Why Students Forget the Content They Learn

Educational experience show that some things are remembered very well, others are there but sometimes difficult to find. While still other things are completely forgotten. A good teacher should know why this happens so that he can try and create conditions that promote memory all the time. Different theories give different explanations as to what causes forgetting. Behavioristic theory andcognitive theory are discussed here:

​The behavioristic theory

​The behavioristic theory developed the following explanations

1. The disuse model
2. Interference model

​The disuse model

​This theory submits that people forget the stimulus-response [S-R] connections or associations made previously because they grow rusty or fade away through lack of use
To promote remembering the teacher needs to ensure that learned material is rehearsed under conditions of reinforcement
Rehearsal
Learners who don't rehearse content often lose the S-R connections they had learned. To avoid this, the teacher should;

• - Give  time to rehearse and analyze (study time)
• - Relate the content with an early topic

Reinforcement

• This is the process of encouraging or establishing a belief or pattern of behavior, especially by encouragement or reward.
• Remembering is best promoted by if learning is reinforced. If the learner displays the desirable behaviour without being reinforced, forgetting occurs

​Interference model

Learners forget the content they learn because of other learning interference. 

• Example:  learners forget new content because old contents interferes with its memory [proactive inhibition]. If the new content interferes with the memory of the old content, this situation is referred to as [retroactive inhibition]

Therefore, to promote the memory, the teacher should do the following:

• Make sure new learning is clear by bringing out the similarities and differences between the old and new information
• A learning task must be practiced until it is mastered and even over-learned. The principle is that partially learned tasks interfere more with other partially learned tasks.
• Over learning means going beyond the mastery of a task and ensuring that the content is at the finger tips . This means that contents can be recalled with ease.

Cognitive explanation 

• The key to memory is the way in which the material is coded and organized as it is stored in the long-term memory bank.

The short-term memory/working memory

• The key to memory at this level is attention. For information to be retained in memory, it should be focused on and rehearsed briefly so as to be registered for further processing. Any information that is not attended to is lost or forgotten.
• The most important process at this level is rehearsal. Rehearsal takes two forms namely;maintenance rehearsal and elaborative rehearsal

Maintenance rehearsal 

• This is rehearsal for information which is not intended to move to the long-term memory bank. It involves repetition of information over and over again. When the information is no longer needed it is forgotten.

Elaborative rehearsal

• This rehearsal is used for all the information that we wish to transfer to the long-term memory bank. This rehearsal involves repetition of information and linking it with information already existing in the long-term memory. These two processes ensure that the information is cataloged and filed in the long-term memory.

The following memories exist at the long-term memory bank

1. Declarative memory; this is a memory for things that can be expressed in words
2. Semantic memory; this is a memory for general facts
3. Episode memory; this is a memory for personal experiences
4. Procedural memory; for actions and skills

• Memory is organized in items that are similar are stored close together. For each item in the memory, there is an imaginary index card which is appropriately cataloguing errors

What causes cataloging errors? 

• Cataloging errors can occur if a learner takes in too much information within a short time. Also if two thing are similar, one may be remembered in place of the other.
• To ensure that content learned is remembered, it is important  to give it time to be processed at all memory levels until it enters the long term memory bank because everything that gets there is permanent.

How to improve memory

​To improve your memory, try the following practices:
Increasing attention 

• Attention means, focusing on information and registering it, isolating it from all possible distractors. To increase attention, we should put the following points in mind
  • Select a study environment which does not contain too many distractions which include noise, heat, cold and things that appeal to sight or hearing.

Rehearsal

• This refers to repetition of what has been learned in the school setting. To emphasize on this, the teacher should ensure that:
  • The school organize study timetables
  • Learners are given time and classrooms convenience for the purpose
  • Train learners on how to conduct private studies
  • Train learners on how to conduct discussion groups
  • Learners are trained to conduct distributed and massed practices [distributed practice  means that the learner is involved in taking short periods of study at a time and taking a break after each period while massed practice  sitting for long hours of study]

The use of mnemonic devices 

• These are techniques that have been developed to improve memory. Particularly memory for bits of unrelated information. Most mnemonics work by letting you remember a word, phrase or poem, which in turn stands for more complicated information to remember. For instance by remembering 'ROY G. BIV' you can reproduce the order and colors of the rainbow.

The Loci Method 

• For each item you want to remember, you think of a representative image. Something that symbolizes that item to you then you imagine each image in place in the location