Chapter 6 (Information Processing and Cognitive Theories of Learning)
- Purpose of Activity
- Demonstrate the importance of the effect and importance of memory and metacognitive strategies on learning.
- Key Concepts
- Short Term/Working Memory has limited capacity.
- The need to process new information deeply/utilize memory and metacognitive strategies to help ensure retrieval.
- Before you begin the chapter, play the following memory game with your
class:
- Put the following on the board and allow your class 10 seconds to remember them (please no one is to write) and then call on someone to repeat them (time permitting have more than one student try this). The phrase is: I like baseball a lot in the summer.
- ni eht remmus tol a llabesab ekil I
- baseball summer I a lot like in
- I like baseball a lot in the summer.
- Explain and show, using the following model, that Short Term/Working
Memory has limited capacity:
- It has the capacity to hold five to nine bits of information.
- Demonstrate this by placing the single letters (ni eht remm) in the model above. Ask: Why can't we understand the meaning of these letters . (It's meaningless and we can't match it with already existing information in the Long Term Memory. Also, since it is meaningless information, it's difficult to rehearse/keep it longer in the Short Term/Working Memory).
- Then ask why it becomes progressively easier to understand the other two lines? (It's more meaningful information, and it is processed efficiently/chunked together in the Short Term/Working Memory. Also, it is easily matched with information and accessed from the Long Term Memory).
- Next, explain that this chapter will provide us with memory strategies
that will allow us to compensate/overcome the limited capacity of
the Short Term/Working Memory and enable us to retrieve/remember
information.
- Read and discuss the chapter, and as you cover ideas that deal with memory strategies (pp. 188-215) please add them to this graphic organizer:
- After the graphic organizer is complete, have your students work in groups and explain how they would teach these strategies to children (they can select an appropriate grade level). You might want to assign two/three different strategies to each group to facilitate the coverage of all the strategies. Allow approximately 20-30 minutes for this activity, and then have groups report their findings. Have your students record the findings from each group on a chart/blackboard.
- Next, have your students observe a class for two/more hours and
identify the memory strategies they observe. Then describe their
effect on learning. If during their observations, they fail to see these
strategies in their class, have your students describe the effect on
learning that their absence might have. Depending on the material you
cover, you might want to have your students focus on metacognitive
strategies that are utilized in the class.
