Practice makes permanent. Love this important reminder Martin! The need to ensure that the learning we want kids to stick and make permanent must be the good learning! Your personal experiences with Maths will resonate with so many! It always saddens me when I hear adults saying how much they hated Maths at school! Or students telling me during classroom visits that they are "no good at Maths". On another note, reading your examples on the good repeated experiences got my brain recalling the video of that 80 year old Brasilian dancer... who learned to ballet dance through 6 hours of daily repeated experiences! :)
I know. It is so easy. I think what happens is that we are so keen to get our frustrations out in the open that we momentarily forget they are being received by someone else. It's like one of those radio stations where a presenter swears profusely not realising that the microphone is still on and the listeners are hearing everything. The big question is not 'What do I want to say' right now'? but, 'If I keep saying this, how it will be received and what repeated experiences am I creating for the listener'? I think parents can be cut a little slack sometimes (my Dad ran out of slack very quickly about math) but for anyone who wants to be classed as a 'professional' it's got to be part of our disciplined behaviour.
Fascinating post Martin. The anecdote about your father and mathematics was exactly the same for me!
I am also a dad to a 3 year old and it has been incredible to watch the learning happening over these last couple of years - I can almost hear the little clicks as those pathways are being created! My son's memory in particular is also amazing and I think this helps to support the 'stickiness' you speak about. I can say something once and a few days later he has made a synaptic connection to that one thing I had said - remembering it - repeating it - and putting it into a new and fresh context. He himself is creating the stickiness, supported by his amazing memory. My memory on the other hand is dreadful! I am curious about a couple of things in all this. Firstly, what role does memory play in the learning process and is it the most important factor and secondly, can we actually unlearn what it is we learn - good or bad?
Being foremost an early years educator, I know the importance of repeating processes and the ongoing reinforcement of ideas and language. I know this tends to fade as kids move up the school educational ladder, but in Chinese education, on the other hand, rote-learning, repetition and memorization continues throughout the schooling (and learning) journey. This too begs the question - does learning happen only if and when you use the new information or is it sufficient to just get it in there? So much to think about from this post Martin!
Hi Gary. It's perhaps not surprising that the first couple of replies to this post said the same thing about maths and Dads. It may be that, as a result of the subject and ,perhaps their work, maths Dads have less tolerance for anything that isn't right or or very nearly right straight away?
As for memory, I'm going to try and address it later in these posts when we'll look at the factors that affect learning. But it's such a slippery concept. There's no doubt that stickiness is an important part of memory. There's no doubt that we have different types of memory; remembering 'what', is different than remembering 'how'. There is no doubt that the whole brain is involved in laying down memory, starting with the hippocampus. But there also now seems no doubt that memories are in the process of being continuously created. I read just this week that 'Calling up a memory is not like pressing play on a tape machine; it's like pressing play and record together.' This is why we can create false memories and implant memories. We can also imagine repeatedly into being.
Finally, your sentences 'I know the importance of repeating processes and the ongoing reinforcement of ideas and language. I know this tends to fade as kids get older...' are very important. I don't think they should fade as kids older and the reasons why they do are part of the factors that affect learning. Oh boy. Lots to come. Thanks for making me reflect and think. M
Practice makes permanent. Love this important reminder Martin! The need to ensure that the learning we want kids to stick and make permanent must be the good learning! Your personal experiences with Maths will resonate with so many! It always saddens me when I hear adults saying how much they hated Maths at school! Or students telling me during classroom visits that they are "no good at Maths". On another note, reading your examples on the good repeated experiences got my brain recalling the video of that 80 year old Brasilian dancer... who learned to ballet dance through 6 hours of daily repeated experiences! :)
Great post. Reading about your father and math was a good reminder to me as I have similar tendencies to your father when it comes to math :)
I know. It is so easy. I think what happens is that we are so keen to get our frustrations out in the open that we momentarily forget they are being received by someone else. It's like one of those radio stations where a presenter swears profusely not realising that the microphone is still on and the listeners are hearing everything. The big question is not 'What do I want to say' right now'? but, 'If I keep saying this, how it will be received and what repeated experiences am I creating for the listener'? I think parents can be cut a little slack sometimes (my Dad ran out of slack very quickly about math) but for anyone who wants to be classed as a 'professional' it's got to be part of our disciplined behaviour.
Fascinating post Martin. The anecdote about your father and mathematics was exactly the same for me!
I am also a dad to a 3 year old and it has been incredible to watch the learning happening over these last couple of years - I can almost hear the little clicks as those pathways are being created! My son's memory in particular is also amazing and I think this helps to support the 'stickiness' you speak about. I can say something once and a few days later he has made a synaptic connection to that one thing I had said - remembering it - repeating it - and putting it into a new and fresh context. He himself is creating the stickiness, supported by his amazing memory. My memory on the other hand is dreadful! I am curious about a couple of things in all this. Firstly, what role does memory play in the learning process and is it the most important factor and secondly, can we actually unlearn what it is we learn - good or bad?
Being foremost an early years educator, I know the importance of repeating processes and the ongoing reinforcement of ideas and language. I know this tends to fade as kids move up the school educational ladder, but in Chinese education, on the other hand, rote-learning, repetition and memorization continues throughout the schooling (and learning) journey. This too begs the question - does learning happen only if and when you use the new information or is it sufficient to just get it in there? So much to think about from this post Martin!
Hi Gary. It's perhaps not surprising that the first couple of replies to this post said the same thing about maths and Dads. It may be that, as a result of the subject and ,perhaps their work, maths Dads have less tolerance for anything that isn't right or or very nearly right straight away?
As for memory, I'm going to try and address it later in these posts when we'll look at the factors that affect learning. But it's such a slippery concept. There's no doubt that stickiness is an important part of memory. There's no doubt that we have different types of memory; remembering 'what', is different than remembering 'how'. There is no doubt that the whole brain is involved in laying down memory, starting with the hippocampus. But there also now seems no doubt that memories are in the process of being continuously created. I read just this week that 'Calling up a memory is not like pressing play on a tape machine; it's like pressing play and record together.' This is why we can create false memories and implant memories. We can also imagine repeatedly into being.
Finally, your sentences 'I know the importance of repeating processes and the ongoing reinforcement of ideas and language. I know this tends to fade as kids get older...' are very important. I don't think they should fade as kids older and the reasons why they do are part of the factors that affect learning. Oh boy. Lots to come. Thanks for making me reflect and think. M