4 The LONG-TERM memory within our reach Illustration on neurons from: The Secret Life of the Brain, Richard Restak, M.D., The Dana Press and Joseph Henry Press, 2001 Brain friendly teaching means efficiency in passing on knowledge. However: the long-term memory is hidden in a complex universe. Our brains contain billions of cells with a multitude of connections between them. In this network neurons communicate with each other through electrical impulses. Impulses travel from one neuron to the next as the two highlighted by the artist.

Exploring vision, understanding and retention in the light of recent breakthroughs in our understanding of the workings of the brain and conclusions for brain friendly teaching

Motory memory, and the reflexes can only be influenced by lots of practice and is mainly seated in the cerebellum, centre of the co-ordination of movement.

Brain stem: the oldest part of the brain, can hardly be influenced and handles many critical body functions (as in reptiles)

The human brain continues to grow after birth, and is designed for learning. Babies are innately curious. During eons of evolution it became ‘hard wired’ in the brain what was to be learned fast as skills to survive in those small groups of gatherers and hunters roaming the planes. Today we want to teach our pupils at school far more than these instinctual needs.

Physiologically, the transfer of knowledge and skills is mediated via lasting changes in
neuronal connections deep in the brains: this is the principle of the long-term memory.
To achieve lasting changes in teaching, you have to bypass the sifting systems regulating the workings of the brain. ‘Healthy obstacles’ to prevent the overlood of stimuli to the brain are the short-term memory (a teacher’s terror on first sight) and the selection mechanisms in the observation system. Sometimes this suprises us, as students don’t get aroused by all our important messages. How can the long-term memory be systematically reached in the classroom?

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Easy come – easy go

How do you reach the long-term memory?

Video, like computer animations, brings quick insight and understanding by exploiting the short-term memory: it is a feedback system.
Most new information remains here and is checked with existing knowledge everywhere else in the brain for importance. Understanding through visualisation with moving images is extremely apt for this very reason.
Without a frame of reference you quickly lose the information. The short-term memory has a limited capacity and is built to retain streams of images for no longer than necessary. Watching videos is therefore sometimes referred to as ‘chewing gum for the mind’. This is certainly true in the absence of proper planning and a lack of good assignments.
The overhead projector can be used as a modern counterbalance against the flighty character of all the moving images of today: transparencies are capable of anchoring new insights in the long-term memory.

Public speakers often choose overhead projections to help convey their message effectively to their audience, adding surprise elements and shedding light on key messages in a convincing manner.

Learning and remembering result from changes in the synaptic connections between brain cells.
Every teacher strives to influence neurological processes in the long-term memory, that is, in that complex web of associations outside of the short-term memory. Active thinking about a subject, discussing, discovering and carrying out related tasks, are productive means in the classroom to activate large areas of the brain. Repetition strengthens the connections between brain cells (the long-term potential - LTP) and results in stronger memories. Fantasising also creates connections with what is already known and facilitates recall of that memory in the future.

Large images, projections or newly revealed wall maps e.g., arouse interest and activate large areas of the brain. An overall view offered in this way, is able to lace fragmented but already existing knowledge together. By these means, visual memory anchors are formed as an aid to further understanding and later recall. This is especially helpful in short introductions when we guide students independent learning.

Video watching: via the short-term memory, images and sound flow are compared with knowledge in the long-term memory - leading to quick understanding and insight. However, there is not enough time to store this in the long-term.

An image created in the mind based on a read or told story is uncontrollable and strongly related to the student’s reality. All too often an imperfect or a wrong image is formed. When the student forms a mental image, this is stored in the memory. It might offer the necessary confidence to proceed to the next step, but in the long term only a correct image makes successful further study possible.

We have always strived for ‘Brain friendly teaching’ because only when learning activities are in line with neurological processes is efficiency achieved. Until now this happened on the basis of educational theories and daily practice, without insight into the workings of the brain. Recently the factual working of this biochemical machinery has started to come to light and already didactical shortcomings of many lessons are being revealed. The first message: plan visualisations strategically. This is likely to be sterssed in the stream of publications on brain friendly learning which can be expected in the coming 10 years.

Scan technology allows us to see what is happening in the brain. It was already widely accepted, but is now supported by strong evidence, that neurological processes are directed best via the eyes – i.e. by visual images. The memory proves to be based on images; understanding and insight appears to be heavily dependent on creating images. Moving images, such as video sequences, can quickly lead to understanding because of the co-ordinating work of the short term memory. Large stationary images activate the brain and secure the storage of information in the long-term memory because they also offer the necessary time to reflect and process the information.

Helping the memory

Memories require interest
Lack of concentration leads directly to forgetting.
If teaching is made more interesting, automatically more students pay attention and will absorbe more by the end of the lesson. Large projected images easily surprise and combine the visual aspects of understanding and retention.

Those who only offer audio information are not meeting the needs of students more inclined to think in images. The combination of image and text engages larger numbers of students and results in more captivating lessons with less dropouts.

Images provide strong memory anchors
Moreover, storing information is more effective when there is a ‘memory anchor’, in other words, a good structure. Psychologists therefore suggest first to browse through a book, before reading it. The global overview gives a structure, an anchor allowing new information to be processed meaningfully and to be recalled more easily later.

Image show at a glance information that would require pages of text. Graphs reveal trends and developments at a glimpse. Enlarged graphic materials shown will stimulate classroom discussions. Transparencies are often specially designed to offer overviews, from the workings of the brain to society formation. Large static images invite students to compare existing knowledge, to adjust ideas and to add new information. Thus, a memory anchor is formed.

Memory anchor expanded at will
All types of supporting details can be added by the teacher. Students are motivated to start classroom discussions or a clear framework is offered for independent learning.

A large stationary image is easily remembered

Our memory is not developed to view the past as a movie film, but to give direction to our daily lives. This largely determines the way in which it works: the more important, the better the chance of
storage.

The memory continually aims at keeping a clean slate. If attention is not focussed on a detail in the field of vision, then it is obviously not important enough to remember and will disappear.

TTE-transparencies are designed by a small group of teachers using the computer driven projector. After all the preparation on paper and screen, it is always striking how much more intensive the same image material comes over when projected as an enlarge image.
Most designs change considerably to accomplish a coherent presentation. Only now, we can compose large projected image in such a way in that information flows smoothly into the brain - and without confusion.
An image designed in this way, makes the creation of a memory anchor in the student’s mind much easier. It prevents distraction and misplaced questions, allowing the activated brain to calmly process the information bit by bit, storing it and obtaining an overview.
Next to the main concept we now often place small related elements, allowing students to associate with existing knowledge (so that the new concept is better linked into the existing neural network).

Neurophysiologist Eric Kandel was awarded the Nobel Prize in
2000 because he showed that short-term and long-term
memories are tied to changes in the form of and function of synapses.

Memory, From Mind To Molucules, Larry L. Squire en Eric R. Kandel, Scientific American Library, 1999..; Sensation and Perception, An integrated Approach,J.W.&S, New York 2001; Human Memory, Theory and Practice, Revised Ed. Oxford 2000; Phantoms of the Brain, V. Ramachandran, New York, 1998; Brain story - Unlocking our inner world of emotions, memories, ideas and desires, S. Greenfield, BBC Worldwide Ltd, 2000; Het heerlijke vergeten Mark Mieras, Psychologie Magazine, nov. 2001, Het BREIN, ons innerlijk universum, Ad Bergsma, Teleac Utrecht, 1996

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You are only able to learn something new when it fits into a framework and becomes interwoven with already existing knowledge. Animations and video images offer quick insight because the short-term memory is specifically developed to process such information streams efficiently in feedback reactions with the long-term memory. However, a large stationary image activates larger areas of the brain more intensively: more existing knowledge is hauled in, allowing existing misconceptions to be reviewed and corrected and new insights added. In other words, the neural network of the brain cortex is reached more effectively and memory anchors can be created.

< The same image projected large gives a very different impression and is processed more intensively, leaving a longer lasting memory.

‘Brain friendly teaching’ – diagnosis with three basic questions

1. Is proper image material used to support the memory?

2. Is the short-term memory used to convey desired insights quickly and efficiently? If so, is a follow-up planned to compensate the short-time effect?

3. Is the long-term memory helped enough to store new knowledge and insight? For example, are large stationary images planned (e.g. on chart, black board, or on projector) with the essential of the teaching goals introduced at the proper moments, or are other activities planned for processing? Which memory anchors are created to steer the students in the right direction when put to work independently?

With this simple diagnosis, structural shortcomings can easily be traced to lesson plans and the teaching equipment in the classroom. Efficiency in learning only occurs when it is in line with the neurological processes of the ‘learning’ brain. Loss of time and effort can be simply reduced in these times of endless possibilities. However, the first requirement is, that the teacher has a clear view on how to do so.

Choose the overhead projector, the beamer or both?

Computer projectors or beamers appear to be ideal: large projections from videos or computer are made possible for power point presentations, films, animations and even for standstills, which also can be taken from the school network or the Internet. Yet a beamer is rarely seen in the classroom. Costs including the supporting sound equipment, computer and video, do not seem to be the greatest obstacle. In its complexity this ‘information communication technology’ - ICT, proves to be fragile. Training is needed. For continuous use in daily lessons, teaching strategies have to be changed. To make the combined equipment work smoothly requires high demands. All things considered this technology is worth pursuing because it will allow for unprecedented ‘brain friendly teaching’. When a teacher is able to do so smoothly in his or her daily lessons - it will add a lot more than just a high-tech gadget to teaching. So far many schools have a specially equipped studio classroom available. Reserving this for your class is bound by the same restrictions as the use of a mobile installation in your own classroom. It is only worth it when a video or a special computer presentation is well prepared. The teaching staff has to be especially trained. Didactically and practically speaking, beamers are therefore fundamentally different from overhead projectors.

In order to regularly provide each lesson of the day with strong visual reminders, the overhead projector is the appropriate teaching tool to do this. In the new specialist classrooms catering for geography, history, biology, physics and chemistry lessons that are familiar to me, the rooms are furnished with modern technology from the beamer to the electronic school board, but also have the overhead projector installed. The teachers working in such a learning environment also use transparencies as supplementary teaching tools - to quickly captivate attention and show a concept.

A relatively strong beamer of 1500 lumens is needed in a non-darkened room to demonstrate with the same effect as the normal 250 watt OH-projector. They cost on average €2500 (£1500) and a replacement lamp after 1000 burning hours, costs €500 (£300). The same type 250watt OH-projector cost approximately €300 (£180); a powerful OHP of 400 watts with brighter colours and sharper definition costs about €400 (£250);. New lamps cost €6 (£3) and €9 (£5) respectively.

> Next article: Diagnosis for an effective work place and lesson plan

If you are you interested then please request this free series of articles, including one on working with the large screen. To optimize the use of the brain’s largest information highway, TTE-Visual brings appealing image material systematically together. Criteria: relevant, appealing to the students, providing rapid insight with clear memorable concepts.