Activity 5.5

The module and group discussion for this week was very insightful. Many of the videos and readings made me think about how I answered the warm up questions. For instance, “Have we learned a thing if we can’t remember it?” Marsh and Butler stated that “just because students learned something at one point does not mean they will be able to retrieve it in the future” (p. 31). Similarly, I posted a video entitled “Understanding Memory.” In this video, the author noted that “the inability to recall something learned is not related to ‘forgetting’ but failure to effectively access information.” Thus, it is possible that information was never learned, which means the information never made it into long-term memory from short-term memory. But information that makes it into long-term memory and is forgotten can be attributed to retrieval failure.

The Krischner, Sweller, and Clark article was interesting. Overall, the group agreed that guided education was more effective then minimally or unguided education, yet still acknowledges the importance of allowing students to make discoveries on their own. Similar to James, the power point, and the videos, we agreed that the use of cues were important for memory retrieval. The use of cues strengthens the argument that guided instruction is more effective because cues guide leaners in a specific direction and make it easier for individuals to focus in on the information that is trying to be retrieved.