Aaron Wong > Recent Status Updates

Consolidation: During sleep, the hippocampus facilitates the offline connection between the neocortex, serving as a temporary support system. However, this process is not effective when learning new information, such as establishing index links. - p. 48-50

In the hippocampus, information passes through telegraph-line-like axons. Axons are wrapped by fatty myelin, an insulator which speeds up signals. Practising strengthens synapse links and thickens the myelin. This white matter links distant parts for complex skills. Soon, the WM can retrieve information from the neocortex without indexing via the hippocampus. - p. 45-46

Hippocampus is an index that merely links to information in the neocortex. It can link for at most a few months, which is enough time to consolidate the links in the cortex. - p. 44, 46

Declarative learning system: mostly conscious learning you can declare
• working memory
• hippocampus: above each ear, 1.5” inside, size of a big lima bean
• neocortex: ‘napkin’ few mm (6 neurons) thick, 24” X 24”, following & buried in brain’s surface folds (excludes thinner allocortex)
- p. 43

7 topics:
1. Memory
2. Mindset, motivation, resilience
3. Self-regulation & metacognition
4. Student behaviours
5. Teacher attitudes, expectations, and behaviours
6. Parents
7. Thinking biases
- p. 3

Ways of remembering:
1. Declarative memory: involving facts/events consciously recalled; in working memory, hippocampus, LTM in neocortex
2. Procedural memory: how to do something; in basal ganglia & neocortex
- p. 43

Retrieval processes are involved in expressions of knowledge (e.g. answering factual questions, explaining concepts, inferring, applying knowledge to a new problem, creativity & innovation), drawing upon the past in the service of the present. - p. 43

Active learning:
• uses activities and/or discussions e.g. group work
• higher-order thinking
• creating, consolidating, reinforcing, extending neural links in LTM
• information in LTM (e.g. definitions, examples, accumulated associations) are foundation for conceptual understanding (absorbing, retaining, analysing new information) & springboard for creativity
- p. 40-41

Active learning makes students 33% less likely to fail compared to talk&chalk; grades improved by 6%. - p. 39

Error analysis — identify, explain, fix errors in poor sentences
1. Work through with private think time
2. Compare responses with partner, increasing accountability & social motivation
3. Provide much practice & immediate corrective feedback
- p. 34-35

Teachers & working memory:
• students are worse in self-directed learning, and better with teacher direction
• practice builds info into long-term memory thru quick & automatic procedural learning pathway
• LTM enhances working memory thru automaticity e.g. punctuating sentences
• listening to teacher uses working not LTM, so they can’t implement
• have opportunities to practise during class
- p. 32-33

Improving note-taking for lesser-capacity working memories:
• provide skeleton outline with gaps students fill
• don’t speak/write quickly
• structure cues (signposting)
• mini-breaks to reread/clarify notes
• pause to ask open-ended hinge question to retrieve new information
• retrieve-taking: don’t take notes, but jot key points during pauses
- p. 31

Implications for working memory:
• avoid music when studying, especially maths
• ADHD benefits from white noise & music though
• If one struggles with simultaneously note-taking, focus on listening only and review others’ notes; however, some may tune out without note-taking, so perhaps take notes when we can.
- p. 30-31

Create strong varied links in long-term memory:
• downsize class notes to flashcards — simplifies & crystallises concepts with elegant simplifications
• frequently quiz one another
• being tired lessens working memory capacity, but makes one more creative
- p. 29-30

Differentiating instruction:
• paragraph frame for writing
• learning stations
• personalised agendas; adjust difficulty, not duration
• Carol Ann Tomlinson’s teaching up: aim high & scaffold differently
• orbital studies similar to main topic
- p. 29

Scaffolding:
• Hikers: allowing more time, breaking down steps, extension criteria
• Race cars: in-depth questions about connecting concepts, working with others, complex layered problems, authentic texts, extension projects, AI-differentiated instruction
- p. 28-29

Gauging working memory capacity:
• Excellent: can understand complex explanations & simultaneously take notes
• Average: can take notes but might lose track of challenging material
• Lesser: struggle to take notes & understand simple material simultaneously
• Circumstances (e.g. interest, home conditions) can affect
- p. 25

Education doesn’t change working memory capacity, but instead increases knowledge on long-term memory. - p. 24

Chunks of information — a word, sentence, concept — can get bigger with practice. - p. 23

Strategies for lesser-capacity working memory:
• be brief & linguistically-simple
• students should look at teacher
• one-at-a-time instructions
• instructions on board
• mnemonics
• disregard spelling when writing
- p. 22

In an average class, 20% of the class will have the working memory of a child 3 years above/below their age, 3-6+ pieces of information. - p. 20

Write directions down for students to mitigate limited working memory; 14yos already have adult-sized working memories, twice a 4yo. - p. 19

Jot Recall:
• notes/sketches: without looking at notes/page, jot most important ideas covered; compare & discuss in groups
• spaced repetition: jot stuff they learnt in the previous day/week/month
- p. 12-13

Retrieval practice is drawing ideas from your own mind (e.g. flashcards); students need to be taught this. - p. 8

Test anxiety can be reaching into long-term memory and not finding the studied information. - p. 8

Average working memory holds four items; students can’t increase the items, but can make the balls of information bigger. - p. 7

Varied practice of new foreign words can be using them in different sentences & contexts. - p. 7

Short-term memory only what you’re temporarily holding in your mind (e.g. in your mind’s eye/ear), whereas working memory is also the ability to manipulate that information. - p. 6

Recall (retrieval practice) trumps rereading, highlighting, concept maps. - p. 6

Working memory is a slanted shelf, where balls of information roll off as soon as you let go. - p. 5