Learning New Material

This was originally from C&I 407, Summer 2011


When it comes to learning new material the most important thing for me to do is make it relevant. I’m at the point now that for me to take the time to learn something it is because I have a specific reason that I plan to implement that skill or knowledge. This makes some people think I can be a bit intense, because when it comes to things I am interested in, “I’m in.” If I can’t see—or be made to see—a way I can utilize it now or in the future, count me out. That makes it good when I want to learn something, I’ll allocate all the resources I can. However, I would make a bad politician because I have a tough time remembering the names of people I’m sure I’ll never meet again. Not my classmates of course, but then again we haven’t actually met!



When I am “allocating resources” to learning something new, what steps to I take? First I try to relate the new material to prior knowledge. What similar situations, activities, or processes that I already know are similar to the new material? If it is similar to something I already know then I can recall a similar schema (Bruning, 2004, pp 22-23) from long-term memory and hang the new information on it. When learning new video editing programs I make comparisons to Windows Movie Maker or Adobe Premiere. (I plan to introduce Final Cut to my Media II students next year and they will have to make connections to the similarities in Premiere, as well as the differences.)

If the material is new and I can’t make a connection to a long-term memory schema, then I find I use a few different strategies including chunking, including visual components, and practicing if applicable.

First, I like George Miller’s idea of organizing material into chunks to increase the amount of information retained (Bruning, pp 26-27) is what I do in a lecture or when reading. I take notes, usually in an outline form. I teach speech as well as history and that discipline’s emphasis on outlines works well for me because I have always used them. Now I realize I am using them as a way to chuck information to help me retain and recall it.

Second, I always had a hard time remembering student names at the beginning of the year. I used to make name cards for them to set on their desks for the first week until I made the connection between the name (a word) and the person it represents. This is one way in which I discovered that I like to have visual and auditory presentational aspects to material that I am learning. On page 22, Bruning, et al states under the “Implications of Research on Sensory Registers” that, “there may be real benefits to presenting information both visually and auditorially.” Perhaps because I like to learn that way, I try whenever possible to do the same for my students. From overheads, to video clips, to an interactive whiteboard—that makes it easier and faster to integrate visuals—I have found through the years that having both is something I not only like to include but that I am including more of as it becomes easier to do.  Now I get their picture included in my electronic gradebook and can make the connections through a seating chart that includes faces and names—works great for substitutes.

Finally, I like to practice, practice, and practice. I am guess I am trying for  automaticity (Bruning, p. 25). Don’t just show me how to do something, let me actually do it. My pet peeve with a lot of professional development is that it only shows you how to do something and tells you to practice it when you get back to your classroom. Unfortunately, they showed you an overload of new things to try and when you get back to the classroom you have to deal with the things you left for the substitute, get the students and course back on track and soon there is no time to practice what they showed me. I was asked by my local ROE to teach some workshops on video editing. I told them I would with a big if. If they would make the training a day long workshop so that participants had time to practice what I showed them. I had them bring in materials and an idea of some type of video they wanted to create. By giving them time to practice (play around) they got to know the program and most came away with a newly created video to share or use in the classroom. Malcolm Gladwell in his book Tipping Point points this out in terms of the hours of practice that it takes to learn something, to become proficient at it, and the point at which the skill tips and a person can become an expert at it.