bruce wilkinson, 7 laws of the learner: law 4 retention

The Law of Retention

Pages 203-233

Thursday 4 November 2010

The essence of the Law of Retention is in these three

words:“master the minimum.”The teacher should enable all students to enjoy maximum mastery of the irreducible

minimum


Most teachers teach at too slow a rate.

How can teachers increase their teaching rate?

Wilkinson goes back to the flood and suggests that when God wanted us to remember something he used a picture - a rainbow. And there are other methods God uses which we will learn.

This is not for every time you teach - only when you have to teach facts or chunks of content.


Retention Mindset

This law looks at how to teach the student the most information in the shortest amount of time with the least effort (for the students that is) and for the greatest retention. It deals with two primary issues of the teaching-learning relationship.

Effectiveness - is the teacher teaching the right material?

Efficiency - is the teacher teaching in the right manner?


Deut 6:4-9 4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.


Do you want to be a great teacher - firstly then, love God, this has a domino effect onto other things. Secondly, the words God speaks need to be in our hearts - the subject is in us.

Then you are ready to get it into your students hearts - and the text tells us 4 ways to do that:


1. Teach - formal school-type teaching

2. Talking - this is fluid, casual two-way - this opens up difficulties etc.

3. Personal reminder - nonverbal, maybe something you wear, a sign which acts as representation, a token, bowing your head, fish symbol...

4. Public recognition - the doorframe of your house, something public, sign...

The most effective teachers use all 4 of these teaching levels


Retention Model

Teach (formal) InformationTalk (infomral) IncarnationPersonal Reminder ImpressPublic Reminder Influence

Student

Love God

WordsIn Heart

Teacher

Love God(Who he is)

WordsIn Heart(what he

said)


There is a progression in the 4 approaches - moving from interior to exterior of your life, from formal to less formal.

Teach and talk are the tutor level - direct and verbal.

Personal and public reminders are testimony - indirect and nonverbal.

The clear teaching of the Bible is that we are to “pass it on” in such a way that children, students etc. come to know and love the truth too


Retention Maxims

The law of retention presents revolutionary principles and methods to speed teach facts. When applied it achieves amazing results for those who bravely move beyond the way it has always been done - to boldly go... Here are the 7 principles:


Maxim 1: retention of facts by the student is the teacher’s responsibility

Teachers have to accept their responsibility to cause the student to learn - not to “dump” material on them. It is not enough that a student copies down the material you give and try to learn it later.

The teacher has to give 100% - and so does the student! Student success is the ultimate measure of your teaching ability.


Maxim 2: retention of facts is effective only after they are understood

It is not enough to present the material just because it is required - it needs to be understood.

Is it right a student hires a private tutor to help them understand?

Students retain more information if they understand it - teachers are not the delivery boy, they must help with understanding.


Maxim 2: retention of facts is effective only after they are understood

It is not enough to present the material just because it is required - it needs to be understood.

Is it right a student hires a private tutor to help them understand?

Students retain more information if they understand it - teachers are not the delivery boy, they must help with understanding.

Understanding must always

precede memorisation


Maxim 3: retention increases as the student recognises the content’s relevance

Learning goes down if the student doesn’t think the material has any relevance.

Irrelevance (lack of relevance) produces apathy and frustration

Relevance develops motivation and concentration - this is then focussed through good delivery and content.




minimum


Maxim 4: retention requires the teacher to focus on the facts that are most important

Not all facts are created equal.

If you teach for memorisation you have to take responsibility for saying which part is most important. Sift the information for them.

Wilkinson suggests that God does this in the Bible, heavy content covering some events and others are simply skipped over.


The more important a fact - the more attention (time) it should get.

In business this is reflected in the Pareto Principle: The 80:20 principle

80% of a companies profits usually come from about 20% of its products.

80% of a companies business comes from 20% of its clients

20% of people in a church give 80% of the money

80% of your effort produces 20% of your results


In a class 20% of your content carries 80% of the real benefit to the student. Identify that and change priorities to reflect it.

If 80% of your time is spent on 20% of what you desire to see achieved - what a waste!

Teachers should identify the facts required by a student in order to “know” the subject. This is called the Irreducible Minimum and should be understood and mastered by all students - it would then guarantee all students success.


In a class 20% of your content carries 80% of the real benefit to the student. Identify that and change priorities to reflect it.

If 80% of your time is spent on 20% of what you desire to see achieved - what a waste!

Teachers should identify the facts required by a student in order to “know” the subject. This is called the Irreducible Minimum and should be understood and mastered by all students - it would then guarantee all students success.

The average student panics before a test

worried about what a teacher

might ask - and the teacher acts as if

making the student guess is important.


Maxim 5: retention arranges the facts so they are easy to memorise

Do you give your students a big sack full of information and expect them to sort through it for themselves?

What you need to do is effectively download all the data from you to the student without any loss of data.


You can’t just place a book on a students head and say “memorise” and it is done. The material needs to be “formatted” for the mind to retain it.

In fact God created our minds with just a few ways to receive and retain information easily. In the next section we shall learn 7 primary ways to “reformat” material.

Teachers need to make material easier to memorise - so they remove the problems and prepare the way for the students.

Teachers make learning the information as efficient and easy as possible for the student.


Which is better for a student?

Give them eggs, flour, butter etc. and tell them to make it for themselves?

Give them the cake and tell them to enjoy eating it?

Both have the same ingredients - but which will be enjoyed and digested more readily?

Why do we act as if making learning difficult

is to be admired?


Which is better for a student?

Give them eggs, flour, butter etc. and tell them to make it for themselves?

Give them the cake and tell them to enjoy eating it?

Both have the same ingredients - but which will be enjoyed and digested more readily?


Maxim 6: retention strengthens long term memory through regular review

God made us with short term and long term memory capabilities.

What sort of things do you use short term memory for?

Cramming the night before an exam retains info for a short while - but what if the exam is postponed for a week?

Material needs to be in long term memory for students to really “know” it.


Most students do not know material a month after they study it.

Wilkinson suggests the only way to get info into long term memory is to review it. Review and review the material with the students until they get it - this then places it in long term memory.

Covering the material only gets it into short term memory.

You have to get the core material into the LTM of all students.


Maxim 7: retention minimises time for memorisation to maximise time for

application

Whilst it is good to be able to teach more in less time - the ideal is to be able to apply that material into the life of the students - how they use it.

If content is of no use why teach it?


Format content for ease of understanding and memorisation - then apply it, show how valuable and useful it is. The more relevant material is the more motivated students will be to learn it.

The law of retention strives to help teachers to teach more in less time - to be more effective in teaching content. This then leaves more time for application.




minimum


Discussion Questions

1. Many teachers tell students of their poor study habits and lack of competence. Yet a teacher causes students to learn.

Shouldn’t the teacher be the one being corrected?

2. If you have to cram the night before an exam have you been truly taught?

3. Is it wrong for a student to ask, “Do we really need to know this?”


bruce wilkinson, 7 laws of the learner: law 4 retention

Education

retention of facts

teacher teaching

retention model

retention maxims

retention mindset

greatest retention

words god

law of retention pages