Last week, I had a meeting with the parent of a child that is
failing my class. The child, let’s call
him Sam, is currently failing both
English and math in my year 4 class. This is also Sam’s second year in year 4; he did not pass the requirements for
promotion last year.
Sam’s parents very aware that he is not what most would regard as “smart”. During the meeting, his parents shared that they going to take Sam to a learning specialist because they are very concerned about his mental development. They are beginning to wonder if he is simply unable to learn.
According the Information Processing Theory, the mind is likened to a computer’s basic functions (Ashcraft, 1994): receiving information (i.e. interpreting what is being typed on the keyboard), saving the input to temporary memory (the typed words appearing on the monitor), and saving larger chunk of input permanently. Similarly the mind receives input (a teacher explaining a concept), then saves it in the short-term memory where the information is “then actively processed” and interpreted based on the existing information in our long term memory (Orey, n.d.), finally the input is placed in our long term memory or call memory which is where our knowledge or “knowing information” is located (Orey, n.d.).
As Sam’s teacher, I have used several different teaching strategies with him but nothing seems to work. Like his parents, I am starting to believe that there may be a glitch in Sam’s information processing system.
Sam’s parents very aware that he is not what most would regard as “smart”. During the meeting, his parents shared that they going to take Sam to a learning specialist because they are very concerned about his mental development. They are beginning to wonder if he is simply unable to learn.
According the Information Processing Theory, the mind is likened to a computer’s basic functions (Ashcraft, 1994): receiving information (i.e. interpreting what is being typed on the keyboard), saving the input to temporary memory (the typed words appearing on the monitor), and saving larger chunk of input permanently. Similarly the mind receives input (a teacher explaining a concept), then saves it in the short-term memory where the information is “then actively processed” and interpreted based on the existing information in our long term memory (Orey, n.d.), finally the input is placed in our long term memory or call memory which is where our knowledge or “knowing information” is located (Orey, n.d.).
As Sam’s teacher, I have used several different teaching strategies with him but nothing seems to work. Like his parents, I am starting to believe that there may be a glitch in Sam’s information processing system.
Ashcraft, M.H. (1994). Human memory and cognition (2nd Ed.). NY: Harper
Collins. Brown, H. Douglas (1987). Principles of Language Teaching and Learning
(2nd Ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NY: Prentice-Hall.
Orey, Michael (n.d.). Information Processing. In M. Orey
(Ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved
May 11, 2012 from
http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/
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