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You recall that the hippocampus is wired to receive information from the cortex as well as return information to it. Declarative memories appear to be terminally stored in the same cortical systems involved in the initial processing of the stimulus. In other words, the final resting place is also the region that served as the initial starting place. The only separation is time, not location. These data have a great deal to say not only about storage but also about recall. Retrieval for a fully mature memory trace 10 years later may simply be an attempt to reconstruct the initial moments of learning, when the memory was only a few milliseconds old! So, the current model looks something like this:
1) Long-term memories occur from accumulations of synaptic changes in the cortex as a result of multiple reinstatements [spaced repetitions] of the memory.
2) These reinstatements are directed by the hippocampus [in the temporal lobe], perhaps for years.
3) Eventually the memory becomes independent of the medial temporal lobe, and this newer, more stable memory trace is permanently stored in the cortex.
4) Retrieval mechanisms may reconstruct the original pattern of neurons initially recruited during the first moments of learning.
[snip]
The day of a typical high-school student is segmented into five or six 50-minute periods, consisting of unrepeated (and unrelenting) streams of information. Using as a framework the timing requirements suggested by working memory, how would you change this five-period fire hose? What you’d come up with might be the strangest classroom experience in the world. Here’s my fantasy:
In the school of the future, lessons are divided into 25-minute modules, cyclically repeated throughout the day. Subject A is taught for 25 minutes, constituting the first exposure. Ninety minutes later, the 25-minute content of Subject A is repeated, and then a third time. All classes are segmented and interleaved in such a fashion. Because these repetition schedules slow down the amount of information capable of being addressed per unit of time, the school year is extended into the summer.
[snip]
In the future school, every third or fourth day would be reserved for reviewing the facts delivered in the previous 72 to 96 hours. During these “review holidays,” previous information would be presented in compressed fashion. Students would have a chance to inspect the notes they took during the initial exposures, comparing tem with what the teacher was saying in the review. This would result in a greater elaboration of the information, and it would help the teachers deliver accurate information. A formalized exercise in error-checking soon would become a regular and positive part of both the teacher and student learning experiences.
It is quite possible that such models would eradicate the need for homework. At its best, homework served only to force the student to repeat content. If that repetition were supplied during the course of the day, there might be little need for re-exposure. This isn’t because homework isn’t important as a concept. In the future school, it may simply be unnecessary.
Could models like these actually work? Deliberately spaced repetitions have not been tested rigorously in the real world, so there are lots of questions. Do you really need three separate repetitions per subject per day to accrue a positive outcome? Do all subjects need such repetition? Might such interleaved vigor hurt learning, with constant repetitions beginning to interfere with one another as the day wore on? Do you really need review holidays, and if so, do you need them every three to four days? We don’t know.
Years and years
Today, students are expected to know certain things by certain grades. Curiously absent from this model is how durable that learning remains after the student completes the grade. Given that system consolidation can take years, might the idea of grade-level expectations need amending? Perhaps learning in the long view should be thought of the same way one thinks of immune booster shots, with critical pieces of information being repeated on a yearly or semi-yearly basis.
In my fantasy class, this is exactly what happens. Repetitions begin with a consistent and rigorous review of multiplication tables, fractions, and decimals. First learned in the third grade, six-month and yearly review sessions on these basic facts occur through sixth grade. As mathematical competencies increase in sophistication, the review content is changed to reflect greater understanding. But the cycles are still in place. In my fantasy, these consistent repetition disciplines, stretched out over long periods of time, create enormous benefits for every academic subject, especially foreign languages.
Brain Rules, by John Medina
p. 141-142; 143-145
Brain Rules web site
hippocampus
Neuroscience for Kids
16 comments:
The concept appears sound, observing from the case of a man (I forgot his name) whose hippocampus was almost totally destroyed in a viral attack, though he retained all of his skilled faculties from speaking very sophisticatedly to singing opera (though he had no personal memories).
Now of course, who wants to be the guinea pig?
There are better ways. My high school didn't give much homework (it all could be done in a study hall if you took one) because the work was done in class. Totally unlike my district where socializing, disruptions, and violence have taken over academics.
I will also note that models such as this are already in our elementary school fully included classes. Great care is taken not to deviate from the script, so that children who have poor vocabularies and can't read well will not become confused by the use of grade level synonyms. Reg. ed. and above are essentially reduced to parrots and copyeditors.
>>A formalized exercise in error-checking soon would become a regular and positive part of both the teacher and student learning experiences.
This is basically what the listening comprehension exam on the 4th grade ELA checks. Once the child masters the art of writing fast and the graphic organizer, it becomes extremely boring, not a 'positive part of the teacher and student learning experience'. The result is behavior problems from the thinking children, although the rote memorizers love it. Needless to say, my younger child did not participate in any fully included classes that used this technique as I am a fast learner.
I just received my copy of Brain Rules yesterday. I can't wait to start reading but promised myself I'd finish up a couple of other books first. I did watch the DVD that came with it and have been browsing the website. Fascinating.
I would like to consider how I can incorporate some of these concepts into our homeschool environment. So I suppose my children will be the guinea pigs. At first blush, since I haven't read the book yet, it seems that I should be able to structure my children's days with some of this in mind.
It also seems that the curricula that seems to be most effective with my daughter this year keeps some of these rules in mind (spaced repetition, review, etc.).
The applications for foreign language learning are significant. Good examples of spaced repetition already available are Hake Grammar & Writing and Saxon Math. I also see the compatability with Singapore Math in that it does not move from concept to concept haphazardly but provides enough repetition (incrementally increasing in challenge level) so that the knowledge can be stored effectively. Singapore Math actually does provide spaced repetition in the word problems which weave in past concepts with more newly acquired abilities.
In many ways, the future of education as Medina sees it is already here, we're just not using it effectively or in enough places.
Brain Rule #7 is "We don't pay attention to boring things." If a child has truly mastered a concept that has now made it's way into long-term memory, the educational scenario lgm describes would be very boring indeed.
I think spaced repetition is effective for new concepts or relatively new knowledge that hasn't been learned to mastery. This is very much in keeping with the principles of DI and Precision Teaching.
Once mastery is achieved, the spaced repetition should be employed for NEW information or different applications that the learner is unfamiliar with or has not yet mastered. The objective is a reliable long-term memory and based on the science, this is a long-term process.
Most of us did some version of this in college, right?
Classes in the morning of varying but related topics, break, time spent reviewing or reading or doing practice problems in afternoon, break, evening problem sets. At least, that was a typical day for me when I was a good student, and it was the typical day for my good-student friends, too. I don't see what's so terrible about homework, myself, since it seems to fit the model perfectly well, but I guess the model has to shake things up to appeal.
I don't see why testing in lgm's world becomes extremely boring for the mastering-material student; just move on to new material, building on the old. again, this keeping a bit of the old is really natural.
lrg
You're amazing!
You've jumped directly to one of the main sources of evidence for the 10-year consolidation period!
wow
I had been planning to get a post up about this.
(You're thinking of "Patient H. M.," the man who lost his memory after surgery for epilepsy, I believe it was.)
Hmm, actually, upon further googling, it wasn't patient H.M. but a guy named Clive Wearing.
But both cases are very insightful.
wow - I've never heard of Clive Wearing.
I'll look.
I would like to consider how I can incorporate some of these concepts into our homeschool environment. So I suppose my children will be the guinea pigs.
I'm going to use the idea of repetition throughout the day for me.
I had already been using it with C before I got the book. On weekends when he's got a math test coming up I'll get him to do a short stint of practice in the morning, one in the afternoon, and one in the early evening.
However, it sounds as if even that spacing is too long.
I may try the 90-minute idea.
Medina isn't dogmatic about any of these things, btw. This is what he's pulled out of the research.
Once mastery is achieved, the spaced repetition should be employed for NEW information or different applications that the learner is unfamiliar with or has not yet mastered.
I would say that you need to carry on with practice & spaced repetition for 10 years.
I'm pretty sure that's why many of us remember math best of all of our subjects in k-12: math is the one subject that really does get continued practice over a decade.
I'm sure Englemann & all those folks have some terrific rules-of-thumb for how-much-and-how-often to practice or rehearse.
I remember Engelmann once saying that new knowledge has a shelf-life of only 30 days, which is what Medina says, too.
I don't see what's so terrible about homework, myself, since it seems to fit the model perfectly well, but I guess the model has to shake things up to appeal.
I haven't read the entire book yet, and Medina says that his model - to the degree that it is a model (he calls it a fantasy - is speculative. I wouldn't say he's opposed to homework.
I think he may say somewhere on his web site (Concerned Parent may know) that as schools are set up most student learning is happening at home, not at school.
I would guess that's what he's referring to with the homework line.
He's also talking about efficiency of learning. This is a chronic source of distress for me; public schools spend kids' and families' like there's no tomorrow. There seems to be no conception of efficiency at all.
This man may know something about efficiency of learning (I've just come across him via Google).
"It is quite possible that such models would eradicate the need for homework."
Perhaps so in K-8, but I wouldn't agree for high school and beyond. My sister-in-law teaches high school English and she says that she provides more time in class to do homework because many kids don't do it at home. Perhaps if she structured her class to be more efficient, there might be no need for homework, but allocating time in class as a study hall is not the solution. My impression was that she just lowered standards and expected less. Perhaps less-better is better than more-worse. There is a limit to this, however, because it's easy to do nothing really, really well.
As for K-8, I've always thought that it's quite possible to provide a good education with minimal homework. But then again, I don't trust current K-8 schools to get it right. K-8 schools are anti-efficiency, by design. They dance all around subjects in the hope that kids will learn by osmosis. They don't like teaching to the test.
There's really no way for me to know how much time you could save if you really focused on using time and spaced repetition efficiently.
Speaking of which, I'm supposed to be doing my algebra homework...
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