The Encoding Process
If the key to teaching is the generation of links between new information stored in short-term memory and prior knowledge stored in long-term memory then the study of how to generate these links is very important. Seifert (1995, p3-3) suggests that in order for learning to occur, "... the information in short-term memory must be manipulated of transformed." The person will have to rehearse it, convert it, link it, or perform some other action with the information or else it will fade." Weinstein an
d Mayer (p316) present a framework for analyzing this process based upon teacher characteristics, knowledge and presentation; learner prior knowledge, strategies, cognitive processing and affective processing. They call this information manipulation process the encoding process.
Based upon Weinstein and Mayer (p317), there appear to be four main components, or fundamental cognitive processes (Seifert, 1995, p3-4), that make up the encoding process: selection, construction, integration and acquisition. Selection is the process of actively paying attention to some information and transferring the selected ideas into short-term memory. This "active" selection component appears to favour the selective attention over the slot-filling hypothesis. Weinstein and Mayer give two di
fferent definitions for the process of acquisition: "occurring when the learner actively transfers the information from working memory into long-term memory for permanent storage" (p317); and, when "... material is transferred into working memory for further study" (p318). Because acquisition is sequenced between selection and construction, the second definition appears to be correct. Construction is the active building of connections or links between selected ideas in short-term memory to create a ment
al model, schemata or framework. Seifert (1995, p3-5) suggests that "Prior knowledge is activated in order to discern possible categories based upon the characteristics of the things to be arranged." Integration appears to be the construction of links between these new models and prior knowledge in long-term memory.
Seifert (1995, p3-4) suggests that these fundamental cognitive processes can be actively controlled, and hence the quality of learning can be controlled. Controlled behaviours on the part of the student are called learning strategies - "... behaviours and thoughts that a learner engages in during learning and that are intended to influence the learner's encoding process" (Weinstein and Mayer, p315). Copying, underlining, imagining, summarizing, grouping and self-questioning are examples of learning
strategies. The eight different learning strategies described by Weinstein and Mayer have been summarized as Table 1.
These strategies emphasize one or more of the four fundamental cognitive processes of the encoding process - selection, construction, integration and acquisition. Weinstein and Mayer (p317) suggest that rehearsal and affective strategies emphasize the selection and acquisition processes, while elaboration and organization emphasized the construction and integration processes. Copying, underlining and taking selective verbatim notes are obviously selective activities. However these activities can be
accomplished without any transfer of knowledge into short-term memory, and it is not uncommon to discover that a student may not remember any of the facts in an essay after having spent ten minutes underlining "important" passages. Similarly, chemistry students can organize lists of different types of acids without integrating the knowledge and transferring the lists to long-term memory. The necessary ingredient for the encoding process to occur is the "active" or conscious state of the learner while co
mpleting the task. Hence, Weinstein and Mayer have included "active" in the definitions of the four component processes.
Seifert (1995, p3-5) suggests that teachers can aid students' effective use of encoding processes by training them to be good strategy users, and by choosing tasks carefully so that these students will be required to engage in activities that will stimulate the encoding processes. As an example, consider grade 8 mathematics students who face the task of problem-solving by learning how to substitute given or known quantities into derived algebraic expressions. As a first step in reading the "word pr
oblem", students are encouraged to underline (rehearsal - complex) any numerical information in the problems, including numeric words such as "half" and "twice". They are then asked to associate (elaboration - basic) variable definitions with "real" problem quantities; for example, suggesting that the letter C represent the circumference of a circle. They may next have to group (organization - basic) together all the necessary information to substitute into the appropriate algebraic expression and solve
the problem. "Is your solution realistic?" "Is a copper penny actually 12 cm in diameter?" (comprehension monitoring). "Don't worry about it. Try again!" (affective). This problem incorporates all the suggested learning strategies - in less than five minutes of class time! With respect to the encoding process, the student selectively chose the necessary information from a word problem, constructed relations between variable definitions and given values, integrated the information into prior knowledg
e of the proper algebraic expression, and acquired a sense of accomplishment associated with mastering the strategy.
Outside the mind, the computer is the only tool which can transform information from one form to another - for example, data to graphs or digital code to music. In effect, selected information can be acquired by the computer, fill slots in prepared programs, and be integrated onto a disc for long-term storage. One problem high school physics teachers are facing today concerns the encoding process of the computer in physics labs. Vernier sensing equipment is required in labs for monitoring time, heat
, velocity and other quantities. For example, it is convenient to have a computer monitor time in an experiment in which differences need to be measured in tenths of seconds. However, the software which measures these quantities can also transform them automatically into tables and graphs. From personal experience, physics students who use the computer to generate graphs can not solve similar problems during a lab test when the computer is unavailable. It appears that since the "experience" and "memory
" of how the original graphs were generated resides in the computer memory, students do not acquire the skill. With respect to my "web model" of learning, the generation of links between short-term and long-term memory appears to correspond to the integration process of encoding.