{"id":4800,"date":"2019-07-13T08:00:49","date_gmt":"2019-07-13T13:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/blog\/?p=4800"},"modified":"2019-07-09T09:00:35","modified_gmt":"2019-07-09T14:00:35","slug":"obsessed-with-working-memory-anticipating-overload","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/obsessed-with-working-memory-anticipating-overload\/","title":{"rendered":"Obsessed with Working Memory: Anticipating Overload"},"content":{"rendered":"

We know what working memory is<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We know that we absolutely must<\/strong> work within the working memory capacity that our students have<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

How, exactly, do we do that?<\/p>\n

To develop our expertise, we must constantly ask these three questions:<\/p>\n

First: As I look at my lesson plan, my syllabus, my test, my classroom, can I ANTICIPATE working memory overload?<\/p>\n

Second: As I teach my class, can I IDENTIFY WM overload when it happens?<\/p>\n

Third: How do I best MITIGATE or SOLVE those WM problems?<\/p>\n

Today, let’s focus on ANTICIPATE.<\/p>\n

#1: Information Processing<\/h2>\n

To\u00a0anticipate<\/strong> WM overload, we should first look for places that require unusually high amounts of information processing.<\/em><\/p>\n

Does this lesson include LOTS of new<\/em> information? (Lots = “more than I usually do with this age group.”)<\/p>\n

Does the lesson require students to put information together<\/em> in new ways?<\/p>\n

For instance: I’m working at a summer camp right now, and the assistant director told me about a lesson he had observed. A counselor was showing campers how to use a cook stove. To do so, he took about 20 minutes to show them all the steps involved.<\/p>\n

GOOD NEWS: He showed the campers the steps correctly.<\/p>\n

BAD NEWS: To use a cook stove, campers needed to learn lots of new information (what is a “valve regulator”?).<\/p>\n

And, they needed to put all that information together into a new mental system.<\/p>\n

12-year-olds simply can’t take in — and combine — that much new information. And: it’s easy to anticipate that problem.<\/p>\n

#2: Dark Sides of the Force<\/h2>\n

As any Jedi Knight will tell you, the Force isn’t a problem. MISUSE of the Force is a problem.<\/p>\n

So too, these two things I’m about to list aren’t bad. But, if we’re not careful about their use, we might overwhelm working memory.<\/p>\n

Instructions<\/strong>: Of course, instructions help students do necessary steps, and can help them learn.<\/p>\n

But, to follow instructions, students must\u00a0remember<\/em> them (that’s “holding”), and the\u00a0follow<\/em> them (that’s “reorganizing” and “combining”).\u00a0 So, following instructions take lots of WM<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If your students seem to get lost while following even simple steps, try giving just one instruction, and letting them finish that before they get the next. (More solutions in a later post.)<\/p>\n

Choices<\/strong>: Choices can motivate students, and so facilitate learning.<\/p>\n

But, when a student faces cognitive struggles, choices ADD TO WM burdens.<\/p>\n

For example:<\/p>\n

A student might come to me and say: “I hate this sentence — it sounds so awkward. How do I make it better?”<\/p>\n

I could say: “Well, try using an active verb. Or, reduce the number of prepositional phrases. Or, use parallelism to organize the logic. Or, use subordination to vary the rhythm.”<\/p>\n

Now, each one of those suggestions has merit. But, too many choices<\/em> just might make the thinking\u00a0harder<\/em>, not easier.<\/p>\n

#3 Don’t Miss the Obvious<\/h2>\n

Tired<\/strong> students have lower WM capacity. So: teenagers can do better work at 10 am than at 8 am.<\/p>\n

Over-Stressed<\/strong> students have lower WM capacity. We do want students to face challenges, but not challenges they don’t think they can overcome.<\/p>\n

Grand Recap<\/h2>\n

To ANTICIPATE WM overload:<\/p>\n

Review your lesson plans and assessments to be sure they don’t include too much new information<\/em>, or too many new combinations<\/em> of information.<\/p>\n

Look out for too many instructions<\/em> and too many choices<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Pay attention to students’ energy level<\/em> and stress level<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Notice, by the way, that these guidelines necessarily call on your teacherly instincts and experience.<\/p>\n

I can say: “don’t give too many instructions,” but how<\/em> many is too many? As a 5th grade math teacher, you’ll know that … well … that<\/strong> lesson plan had too many.<\/p>\n

But, tomorrow’s LP has fewer<\/em> instructions. Or, perhaps it has\u00a0simpler<\/em> instructions. The same number of instructions, if they’re simpler, might just solve the problem.<\/p>\n

Research can’t answer that question. Research CAN tell us what to look out for in our classrooms. We have to use our experience to translate that guidance for our day-to-day work.<\/p>\n

\n

In the next post: INDENTIFYING WM overload.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":4805,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[30],"class_list":["post-4800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lb-blog","tag-working-memory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4800"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4802,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4800\/revisions\/4802"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}