How we learn- the science of learning

there's been a lot of work over the last decade on the science of learning and we can really benefit from that in the classroom it's important to understand how we learn to be the best learner you can possibly be and to really understand how we learn firstly I want you to understand why we forget and the reason for that is it's possibly due to evolution see every organism on earth is evolved for survival everything that an organism does is geared for its survival in nature organisms don't expend energy for things that are wasteful so that would be the same with the brain as well why would the brain store memories that aren't useful that don't contribute to survival so if you can imagine that if you're being chased by a saber-toothed tiger why would it be important to know your times tables so for that reason we've got this neuroplasticity in that the brain is continually reinforcing memories that are important but also removing and pruning off memories that are no longer relevant so how does a memory occur then well it's actually a physical process where there's a connection between nerves so that's the end of one nerve and it forms a connection with the next nerve and this is what we call a synapse or a connection between nerves but our memories not just a connection between two nerves it's this massive web of interconnectedness with maybe thousands of different nerves so when we remember when we make a memory we're actually making their connection between physical nerves in the brain I'll show you this model it's called the multi-store model so firstly we have sensory input now this sensory input then you know it comes from our our our environment say our eyes and our ears and our other senses and that goes into our sensory memory and sensory memories very very short terms just holding you know it's kind of like you've heard it a sound and it's kind of echoing there in your head for just a couple of seconds before it goes what needs to happen for it to move on to the next part of your memory is that you need to attend to it so attention and so quite simply if you're not attending when you're in a lesson or when you're watching a video or in your reading or less or reading a text if you're not attending then that sensory input is simply going to be lost and it won't even go in so I've had people who said I'm gonna go home and play mr. G's videos on YouTube over and over while I'm studying for another subject because sure it's gonna sink in you know what it's not and the reason for that is because you need to attend you need to have attention so we've got this filter here right from the start that only a small amount of the information from the sensors actually goes into the next stage which is our short-term memory so only short small amount of all of the sensory input for example you probably sitting on a chair now and if you attend to it you're probably aware of the pressure of the cushion on your bottom or on your back against the backrest or maybe that your shoes a little bit too tight or now you're aware of your breathing because I've just told you or yet your heart pounding stop thinking about that and listen to me alright so you've got to attend to the right stuff and there's this funnel to stop to filter out most of the information going into short-term memory so you know to keep something in your short-term memory like a phone number or maybe somebody's name that you've just met how do you keep that in your short-term memory before it fading off in 30 seconds time is rehearsal you need to continually rehearse it in your brain rehearsal rehearsal keep on repeating in your head how much can you keep in short-term right so memory may be five to seven digits or chunks and that's about it whilst you continue to rehearse it then it continues to stay in your memory but you have to be attending to it and the next step is of course our long-term memory now long-term memories are the sign APS's it's the connection between the the nerves it's a physical connection and this web of interconnectedness that occurs so how does it go from short-term to long-term memory well that's called transfer and then of course getting it out is retrieval Ora so now we need to talk about what can we do what do we know from cognitive signs to help this process of going from short-term memory it's a long-term memory and really stick so first of all thinking about the saber-tooth tiger and evolution we only remember stuff that's important so what we need you to do is find a link find why it's important for you to remember this piece of information and the way we do that is by connecting it with what we already know so we need to activate our prior knowledge what we try and do is try and activate your prior knowledge so you can make a link between the two and going from short-term memory you're having to draw back on what you're already known your prior knowledge and you go back and forth between your short term and long term memory several times to make this link that's what makes the connection stick you have to tell your brain that's important to learn this stuff so it doesn't get pruned off so the way we do that is through retrieval practice and simply what that means is that we we retrieve the information a number of times in a number of different ways now the cool thing about this is if we get you to practice or you do it yourself practice something in lots of different ways well that makes the web of interconnected and is stronger so how can we do it lots of different ways well firstly you're seeing around the video you're taking some notes and writing a summary so you're retrieving and again by writing your summary and then we're applying it in maybe a worksheet or post video questions then if you do something else like an experiment or you then teach the person you're sitting next to or you go home and you know maybe do some homework or something while all of this is more retrieval practice really importantly is that it well it's important to have a break between your retrieval practices as well so having a sleep and then having another go is actually really really important so you can't assume that looking at something once you've got to remember because you simply won't you need to tell that brain of yours hey this is important to remember don't prune it off it's important for my survival next thing is that learning needs to be active quite simply you need to actually do stuff with the stuff that you're learning you're telling your brain that it's important so what's active learning well it's doing things like worksheets and activities at the bench here in your book it's about doing things like experiments where you're applying your knowledge it's about solving problems you know you have to do stuff you have to use it to tell your brain that this is actually important so the next thing we need to do is actually you need to work hard it needs to be effortful the reality is that learning needs to be hard work if it's not hard then you're not getting this transfer you're not making a solid long-term memory so when stuff gets hard that's when you need to be saying cool now I'm really working hard with my memory I made some really good quality memories here so don't be afraid of having to work hard we give you activities that are hard because learning needs to be effortful so one of the ways we talk about this is desirable difficulties so we don't make something so ridiculously hard that you can't get near it but it does you need to be prepared to work hard because that's important for memory to occur the next thing is that learning is actually social it's important to to work to work with other people with your learning because that allows you to hear from somebody else to teach somebody else so you're doing this transfer and retrieval from your short term to your long term memory a number of times and strengthening those sign abscess and that's really really important so just as a final summary learning fruit to stick your brain needs to understand that it's relevant and important to keep otherwise will be pruned off so this is the science of learning and the more you understand this the better you will be at learning good luck

Channel: Steve Griffiths

Views: 17,495

Rating: 4.9540229 out of 5

Keywords: How we learn, science of learning, cognitive science, flipped learning, lightboard, active learning

Id: MB00YPqEWTE

Length: 9min 32sec (572 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 29 2017