Forgetting to Remember Important Course Information: Instructors' Perspectives.

The notion of forgetting implies that important information once learned and accessible can no longer be retrieved and remembered. Although college students do not need to recall everything, they frequently have some trouble remembering what they need to know when taking quizzes and examinations (exams), and when giving oral presentations. This article offers six major explanations why college students tend to forget some of the course materials they learned from instructors' perspectives. These six explanations include decay, interference, failure to store or consolidate, failure to retrieve, reconstruction error, and obliterative subsumption. For each explanation of forgetting, college instructors must utilize certain instructional strategies that would minimize forgetting important course information taught in class in order to facilitate students learning and promote long-term retention of course materials.  College instructors are challenged with the topic of engagement year after year. Lecture halls and classrooms are filled not only with students, but also electronic devices such as laptop computers, cell phones, MP3s, and iPods. In the 21st century, instructors must find a way to elicit students' natural motivation. How do college instructors meet the needs of the 21st century learner? Wolfe (2001) points out that most learning that takes place in students' lives is incidental. Generally, students make no effort to remember their experiences for later. However, they usually have to expend some time and effort to retain course information when they need it (Wolfe, 2001). Instructors especially know how difficult retention of information can be. Students often memorize the information for an exam and then promptly forget it (Ormrod, 2008). The problem is intensified by the demands to cover more course material. Rushing through material to cover greater amounts of course information does not build strong neural connections in the brain. Therefore, course information that is covered superficially is seldom remembered or remembered incorrectly (Ormrod, 2008). Memory is one of the most important aspects to living life. Items students store, both pleasant and unpleasant, shape an individual. Memory is tied closely to self-esteem, self-worth, and it is important to living a productive life. It is a process, not a fixed skill that involves three key elements: encoding, storage, and retrieval (Weiten, 2002). Knowing this, instructors must create a good learning environment in order to encourage active student learning and enhance students' ability to recall the subject matter (Weiten, 2002). College is a complex learning process because of high demands to remember declarative information. Memory and recall are critical elements of learning. College instructors must find a way to improve students' abilities to recall. This article offers six key reasons why college students tend to forget course information when taking written exams and giving oral presentations. These key elements are decay, interference, failure to store, failure to retrieve, reconstruction errors, and obliterative subsumption. The information presented in this article is likely to help college instructors understand how to better prepare their respective students for upcoming written exams and oral presentations, as well as how to promote long-term retention of course material. Factors Affecting Memory Decay Many psychologists believe that information will always remain in long-term memory, while others suggest that the information may fade over time or disappear completely if used seldom or not at ali (Ormrod, 2006). Through time, psychologists have believed that learned course information can gradually fade away or decay, and eventually disappear from memory altogether (Ormrod, 2008). Decay seems to be especially common when course information is used rarely or not at all (Altman and Gray, 2002; Byrnes, 2001; Schacter, 1999; Loftus and Loftus, 1980). …

Field of study: Education