If you are unable to join the seminar face-to-face in Bessey room 109, you are welcome to join us via zoom teleconferencing by clicking on (or copying-and-pasting into your browser) the following URL:
https://unl.zoom.us/j/212107342
Authors and Affiliations:
Clark Coffman
Associate Professor
Department of Genetics, Development and Cell Biology
Iowa State University
Title:
Interrupting the Forgetting Curve: Strategies for Sustaining Student Learning and Performance Across a Curriculum
Abstract:
One of the many challenges we face as educators is the fact that learning fades over time. How often have we found ourselves wondering why students say, “I’ve never seen that before.” or “It looks kind of familiar, but I can’t explain it.” It is well known that revisiting and using information in new ways helps interrupt the forgetting curve, helping to strengthen memory and also providing new opportunities to exercise application and transfer of knowledge skills. What types of strategies could be developed across curricula for interrupting the forgetting curve? I will present some unpublished data about an intervention in introductory biology and a follow-up assessment the next semester. I would then like to have a group discussion of ideas for developing curriculum-wide plans for maintaining learning, providing opportunities for placing foundational concepts in new contexts, and mechanisms for assessing retention and skill development over the course of a curriculum.