Seeds Training HIT Program for Educators

Memory
What is it? How does it work?

As educators we hope that everything that we teach is retained. We hope that everything that we teach is useful to our students at some point and that they will be able to recall it when they need it.

In order to make that a reality we must try to understand the fickle nature of our memory. The capacity of the brain to recall information is incredible. The brain can store, consciously and unconsciously, more information than it is possible to fathom. But, why does it seem to be challenging to remember some things and easy to remember others? What makes things stick to our memory? What's the magic formula for making our memory more effective?

These are great questions and unfortunately there is no secret formula for making your memory perfect. There is however a massive amount of research that is beginning to give us insights into the complex system that is your memory.

Currently, the research indicates the following:

There are 3 distinct areas of your memory system.

Sensory Memory
Working Memory
Long Term Memory

In addition, we do know a few techniques for making things sticky to our memory:

The 10-24-7 Rule for Review
Using VAK to make vivid images, catchy sounds and body anchors
Recursion - systems like pegging that immediately attach new learning to information that is already active in the working memory.