Memory, Learning, and Teaching Math

One of the macro problems in our profession is the relative ignorance we have (as teachers) of sound scientific evidence and theory related to the target of all of our work: the human brain. In particular, we want our students to show that they learned something by using their memory of information; however, we design our efforts around the surface features of ‘doing math’ with too little attention to how a person (like a student) will actually remember information.

I am talking here of ‘memory’ in the scientific sense: something is stored in the brain, and memory refers to both this storage and the retrieval. We might get “memorization” confused with “memory”; one refers to a specific process for building memory … the other refers to all factors involved.

Through a connection (on LinkedIn, of all places) I encountered a surprisingly good summary of research on memory. The readable source is http://www.spring.org.uk/2012/10/how-memory-works-10-things-most-people-get-wrong.php which is based on a more technical anthology of research on memory.

Three of my favorite summary statements are these:

Forgetting helps you learn.

Recalling memories alters them

When recall is easy, learning is low

Other items in the list deal with learning in context and productive organizations for learning new skills. All items in the list have direct applications for our classrooms and learning mathematics.

We all have our preconceptions about how memory works. As teachers, we develop ‘intuitions’ about our students and their learning. Like most domains, intuitions are valuable but actually incorrect more often than not; partially, this is due to the fact that organic processes have a large number of variables.

I encourage you to at least read the 10-item summary; that article contains a link to an online copy of the anthology of original research … you might find that interesting as well.

Developmental Mathematics Revival!

Bringing a new vitality to college mathematics 2011 to 2019