Strategies for Elementary Teachers - Research Paper Example

Strategies for Elementary Teachers Elementary school teachers are always looking for different ways to help learn more effectively and use specific knowledge in global applications beyond the confines of a specific study area. Teaching young children skills like good problem-solving is useful to them throughout their studies and their lives; other types of knowledge create foundations for further learning. Showing children different methods of understanding and remembering information eventually leads to effective application of information in different situations. Based on cognitive theories, six recommendations can be made that an elementary school teacher could use for various age children to improve their overall learning experience and recall of knowledge. Recommendation 1: Teach a “short course” on short-term memory. Recommendation 2: Help children encode their learning effectively. Recommendation 3: Practice, practice, practice—but don’t stop there. Recommendation 4: Exercise visual cognition with specific assignments. Recommendation 5: Encourage unstructured quiet time. Recommendation 6: Use active engagement to enhance problem-solving skills. Each of the recommendations is based in cognitive theory and research which has been performed over many years. These brief overviews should give the elementary teacher direction on which ideas would fit best in the individual classroom and with individual students. Each student learns and recalls information differently; having a variety of tools and methods available allows the teacher to tap into what works. Recommendation 1: Teach a “Short Course” on Short-Term Memory Working memory space is limited; a variety of devices can be employed to assist children in utilizing their capacity and improving their performance. In other words, “Give elementary children access to different tools they can use to improve and prop up their short term memories.” Mnemonic devices come in all shapes and sizes and work by associating something familiar with the new information. For instance, one can remember the names of the (formerly) nine planets through the phrase, “My Very Educated Mother Just Showed Us Nine Planets.” This device is now wrong since Pluto was demoted, but the device itself works. Story telling and association can be used to remember history or geography facts. By incorporating a list of country names into a vivid story, the names can be recalled. A variation of this method to remember lists of associated items is to link items with various landmarks in an imaginary journey. There are as many memory tricks as there are researchers. Some devices take time to teach, but others are instantly useful. Use memory games as fun activities to demonstrate the power of a device, and for these games, make sure there are no right answers. The key is to teach children different strategies to help them exercise their short term memories. Do not forget to teach the foundational concept of proper note-taking: even very young children can learn to take notes in organized and effective ways, a skill which will help prop up their short term memories and get information to stick in long-term memory as well. Visual children can benefit from learning to draw information rather than writing it; spatially-oriented children benefit from mapping and charts. Since each child’s overall type of memory is different, teaching a variety of concepts and devices is most helpful in a mixed classroom. Smyth, et al. (1994) report on several examples where memory devices were used by test subjects to improve their working memories. One subject used his love of running to associate run times with long lists of random digits (179). Two other studies have shown that children who are good at repeating nonsense syllables are better at learning a second language (169). Associations are created in these test subjects’ minds which allow them to use a specific device for a specific task; the ability to recall long lists of digits or series of phonological sounds doesn’t transfer to the other realm of knowledge. This simply means that children need access to a number of tools and devices they can call upon to memorize certain basic information. Other authors have noted that devices use the power of long-term memory to create meaning out of meaningless information (180). Recommendation 2: Help Children Encode Their Learning Effectively The cognitive process of memory encoding can be interrupted by several factors, and later retrieval of those memories may be diminished based upon context. In other words, “Present information to children in a straightforward manner and try to keep their context the same throughout learning and testing.” Elementary teachers want children to eventually apply their knowledge and skills to multiple academic areas, but that is a process that must be reached step by step. The first consideration is getting memories of learning to stick and helping children recall those memories when they need them (at least for testing). Elementary teachers can make it easier for children to properly encode their memories by presenting one concept at a time; practicing for a sufficient length of time; keeping the immediate environment stable and predictable; and by relating concepts together before the first concept is forgotten. This last point involves retrieving earlier memories in a new context, which reinforces how easily that memory can be retrieved in the future. Reviewing for tests is also a place where the elementary teacher can improve the recall of students. In addition to having them review on their own, the teacher can help reconstruct the learning from beginning to end, asking questions of the class. The review could take the form of a “cognitive interview” wherein the teacher approaches the learning from different perspectives and leads the students through recall activities without telling them the answers (Smyth et al., 1994, 278). Several studies have shown that recall of knowledge is better when the child is asked questions in the same setting where the information was delivered in the first place (Anderson, 2000, 202). That may be why it is difficult for children to transfer information from one context to another quickly. In addition, recall is better when the information on the test closely resembles the original learning (205). Smyth, et al. (1994) also report on a study done with divers who memorized word lists; when later asked to recall the lists underwater, their memories were better than recalling on dry land. The context of learning coupled with similarity between learning and test could also explain why some children do well in the classroom and less well on standardized tests—they are in a different environment and the test questions are presented in different ways from what they learned. Fortunately for elementary school teachers, researchers have found children can learn incidentally as well as intentionally (Anderson, 2000, 186). The important thing is how the learner processes the information once it gets to them, whether they intend to learn it or not. This is good news, because engaging the full attention of all the young learners in the room for an extended period of time is nearly impossible. Recommendation 3: Practice, Practice, Practice—But Don’t Stop There To create expertise, practice must be accompanied by application of a skill to a variety of situations. In other words, “Give students plenty of time to practice what they are learning, but make time for application of those skills.” There is no doubt that practicing skills such as math, reading, and writing will help children to attain a level of mastery and allow them to move on to more advanced uses of those skills later in their academic careers. There comes a point, though, where practice for the sake of practicing is no longer effective (Anderson, 2000). At some point, the practice must be put into a real world context so the knowledge can be applied to multiple situations and contexts. Teaching mathematics to elementary students is a perfect example of when practicing should end and applications begin. Pages of problems and memorizing factors are excellent practice, but word problems exercise all sorts of other skills along with working out the math. Beyond that there are real-world applications for math: building simple objects to scale, for instance; graphing programs show the relationship between numbers and charts; time, money, and measurement are all good areas to introduce math concepts to the child’s world. Of course, math and science overlap, so joining the practice of one subject area with the applications of another reinforces concepts and allows the learner to use acquired knowledge. Smyth, et al. (1994) point to work done by Schneider and Shiffrin to show how practice makes skills automatic, but point out that those automatic responses can be disturbed by introducing a change in the instructions. Research with chess experts also show some interesting results (Anderson, 2000). Experts have certainly practiced more than novices, but they have also applied their practice in more games and have stored knowledge in their long term memories which allows them to “see” chess moves much further out than novices. When these chess experts are faced with artificial patterns on a chess board, they become uncomfortable. Spaced practice is better than cramming in more hours of work which are used inefficiently, according to Anderson (2000, 265). This simply means that there is a time limit to how much a child should practice a skill before moving on to another task. The problem with an elementary child’s school day is that they move from task to task quickly rather than focusing upon one thing at a time for a sufficient period (Bransford, 2000). Homework is supposed to be practice time, but there again students often have homework in several content areas, which they do quickly just to get it done with. Recommendation 4: Exercise Visual Cognition with Specific Assignments Different levels of spatial knowledge develop an understanding of the whole. For tasks requiring visual cognition skills, presenting the same information in a variety of ways develops perceptual and spatial thinking patterns. In other words, “Use a specific task such as the example below to exercise visual skills.” Exercising visual cognition skills takes practice and a variety of approaches to be effective. When humans look at maps, we create a spatial understanding of the image and store that in our long term memories (Anderson, 2000). This information is then retrieved (sometimes inaccurately) when the person needs it again. A child’s mind is not like a video recorder, however; spatial inputs are processed into recognition patterns and interpreted by the child in relationship to both the task at hand and other stored knowledge (Smyth, et al., 1994). Smyth et al. (1994) cite a study in which 9-12 year olds were either led on a walk through unfamiliar territory or shown a video of the same walk. Those who took the walk were better able to navigate through it on their own (313). The familiarity of landmarks is also important in figuring out alternate routes; when children become familiar with the space they are better able to see the boundaries of a space rather than just the routes (312). Finally, knowledge that is stored in long term memory can be called up by children to represent a picture in the mind’s eye, allowing them to see both the whole task and its constituent parts (315). By exercising all these various ways of perceiving images and spatial relationships, the connection with knowledge is strengthened and a new skill is developed—that of understanding the relationships between objects in the real world and what the child remembers about those objects. A geography exercise for elementary age children might begin with a map of the city showing street names and routes, and children are asked to develop an explanation about how to get from the school to the mall, for instance. They should write down the directions and draw a sketch map to show the route; to exercise visual cognition even more, they should be asked to put the map away and describe the directions from memory. To take the exercise to another level, the teacher might present the children with a topographical map (if the town’s topography is interesting) and ask the children to draw in major buildings and roads to understand how topography affects city planning. Finally, old maps of the city could be presented and the children asked how the city has changed, either from their previous memories of the current city or by comparing the two maps together. Recommendation 5: Encourage Unstructured Quiet Time Attention capacity is limited. To retain sensory inputs in the memory, the brain must be given sufficient time to process and store the information. In other words, “Allowing children short periods of unstructured quiet time lets them transition more easily to the next task and process what they learned from the previous task.” From the moment they wake up until they go to sleep at night, children are bombarded with information and stimulation. Teachers feel a pressure to pack as much as possible into them during the limited school hours available, and when assessment time comes around will often comment to themselves, “I taught them that; why didn’t they learn it?” One reason could be that they didn’t have time to process the information and make it part of their long-term memories (Anderson, 2000). As adults, we have the luxury of taking a few moments to think throughout the day, but children are constantly structured and there is little room for their brains to relax and process information outside of task performance. Gestalt theory postulates that we process familiar information differently than unfamiliar information (Smyth et al., 1994). In order for information to become familiar, we must not only be exposed to it a number of times, we must also recognize its patterns. When children receive too many inputs too fast, their brains lose track of many details. For instance, Anderson (2000) reports on experiments conducted by Schnieder and Shiffrin where subjects were required to pick out a number mixed in with letters or a particular letter mixed in with other letters. They required more time to process the pattern recognition for the letter/letters part of the experiment (57). Likewise, listeners get fatigued when they hear too much, according to Eimas and Corbit (66). Cognitive theory researchers recognize the fact that brains take time to process information, yet teachers rarely create unstructured quiet time in their students’ days. Allowing children short periods of unstructured quiet time can give their brains the opportunity to process the information they’ve come in contact with and put it away for later use. Each individual uses the time (quietly) as they see fit: reading or solving puzzles would be good uses of time, but staring off into space has its uses as well. Unstructured time is just that: the opportunity to think, to reorganize notes, or to engage in further learning, as the child needs. These periods of time should be limited, especially for younger children (10 minutes, perhaps). Older elementary children can usually remain quiet for longer periods of time. The important consideration is that the teacher gives the children permission to simply think if that’s what they need to do. Recommendation 6: Use Active Engagement to Enhance Problem Solving Skills Enhance metacognitive problem solving competence by presenting ideas in the context of conceptual frameworks and problem spaces, and provide students with the tools necessary to solve problems. In other words, “Use active, real world tools during problem solving exercises—and learning in general.” Active engagement with tools and objects teaches concepts and allows students to figure out what is going on. To teach physics concepts, for example, experiments, Thinker Tools or Legos can be introduced as tools for the students (Bransford, 2000). The teacher presents them with a problem, a method, and the tools, and helps them solve the problem using their critical thinking skills. Risk, challenge, and frustration are all part of solving problems, and active tools create opportunities for children to experience those three things and still reach conclusions. Sometimes there are multiple paths to a solution, and giving students the opportunity to interact with problems in a variety of ways enhances this life skill. Children who are actively engaged in their learning and understand the context of knowledge carry those skills over into other classes and eventually into life (Bransford, 2000). Each individual child perceives problems in a slightly different way, and if the teacher can recognize the problem solving processes of the child he or she can help fill in gaps in skills. Developing connections between ideas and knowledge creates understanding, especially if a good problem solving method was used to get there. Anderson (2000) uses the example of an ape joining together two sticks to reach bananas outside his cage; likewise, if children are given a set of tools and a problem to solve they will often do so, with a little guidance from the teacher. Bransford (2000) refers to the example of elementary students learning geography. While memorization can help them pass a test, knowing why and how people create cities helps them extend that knowledge to other contextual frameworks. Problem solving is a metacognitive skill. Young students will often not understand their own thought processes and if they are taught to “think out loud” they might spot flaws in their own skills, and thinking out loud certainly allows the teacher to listen in and help where needed (Bransford, 2000). Thinking out loud does not necessary involve verbalizing the process; simply observing the child in action shows a wealth of information about problem solving methods. What the teacher and student are doing is becoming aware of heuristics (ways of thinking which might lead to a solution), which transfer to other areas of life (Anderson, 2000). Even very young children come into the classroom with a set of problem solving skills. Some are competent problem solvers; some are frustrated easily. Since problem solving is a skill children need for a lifetime, the elementary teacher can be instrumental in delivering life-skills in a positive and realistic way. Using active tools to either demonstrate the problem or solve the problem gives the student knowledge which can be tapped for other areas. Concluding Remarks Using a variety of methods to transmit information and develop life skills as well as classroom skills is important for elementary teachers. Different children and different kinds of knowledge call for lecturing, group activities, hands-on experiments, written and spoken assignments, and so on. All these methods are all tools for the teacher. View these tools as opportunities to enhance learning, not just as ways to reach preset learning goals. References Anderson, J.R. (2000). Cognitive psychology and its implications (5th ed). New York: Worth Publishers. Bransford, J.D., Brown, A.L., and Cocking, R.R. (2000). How People Learn. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. Smyth, M.M., Collins, A.F., Morris, P.E., and Levy, P. (1994). Cognition in action. Hove, East Sussex: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Read More