On Friday 27th March I attended a workshop
entitled ‘Working Memory and Education’. The workshop was aimed at informing
educational psychologists about the importance of working memory in children,
and particularly in the classroom environment, for example, when children have
to remember lists of instructions in the correct order. However, it was also
very relevant for other researchers and practitioners in the field, encouraging
discussion about how we can apply research findings, and best routes for
intervention.
Some excellent talks were given from individuals
who have contributed a great deal to this field of developmental research, including
Dr Joni Holmes (University of Cambridge), Prof. Chris Jarrold (University of
Bristol), Dr Tracy Alloway (University of North Florida) and Dr Debbora Hall
(University of Bristol). They discussed topics such as what working memory is, how
working memory works, why it is important, how we can measure it and how we can
improve it. The workshop was also an opportunity to present the first screening
of some films that have been made at the University of Bristol in a project run
by Debbora Hall and Chris Jarrold, about working memory in the classroom. The
films are designed for educational psychologists and related
professionals. I was also lucky enough
to be involved in these films, and discuss working memory training strategies
in a short clip. Here is the link to the films:
Prof. Chris
Jarrold kicked off the talks to introduce us to the concept of working memory, the
components of it, and how to measure these different components. Chris
highlighted that working memory remains the best cognitive predictor of other
academic abilities such as maths and literacy.
Chris
put forward the notion that, along with storage capacity and processing speed,
‘forgetting rate’ appears to be an important determinant of working memory
performance. Working memory involves storing information in the face of
distraction (processing tasks). The amount an individual can store (capacity)
is important, as well as the speed at which an individual can process
information. On top of this, Chris and colleagues’ data indicates that the rate
at which an individual forgets will additionally impact on their performance in
the given working memory task.
Dr Joni
Holmes next discussed work that her and colleagues have been carrying out in
Cambridge at a new research centre: The Centre for Attention, Learning and
Memory (CALM). Children who appear to be experiencing any difficulties in
attention, learning and/or memory can be referred to the clinic, whereby the
researchers will attempt to understand the cause/s of the child’s difficulties
and how best to overcome them. The referrer then receives a report containing
the results of the assessments which they can use to inform the way that they
choose to support that child. This represents an excellent step in reciprocity
between research and practitioner level. The facility opened in September 2014
and has been successful so far, appearing to fill a necessary niche in the area.
A key
finding so far was that children labelled as having attentional problems,
children labelled as having working memory problems, and other children
labelled in other ways, in fact appear to experience many of the same
difficulties in different tests of cognitive performance. The message is therefore
that it may not be appropriate or particularly helpful to label children e.g.,
as having poor memory, or having poor attention, and treating them on the basis
of this label. Instead the focus should be on interventions to achieve specific
outcomes.
Dr Tracy
Alloway next gave an excellent overview of the various factors that contribute
to working memory performance, and in particular highlighted the impact of
working memory ability. Tracy noted that while IQ is typically used as a
benchmark for academic success, her research findings suggest that working
memory (e.g., what you do with what you know) is more important in predicting
academic success. Tracy discussed working memory in the context of 3 I’s: firstly
that working memory is Important, secondly that it is Indifferent to a wide
array of factors, and thirdly that it can be Improved, given the right
training. Some examples were presented, of the large negative impact of working
memory difficulties on children’s classroom abilities and behaviour, and the
importance of recognising and addressing these working memory difficulties was
highlighted. Tracy has published a
selection of popular science books on the topic of working memory and how to
improve it: http://tracyalloway.com/books
The
workshop came to a close with Dr Debbora Hall presenting the new films about
working memory for educational psychologists (link above).
All in
all it was a really interesting workshop and I think it is a very positive step
in the direction of engaging research professionals and practitioners from
different but closely related fields. It is important that research findings
are translated to the field such that they can have a positive impact in
improving practice.
- Written
by Liz Smith -
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