Final: Application, Reflection, Experience

This review has focused on long-term memory, the development of memory over a lifetime, and decision making. Understanding memory is especially important for educators because it is the basis of teaching that students can remember what we have tried to teach. By understanding how our students learn best, we can maximize our capability as a teacher. Also, it is a helpful aid to parents as well as educators to know how to best reach a child. Parents can help their children to maximize their intellectual growth outside of the classroom just as effectively, as a teacher can inside the classroom.

At young ages, children do not perform as well when time increases between learning and testing. So, lessen the time between tests. We can also increase young student’s ability to retain by teaching them to use mnemonic devices that we as adults tend to take for granted as general knowledge. Students need to be taught these devices, how to use them, and allowed to apply them in the classroom setting.

Parents, talk to your kids elaborately. Do not ‘dumb down’ things for them. This doesn’t imply that you should talk to them about mature material, but rather, converse with them in an intelligible way – as you would a friend or colleague. They will benefit more from this than if you talk “baby talk” to them or if you don’t interact with them at all.

Educators can benefit from Piaget’s four periods of learning. Depending on what age level we will be teaching, we can modify our teaching approach to make the most of what the students are capable of learning. For instance, if you will be teaching children in early elementary, which is up to seven years old but not less than two years of age, you are teaching students who are considered in the preoperational period. These students will learn best with imagery and will retain more words at this stage. Use that to your advantage, teachers, and apply it in your classroom. Parents should also utilize this time too, by enrolling their child in a foreign language course or otherwise exposing them to a foreign language. It will be more easily learned now than in high school, which is when it is normally offered.

As I will be teaching at the high school level, my students will be in the formal operative period, which is what I am also currently in. This allows me to apply the ways in which I learn and apply it for them to learn as well. We both can view a topic from many different perspectives and gain insight from this. This will be beneficial as I plan on having many discussions with my students in science, and I plan on many different opinions being raised and considered. It is also when theories can be best considered. This is especially vital for my subject area of science, as sometimes we can only theorize.

Parents, we get upset with children because they seem to do things that just don’t make sense to us. How could you do this? Did you even think of what could have happened? Chances are most likely that they did not. Children, especially younger ones, do not evaluate all the possibilities as we tend to believe we do, and therefore do not think of what could have happened. In fact, because of peer pressure and other immediate pressures, they might see the obvious, what will my friends think?, consequence rather than something a little more abstract and seemingly less possible, what if I lose an arm? While we, as adults, have more of a removed attitude towards peer pressure and can normally take more time to consider a situation, children do not and seem to act impulsively. Later, when in trouble with parents and faced with the question of why, they don’t think metacognitively about their experience then or the pressures they were under so much, shrug and say, I dunno!, which only aggravates adults more.

So next time you find yourself in this situation, try to step back and remember what you’ve learned, how you were at that age, and approach the subject more rationally. Walk your child through the steps of decision making. Did the car need to be jumped? Would you have been hurt if you had fallen? What if the car had moved? If you could do it again, realizing all these dangers, would you? Force her to think metacognitively about her decision. Ask questions like, if I asked you to jump over a car on your skateboard, would you feel as inclined to do it? This will give the child perspective about the peer pressure she was under, and could actually decrease her future willingness to comply the next time. Try to control your own anger, as well, so that she is more willing to speak with you. Nothing ends a conversation more quickly than a screaming parent.

I am not a parent, but I baby-sit very often. Yes, I realize they are different. But listen to this recent experience I had. I was babysitting my niece, Mollie, who is seven years of age and my other niece, Caroline, who is three. They are cousins and get along as long as they remember to share. I had an activity planned to paint flower pots with them, but as I had no extra clothes available that would fit Caroline, I just told Mollie not to mention it to her because we would do it while she was napping.

The girls had a great day of playing and were rewarded with one Dum-Dum later that day. They even shared the candy, which made me very hopeful for the rest of the evening. But, perhaps their exposure was too long of a time with each other, and fights began to break out. It ended up with Mollie telling Caroline that she was going to paint with her Aunt Ann and that Caroline couldn’t because she was too little. Obviously, tears sprung and many ‘raspberries’ were thrown. At the time, I was getting the pizzas from the car and my Dad was inside with the girls. Mollie immediately got yelled at and once I came inside, he advised me not to let her paint with me because she was acting like a brat.

She cried for about 10 minutes. Caroline soon forgot what the fuss was about and was playing by herself. My younger brother showed up, and I took Mollie outside for a walk. She was still whimpering by this point, and we were just walking outside. I was quiet because I wanted to put into practice what I had learned in class, but wasn’t sure how to begin. I noticed her tears and asked her why she was crying. “Because I don’t want to get in trouble.” She responded.

I told her that I wasn’t going to tell her parents (who are very strict disciplinarians) and we continued walking. But there were more tears. “Mollie, why are you still crying?” I asked.

“I don’t want a whipping, Aunt Ann.”

I had forgotten about that, and guessed that’s probably why she thought I took her outside. I told her that she doesn’t need to ever worry about getting a whipping from me, that I don’t believe in it. She seemed amazed at this and asked me how I couldn’t believe in it. So I asked her, “Does it teach you anything?” She shook her head no. “Well, it doesn’t teach me anything, either.” I said.

She stopped crying and asked where we were going. I said I thought we should have a talk about what happened inside. I knew now where to take this. She looked a little sad, and just said that she gets mad about her cousin.

I asked her, “Why did you tell her about painting?”

“I dunno.” Came the response.

“Well, did you want her to be upset?” I asked.

“Yeah.”

“Why did you want her to be upset?”

“Cause she took my toys. I don’t want her to play with my toys.”

“I don’t think you care that much about your toys. I think you’re upset about something else. Don’t you think so? What is it really that bugs you?”

“She gets all the attention, and I don’t get any at all anymore.” More tears.

“Is that true? What did we do this morning before we picked her up this afternoon? And where did Gramma take you this morning?”

“We played games. Gramma took me to the library.”

“Was anyone else with you and me or you and Gramma?”

“No, I guess not.”

“Is that not attention?”

“Yeah…”

“Mollie, you know what? I get jealous of you sometimes too.”

“Really? Why?”

“Because, before you came here, I was the baby girl. And I got so much attention from Mom and Dad. But now you are here, and the other grandkids are here, and you and they get all the attention. I have to wait for you guys to go home before I get to talk to Mom and Dad. So I get jealous of you too.”

“You get jealous! Of me!” She smiled.

“Yes, squirt, I do. But you know what? I don’t get mad at you; because I realize that you love Gramma just as much as I love her. And we all want to spend time with her. And you know what? We all have memories of her that are just ours. Like today, you went to the library with her. That’s something you’re going to remember, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. She and I always go to the library together.”

“Well, Mollie, that’s something you’ll always remember too. And it’s yours. No matter what toys you play with and have to share with Caroline, your memory of Gramma is uniquely yours. And you only have to share that if you want to talk about it.”

“What’s uniquely mean?”

“Mollie’s.”

We talked much longer about her behavior inside and how she is now seven and should act like it. She told me how she wants to act like me and I said that’s probably not the best example, but that was fine with me. We agreed that she acted poorly inside and I asked her how she felt about apologizing to everyone, as it’s the adult thing to do. She liked the idea of acting like an adult, and she said she could. When we came onto the back porch, she turned around, straightened her hair and her shirt. She closed her eyes and said ‘OK!’ as though steeling herself. I gave her a hug and was overcome by how grown up she’s become. She went inside and went to every person in turn (even people who had just showed up and were completely confused) to tell them, “I am sorry about my behavior an hour ago. I love you and I will try not to act like that again.”

Even at seven years old, Mollie could be brought to understand why she acted out against her cousin. She could be led through the process of her decisions, and she can learn from them.

Perhaps it’s more practical, but it would be interesting to learn what factors affect your ability to make effective decisions, both positively and negatively. We know this to an extent, to be sure, but research results have a fun tendancy to go against what we believe to be ‘common sense’. Also, I would like to compare the mechanics of decision making between a child, a teenager, and an adult. I’m certain there will be similiarities, but also some very key differences that would spark many parents’ and educators’ interests.