Capturing Information

Purpose and plan

The purpose of this video is to discuss ways teachers can design their teaching to include elements that will help their dyslexic/ SpLD students to capture information most effectively. The ideas will help all learners when subjects are challenging. What is proposed will cater for dyslexic/ SpLDs within a whole school approach that benefits all students.

The underlying principle in this video is that working-memory capacity can be increased when effective links are made between pieces of information.

Capturing information is just one mental process that can be enhanced by using effective links to increase working-memory capacity; it is the one that teachers can directly assist. Students can apply the ideas to many other mental processes.

The video includes an activity that allows a group of people to explore the links they use and to appreciate the variety of different links that people use. There are other suggestions of methods to explore how people make links between pieces of information.

Four input methods of linking information are discussed, together with encouragement for teachers to include these 4 methods in the way they deliver their lessons and materials.

The video contains brief discussions of the visual and verbal (aural/ oral) senses disconnecting and of the physical sense being a dominant factor in recall.

Students having agency is a key theme. Teachers employing the 4 input methods is seen as a broad brush approach within which students have the possibility and responsibility to fine tune the links they use so that each one is using their full potential.

A second practical element is available in the form of re-framing, in which a person re-organises the ideas in this video using a format that suits them.

The video, with this accompanying text, is an example of the ideas contained in the video.

The video and text end with a summary of the main points.

Lists of connected videos and references are at the end of the text.

Working-memory practical exercises

It is useful to see the linking in action. The following are 3 possible options to uncover links that your mind makes between items.

1 Remembering 5 objects:

This is best done in a group of at least 5 people

Each of you write down a random object as a suggestion for one of the objects, put the suggestions in a hat, then draw 5 of these as the objects to be remembered.

Task:

• You are on your way out when someone asks you to get 5 items. You don’t have any method to record these items; you have to use your memory.
• On your own, take a couple of minutes to decide how you would remember the 5 chosen items.
• Then compare the methods you used.

When I set this exercise to a workshop, participants describe how they have linked the 5 items together and it is obvious that they have used different methods.

2 Kim’s game

Another way of seeing differences in linking is to play Kim’s Game, in which there are 20 objects on a tray. Each one is named in turn, then the tray is covered and the players have to remember as many of the objects as they can. The insights about linking come when the players describe how they remembered the objects.

Kim’s game can be played with children. At first, they may not be aware of how they do the linking, but gradually they will start to observe how they are thinking.

3 Know your own mind

The video Know Your Own Mind (follow link in Connected Videos) part 1 is a mind exercise that allows you to find the links your mind uses when recalling items. Part 2 records one person doing the mind exercise and the subsequent discussion about the links made during the exercise.

Teaching and choice of 4 linking methods

There is a wide range of ways people make links, but the dyslexic/ SpLD students I worked with showed me that there are 4 that are important for capturing incoming information:

• using the visual sense
• using the verbal sense
• using the physical sense (sometimes referred to as kinaesthetic sense)
• having a framework or rationale before receiving the incoming information.

The first two are widely used in education and in research work on memory. The physical senses are not so readily used and do not feature in work on memory. The importance of rationale or framework doesn’t feature in parallel with the senses.

Each of these methods can be used in many different ways, which I will develop in future videos. A full discussion of them can be found in Finding Your Voice with Dyslexia and other SpLDs, chapter 4 Thinking Preferences.

As far as teaching is concerned, the important issues are:

• to involve each of the 4 input methods while teaching a topic
• to make sure students

know about the structure of working memory and how the capacity can be increased by using links between different pieces of information

• know the 4 different input methods and that they can use them as necessary
• have agency to fine tune the way they make the links.

It is important to realise that people will use each method differently; it is not up to the teacher to do all the work. There just needs to be an opening for the different ways to become engaged as a new topic is introduced. The students should have the agency to develop the ways that work for them.

Most people seem to be able to hold information in the their memory long enough for the framework or rationale to emerge. But there are some who can’t hold the information and there is a sense of ‘in one ear and out the other’. By setting out the framework or the rationale, the teacher is triggering the minds of these people so that they will capture the incoming information.

Capturing information is the first stage of being able to use the information; if it is not captured there is nothing to process, to use, to think about, to learn; hence the focus on capturing information in this video.

Senses disconnect

The senses do not always work together for some people. If you are listening to something, you may not be able to process information that is coming visually; and the other way round. It is useful to have a conversation with a group of students, or people, to find out who is aware of this phenomenon.

Something slightly different happens when the physical senses are key to capturing information: if something is learnt in one place, it maybe better recalled from memory in the place it was learnt (Baddeley, 1982, p107). Many people have the experience of trying to recall what they wanted to do when moving from one place to another, only to find they have to go back to the original place to access the memory.

Agency of students

The video Agency Overview makes the case for dyslexic/ SpLD students to have agency over their learning and in many other situations, because support networks may not always be available. These students will fare much better with confidence in their own capabilities.

As far as using working memory is concerned, students will gain agency when:

• they know how to link information together to increase working-memory capacity
• they use techniques suggested in the video Mental Warm-up for making useful links shortly before engaging with a topic
• they do some in depth preparation when engaging in longer projects, as discussed in the video Mental Preparation
• they apply these ideas to help them with many other mental processes, e.g. planning and organising information.

One really important aspect for students to understand is that if they are going to gain knowledge or skills, the learning has to go through their own minds and brains, it cannot go through another person’s.

This video as example

This video and text are examples of what is advocated:

• the rationale is stated at the outset and the plan is shown
• there is a text version for those who don’t want too much visual representation
• the video uses diagrams, symbols, colour and mind maps for those who take information in using the visual sense
• there are two practical tasks for those who need the practical element; and both of the practical tasks can be done in ways that are visual, verbal or using framework/ rationale.

Summary

When information is linked together as it is received, the capacity of working memory is increased

There are 4 important linking methods for received information, using:

• the visual sense
• the verbal sense
• physical senses
• rationale or framework.

Teachers can help students by catering for all 4 and enabling students to have agency in improving their use of working memory.

Students’ agency is extended when they understand:

• how linking information increases the capacity of working memory
• what they can do to make linking effective
• how they can use Mental Warm-up and Mental Preparation to make better use of their working memory
• how they can use these ideas to help with many other mental processes.