The study of Geography is a key component to understanding the World, developing Global Citizenship along with Cultural Awareness and promoting Critical Thinking Skills; however, Educators across America have often forgotten the foundation for this level of understanding begins at the bottom of Bloom’s Taxonomy: Recall of facts and basic concepts (Mcdaniel, R.,1970). For a period of time, many have tried to suggest that memorization is no longer necessary with the rise of the internet (Heffernen, 2017) but research has shown this is a baseless claim (Agarwal, P. K., & Bain, P. M. 2019) and (Deshler, D., Schumaker, J., Bulgren, J., Lenz, K., Jantzen, J., Adams, G., Carnine, D., Grossen, B., Davis, B., & Marquis, J., 2001). Furthermore as the Researcher will present this belief is harmful to students due to the rising Cognitive Load experienced by students in learning environments. The Researcher conducted a year-long study with her Social Studies middle school students and the Science department at Indepentant* School to show how the memorization of facts via retrieval practice is not only a viable solution to lowering Cognitive Load in the classroom, it is essential for educators to use these practices to strengthen their students’ schema, transfer knowledge and build cognitive flexibility in the Social Studies classroom, allowing students to have greater understanding of the World, become Global Citizens, build Cultural Awareness as well as Critical Thinking skills.
Palm Ballroom Pre-function Area
Kendra Miller
