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Learning Techniques and Memory 1 Making Notes and Developing Techniques to Assist Learning Keep your file in order during the course by using dividers to separate your work into chunks. Remember the three c’s: take clear, concise and colourful/creative notes during your course and you have more chance in successfully completing it. You will find that doing this will help you develop projects or portfolios and you are more likely to enjoy re-reading them for the exam! It is important to remember that the following will help you, particularly if you have an exam at the end of your course: review your notes at the end of every class and do monthly checks on what you have learnt and how much you remember. How you go about learning depends on whether you remember best by seeing, listening or through moving around. So if you learn best through looking, these might help: Using coloured pens Using small cards of main points that you can put into order (or an index) and that you can fit in your back pocket so you can learn on the move. Highlighting vital information 2 Writing key points on post-it notes and sticking them up at home. Making your own video! Using CD-ROM’s Using the internet If you learn best through listening, these might help: Taping information onto an auditory cassette Explaining what you are trying to learn to somebody else – even your cat! Making up rhymes or stories to help you remember – they can be as silly as you like, after all they are for your eyes only! Form a study group with other students and select different information for each one of you to go away and learn and then return to talk through to the rest of the group. If you learn best through interaction or movement: Taking yourself to exhibitions related to your subject may help Relating the subject to your life in some way – e.g. For Anatomy and Physiology: bend your limbs and start with the skin and its functions, work your way through the muscles, through the veins until you reach the bare bones!! Using mind maps or spider diagrams can get your mind going and help you feel at the centre of your learning 3 Walking around or using other movement to help keep your mind on the job – hop, skip and jump your way to success! Whichever method you choose, plan a reward to give yourself after a really focused piece of studying. Now work out your own learning style. Next, look at the following pages for memory technique. 4 Barsch Learning Style Preference Form Please tick appropriate box Question OFTEN SOMETIMES SELDOM 1. Can remember more about a subject through listening rather than reading. 2. Follow written directions better than oral directions 3. Like to write things down or take notes for visual review 4. Bear down extremely hard when writing. 5. Require explanations of graphs, diagrams, or visual directions 7. Are skilful and enjoy developing and making graphs and charts 8. Can tell if sounds match when presented with pairs of sounds 9. Remember best by writing things down several times 10. Can understand and follow directions of maps. 11. Do better at academic subjects by listening to tapes and lectures 6. Enjoy working with tools 12. Play with coins or keys in your pocket 13. Learn to spell better repeating the letters out loud than by writing the Creating by Jeffrey Barsch, Ventura College, Ventura, California 5 Question OFTEN word on paper. 14. Can better understand a news article by reading about it than by listening to it on the radio. SOMETIMES SELDOM 15. Chew gum, snack, or smoke during studies. 16. Feel the best way to remember is to picture it in your head. 17. Learn spelling by “finger spelling” the words. 19. Are good at solving jigsaw puzzles and mazes. 20. Grip objects in your hands during learning periods. 22. Obtain information on an interesting subject by reading related materials. 23. Feel very comfortable touching others; hugging; handshaking, etc. 18. Would rather listen to a good lecture or speech than read about the same material in a book. 21. Prefer listening to the news on the radio than reading about it in the newspaper. 24. Follow oral directions better than written ones. 6 Barch Learning Style Perference Form: Scoring From the answers to the questions we should be able to identify which sense is used most to aid study. The categories are visual, auditory and Tactile (Kinaesthetic). Point Value for answers: Often = 3 Points Sometimes = 2 Points Seldom = 1 Point A. For each question on the Preference Form place the appropriate point value in the grid below. B. Add up the total for each section. VISUAL Question Score AUDITORY Question Score TACTILE (KINAESTHETIC) Question 2. 1. 4. 3. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 14. 13 15. 16. 18. 17. 20. 21. 19. 22. 24. 23. Score TOTALS Results: The highest score indicates your learning style preference. The lowest score indicates your learning style weakness. Scores which fall within 4 points of each other indicate that you are a multisensory learner. Note: Different cultures have different learning styles. What does it mean? Visual Learner: A visual learner prefers learning by seeing things, getting information from books, reading instructions, imagining a scene. He/she likes to see their work looking good. They like to make notes and write things down; their hand-writing is clear. They don’t like untidiness around them or too much movement when they are trying to work. They are usually aware of sounds. They are quiet, do not talk a lot and become impatient when they have to listen for a long time. They might use words clumsily when describing something and don’t give a lot of details. They tend to use words like see and look. They think for a long time and make plans in advance, they organise their thoughts by writing them down, make lists of problems. Auditory Learners: Auditory learners like reading dialogue and enjoy reading plays. They may skip through or avoid descriptions, don’t look at illustrations. They may read aloud or move their lips when they read. They may have difficulties with learning how to write, and write very lightly. They remember names and forget faces and remember by hearing things over and over again. They are easily distracted by sound and usually like to learn in a quiet place. They like listening but cannot wait to talk. When they describe things they take a long time and repeat things over. They like to talk about their problems and might give the answer to themselves as they think of it. They use words like listen and hear. Kinaesthetic learners: Kinaesthetic learners like stories with lots of actions; they fidget when they read and might not enjoy reading. They are good at writing but find it hard to write in small spaces. They will remember what was done and what happened rather than what was talked about. They might appear often distracted because they find it hard to take in visual or auditory presentations. They make many gestures when they speak and do not listen well; they lose interest if talking continues for a long time; they use words like get and take. They will take action to solve their problems but don’t always think before taking action. When they have a problem they will do something very active. Learning Styles adapted from LLLU at South Bank University. Visual Use an OHP to highlight key points. Put summary words in big print on the board Write ¾ of the word on the board, makes the brain work to fill the rest in. Use symbols, colours, pictures to illustrate, Turn words and numbers into pictures. Use an illustrated outline at the start of the lesson, this will help the focus. Best seated at the front of the class so they can see you. Easily distracted by others movement. Tape your talk, lecture and keep a library for students to borrow from. Get students to listen first then write notes while reading a text. Use auditory predicates, eg ”Can you hear what I’m saying?”. Best seated in the centre of the room so they can turn their head to direct their dominant ear towards you. Don’t expect them to look at you while you are talking. Auditory Low Auditory Tactile Avoid giving verbal instructions. Write it down! Always provide written sequences of instruction either on the board or on a handout for the student to refer back to. Tape you lecture/talk so the student can listen to it later, at another point of their learning. Set the student some pre-reading material, to be read before you introduce the material to the class. Encourage students to hold or fiddle with something while reading, listening or studying, as hacky sac, bean bag, soft toy, anything small and / or textured. Provide tactile resources for students to work with, encourage them to create their own. Some other ideas for tactile resources in the classroom: board games, magnetic letters / numbers, scrabble, writing in texture material like shaving foam or sand. Use tactual predicates eg “How does this feel for you?”. Best seated towards the back of the room so their fiddling does not disrupt the visual learners. Kinaesthetic Get these students moving whilst they learn. Use these students to demonstrate what the class is going to do. They will earn while they are doing the activity. Ask kinaesthetic students to video – record the class and edit material. Make large cardboard letters/ number/ functions and lay them out on the floor. Ask the student to move each component as they work. Whenever possible, give them a real life experience of what they are learning about. A visit to a factory where they can experience and walk through the full process of accounting for example. Use Kinaesthetic predicates eg “Can you get a sense of what I’m on about?”. Create a space at the back of the room for these students Check Your Memory Style What helps you remember things? Here’s a simple way to find out. Colour in 10 words on the right. Read through the chart for 2 minutes, then cover it completely. Write down all the words you can remember. Read the following section as you check your results. What helps you remember? Look at the words you recalled. Does the selection of words you remember suggest that you used any of the strategies below? If so, you have valuable clues about how you arrange information you want to recall. Sea Saucer Cheese Windy Sick JAM Fog blue Lenin Cog Circus Glink Walnut Fred Happy Lost Bread Dog Kitchen Green Student merry LOG Spain Jog PINK Hobby Essay Pills chair Butter Harp Sandwich Pong Sneeze Tutor table Doctor Sad INDIA Block Gandhi Maybe Hand kneel Plate Holiday Bandage Gloom Real Names You may have a particularly good memory for names. Visual Features Your memory may be assisted by any or all of the following. You may have noticed the look of a word (such as the words in capitals or those with shapes around them). Recency effect Visaul association You may have remembered best the words you learnt last. Primacy effect You may have remembered best the words you learnt first. Sound You may have remembered rhyming sounds, odd-sounding words, or words that you heard together in your head. Locus (place) You may have associated a word with a place you know. You may have remembered where items were on the page. (If so, you may find it easy to recall flowcharts or pattern notes, or be helped by visual spacing or making links with a picture). Semantic association You may have remembered words with meaningful association, such as bread, butter, sandwich. Being bizarre and unusual You may have noticed odd things, such as the words ‘pong’ and ‘glink’ which stand out. (If you did, you may find it helpful to link ordinary things with bizarre images.) Stories You may have linked unrelated items so that they made a story. (This can help with the letters of a difficult spelling. For example, ‘liaise’: Liam Is Always In Such Ecstasy.) Colour and activity If you remembered several of the words you coloured in, you may be sensitive to colour; or perhaps you benefit from doing things with information you are learning. Musical association Did you try singing or chanting information to tunes you know? Individual Memory Styles We each have a combination of memory strategies that work best for us. We each use varied strategies to remember different kinds of information. Activity: How do you remember things? Event Strategies Trying to recall your first day at school may have called up different types of memory. Try to recall each of the items 1-6 below. After each one, note down what you did to help you remember. 1. What is your best friend’s phone number? 2. How do you use a pencil sharpener? 3. What was you first day of school like? 4. What did you wear yesterday? 5. Where are your best clothes now? 6. How do you get to the nearest post box? You probably used different strategies to remember the phone number than to recall your first day of school. You may have used some of the following strategies – if not, experiment with them now. Fact Strategies Many techniques may help in learning a fact such as a telephone number. You might try: Chanting a rhythm of the number Using your fingers to map out the pattern of movements needed to dial the number Seeing the number in your mind Hearing your voice saying the number Drawing out the digits with your finger Writing the number down quickly Noting any memorable peculiarity of the number, such as repeated pattern (2727) or a reversible pattern (1331) Noting any smaller numbers of personal significance to you, such as the year you were born or a relative’s house number, contained within the number The emotional memory of the event may have come to mind – your excitement at starting school, or your distress at being left by your mother, or your fear of the teacher. You might experience this physically in your body, as a tightening of the stomach muscles. You may have a strong visual memory of the journey to school, or of moments during the first day. These may run through your head like a film or a series of snapshots. You may be able to hear the noises of the school – the shouts in the playground, or the school bell. You may remember certain smells, or even the taste of chalk on your fingers. Other Strategies In remembering the six items above you may have used quite different strategies. To remember how to use a pencil sharpener you may have moved your hands to guide you through the sequence of movements. To remember what you wore, you may have recalled the place where you were To remember where your clothes are now, you probably use a mixture: visual recall of where they usually are, and a check through your memory of recent events to see if there was any reason why they might be somewhere else. For the post box, you may have visualised the local geography, or remembered a time you posted a letter, or imagined the walk to the box, or repeated instructions under your breath. Improve your Memory Particular practices can help you remember things. Below are some that are well known, and you may have others of your own. Self-awareness Know what tricks and methods you already use to remember things. Repetition or over-learning This is essential. Go over information at least three times. Check back often, for short lengths of time (rather than once for a long time). Association Link what you need to remember with something you already know Mnemonics Any trick to help you remember is a mnemonic (pronounced nem-on-ic). One common mnemonic is to use the first letter of each keyword to make a new ‘word’ that sums up the whole of a subject. It doesn’t matter if the letters don’t make a real word. Active listening Discuss what you’re trying to learn with friends. Listen to your voice saying it or reading it. Tape yourself. Exaggerate. Use accents. Be dramatic. Writing things down In your own words, write things out over and over again. Personalising it Relate what you learn to yourself. For example in what way does it affect you? Does it remind you of someone you know, or somewhere you have been?) Play Play with information . Look for the fun in it. Relax and enjoy the process. Think about advertisements Advertising agencies deliberately set out to make us remember their advertisements. The ‘tricks’ and ‘devices’ they employ to prompt our memory can also be used to help us remember what we study. Think of three adverts (from TV, magazine, etc). What makes these three memorable for you? Devices used by advertises Which of these devices are most effective in helping you remember? Music, simple stories, jokes, humour, childhood memories, visual images, repetition, invitations to interact – competitions, encouragement to identify with characters, encouragement to telephone in.