ABSTRACT
Formal education poses particular problems for young children because it requires them deliberately to remember information with which they are presented as a planned curriculum. This chapter outlines what is known from research about the structure of the human memory system and its impact on learning and understanding. The memory system is divided into sensory stores, working memory and long-term memory. Each of these elements of our memory has its own structural characteristics and processes which affect the ways in which we can more easily remember and understand new information. Some very clear indications emerge as to what teachers of young children can do in order to help them understand and remember more effectively. These include adopting a multi-sensory approach to activities, encouraging children’s self-monitoring of performance, using explicit discussion and modelling to encourage children to try a wide range of memory strategies and setting new information in the context of an event, story or dramatisation. The overriding significance of devising tasks which stimulate children’s mental activity is also emphasised.
