Chapter 6

What:
Chapter 6 covered the majority of how people remember and learn material, or as the chapter is named, "Learning and Cognitive Processes." While evaluating the process of learning the chapter reviews "The Model of Human Memory," which includes sensory register, attention, working (short-term) memory, and long-term memory. The sensory register is the component of memory that holds the information you receive, the input of info unencoded. The "attention" is the first step to encoding information and the chapter describes it as "Whatever people mentally pay attention to moves into working memory." Thus, what we focus on will be placed into short term memory. Working (short-term) memory is where we hold and actively think about a limited amount of information-- info stored here doesn't last long unless we do something with it that will place it in long-term memory. Long-term memory is the part that stores information for a relatively long time, and its capacity can hold as much info as the learner needs.
Although the majority of the chapter covered how memory works, it continued by explaining how people learn concepts and knowledge. The chapter reasoned that to learn and remember something effectively, we must give it our undivided attention-- or we must mentally focus on it and temporarily make it the center of our cognitive world.

So What:
I found the chapter very interesting and enlightening. I feel it is an excellent resource to better understanding my own metacognition, but also for future referencing in formulating lesson plans and other ways for providing knowledge to student's memory. As a teacher I need to ensure that learners are placing material into long-term memory status, and the better I understand how long-term memory functions the more likely I will be able to succeed.

Now What:
Understanding these principle ideas will help me develop future lesson plans and strategies to help my students remember. Practicing many types learning and memorizing strategies with students in the classroom on a regular basis will help to highten and enhance their learning and retrieval skills. As a teacher I must continually emphasize the importance of understanding classroom subject matter, helping them make many memory ties so that it is easily accessable when needed, because-- what good am I as a teacher if I can not help my students remember and retrieve the information that I have previously taught?