Abstract
Passively listening to a lecture (deWinstanley & Bjork, 2002), skimming a textbook chapter, or googling for an answer to a homework problem is not conducive to deep and lasting high-order learning. At the same time, presenting complex concepts in problem-based classes might overload students’ working memory capacity. Effective student learning necessitates students to process information in their working memories, as well as storing information, facts and skills, in their long-term memories. Students must then be able to retrieve this information into their working memory in the future, in order to apply the information to new situations. That is, students must be able to recognize the characteristics of a future situation or problem and correctly retrieve the appropriate information stored in their long-term memory (Kirschner, Sweller, & Clark, 2006) to tackle the issue. Using the framework of Cognitive Load Theory, this article proposes an instructional model that promotes five strategies for learning and teaching; i.e. spacing, retrieval practice, elaboration, interleaving, and concrete examples, to effectively help students store and retrieve information from their long-term memory.
Highlights
Introduction andBackground“Forgetting focuses remembering and fosters learning; remembering generates learning and causes forgetting; learning causes forgetting, begets remembering, and supports new learning” Bjork, (2011, p 16).There is very limited research in the past few years that focuses on classroom learning strategies applied to education, human learning and memory, information processing and retrieval to improve learning and teaching
The goal of instructional design is to manage the cognitive load of the student's working memory, in order to allow for the required processing that leads to the construction of schemas and their automation to happen
Given our knowledge of human cognitive architecture and the implications of cognitive load theory, what are the practical implications on instructional design? What should the instructor do, or avoid, in the classroom? This article argues that the instructor needs to raise students’ germane cognitive load by adopting five evidence-based learning strategies
Summary
“Forgetting focuses remembering and fosters learning; remembering generates learning and causes forgetting; learning causes forgetting, begets remembering, and supports new learning” Bjork, (2011, p 16). There is very limited research in the past few years that focuses on classroom learning strategies applied to education, human learning and memory, information processing and retrieval to improve learning and teaching. Previous research found no limitations on the amount of information that students could retrieve from long-term memory to working memory over indefinite periods of time (Kirschner et al.; 2006). Other studies found that moving information along the memory continuum entailed some hard work This was articulated by Zull (2002) when he argued that students had to repeatedly use their brains to receive and process sensory input in order to learn something, retain information long-term and transfer it to other activities. The purpose of this paper is to review recent research on cognitive architecture, cognitive load theory and propose instructional recommendations that promote five strategies for learning and teaching
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