On 25 May this year, Dr. Barbara Oakley, a scholar from the US, gave a lecture Practical Insights from Neuroscience Improve Your Teaching to Neurodiverse Students at the VU Scientific Communication and Information Centre (MKIC), organised by the Faculty of Medicine at Vilnius University (VU MF). The lecture was aimed at lecturers, students, vocational and special education teachers, tutors and coaches of all disciplines.
Stressed the importance of both, active learning and lectures
Dr. Oakley began her lecture stating, “Perhaps the most important work in the history of science is Thom Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Kuhn argues that for new ideas to have a significant impact, you either need a young person who can think creatively, or someone who has been ‘trained’ in a different field and can bring new perspectives to thinking. I believe I am that person, an outsider stranger, who can help people to look at education in a different way.” Metaphor is a favourite teaching tool for her: “With the help of metaphor you build a bridge and achieve difficult things more quickly. The funnier the metaphor, the more firmly the information stays in your memory.”
According to Oakley, in education, the pendulum swings: one decade one approach is important, the next decade another approach is important, and then a few decades later, approaches that seemed completely irrelevant become hugely important. “For thousands of years, it was thought that the only way to learn something was to remember it. Around 70 years ago, the tables were turned: society began to value understanding more than memorising. And yet we have become so caught up in this idea that we have forgotten that if you can’t remember, then you haven’t really learnt anything,” she explained. The situation with respect to the evaluation of active learning and lectures is similar: today’s student-centred world places more value on active learning, when in fact, active learning and listening to lectures are equally important. Oakley also stressed that virtual learning is just as effective as listening to live lectures – perhaps more so. “It is important for every country to have an effective virtual learning system: in the event of an epidemic, a war, or anything unexpected, virtual learning ensures that you can move forward,” suggested Oakley.
Barbara Oakley, PhD and Assoc. Prof. Valdas Jaskūnas / © MF archive
Advice on how to strengthen long-term memory
During the lecture, the scholar identified four techniques that help pupils and students learn more effectively: rereading, highlighting, retrieval and concept mapping. Various studies have shown that retrieval is the most effective technique for learning complex subjects: “When you are learning something, neural links are made in your short-term memory or working memory. Without active practice (retrieval), however, the neural connections cannot be retained in the long-term memory. Sleep, according to Oakley, plays a crucial role in this process: “If you repeat what you’ve learned during the day before going to bed, you will signal to your brain that one concept or another was very important and those neural links will be strengthened.” According to Oakley, learning will also be more effective, if the information is broken down into segments: for example, instead of learning 5 hours a day, it could be that learning 1-2 hours a day for a whole week (with retrieval practise in the evenings), would be more successful.
“When you’re a child, you learn procedurally, but when you grow up, declarative memory overtakes procedural memory, which is why it becomes harder to learn new things, like languages. Both procedural and declarative memories are equally important for successful learning: both are strengthened by practicing retrieval and by breaking down the amounts of information you want to learn,” concluded Oakley.
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Dr. Barbara Oakley is a scholar from the University of Auckland (USA) with a PhD in Systems Engineering. Her research interests focus on the relationship between neuroscience and social behaviour. Her publications appear in US scientific journals and influential media outlets (The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, etc.). Oakley teaches an online course on the Coursera platform. More information about her activities is available on her personal website.