Lots of practice doing math. Encourage good sleeping. Test them on their math skills.
One of the fundamental truths in neuroscience is that “neurons that fire together, wire together” which (effectively) means that practice helps strengthen memory. The more they get experience practicing the relevant problem solving skills, the better they will eventually retain the information.
Another factor that makes a surprisingly big difference is sleep. There are lots of studies showing that when you learn a new piece of information, you are more likely to remember it if you’ve had a chance to sleep in between learning it and testing it. These studies are tricky to run because there are so many factors to control but the best ones have a clear take home message: good sleep helps memory.
Finally, there is solid evidence that testing people also helps them to learn. These don’t have to be tests that contribute to a child’s grade; they can just be short quizzes or mock tests where they are expected to perform as well as possible in preparation for the final evaluation. Questions that people get wrong help them to remember the material at a later time. If I remember correctly, it goes by the catchy name “the testing effect” (but having not slept well or been tested on this, I can’t be too sure!).
I’m guessing all of these things are already in place in your school? Have you tried playing with any of them to see the effect on performance in your class? Just curious!
As far as I know, it does yes. Flashcards reinforce basic arithmetic info for primary school children. But if anyone knows any evidence that I’ve got this wrong, please do share.
Hi
Would you be able to supply a link to the studies that show how sleep can improve memory – I think my a level students need to see the evidence.! Many thanks
The memory-sleep link would be ideal for Matt Davis to comment on because it’s an area where he’s done a lot of research. I’ll point him to this thread and ask him to join in.
The role of sleep in learning and memory is an interesting topic and still the subject of ongoing research. With colleagues in York and Egham, we’ve studied how adults and children learn new words. Brain imaging research has shown that the way that newly-learned words are stored in the brain seems to change after a night of sleep:
These overnight changes are linked to brain activity that occurs during a particular stage of slow-wave sleep which acts to “consolidate” recently learned words:
Of course, all this research is specific to learning words. However, similar principles are probably at work in many other forms of learning. Robert Stickgold at Harvard has a web page that covers the role of sleep in learning and memory more generally:
Have to agree that sleep is a primary driver of learning and memory. Sometimes we miss the obvious. Or put it another way habitual inadequate sleep could easily undo our best educational efforts
Comments
specialsymbol commented on :
Thank you for your answer!
Does “..means that practice helps strengthen memory. ” apply to any practice, e.g. using flashcards, too?
specialsymbol commented on :
Another note:
“Finally, there is solid evidence that testing people also helps them to learn”.
Does this also apply to the testing done with flashcards?
Could you possibly provide a link to that evidence?
Thank you very much!
Joe commented on :
As far as I know, it does yes. Flashcards reinforce basic arithmetic info for primary school children. But if anyone knows any evidence that I’ve got this wrong, please do share.
specialsymbol commented on :
Thank you for your reply!
Is there any reason why you restrict this to basic arithmetic in primary school?
Joe commented on :
Not really — I just hadn’t seen flashcards used for anything else.
sjays commented on :
Hi
Would you be able to supply a link to the studies that show how sleep can improve memory – I think my a level students need to see the evidence.! Many thanks
Joe commented on :
The memory-sleep link would be ideal for Matt Davis to comment on because it’s an area where he’s done a lot of research. I’ll point him to this thread and ask him to join in.
Matt D commented on :
The role of sleep in learning and memory is an interesting topic and still the subject of ongoing research. With colleagues in York and Egham, we’ve studied how adults and children learn new words. Brain imaging research has shown that the way that newly-learned words are stored in the brain seems to change after a night of sleep:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/5334419/Sleep-can-improve-your-word-power.html
These overnight changes are linked to brain activity that occurs during a particular stage of slow-wave sleep which acts to “consolidate” recently learned words:
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2010/11/4/words-sleep-new-study/
This consolidation process helps the brain to recognise and produce new words quickly, and to generalise which is key to learning grammar:
http://theconversation.com/learning-a-language-sleep-on-it-and-youll-get-the-grammar-40605
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/11544701/Getting-enough-sleep-is-key-to-exam-success-research-says.html
Of course, all this research is specific to learning words. However, similar principles are probably at work in many other forms of learning. Robert Stickgold at Harvard has a web page that covers the role of sleep in learning and memory more generally:
http://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu/healthy/matters/benefits-of-sleep/learning-memory
Hope this is helpful,
matt
Colin commented on :
Have to agree that sleep is a primary driver of learning and memory. Sometimes we miss the obvious. Or put it another way habitual inadequate sleep could easily undo our best educational efforts