DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LEARING AND MEMORY.
Added on 2022-08-08
6 Pages1478 Words43 Views
Running head: DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LEARING AND MEMORY
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LEARING AND MEMORY
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LEARING AND MEMORY
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LEARING AND MEMORY1
Introduction
The human brain is one of the most complicated organs in the human body. It consists
of over 100 billion neurons and is responsible for cognition and the various faculties related
to it. Both learning and memory are faculties of cognition; however, they are not the same.
This post will state the difference between the two and propose a solution to the learning
problem, which students face regarding weak knowledge retention and memorisation for the
sake of examinations. The central issue that is being identified is the reason behind the
popularity of rote memorization and reproduction in examinations instead of learning and
retaining for a long time. This post will attempt at suggesting a viable strategy at testing
whether students are actually retaining what is being taught in class and how this affects
learning in the future.
Discussion and recommendations
There has always existed a debate whether learning and memory are related and are
they similar when it comes to education. It is quite rampant that students tend to memorise
whatever is taught in class just for the sake of passing their consecutive examinations and
assessments. However, even though learning and memorising are similar, they follow very
different routes individually and extract different forms of involvement from the human
cognition system (Markovits & Weinstein, 2018). While learning and memorisation both
require the person to actively engage with the task at hand, the ultimate objective that the
person is aiming to achieve plays a vital role in determining whether that person will require
to memorise or actually learn. For instance, a person studying medical science has the
objective of providing sick patients with healthier living solutions. Given that medicines have
the potential to provide both positive and negative results, it is imperative that the person
knows as well as understands which medicine works well in a particular context and which
would cause worse complications for the patient. This is an aspect where memorisation for
Introduction
The human brain is one of the most complicated organs in the human body. It consists
of over 100 billion neurons and is responsible for cognition and the various faculties related
to it. Both learning and memory are faculties of cognition; however, they are not the same.
This post will state the difference between the two and propose a solution to the learning
problem, which students face regarding weak knowledge retention and memorisation for the
sake of examinations. The central issue that is being identified is the reason behind the
popularity of rote memorization and reproduction in examinations instead of learning and
retaining for a long time. This post will attempt at suggesting a viable strategy at testing
whether students are actually retaining what is being taught in class and how this affects
learning in the future.
Discussion and recommendations
There has always existed a debate whether learning and memory are related and are
they similar when it comes to education. It is quite rampant that students tend to memorise
whatever is taught in class just for the sake of passing their consecutive examinations and
assessments. However, even though learning and memorising are similar, they follow very
different routes individually and extract different forms of involvement from the human
cognition system (Markovits & Weinstein, 2018). While learning and memorisation both
require the person to actively engage with the task at hand, the ultimate objective that the
person is aiming to achieve plays a vital role in determining whether that person will require
to memorise or actually learn. For instance, a person studying medical science has the
objective of providing sick patients with healthier living solutions. Given that medicines have
the potential to provide both positive and negative results, it is imperative that the person
knows as well as understands which medicine works well in a particular context and which
would cause worse complications for the patient. This is an aspect where memorisation for
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LEARING AND MEMORY2
the sake of passing an examination can prove to be lethal. Same goes for most of the subjects
that teach life skills and professional development to the students. Practical implementation
of learned concepts in a professional setting is the ultimate objective of any major form of
education. This is why rote memorisation for passing the examination is so heavily
discouraged (Grove & bretz, 2012).
The first recommendation for appropriately addressing this issue should be an
amendment in the way class grades and overall academic performance is looked at in
educational institutions. With an emphasis on the importance of knowledge, making the
classes less pedagogical and more interactive and seminar based, can help in achieving this
outcome.
Alternately, from a completely psycho – social perspective, there are certain social
connotations associated with the whole aspect of assessment and grades. Students are
prompted to study harder not so that they can learn something, but because more studying is
seen to correlate with better grades. This puts a direct psychological pressure on the students,
who, on the other hand, look at better grades as a higher academic achievement (Boleslavsky
& Cotton, 2015). Rote memorisation of content for the purpose of reproduction in
examinations therefore occupy a higher value than actually learning something for its
practical and real life implementations. Research states that the students tend to approach
learning something either as something that is utilitarian and surface level in nature, where
simply memorization and reproduction is looked at as the primary outcome; or in a deeper
and more insightful manner where the students will be able to not only learn the content but
also be able to put their learned context into practice in a real life scenario, thereby fulfilling
the purpose of most education (Kirillov et al., 2015). Putting these two approaches into
perspective by looking at it from the viewpoint of a student, it can be seen that the deep
the sake of passing an examination can prove to be lethal. Same goes for most of the subjects
that teach life skills and professional development to the students. Practical implementation
of learned concepts in a professional setting is the ultimate objective of any major form of
education. This is why rote memorisation for passing the examination is so heavily
discouraged (Grove & bretz, 2012).
The first recommendation for appropriately addressing this issue should be an
amendment in the way class grades and overall academic performance is looked at in
educational institutions. With an emphasis on the importance of knowledge, making the
classes less pedagogical and more interactive and seminar based, can help in achieving this
outcome.
Alternately, from a completely psycho – social perspective, there are certain social
connotations associated with the whole aspect of assessment and grades. Students are
prompted to study harder not so that they can learn something, but because more studying is
seen to correlate with better grades. This puts a direct psychological pressure on the students,
who, on the other hand, look at better grades as a higher academic achievement (Boleslavsky
& Cotton, 2015). Rote memorisation of content for the purpose of reproduction in
examinations therefore occupy a higher value than actually learning something for its
practical and real life implementations. Research states that the students tend to approach
learning something either as something that is utilitarian and surface level in nature, where
simply memorization and reproduction is looked at as the primary outcome; or in a deeper
and more insightful manner where the students will be able to not only learn the content but
also be able to put their learned context into practice in a real life scenario, thereby fulfilling
the purpose of most education (Kirillov et al., 2015). Putting these two approaches into
perspective by looking at it from the viewpoint of a student, it can be seen that the deep
End of preview
Want to access all the pages? Upload your documents or become a member.