This in turn affects their abilities to remember, reason, and solve problems. Bransford et al also point out that memory has come to be understood as more than simple associations. Learners have to develop organized knowledge and it is this organization which underlies effective comprehension, thinking, and problem solving. But a sound base of available knowledge, indeed of socially shared knowledge, is an indispensable platform for shared work and democratic living. I would add that one needs a sound foundation of facts to form hypotheses and prove or disprove them, to argue intelligently, and to solve problems.
Students have to be given an opportunity to apply facts to problems, to arguments, to theories.
Note that it is not sufficient simply to show them, although that may be a good introductory step. They have to have an opportunity to apply facts on their own, either by being given problems, or by being required to come up with a hypothesis based upon certain facts, or by being made to analyze why a certain event occurred, or by creating arguments for or against a proposition. Mental operations like these are instances of active learning, the kind of learning most likely to lead to retention of knowledge, as well as its transfer to new situations. It is such active learning that leads to formation of new dendritic and synaptic connections in the brain, connections that are requisite byproducts of learning. Even asking students to paraphrase helps create such connections.