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Introduction
As students learn, it is helpful for them to learn about learning.
Within classrooms, children and adolescents should explore the
workings of their minds while absorbing subject matter and skills.
The Memory Factory is intended to demystify an essential yet often
misunderstood ingredient of learning in school-memory function.
At no period in life will individuals need as much memory function
as they do during their school years. Therefore, insight into
the workings of human memory can be invaluable to young learners.
The Memory Factory is an entertaining and fanciful metaphor through
which students can discover a highly complicated aspect of the
learning process-how information and skills are retained. The
busy robots on the Memory Factory floor plan emphasize the fact
that a wide range of mind jobs are constantly being performed
as students learn. This diagram and the form on its back cover
can enlighten an individual student or groups in a classroom setting.
While The Memory Factory primarily targets middle school students,
it can also help younger and older students. The main objectives
of the Memory Factory are to
- Help children gain an understanding of the
multiple roles of memory in school work
- Show students that memory is an active set
of functions, not just a storage depot for heaps of facts
- Help children who need to gain insight into
any memory difficulties they may be having
- Stimulate thinking about strategies students
can use to improve memory and thereby enhance academic learning
and productivity
- Provide consistent descriptive terminology
and a conceptual framework that children can use in thinking
about memory and learning
The Memory Factory metaphor has been chosen
because it can communicate to students that memory is an important
part of many different academic tasks. To perform these jobs,
information must be taken in and blended with what is already
known. Combining new inputs with previously stored information
and skills is at the very core of learning. The Memory Factory
describes how we use new and old knowledge to create products
and new forms of understanding. Students will see memory as not
simply a storage facility but a dynamic series of processes that
together result in learning and output.
The Content and Use of The Memory Factory
The Memory Factory is based on a conceptual model of
memory described in detail in Keeping A Head in School and Educational
Care. Three components of memory are distinguished: short-term
memory, active working memory, and long-term memory (see Table
1). These three memory phases collaborate intimately during the
learning process. Student discussions of these three phases, their
specific roles, and their differences comprise an integral part
of the use of The Memory Factory. As each one is explained, students
can ask questions and share personal examples of how they have
used the phases. On the following pages we will tour the three
memory departments and mention some key ideas that can be conveyed
during discussions with students.
(c) 2000, Dr. Mel Levine and Educators Publishing Service
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