In a study by Jesse R. Pitts, it was found that motivation ranked above intellect, peer influence, and teaching in success in college learning. Donald Bligh (Britain) suggests that there are six factors that commonly motivate college learners:
Meaningful material is learned more quickly and retained longer. If we don't want the information or do not see a reason to know it, we are not likely to remember it. We seldom remember what we do not understand. Meaning is always derived from relating the new learning to knowledge, ideas, experiences, biases, and attitudes that we already possess.
Learners must see the structure or the system in content in order to learn and retain it. Students may need organizational help to better understand the new learning and to relate the parts to a sensible whole. The development of relationships helps us tie new learning to the old. Breaking the mass into smaller groups also lends structure and order to the content.
Feedback is most helpful when it is an immediate positive reinforcement while the concepts and ideas are in sharp focus. Feedback after a long delay, such as returning a test two weeks after it was taken, does not encourage much change in the learner. Reward is much better than punishment for correction and changes, suggesting that as many positive comments as possible should be used. There is no better motivation than to know that you have done something well.
Old learning nearly always influences new learning. Previous courses and personal experiences play an important role in determining how much we learn in a new situation. These experiences also influence attitudes toward future learning in a given area. One really frustrating experience may cause hesitancy in future situations.
In work by Joseph Trenaman (Britain), it was found that listening to more and more material in a lecture seemed to interfere with learning from the earlier lecturing. A class listening to 15 minutes of lecture remembered 41% of what was presented; those listening to 30 minutes remembered 23% of the material presented in the first 15 minutes; those listening to 45 minutes remembered only 20% of the material presented in the first 15 minutes. The later learning seemed to interfere with what was learned early in the session -- "retroactive interference".
"Proactive interference" is also an issue. A prime example occurs when we show students one way to solve a particular problem. Later in the session, we show them a second approach. For some students, knowing the first method interferes with learning the second method.
Even short-term memory is not very good when large numbers of items are presented. As for long-term memory, most of what we learn is forgotten rapidly unless special care is taken to help retention. Unless real effort is made to avoid it, most of us will forget more than 75-85% of a 50-minute lecture after 24 hours. This "drop rate" may be even worse if the material is very difficult or is totally new to the learners.
Research indicates that the average person can hold in short-term memory about 7 items," This suggests that learning should be sorted into major points and perhaps even further subdivided. As students take notes, very little is actually retained without some helps to crystallize particular points. The use of the chalkboard, visual aids, handouts, buzz groups, and questioning are often effective helps.
Often students do not remember points from a lecture or a discussion because they gave no real thought to the issues at the specific time. If students were able to repeat the material verbally (rehearsal) or to form a mental image of it, then learning and retention would both be enhanced. This can be promoted a number of different ways: having students repeat the material periodically (silently or aloud), using visual aids, immediately asking students to apply the information, using handouts that require students to complete or "flesh out" concepts, students reviewing their notes periodically or soon after class, questioning, and providing silent periods after presenting key points.
Since we seldom devote 100% attention to any task, nearly every point made during an instructional session will be missed by someone. Also, repeating focuses on those issues selected as important. Periodic summaries help to fill gaps for students as well as help them to understand relationships. If done effectively, it encourages student rehearsal and imaging.
In most cases, using more than just one sense is more effective. The following is often recited related to learners' abilities to retain information:
Although there is some question as to whether these results are really research-based , it is important to realize that there is no systematic superiority of one sense over the other. The message is that, in general, appealing to two senses is better than appealing to one. There is also much individual student-to-student difference in how effective the various senses are. This, too, suggests the value of combining them rather than relying on just one.
Decline of attention to a normal task tends to follow a predictable pattern. The more difficult the learning situation or content, the steeper the decline will be. As time progresses the drop follows the pattern indicated below for a 50-minute lecture.
Some research suggests that there is a revival of the attention of students during the last few minutes of a lecture so that the pattern follows the normal pattern of task attention with a slight variation.
Industry proved long ago that a break in workers' routines was usually followed by a resurgence of activity and that, after the break, the volume of production approached the original output. A brief rest, a break in the action or a change in activity will normally show a marked improvement in attention immediately following the change, leading a graph of attention level in a 50-minute lecture.
Attention also varies throughout the day, the week, and the semester. The peak time of the day is usually around 9-11 a.m., hits a low right after lunch, revives in the early afternoon and then gradually declines. Tuesday and Wednesday are the better days with some attention problems on Monday and Friday. The semester has high and low periods due to fatigue, concentration on exams, periods before and after breaks, etc.
Physical conditions must not be ignored. A hot stuffy room can negate the best material and the finest teaching techniques. Students who come in from a cold winter trek across campus may easily become drowsy in a warm classroom. This worsens after lunch. The size and shape of a classroom, the seating arrangement, the lighting, sound, color, temperature, and humidity all have some influence on the learner's attention level.
Guidance can best serve to call attention to significant aspects of a problem and to suggest generalizations. Excessive guidance by a teacher is likely to result in learner apathy, conformity, defiance, scape-goating, or escape from the whole affair. The learner must play an active role.
The information on this handout comes from many different sources via several different contributors. That makes listing references really difficult, but you should be aware that the information is not from any of Dr. Clegg's work.