Week 1 - Introduction to Learning and Memory

    Hello, welcome to my blog. In this space you will find my comments and summaries about the different topics that will be covered throuout the weeks during the Learning and Memory course. 

    After diving into the first week of this course, my perception was that we're going to be digging into how our brains handle learning and memory. The main goal seems to be arming us with the know-how to make the most of this understanding when it comes to teaching others. So, we're not just talking theory here; it's about getting hands-on and figuring out how to apply what we learn in real-life teaching situations. This course looks like it's going to be a mix of getting the lowdown on the science behind cognition and finding out how to put that knowledge into action when we're helping others learn.

    Expectations: I believe this course aims to help us achieve our maximum potential in terms of how we approach every single lesson and give more purpose to each activity. This for me aligns with the way I share that teaching should be approached in general, traditional tests at public and private education are focusing more on memorizing than in truly learning and understanding the subjects being taught. And something that I liked about the reading was the part when the author was talking about measuring not only the knowledge learnt but also the capacity to apply it and how the perception about those subjects changes or the student gets a better understanding. For this course I expect to expand my knowledge about the cognitive side of education and learn more about the human brain in general. 

What is learning and what is memory? 

    According to the book "Learning may be defined as a relatively permanent change in behavior or behavioral repertoire that occurs as a result of experience" and according to Cambridge dictionary, memory can be described as "the ability to remember information, experiences, and people". Additionally, the book provides a more accurate distinction between these two terms, "learning refers to acquiring knowledge or behavior, whereas memory refers to retaining and recalling the knowledge or behavior". 

    Personally, I believe that as educators we should focus on helping our students to do both, recall the information presented, and also, understand it to a way in which this information can be applied in real-life situations. By focusing on this our students will be more prepared for the challenges that are going to be presented to them in life. 

The Learning/Performance Distinction

    “Performance refers to the measures of behavior or memory used to indicate whether learning has occurred. However, these behavioral measures are sometimes imperfect and indirect. There is not always a one-to-one correspondence between what the organism knows and what the organism does.”

Thank you for reading, hope you have an amazing day! 

References: 

    Cambridge Dictionary. (2024). https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/memory

    Diaz, D. (2022, January 31). How learning and memory work together. University of Sunderland. https://online.sunderland.ac.uk/how-learning-and-memory-work-together/

    Terry, W. S. (1999). Learning and Memory: principles, processes, and procedures (5th ed.).