retention
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hey all,
i am still sort of on the history thread, but my thoughts are on retention.
i am reading different philosophies on remembering/learning info, and would
love some more thoughts from you live ones. generally, i retain only things
that are important to me at the time of learning. but also generally, i have
terrible retention... i think it is actually a coping mechanism i learned in
school! it made my school life quite efficient, but i think has damaged my
ability to retain info now, too.
i am still sort of on the history thread, but my thoughts are on retention.
i am reading different philosophies on remembering/learning info, and would
love some more thoughts from you live ones. generally, i retain only things
that are important to me at the time of learning. but also generally, i have
terrible retention... i think it is actually a coping mechanism i learned in
school! it made my school life quite efficient, but i think has damaged my
ability to retain info now, too.
metta
> i am still sort of on the history thread, but my thoughts are on retention.I'm reading an interesting book on "brain-based learning." A lot of what
> i am reading different philosophies on remembering/learning info, and would
> love some more thoughts from you live ones. generally, i retain only things
> that are important to me at the time of learning. but also generally, i have
> terrible retention... i think it is actually a coping mechanism i learned in
> school! it made my school life quite efficient, but i think has damaged my
> ability to retain info now, too.
they recommend sounds like unschooling to me. The authors talk about
something that happens a lot in schools which they call "downshifting." When
the students and teachers both don't have any real control over what they
are learning/teaching and when they are to learn/teach it, they kind of go
into survival mode, where all they can do is rote memorization of "what's
going to be on the test." Critical thinking, creativity, and higher-order
thinking go out the window. This is especially true in the age of
standardized tests, where teachers are forced to teach to the test.
The book is "Education on the Edge of Possibility" by Renate Nummela Caine
and Geoffrey Caine.
from p. 18:
"We also came to the conclusion that teaching for memorization of
meaningless facts and procedures dictated by someone else usually induces
downshifting. Downshifting is a psychophysiological response to threat
associated with fatigue or perceived helplessness or both. Downshifted
learners then bypass much of their capacity for higher-order functioning and
creative thought."
--
Thea
metta@...