It is helpful for educators to be aware of long term memory and its importance so they can implement teaching practices, strategies, and activities that will help support student's brain and memory development.

Trauma can also affect the memory’s functionality and structure. Memories that are gained under specific emotional or physical conditions can become suppressed if it was a traumatic experience. These types of memories typically remain inaccessible until something triggers the trauma again (Harbor Mental Health, 2023). Memory loss can sometimes act as a defense mechanism to protect from recalling the traumatic experiences which causes the person to relive it again (Harbor Mental Health, 2023). Our brain will block these memories out like they never existed because it takes us to such a horrific state to relive the experience over and over.

A learner’s ability to retain information depends on multiple factors including amount of time spent learning the information, degree of interest in content, the way the information is taught, even the type of teaching method used. There are certain teaching methods that show more success in retention of learning than others. The various teaching methods include lecture/direct, visual and verbal, hands on/practice, practice and teaching others, and no one teaching. It is important that an educator is aware of the different teaching methods so a balance and use of all of them can be implemented in their teaching. Every student is unique, and it is important that a variety of teaching methods is used so every student is getting the type of instruction that works best for their learning and they will more likely retain what they learn.

Teachers who understand and use foundational research on memory in their teaching can improve students’ learning by allowing them to move new learning from working memory to long-term memory. When this happens, the working memory is not being over worked and bombarded, so it is able to move information to long term memory and tackle new incoming information with a fresh mind that has room to process new learning. From this happening, students may then become to feel more confident, proud, and smarter which leads to them being more willing to stick with difficult concepts and problems and be able to gain a deeper understanding of the content (DiTullio, 2021). When students are confident and engaged, teachers then are more confident, energized, and motivated to teach their students.

Episodic memory is the part that includes conscious memory of events in our personal life experiences such as milestone birthdays, obtaining injuries, or what we ate for dinner last night (Sousa, 2022). Episodic memory is the memory of remembering, it provides us with the time and place that an experience occurred that made us who we are today (Sousa, 2022).

Sematic memory is the memory of knowing, including the knowledge of facts and data that necessarily is not related to any event (Sousa, 2022). An example of a sematic memory would be knowing who the sixteenth president was, or the Capital of Nebraska, when you know information but do not have an experience connected to it.

DiTullio, G. (2021, September 9). How to engage students’ memory processes to improve learning. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/how-engage-students-memory-processes-improve-learning/

Harbor Mental Health. (2023, February 17). Does Trauma Cause Memory Loss?. Harbor Psychiatry and Mental Health. https://harbormentalhealth.com/2023/02/17/does-trauma-cause-memory-loss/

Humphrey, L. (2015, September 16). What happens in Your brain when you make a memory?. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/sep/16/what-happens-in-your-brain-when-you-make-a-memory

Lebow, H. I. (2021, July 2). How does PTSD affect the brain? the physical effects of trauma. Psych Central. https://psychcentral.com/ptsd/the-science-behind-ptsd-symptoms-how-trauma-changes-the-brain#next-steps

nicabm. (2017). How Trauma Impact Four Types of Memory. naddac. https://www.naadac.org/assets/2416/2019NWRC_Michael_Bricker_Handout4.pdf

Ohwovoriole, T. (2023, March 14). Different Types of Memories. VeryWellMind. https://www.verywellmind.com/different-types-of-memory-and-their-functions-5194859#:~:text=Memory%20is%20the%20ability%20to,%2C%20and%20long%2Dterm%20memory.

Psychology Today. (2024). Types of memory. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/memory/types-memory#short-term-memory-and-working-memory

Sousa, D. A. (2022). How the brain learns (Sixth). Corwin, a Sage Publishing Company.

It is important for educators to know the role of transfer in student’s learning. The more connections that learners can make between past information and new learning, the more likely they are to make connections and find a sense of meaning, which then leads them to retain the new learning (Sousa, 2022). Teachers can apply connections to continue within the curriculum areas and activities. This will help students to establish a framework of associative networks that can be referred to for future problem solving (Sousa, 2022). Educators can enhance successful transfer of new learning by supporting and using an integrated curriculum that includes thematic units that can be built upon.

Let’s say a student does not have background knowledge to activate and has never learned the information before. If this is the case then educators can use strategies such as flash cards, writing down a daily summary of learning, or stating three main points and their importance from the lesson being taught (DiTullio, 2021). Teachers must keep in mind that if a student doesn’t have background knowledge of certain concepts being taught, they need to implement practices to start the foundation of that learning of that concept. This is when repetition and check ins will be helpful to see where a student is at in understanding the information being taught to them.

Contextualizing learning makes learning relevant and interactive. Educators can support contextualized learning by mixing up the way information is taught and delivered to students. If a teacher is teaching a lesson only by lecturing to the students, a lot of the information will not stay in the student’s memory. Instead of a teacher lecturing for an hour, teachers can break the lecture into parts, having students listen to lecture for only 10 minutes at a time and then applying other strategies such as turn and talk to a partner, have students do a demonstration, have a hands on activity, summarize or draw a picture that encompasses the main learning points, or using concept mapping throughout the lesson will help students retain more of the new learning (DiTullio, 2021).