Do you recall what you learn or taught? Strategies for Retention

One of the major challenges facing any learner whether young or old, mature or immature, female or male is the ability to retain and recall what we learn. We have all experienced forgetfulness before in our lifetime – sometimes we forget an anniversary date, an appointment date and sometimes our own birthdays.  Even alarming is the fact many learners all over the world have one big headache – which is how to recall and retain what they have learnt or being taught.  But why do we forget in the first place?

According to one of the best known memory researchers in the world called Elizabeth Loftus, there are basically four (4) reasons why we tend to forget what we have been told, taught, learnt or aware. These are retrieval failure (1), interference (2), failure to store (3), and motivated forgetting (4).

In relation to retrieval failure, we sometimes feel that some piece of information we should know has just vanished into thin air from our memories and tried as we can we are unable to recall or remember. For instance, you will meet someone four years ago at a conference/training and share your contact but when you meet him/ her again, you can remember his/her face but unable to recall his/her name. This retrieval failure can be one of the major causes of forgetting and many of us have experienced it. The reason why this occurs is that the retrieval failure is as a result of theory known as decay theory. During the four years we may have formed or created new theories to memorise and as such the theory we created when we met the person at the conference/training four years ago has decayed and vanished from our memory. The remedy for this is that we need to from time to time refresh, retrieve and rehearse what has been memorized to make it relevant otherwise it will vanish or be lost from our memory system. Thus if we were calling or contacting this person every year, he/she will still be relevant in our memory system and as such we cannot forget their details.

Interference occurs when information already stored is conflicted with a new information similar to the one already stored is about to be stored too. This means that the new information will interfere with the already stored information.  This is known as the interference theory and it can be divided into two (2) namely proactive and retroactive where the former is when an old memory does not allow you to remember a new memory whilst the latter is when the new information interferes with the old information and you cannot easily recall the old one. The remedy is quite dicey but there is hope: you must do well to ensure that before you store any new information in your memory be sure that it won’t interfere with the previous one if you want to keep them both. Otherwise, the best advice is to forget the previous information stored in the memory before attempting to save and retain the new one.

To a large extent we are unable to retain and recall information because we did not store it into the long term memory due to our inability and failure to encode them properly into our system. When this happens it is highly likely that we shall be able to recall and retrieve any information because in the first place we did not store it. To remedy this situation, it is very important for the proper storage of information in the long term memory if we intend to recall and retrieve it in the future.

Lastly, information stored may be forgotten when we actively decide to suppress and forget them because in our decision they were tragic, traumatic, disturbing, and distressful. We are not ready to store let alone retrieve any tragic event such as an earthquake, floods, an accident and death etc.

Many researchers have concluded that learners learn through various methods and retain approximately the following percentages (%) what they have learnt via the following scenarios and setups based on a study by NTL Institute in Bethel, Maine they referred to as the Learning Pyramid:

Source:https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-Learning-Pyramid-Adapted-from-National-training-Laboratories

Ninety percent (90%) when they teach and share with someone or apply immediately what they have learnt.

Seventy five percent (75%) when they put into practice what they have learnt or studied.

Fifty percent (50%) when they engage in a chat or discuss with someone especially in group discussion.

Thirty percent (30%) when they learnt and see a demonstration of the act or processes.

Twenty percent (20%) when they study or learn through audio-visual means or devices.

Ten percent (10%) through what they have learnt through reading.

Five percent (5%) through what they have learnt from lecturing method.

Thus it is very clear and unblemished from the facts above that for us to retain and recall what we have learnt, we as learners need to aim for the top three (3) scenarios and setups namely:

Ninety percent (90%) when they teach and share with someone or apply immediately what they have learnt.

Seventy five percent (75%) when they put into practice what they have learnt or studied.

Fifty percent (50%) when they engage in a chat or discuss with someone especially in group discussion.

Learners must endeavor to teach and share with their colleagues whenever they have been taught a new skill, principle or process to ensure the 90% retention rate. If they desire the 75% retention rate, then they must put into practice what they have studied immediately and finally, if they desire 50% retention, then they must embark on group discussion with their fellow colleagues or course mates.

The London School of Management Education (LSME), your number one College of higher repute, ensures that all their learners get the opportunity to use and apply the top three (3) scenarios and setups (50% – 90% range) for retention and recall purposes known as the participatory teaching/ learning methods. As such, all our instructors, lecturers and facilitators uses delivery methods that enables the learner to engage in group discussions with their peers, put into practice what have been learnt both in the classroom and at home especially at weekends. During the next week after a lesson has been delivered, opportunities are given to learners to recap and summarise what they have learnt the previous week, previous day or previous lesson to the class and by so doing 90% of what is taught by the lecturer and learnt by the learner has been retained.

Practice they say makes perfect, and learners who desire to retain and remember what they have learnt must continuously strive to engage in group discussions with their peers, put into practice what have been learnt both in the classroom and at home especially at weekends. Finally, they must be poised and ready to teach and share with the class or colleagues what they have learnt and by so doing ensure that 90% of what is learnt is retained effectively.

In a nutshell, there may be learning to retain tactics like using rhymes, using mnemonics, abbreviations and using visual cues and symbols etc. nonetheless, learners learn effectively to retain and recall 90% what have been taught by teaching and sharing with others because when they do this, there is the 90% probability that they will surely be in a better position to remember what you were taught and LSME ensures that we support you all the way to retain what you have learnt.

Have a blessed week and share this good news with others.