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| by Thuy Truong, M.A. Ed., TPT Teaching and Coaching, 10/10/2024|
Two components of effective learning that often get forgotten and overlooked are helping students find personal connections in what they learn and how they learn. In addition, the other aspect is meeting students' psychological needs (personal relevance, interests, novelty etc.) while they are in the initial learning stage and perhaps throughout the duration of learning (Lujan & DiCarlo, 2017). Think back to a time in your youth, why did you remember something or yearn to understand anything as a student? Chances are you had found a small sliver of personal inspiration or a spark of curiosity in what you were learning whether it stemmed from a personal motivation or an academic motivation or sometimes both. Personal relevance engraves things into our memory. Without some form of personal meanings, memory creation is difficult. Note-taking is the first gate of initial learning that students must go through either digitally or on paper. The sole purpose of note-taking is memory creation, but how well the student understands and remembers the concepts in the notes later on lies in how meaningful the personal connections the student had created during the actual note-taking process. Below are a few fun ways to test the magic of making note-taking personal to maximize comprehension and long-term memory:
Capture Relationships Among Ideas With Simple Arrows
It's much easier to forget a cluster of trivial facts than to zoom out from your thinking and see the bigger picture of what you are actually learning. For example, instead of getting bogged down with long readings and articles, try to take a step back and pick out some interesting patterns you see with all the assigned readings. Then, narrow it down to a few categories and figure out how the categories relate to each other on a larger scale.
Example (Your notes may look something like this):
Make Personal Connections
People often remember things easier if they relate to the learning personally. If you don't think so, trace your memory back to a big event that you will remember for the rest of your life. Most likely, that event affected you in some way personally either directly or indirectly. Therefore, a great way to help the brain remember academic concepts easily is to make them personal.
Example: I was learning about Ernest Hemingway's life, and I remember to this day he wrote a short story based on his father. I remember this story to this day because I related to it in this way. I was close to my grandmother, Ernest Hemingway had some indelible memories about his father. Early familial relationships in one's life often leave a lasting impression (I would document this big idea in my class notes). Try to hook something personal to what you're learning during note-taking. It works like a charm every single time.
One Image That Sticks
In your notes, draw an image that stands out in your mind about a topic you are learning. I admit I am not a skillful artist by any stretch of the imagination. However, I can summarize what I had learned with simple stick figures, boxes, and emojis (if I have to activate my memory for a class exam). This works particularly well with novels if you struggle to remember what you had read from one chapter to the next. However, this information retention technique works well with any school subject or subject matter that you may encounter. This is not about drawing skill perfection; it's about getting down the crucial idea. As long as you can capture the big idea down in one simple or complicated picture depending on your drawing skill or AI generated is fine (but it can't take longer than 5 minutes), then you are good to go as far as it will help you remember exactly the big concept that you had learned a few days or months ago.
Example: This would be my picture for Victor Frankenstein trying to push the boundaries of science and scholastic ambition in the novel Frankenstein. It's the idea that messing with Mother Nature is often fatal.
Unveil The Process
Practice seeing the engine or the big picture behind what you are learning. Usually, underneath all the details, there is a profound message or a conceptualized framework that holds up all the details. So instead of seeing the small pieces and leave it at that, try to ask yourself what is the system or thinking behind it all that holds up everything else? Then, draw that in some form of a flowchart.
Example:
Match It To Real Life
When you find what you learn actually occurs in real life also, then naturally it all becomes even more real and relatable. If you see a similar concept plays out in real-world application, then the more it will stick in your mind. For example, if I am reading scholarly articles about how humans are creatures of habits and this is the main idea that my article is saying. Then, I would try to find an example of human behaviors in real life that shows people tend to stick to their habits ( like menu preference, daily routines, entertainment choices etc), which makes change difficult, but that is the sort of things that happen in real life.
In my note I would write:
This is true because I always try to hook a difficult task with an easy task like washing my car after I do grocery shopping. That's how I always wash my car every month. That's my habit. I am human, so I am also a creature of habits. I like to do things in a certain order because I know that it always works for me, so I stick to it.
Bonus: including textual notes with personal connections and weaving it with a graphic picture of some kind is like the cherry on top for your working memory. Text and visuals are a potent combination of memory creation for academic purposes.
Example: Relating studying to another activity in daily life and their similar benefits.
Neuroscience research suggests there are three types of memory that contribute to long-term memory for academic learning. Episodic memory is remembering when and where events happened in the past. Also, autobiographical memories would be relating to new learning with personal experiences with feelings and thoughts. Lastly, semantic memories are related to facts and concepts about the world (Fandakova & Bunge, 2016). When these three types of memories are activated during note-taking by using the methods mentioned above, a student would be building an empire of academic concepts that are deeply engrained in the brain like layering three different but related layers of steel to build an impenetrable wall of protection against memory erosion. The stronger the layering, the deeper the memory and the easier the recall. Long-term, academic memory heightens the totality of scholastic understanding of learning concepts.
References:
Fandakova, Y., & Bunge, S. (2016). What Connections Can We Draw Between Research on Long‐Term Memory and Student Learning? Mind Brain and Education, 10(3), 135-141. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/mbe.12123 Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3zf470j5
Lujan, H.L. and DiCarlo, S.E. (2017), A personal connection: Promoting positive attitudes towards teaching and learning. American Association of Anatomists, 10: 503-507. https://doi.org/10.1002/ase.1697
Thuy Truong, M.A. Ed.
As a Certified ADHD Professional/Coach and Licensed Educator for 19 years, Thuy's holistic approach combines Learning Science with ADHD Science to design brain hack strategies that foster students'/individuals' long-term independence, motivation, and self-management skills. She is diligent in understanding her students and adults on all levels (ADHD, Executive Dysfunction, Autism, Dysgraphia, Anxiety, Depression, Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviors-BFRB, Written Expression Disorder, Specific Reading Comprehension Deficit-SRCD, ADHD and Syncope-fainting spells). She listens deeply and spots the missing piece very quickly then she swiftly turns around to personalize tailored strategies to meet her clients' unique needs. She believes in evidence-based practices as well as giving the student/individual the best of all worlds: learning science, cognitive science, and ADHD science. Her favorite part is recognizing the missing puzzle and customizing the "brain hack" in a language that is unique to that individual while meeting all their needs. She especially enjoys helping students/adults translate their challenges into actionable steps and likes letting them know that they are well loved!
Learn more about how Thuy marries a student's processing style with dynamic instructional input here.
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