Did you go to church on Sunday? If so, what was the sermon about? Can you list out the main points? Not all of them, I suspect. Now think to your freshman year. Any particular lectures come to mind as memorable? All this is to say that it is not easy to remember something taught to us via speech. When speaking, we often overestimate the power of spoken word. Few people remember something spoken to them, thus the job of a teacher becomes very difficult. A teacher must “deliver a message that not only gets our attention but is understandable, persuasive, memorable, and likely to compel action.” (pg. 79) In this chapter, the authors present five different principles to help get the most out of our hearing and reading, and for presenters to present more potent messages.
The first principle is: “vivid, concrete examples are more potent than abstract information.” (pg. 80) By this, we mean that presenters need to present specific illustrations in their presentations. Studies have shown that people remember a few good testimonies rather than a plethora of statistical data. E.B. White put it best when he stated “…the surest way to arouse and hold the attention of the reader is by being specific, definite, and concrete.”(pg. 80) Jesus used parables in his sermons to get his point across, and those parables are remembered today. Why? Because they told the message Jesus wanted to tell in a memorable story.
The second principle is: “messages that relate to what people already know or have experienced are most easily remembered.” (pg. 81) When describing this principle, the authors have us read an unattached message from an experiment conducted by Branford and Johnson. In this message, it tells about gathering some items into a pile, or dividing them, and repeating the process. If we were to be told to think about doing the laundry, then this message takes a whole different meaning. Instead of a paragraph with instructions that did not relate to us, we now can remember the steps listed in the message. This shows that if a message is hooked to a cue, like laundry, then it is more likely to come to mind while the cue is present.
“Spaced repetition aids in retention,” (pg. 82) this is a principle used by many early childhood education teachers. When a teacher gives a presentation to younger children, they will often repeat the point they want the children to remember multiple times. An example of this is Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech. What do you remember most from that speech? The phrase, “I have a dream.” Not only is it in the title, but he repeats it eight times during this speech. Not only does he repeat it eight times, but repeats it every time he starts a new point. Therefore, “spaced repetition aids in retention.”(pg. 82)
Mr. Rogers was an icon for children during his time on television. The one thing he did while on television was ask children questions, and pause to allow the children to answer. It has been proven that people retain information best when they are actively processing it. What is actively processing information? Taking notes and repeating an important point you want to remember are examples of this. For a presentation to emphasize an important instruction, they should pause after stating thus instruction, giving the listener’s time to contemplate it. This is principle four, “active listening aid memory and facilitates attitude change.” (pg. 83)
Our fifth and final principle is: “attitudes and beliefs are shaped by action.” (pg. 83) If you want your listeners to pay attention to your lesson, give them a task. If you are teaching about neighborly love, ask them who they (the listener) will call or visit within the next week. If you have taught about enhanced nutrition, ask about what types of food they will be eating during supper. To cement beliefs, actions are needed, for just as faith without works is dead, so are actions.
I feel I actually got somewhere with this chapter, compared to the last one where we left off with no answer to the question we posed ourselves. I was a Senior Patrol Leader in my scouting group when I was younger. In being in this position, I am acquainted with the different principles of how to best have your listeners retain what you are trying to teach them. I was a fan of the fourth principle, using it more often than I probably should have. The question that is on my mind is why does not every person who is a teacher, preacher, or group leader recognize the difficulty of information retention? Simply reading over a chapter has been proven to not be a appropriate way to retain information. How could we remedy this? Could we have an audiobook that reads along with us? Would this help our retention of information? Several years ago, scholastic came out with a set of books called leapfrog which read along with the child on the premise of improving a child’s reading capabilities. Perhaps this is a viable way to help the retention rate for reading raise over time. This could be an interesting case study if I would try to apply the principles above to a book in order to set a standard for educational reading material.
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