The magic of how learners remember

I often come across students and training participants who regret that they can't remember the things they are studying or things that have been discussed during the training.

It's unfortunate that our education system still languishes in rote learning methods. However, there is a marked improvement towards skill building learning systems through practical training and learning. There has been a systemic shift in education and we see institutions adopting global best practices in learning technologies.

Nevertheless, there is always a need to memorise concepts and other discussions in order to make it stick. One of the things I learnt during a training session made it best clear to me. This has been further reinforced through my experiments with participants. The interesting is part is that this applies to almost all kinds of learners - from high school students to adult learners (including senior professionals). 

There are four factors which the accessibility of learned material depends upon.

1. How recent the learner has thought about it?
The brain keeps latest information relatively easily available for recall. Recall what you ate yesterday - chances are that you would be able to recall easily as compared to recalling what you ate for dinner on the second saturday of  last month.

2. How often the learner thinks about it?
The things you practice every day, you come across everyday are the things you're able to recall easily. That's because it comes in your mind more frequently and hence remains on top of your recall list (sometimes even unconsciously). The same can be related to continuous application of concepts to reinforce learning. Research shows that a concept should be presented to the learners in six different ways over a reasonably stretched period to stick.

3. The Level of Emotional Importance of the material learned.
The incidents that have a high degree of emotional importance are easy to recall. a heart touching scene or incident, a very interesting concept that you're interested in is easier to recall. These may be explained in the forms of stories or imagination where the participants are taken through a virtual journey which touches their hearts.

4. The similarity between learning and retrieval concepts
The learning materials should be developed in a way which which mirrors the actual work/real life scenario. A person who has prepared well  may still fare badly in an examination as the retrieval concepts (questions) may not similar to the concepts learnt (learning).

The above points can be helpful for learners to remember or for trainers to design the training program for most type of learners.

Cheers! Happy Happy Learning!