“Virtually all students, those with and without exceptionalities, will have difficulty learning or remembering classroom material at times. All students stand to benefit from instructional strategies that will assist them to process information more effectively.” (Banikowski & Mehring, 1999, p.16, emphasis added)
The theme "learning is not a spectators’ sport" appeared in more than one place in the research I conducted. Based on my classroom experience as an adult learner, some academic professionals fail to cognitively realize what that means: active engagement enhances memory and learning. While cognitive memorization has its place to lay the foundation on which to build “knowledge,” it should not replace active engagement.
Bloom (1987) confirms that by engaging individuals actively in learning, most learners will retain:
10% of what they READ
20% of what they HEAR
30% of what they SEE
50% of what they SEE & HEAR
70% of what they SAY
90% of what they SAY & DO
20% of what they HEAR
30% of what they SEE
50% of what they SEE & HEAR
70% of what they SAY
90% of what they SAY & DO
It appears that by using teaching methods beyond traditional lecture (see 20% above), academic professional do indeed have the ability to improve retention and learning. In other words, the fact that we remember how to spell means our elementary teachers knew what they were doing with those alphabet blocks. Applicational learning is vital to comprehension. If one can not apply what is learned, in my opinion, true knowledge is not acquired.
As Albert Einstein is quoted to say; “If you can't explain a concept to a six-year-old, you really don't understand it yourself.” It isn’t until we embrace a concept, take it for a spin and are able to teach that same concept in a way a young child could understand, do we truly become a master of the concept.
Drs. Alison K. Banikowski and Teresa A. Mehring put it this way in their article, “Strategies to Enhance the Memory Based on Brain-Research”:
For educators, what's the point? If teaching occurs without learning, we might as well skip the teaching in the first place! Educators must ensure that students attend to learning, attach new learning to previous learning, actively engage in learning, construct meaning, and demonstrate their learning. All of this requires memory. No true educator simply wants to "teach"; educators want students to "learn." Educators want learners to be able to organize, store, and retrieve knowledge and skills. By applying what we know about how the brain learns and remembers, educators can focus on the "learning" aspect of the teaching/learning process. (1999, p. 1, emphasis added)
It seems Banikowski and Mehring agree with Gardiner: there is more to teaching than talking at students. Educators must attend to actually imparting knowledge by giving students information in formats their brains can accept, recall and utilize.
Dr. Anita E. Woolfolk, an expert in educational psychology, explains that there is more to education than lecturing. "Knowledge is more than the end product of previous learning; it also guides new learning […] What we already know determines to a great extent what we will pay attention to, perceive, learn, remember, and forget" (Woolfolk, 1998, p. 247). Banikowski and Mehring agree. They affirm, “The research is clear on the role of prior knowledge to memory and learning. Having prior knowledge or experience which relates to the current learning enhances memory and conversely, lacking prior knowledge or experience with the current learning reduces memory” (1999, p. 13).
Banikowski and Mehring feel that:
Educators [really] have two choices.
1. They can find the knowledge and experience the student currently has and "hook" the new learning to it. [The] goal is to help students recall what they know about a topic and help them use this knowledge gained previously to guide their comprehension of the new learning.
2. If no prior knowledge or experience exists or cannot be tapped, educators can create the prior experience. (Banikowski & Mehring, 1999, p. 9, emphasis added)
