Scouring through TED talks you find a wealth of educational inspiration. During such an afternoon stroll I found a talk by Jamshed Bharucha who talks about learning’s dirty little secret………..

The important points discussed:

1. Your learners will forget therefore:

a) Mix up the learning – this will enable better recall in the real world

b) Active learning provides better memory recall as opposed to passive learning

c) Spaced repetition will enhance your longterm memory.

2. All is not lost. Despite the fact your learners will forget, they will re-learn at a faster rate. However, it is important for us to think how we are going to enable our learners to retrieve the information and skills they need in the real world. (More tools to come in the future)

Jamshed Bharucha also mentioned Robert Bjork, a cognitive psychologist who has done vast work on memory retrieval. Watch out in the next 2 weeks when we will be posting a several posts on his work. In the meantime watch this talk before you forget.