Some people struggle to accept that our brains are built to forget. In fact, forgetting is an evolutionary strategy as our brains evaluate and prune information that doesn't promote our survival - which doesn't always align with learning multiplication tables or significant dates in history.
We often think of memories as books, filed away on a shelf and accessed when needed. But they're actually more like a web with experiences distributed across millions of connected neurons. When a lesson is presented to a student, the material is encoded across these neural networks, converting the experience into a memory.
When students learn a new piece of information, they make new connections. Two scientifically based ways to help them retain the information are by making as many connections as possible, especially to other concepts, and by accessing the memory repeatedly over time.
The YouTube video below shares research-based learning strategies that can be applied in the classroom as well as at home.