Use of Mnemonics for Effective Teaching

USE OF MNEMONICS FOR EFFECTIVE TEACHING

A.S. Nene

Professor of Civil Engineering (Retd.), VNIT Nagpur–440011, India.

E-mail:

V.S. Landge

Asstt. Professor, Civil Engg. Department, VNIT Nagpur–440011, India.

E-mail:

ABSTRACT: Mnemonics (pronounced “ne-mon'-ics”) is the art of assisting the memory, by using a system of artificial aids—rhymes, rules, phrases, diagrams, acronyms and other devices—all to help in the recall of names, dates, facts and figures. From childhood to old age one uses this technique knowingly or unknowingly. Many engineering subjects contain abstract concepts, principles and ideas. These subjects may be hard for students to comprehend. Therefore, educators should help and motivate students to learn as well as to develop enthusiasm for these subjects. To achieve these objectives, educators need to use more effective methods of teaching which strengthen these concepts and help students to retain, retrieve and apply the concepts they have learned. The paper presents briefly the technique and its history. Few topics of Geotechnical engineering for which this technique can be very suitable, are discussed in this paper.


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Use of Mnemonics for Effective Teaching

1. INTRODUCTION

During last two decades Civil Engineering branch has become the least preferred branch for admission to engineering institutes. Graduate level curriculum of Civil engineering includes core subjects such as soil mechanics, foundation engineering and few geotechnical engineering related electives. These electives offered at third or fourth year are again the least preferred electives, due to a misconception that such subjects are descriptive and less scoring. A teacher of geotechnical engineering has to remove this misconception by improving his teaching skills. Education technology can provide tools for improvement of teaching methods.

2. EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY

Teaching-learning is a two way process and unless every student learns, the process is incomplete. (Fig. 1) Learning depends upon the retention and retrieval of information for longer duration. There are different memory improvement techniques. Mnemonics is one of these techniques. In this technique, things, pictures sound etc. is attached to award or set of words to remember permanently. A child associates fingers with numbers from 1 to 10, alphabets with toys, colors with pictures and so on. One picture is worth thousand words—a Chinese proverb. (Fig.2) Mnemosyne was the Greek goddess of memory,her namesake, mnemonics, simply means “memory aid”. In Ancient Rome, mnemonics were used by lawyers to remember the points they wanted to make in a lawsuit. The method of remembering they used is called the method of loci. Mnemonics can be useful for teachers and students and its application is explained with few topics of geotechnical engineering.

Fig. 1: Teaching-Learning is a Two Way Process

Fig. 2: Necessacity of Soil Exploration

3. MAIN LEARNING STYLES

The three main learning styles are:

·  Visual

·  Auditory

·  Kinaesthetic

No one uses one of the styles exclusively, and there is usually significant overlap in learning styles. The way in which people learn affects the sort of mnemonics they should consider using to store information.

3.1 Visual Learners

Visual learners relate most effectively to written information, notes, diagrams and pictures. Such learners will be unhappy with a presentation where they are unable to take detailed notes—to an extent information does not exist for a visual learner unless it has been seen written down. This is why some visual learners will take notes even when they have printed course notes on the desk in front of them. Visual learners will tend to be most effective in written communication, symbol manipulation etc. Visual learners make up around 65% of the population.

3.2 Auditory Learners

Auditory learners relate most effectively to the spoken word. They will tend to listen to a lecture, and then take notes afterwards, or rely on printed notes. Often information written down will have little meaning until it has been heard —it may help auditory learners to read written information out loud. Auditory learners may be sophisticated speakers, and may specialise effectively in subjects like law or politics. Auditory learners make up about 30% of the population.

3.3 Kinaesthetic Learners

Kinaesthetic Learners learn effectively through touch and movement and space, and learn skills by imitation and practice. Predominantly kinaesthetic learners can appear slow, in that information is normally not presented in a style that suits their learning methods. Kinaesthetic learners make up around 5% of the population.

4. MNEMONICS FOR EFFECTIVE TEACHING-LEARNING

Following mnemonic tools can be used to make the subject more memorable:

4.1 Senses of Perception

Use all the senses to code information or dress up an image. Remember that a mnemonic can contain sound, smell, tastes, touch, movement and feelings as well as pictures. Ask the students to use all senses of perceptions to learn new things, Ref. Table 1.

Table 1: Use of Senses of Perception

Topic / Things to be associated with the topic
Fine and coarse grained soils / Touch with fingers and rub on palm
Dilatency of soil / Shake and squeeze a wet pat of soil on palm
Plasticity of fine grained soils / Knead and roll a wet soil mass Use clay and fly-ash samples
Permeability or porosity / immerse a geofoam or sponge in water, take out and squeeze
Capillary action in soils / Hold a strip of bloating paper near the top surface of ink/colored water in a dish
Organic soils / Smell the soil when water is added to dry sample

4.2 Innovative Questions

Use humour. Funny or peculiar things are easier to remember than normal ones. Innovative questions are unforgettable. Ref. Table 2.

Table 2: Innovative Questions

Question / Answer
Name the curve which is plotted as a straight line! / Flow curve
Name a most common building material which has both permeability and porosity / Brick
Name a soiled city of Pakistan / Multan for Mulani mitti

4.3 Enigmatic Questions

Enigmatic questions are very difficult to forget! Ref. Table 3.

Table 3: Common/Uncommon

A / B / common/uncommon
Foot / Footing / Both transfer loads to earth but A is above and B is below the ground
Tea spoon / Split spoon / A is used to taste tea but B is used to test soils
Anthill / Earth dam / Both need soil stabilization for construction

4.4 Rude Rhymes

Rude rhymes are very difficult to forget. Ref. Table 4.

Table 4: New Nursery Rhymes

A for Atterberg, B for Boussinesq, C for Coulomb and D for Darcy

4.5 Models

Bringing three dimensions and movement to an image makes it more vivid. Show models in the class room itself. Ref. Table 5.

Table 5: Use of Models

Isobar and pressure bulb / Brick wall model with Point load on the top brick. Calculate load shared by each brick. Join midpoints of bricks sharing same load.
Effective stress concept / Spring Analogy Model with pressure gauge
Negative pore pressure / Saturated Sand sample on triaxial cell base with pippette attached to bottom. Ref Fig. 3

Fig. 3: Negative Pore pressure

Arrange model competitions with topics such as plate/pile load test, dewatering techniques, construction with geosynthetics etc.

4.6 Positive, Pleasant Images

The brain often blocks out unpleasant ones. Vivid, colourful images are easier to remember than drab ones. Use well drawn coloured charts. Circulate related brochures amongst students. Use cartoons. Ref Figure 4.

Fig. 4: Soil Sampling

4.7 Exaggeration

Exaggerate the size of important parts of the image.

4.8 Symbols

Symbols (e.g. red traffic lights, pointing fingers, etc.) can be used in mnemonics. Maintain the consistency of symbols through out the course.

4.9 Three Dimensions and Movement

Bringing three dimensions and movement to an image makes it more vivid. Movement can be used either to maintain the flow of association, or can help to remember actions. Video clips are available on many geotechnical topics which cannot be explained on blackboard. The last important thing is that the mnemonic should clearly relate to the thing being remembered.

4.10 Future Trends

Interactive Multimedia (IMM) has drastically changed the perspective of teaching and learning. Multimedia can be defined as a combination of text, graphics, sound and video, animation. All these are controlled, coordinated and presented on computer screen. Computer can control external devices such as VCD or MP3 player. Where books fail to explain complex and dynamic relationships, IMM will be very useful.

5. CONCLUSION

It can be concluded that mnemonics is a very useful tool for educators and students

REFERENCES

Chang, P.C. et al. (1995). “Multimedia Based Instruction in Engineering Education”, Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice, ASCE, Vol. 121, No. 4, pp. 216–219.

Nene, A.S. and Bhide S.R. (1997). “Some Experiences in Developing CAL Packages for Engineering Education”, Third Int. Conf. On Computer Based Learning in Science 4–8 July 1997, Leicester UK pp. 451–458.


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Use of Mnemonics for Effective Teaching


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