types of games seem to influence different functions
@stannum Action video games seem to affect primarly visual and general “attentional control” / “executive” functions, that is, those that let you select the currently important information
@stannum in turn strategic, RPG and/or multiplayer games influence slightly different processes (linked to those mentioned), associated in my opinion with working memory
thomass17: I’m a science teacher in a really deprived school and really struggle to get even my brightest students to learn, remember or link even the simplistic of tasks. I wondered if anyone had any ideas that I could try or research to help me understand the reasons why.
Jessie: @thomass17 that is really hard. What do you feel are the barriers to them learning? Could be so many things
thomass17: Some have some real issues as you would expect but some have perfectly fine lives. Its almost as if they walk through the door and switch off. I wonder whether expectations have something to do with it but is so hard to get the to even remember something as simple as the respiration equation.
jessie: @thomass17 I’m sure you’ve thought of this but making the topic real and relevant to them. Really hitting home why hey should car, real life implications etc
Paul: @thomass17 could perhaps more so-called “student-centred” learning approaches help? These are those that make the student the agent behind what they are learning (naturally, within a prescribed range of to-be-learnt information base) ?
thomass17: I’ve tried many approaches and I can get the enthusiasm to work during the lesson but it seems to have disappeared by next lesson. Its so infuriating as I know these students could do well but I just can’t identify the barrier to jump over it. School force them to constantly do recall but I don’t think that this is really solving the issue – more meeting targets for exams.