ASk the CogNItIve SCIeNtISt What Will Improve （问认知科学家将改善）.pdf

ASk the CogNItIve SCIeNtISt What Will Improve a Student’s Memory? How does the mind work—and especially how does it learn? on the test. I’ve found that these students typically know little Teachers’ instructional decisions are based on a mix of theories about how their memories work and, as a result, do not know learned in teacher education, trial and error, craft knowledge, and how to study effectively. gut instinct. Such gut knowledge often serves us well, but is there In this article, I’ll discuss what to tell your students about how anything sturdier to rely on? memory works: how to commit things to memory, to avoid forget- Cognitive science is an interdisciplinary field of researchers ting, and to know when they’ve studied enough. I’ll provide from psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, philosophy, computer examples for classroom demonstrations to make the abstract science, and anthropology who seek to understand the mind. In ideas more vivid for your students, and I’ll describe how they can this regular American Educator column, we consider findings apply those abstract ideas when they study. from this field that are strong and clear enough to merit classroom * * * application. rom the time a child enters school until she earns a diploma, her principal task is to learn new facts and By Daniel T. Willingham skills. It would seem natural, therefore, that somewhere