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Tag Archives: working memory

Obsessed with Working Memory: Anticipating Overload
Once we can define working memory and understand its importance, teachers help students learn by ANTICIPATING working memory overload. Here’s how we do that. Continue reading

Obsessed with Working Memory, Part II
Working memory allows students to hold and combine information. (We call that “learning.”) What 3 essential facts about working memory should shape our approach to teaching? Continue reading

Obsessed With Working Memory: Part I
When I attended my first Learning and the Brain conference, I had never even heard of working memory. Now, I obsess over working memory. And, I think all classroom teachers should join me. Heck, I think everyone who cares about learning,

Decorating the Classroom: How Much Is Too Much?
Teachers decorate classrooms for many reasons — especially to make students feel at home. Recent research, however, suggests that too much decoration distracts students’ attention an interferes with their memory. When it comes to classroom decoration, there can indeed be too much of a good thing. Continue reading

Visual & Verbal: Welcome to “Dual Coding”
By “dual coding” — that is, by presenting information both verbally and visually — we can reduce our students working memory load. And: we can help them learn. Continue reading

STOP THE PRESSES (And Yet, Remain Calm)
In the world of science, if you see the right kind of evidence, you have to change your mind. As of this blog post, I might start changing my mind. Regular readers know that I frequently decry false claims about

Working Memory Overload Throws Neurons Out of Synch
Students use working memory all day long, but they — and we — don’t have very much. New research is starting to explain what happens when they experience working memory overload. In brief: brain regions that must function synchronously stop doing so. Some day this research field might help our students learn more effectively. Continue reading

A Handy Summary of Memory Definitions, for Teachers and Students
Here‘s a quick summary of information about memory: sensory memory, working memory, long-term memory, and (crucially!) forgetting. Author Steven Turner presents this brisk overview to combat “buzzword wasteland.” He fears the education-world habit of coming up with fancy new terms

Taking Notes with Graphic Organizers
Researchers office us concrete advice on the best form for handwritten notes: outlines vs. graphic organizers; incomplete vs. complete. Continue reading

Do Collaborative Projects Reduce or Increase Working Memory Stress?
Should teachers ask students to work on projects in teams? This question generates a great deal of heat. Many education thinkers advocate for the benefits of teamwork. Others insist that learning happens one brain at a time, and so should