Information Processing

         This chapter is all about how students process information. There are three main sections of memory, sensory register, long-term memory, and short-term memory. I have to say that I have learned the most from this chapter thus far. I have honestly never heard of working memory, a memory portion associated with long-term memory. I found it fascinating to read about because having the knowledge about it can help me in my day to day teaching activities. Slavin (2012) says, “Working memory is believed to have a capacity of five to nine bits of information” (p. 147). Another important thing to remember when dealing with the working memory is that everyone’s working memory holds a different amount of information. I can apply the knowledge that I learned about the working memory to my classroom because I cannot expect all of my students to remember the same way and pace. It is evident in the reading that students need to see teachers use a variety of ways to teach information so that each student is given the opportunity to fully grasp the concept being taught. Meagan Kuck mentions in her discussion post, “It is also very important that teachers use various strategies because each student is different.”

            Another memory that I have never heard about until now is the episodic memory. Slavin (2012) says, “Episodic memory is our memory of personal experiences, a mental movie of things we saw or heard” (p.149). I try to create a lot of episodic memories in my classroom to help my students remember information better. An example would be the fact that I use a lot of hands on experiences in my class so that the child can actually remember content based on their personal experience. Another concept that I can use in my classroom is the verbal learning concept, serial learning in particular. Serial learning is about recalling a list of items in a specific order (Slavin, 2012, p.163). I love teaching social studies and one thing that I would like to do different next year in teaching social studies is to use more timelines. I believe that I will be able to help my students better understand the importance and significance of history by letting them serial learn and complete timelines.

            In all, using various learning strategies combined with knowledge of memory types and memory importance will be overall beneficial to a teacher because it helps us plan our lessons more appropriately. We have to think about what we want to accomplish out of the lesson and then work backwards. In addition, all information taught or explored should be organized. It is the job of the teacher to create structured yet creative and engaging activities for the students.

References

Slavin, R.E. (2012). Educational psychology: Theory and practice (10^th ed.). Boston:Pearson.