What aids in helping students retain and comprehend new information?

Activating prior knowledge is a crucial strategy for helping students retain and comprehend new information. When students are encouraged to access what they already know about a subject, it allows them to make connections between their pre-existing knowledge and the new material being introduced. This connection enhances understanding because it situates new information within a familiar context, making it more relatable and easier to process.

For instance, if a lesson is about ecosystems, discussing what students already know about plants and animals enables them to better grasp the complexities of ecological interactions. This contextual framework provides a foundation that supports deeper comprehension and retention since the brain often finds it easier to integrate new data when it is anchored to existing mental models.

In contrast, other strategies like memorization may focus solely on rote learning without fostering true understanding or retention over the long term. Discussion can be effective but might not specifically anchor new content to the individual student’s experiences. Similarly, direct instruction is valuable for delivering information but may not actively engage the student's prior knowledge as effectively as activating it would. This makes the activation of prior knowledge a powerful tool in the learning process.