Learning Opportunities

It just makes sense: to learn, students have to THINK. This simple insight leads to important questions: where does “thinking” happen? How does it work? Why doesn’t it work the way we – and our students – wish it did? To answer these questions, this talk will explore an essential cognitive function: working memory. Students use working memory to connect new information to their prior knowledge. They also use it to reorganize their knowledge into new mental structures. When teachers understand working memory – its function, importance, and limitations – we can anticipate, recognize, and solve the memory problems that hinder learning. Lively and practical, this conversation uses psychology research to make learning easier and teaching more effective.