Back to Learning by Memory

“Many students doing exercises in class using only their memory felt lost in front of a blank page, and it took them several minutes to start remembering and writing”.

We do not need to remember phone numbers to make a call because the cell phone does it for us. Nor do we have to remember the streets of the city where we live; there is an app that provides us with the best route. The same goes for birthdays: social media reminds us. There are many more such examples. Undoubtedly, the advance in technology has revolutionized many things that we no longer have to do and provides us with many benefits, but at what cost? Could it be that smartphones took away the need to use our memory? Will we become incapable of remembering a phone number? What are the consequences of Education of the deteriorating ability to memorize and remember?

As a high school teacher, my concern is that the new generations have difficulty memorizing information and learning. Often, my students complain that they cannot remember the text they just read or the content covered just a couple of classes previously. I am afraid that not using or practicing short-term memory atrophies their development. Therefore, I decided to explore the topic. I discovered that some websites dedicated to addressing educational trends, such as Edutopia (Mercanti-Anthony and M.-J., 2021), Exploding Topics (Byers, 2022), and ScienceDirect (Garrisona, R. D. and Arbaughb, J., 2007), recommend precisely reinforcing memorization skills and the ability to evoke information.

“Exercises to reinforce the recall of information or memorization positively impact learning; On the other hand, my students received the methodology well and were willing to put in their effort.”

The importance of memorization in learning

Evoking information and memorization comprise an active learning strategy that involves remembering what has been learned using only memory. This approach is convenient because it forces the student to strive to remember what has been learned. This effort improves memory and reinforces learning (Lasky, 2020). For several decades, the study of the cognitive processes of learning and cognitive science has addressed the “test effect.” It means the positive influence of the exam on student learning (Salmerón, 2011): The recurrent application of exams makes acquired knowledge last longer in the young people’s memories.

Studies published in recent decades demonstrate the importance of recalling information (evocation). For example, in learning a foreign language, the examination effect significantly impacted long-term results compared to simple repetition (Karpicke & Roediger, 2008). Also, according to the study conducted by Su, Buchin, and Mulligan (2021), evocation is more effective than simply restudying the subject when comparing the experimental results of different groups of students who used these different methodologies. The practice of information evocation is generally regarded as one of the best long-term learning strategies rather than simple study, as Racsmány, Szőllősi, and Marián (2020) suggest. Therefore, based on these results, it seemed a good idea to teach my students how to remember what they had learned.

Practical exercises using the evocation methodology for learning

Before making significant changes to my courses, I wanted to know my students’ points of view and if they would commit to going the extra mile to reinforce these skills. I did a pilot test with two of my classes, explained the methodology of evoking information, and selected several activities that they would carry out.

I designed five activities and exercises that use the evocation methodology. Below, I describe each one and how they were applied in class:

• Jigsaw Puzzle. Students read an assigned topic. In the next class, student teams had to make a summary or mind map of the content, using only their memories and notes. Then, each team presented their part of the content in the plenary session. At the end of the activity, each student had to take a pop quiz on the content studied.

• Content quizzes. The students had to take two quizzes without using internet search engines or notes. They had to try to remember for themselves. The quizzes had a time limit for completion and submission, but the students were allowed to repeat if the first grade was unsatisfactory. When taking the exams, the students were insecure and sometimes unable to remember the contents reviewed previously.

• Brain Dump. The students had 10 minutes to write down everything they learned about the subject on a sheet, then share their notes with their classmates.

• Think-Pair-Share. In this collaborative learning activity, the student must write his reflection on a problem and share it with a classmate or in a small team and then make a conclusion to present to the rest of the room.

• Repeat backs. The student has to repeat the instruction or information given by the teacher or classmate.

Although the results cannot be observed in such a short-term study, I found the lack of developed evocation or memorization skills by the high school students worrisome. Many felt lost in front of a blank sheet of paper, and they required several minutes to start remembering and writing.

After doing the activities described above, I applied a survey to 50 participating students to obtain quantitative data. Although the survey did not provide decisive data, it provided a broadened perspective having more opinions on the subject by the students themselves.

Results

In the survey, I asked students these questions: 1) Do they feel this methodology was helpful? 2) Would they like to have more such activities? 3) Are they willing to go the extra mile? 4) Do they feel they have mastered evocation skills? I was surprised to see the many affirmative answers. To several questions, 80% replied yes. Notably, as for the proficiency in the skills, many also said yes, although this perception differed somewhat from mine.

The first questions concerned the students’ perception of the methodology’s usefulness. More than 80% of students responded that they agreed or strongly agreed that these activities helped evoke information. When asked if they would like to have more activities like this, 70% agreed. A similar percentage responded that they feel that activities such as those applied in the class supported the development of their memory skills. When asked if these skills were important to them, more than 80% agreed.

As for whether the student is willing to go the extra mile to use this methodology, the result was positive. Nearly half of the students responded by agreeing to go the extra mile, but there were more negative answers compared to previous questions.

Finally, they were asked how they felt about their mastery of the skill in question. See the results in Image 3.

Again, nearly half of the answers were affirmative, but more than half of the students responded that they were not satisfied with their level of proficiency. It differs somewhat from the perception of the teacher.

Reflection

The debate on Education reminds me of the sea as waves of ideas come and go. We break paradigms with the desire to improve learning, but after the wave goes away, we often wonder if we have really improved or if maybe some of the things we discarded were the key to student success. I felt like returning to what I had done in the past, but with a different purpose with this methodology.

In addition to the activities mentioned in this study, I suggest activities like crossword puzzles of the main concepts without the students using their cell phones, computers, or devices to look for the answers. It worked for me to pair the students to solve the crossword puzzle competitively in the classroom. They exchanged the answers, but the important thing is that they tried to remember in the first 10-15 minutes. I also recommend the “repeat back” exercise where the student repeats what he has just heard with his own words.

From my experience in this project, I believe that the exercises to reinforce the practice of evocation could have a positive learning impact. My students received the methodology well and showed a willingness to make an effort.

I want to invite teachers to explore this methodology in their classes and share their experiences through the Observatory of the Institute for the Future of Education of Tecnologico de Monterrey. I also invite you to leave your opinions, observations, or suggestions in the comments section on this page.

About the author

Roman Litvin (litvine@tec.mx) is a social sciences professor at the Prepa Tec Garza Sada campus of Tecnologico de Monterrey. He holds a master’s degree in communication sciences from UANL and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Moscow State University.

References

Agarwal, P. K., & Roediger, H. L. (2019, January). Lessons for learning: How cognitive psychology informs. Phi Delta Kappan, 8-12.

Berwick, C. (2019, October 25). What Does the Research Say About Testing? Retrieved from Edutopia: https://www.edutopia.org/article/what-does-research-say-about-testing

Boser, U. (2021, September 14). Retrieval Practice. Retrieved from The Learning Agency Lab: https://www.the-learning-agency-lab.com/learning-strategies/retrieval-practice/

Byers, K. (2022, February 9). 7 Emerging Education Trends (2022-2025). Retrieved from: https://explodingtopics.com/blog/education-trends

De las Heras, P. (24 de enero de 22). «No recuerdo nada»: los jóvenes tienen una memoria cada vez peor. Retrieved from Ethic: https://ethic.es/2022/01/no-recuerdo-nada-los-jovenes-tienen-una-memoria-cada-vez-peor/

Garrisona, R. D., & Arbaughb, J. (2007). Researching the community of inquiry framework: Review, issues, and future directions. The Internet and Higher Education, 3(10), 157-172. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1096751607000358

Haebig, E., Leonard, L. B., Deevy, P., Schumaker, J., Karpicke, J. D., & Weberb, C. (2021, August). The Neural Underpinnings of Processing. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 64, 3195–3211.

Karpicke, J. D., & Roediger, H. L. (2008, February 15). The Critical Importance of Retrieval for Learning. Science, 319(5865), 966-968.

Lasky, J. (2020). Retrieval practice. Salem Press Encyclopedia.

Mercanti-Anthony, M.-J. (2021, July 1). Using Cognitive Science to Boost Learning. Retrieved from Edutopia: https://www.edutopia.org/article/using-cognitive-science-boost-learning

Racsmány, M., Szőllősi, Á., & Marián, M. (2020). Reversing the testing effect by feedback is a matter of performance criterion in practice: memory and cognition.

Su, N., Buchin, Z. L., & Mulligan, N. W. (2021). Levels of retrieval and the testing effect. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning Memory and Cognition, 652–670.

Salmerón, L. (18 de Marzo de 2011). ¿Por qué realizar un examen mejora nuestro aprendizaje? Lecciones científicas y educativas del efecto del test. Retrieved from Ciencia Cognitiva: http://www.cienciacognitiva.org/?p=228

Wikipedia contributors. (2021, July 19). Testing effect. Retrieved from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Testing_effect

Edited by Rubí Román (rubi.roman@tec.mx) – Observatory of Educational Innovation.

Translation by Daniel Wetta.

Roman Litvin

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