Experiences for Acquiring Information
Experiences for Acquiring Information
When information is functional
- Information is useful only if it helps a learner take on a problem.
- Information in itself has no value as an end.
How to set experiences for information
- Acquire information and solve a problem at the same time, to cut rote memorization.
- Keep important terms few, so learners are not overwhelmed.
- Use intensity and variety of impressions to make key items stick.
- Use important information often and in varied contexts.
The second kind of objective is acquiring information: developing understanding and knowledge of various things, such as principles, laws, theories, experiments, and the evidence, generalizations, facts, and ideas that support them. It is the most familiar kind of objective and the easiest to handle badly, because it slides so quickly into rote memorising.
When information is functional
The key idea protects against that slide. Information is functional only when it is useful and helpful for learners to embark upon a problem, and when it guides their actions to solve that problem. Information that just sits in the head, attached to nothing, is doing no work.
Stated bluntly: information in itself is of no value as an end. This is a strong claim, and it reshapes how a developer treats information objectives. The point of teaching a fact is not the fact; it is what the learner can do with it. An information objective is only worth setting if the information will be put to use.
Information in itself has no value as an end; it is functional only when used
A fact is worth teaching for what a learner can do with it, not for its own sake. An information objective is worth setting only if the information guides a learner’s action on a problem.
Setting experiences that make information stick
Four suggestions help set experiences so that information is genuinely learned and remembered, rather than crammed and lost.
- Acquire information and solve a problem at the same time. When gathering information and using it to solve a problem happen together, both the skill of gathering and the skill of problem solving develop, and the chance of rote memorisation drops.
- Keep important terms few. Including only the information worth remembering, with fewer terms, lessens the chance of forgetting and of confusing learners, a particular risk in subjects like science and mathematics.
- Use intensity and variety of impressions. Setting up a situation that highlights the importance of a piece of information in several ways increases the likelihood that the important items are remembered and not treated as casual.
- Use important information often and in varied contexts. Meeting the same information in different contexts lessens the chance of forgetting it and of overlooking its significance, and makes it easier for learners to use the information in different situations.
Underlying all four is one fact a developer must keep in mind: information cannot be given in isolation. It must be related to an activity. Information should be developed within learning experiences as part of something else, particularly problem solving, and experiences should not be set up merely to memorise facts and ideas.
Tie it to a problem, keep terms few, make impressions vivid, and use it often in varied contexts
Information cannot be given in isolation; it must be part of an activity, especially problem solving. Experiences should not be set up merely to memorize facts.
How was this article?