"Practice makes permanent" (Sousa, 2022).

Repeated practice for concept and skill retention begins with rehearsal in working memory, then moves throughout the motor cortex and cerebellum, where it can later be recalled and practiced.

When we retrieve information from our long-term storage, we are also storing newly learned material alongside it, causing alterations and relearning (Sousa, 2022).

Students must practice rehearsing concepts to transfer them from short-term memory to long-term memory (Sousa, 2022).

Today's students struggle to concentrate on a topic for extended periods due to the constant distractions of their ever-changing device screens. More retention can occur when teachers make their lessons shorter, yet more meaningful.

Bruising, tearing of tissues, internal bleeding, and swelling of the brain are all possible results of head trauma.

Brain injuries can vary in severity. Some may be mild and heal over time. Others are more permanent and can cause cognitive, functional, language, perceptual, and speech deficits, as well as many other difficulties (Johns Hopkins Medicine, n.d.).

Memory loss or a decline in cognition that is worse than what should be expected for a person's age.

• Amnestic: Mild decline; does not significantly affect daily functions.

• Non-amnestic: Decline in language, spatial awareness, and ability to focus and pay attention.

Dementia:

Such severe symptoms that an individual must depend on others to carry out daily functions. Memory loss, impaired judgment, difficulty speaking and understanding, and impaired spatial awareness are some symptoms. Those suffering from dementia often undergo personality changes and show signs of agitation.

Alzheimer's Disease:

This type of dementia primarily affects short-term memory and worsens over time. Those who suffer from this disease often ask the same questions over and over again, forgetting they have already been given a response. They can also experience personality changes. Beta-amyloid and tau proteins kill brain cells that are necessary for memory, personality, and cognitive functions.

Parkinson's Disease: Individuals often suffer from difficulties with executive functioning, retrieving information, and maintaining focus.

Vascular Dementia: Blood flow to the brain, which supplies it with oxygen and nutrients, is interrupted. These symptoms can be noticed after a stroke, brain bleed, or head trauma. Symptoms depend on which parts of the brain have been affected.

(Harvard Health Publishing, 2022).

Johns Hopkins Medicine. (n.d.). Traumatic brain injury. https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/traumatic-brain-injury

Psychology Today. (n.d.). Types of memory. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/memory/types-of-memory

Sousa, D.A. (2022). How the brain learns (6th ed.). Corwin Press, Inc.

When the knowledge we have gained in the past helps us with new learning, we have experienced positive transfer.

Negative transfer can also occur when past learning interferes with new learning, causing confusion and errors.

Our brains are wired to use our past experiences to guide our future learning.

Teachers use the power of transfer in educational settings each time they refer to a student's past learning to make their current learning more meaningful and relatable.

Students need to be able to transfer what they have learned in school to aspects of their everyday lives outside of school.

Transfer helps students retain information by relating their past learning to their current knowledge, making it more comprehensible.

Implications: For positive transfer to occur, allowing information to be retained in long-term memory, the original learning that took place in the past must have been of high quality (Sousa, 2022).

Attempting to learn too many things at once will hinder the transfer process because rote memorization does not provide the learner with meaning, resulting in a lack of linkage to prior learning.

Present Learning → Helps in → Future Learning

(Sousa, 2022).