Learning something new means being able to remember it and use it later. Understanding an explanation during a lesson does not necessarily mean we have learnt it: we may understand it at the time and forget it afterwards.
Why does this happen?
Learning depends on several processes, including attention, what we already know, memory, practice and our ability to retrieve and use what we have learnt.
Understanding some of these principles can help parents and educators support children's learning more effectively.
1. To Learn, We Need to Pay Attention and Work with Information
Not everything we see or hear automatically becomes learning.
To learn something new, we need to pay attention to it and, where possible, connect it with knowledge we already have.
While carrying out an activity, we use our working memory, which allows us to temporarily hold and work with a limited amount of information.
Consider, for example, a child trying to calculate mentally:
27 + 16
The child needs to remember the numbers, carry out the necessary calculations and hold part of the result in mind while continuing to calculate.
If they are also given several new instructions at the same time, the task can become much harder.
When teaching something new, it can be useful to:
- give clear instructions
- present manageable amounts of information
- divide complex tasks into steps
- connect new information with something the child already knows
- avoid unnecessary difficulties that distract from the main learning objective
Working memory is limited, but what we already know can help us manage new information more effectively.
The goal is not to remove all difficulty. It is to keep the child from spending limited attention and working-memory resources on obstacles that have nothing to do with what they are actually trying to learn.
2. A Difficult Task Does Not Necessarily Mean the Brain Is "Blocked"
When a task requires us to manage too much new information at once, it can become hard to follow.
A child may become confused, make mistakes, lose track of what they are doing or feel frustrated.
But we do not need to assume that their brain has somehow become "blocked".
Difficulty or stress during learning can have many different causes.
It may arise because:
- the task is too difficult
- the instructions are unclear
- there is pressure to respond quickly
- the child is afraid of making a mistake
- they are tired
- they have been working for too long
- they do not yet have some of the necessary prior knowledge
- other personal or environmental factors are involved
Some difficulty is a normal part of learning.
The goal is not to eliminate all effort or prevent every experience of frustration.
A more useful question is:
"Is the difficulty this child is experiencing still allowing them to learn, or do we need to adjust something?"
Sometimes we may need to explain something differently.
At other times, giving the child more time may be enough.
And sometimes the child simply needs to continue practising something they already understand.
Difficulty is not automatically evidence that something is wrong. What matters is whether the child can continue engaging with the learning process and what kind of support, if any, they need.
3. Retrieving What We Have Learnt Is Also Part of Learning
We can understand an explanation at the time and later have difficulty remembering it.
Even when we have learnt something, there may be occasions when we struggle to retrieve that information when we need it.
This can happen for different reasons.
Perhaps the initial learning was superficial.
Perhaps a long time has passed since we last used the information.
We may need a cue to help us remember it.
Or perhaps we can use the knowledge in a familiar context but still have difficulty applying it in a different situation.
This is why it matters not only to revisit what we have learnt, but also to practise retrieving it.
There is a real difference between looking at an answer again and attempting to retrieve it from memory.
For example, after reading a text, we could immediately read it again.
Or we could close the book and ask ourselves:
"What were the three main ideas?"
In the second case, we are making an effort to retrieve the information without having it in front of us.
This kind of practice can help strengthen our ability to remember and use what we have learnt later.
Remembering is not simply about seeing information again. It also involves practising how to retrieve it when it is no longer in front of us.
This is one reason why being able to recognise an answer when we see it is not necessarily the same as being able to produce that answer when we need it.
4. Durable Learning Requires Us to Use What We Have Learnt Again
A clear explanation can help us understand something, but to make that learning stick, we need chances to use it again.
Practice might involve:
- trying to remember without immediately looking at the answer
- revisiting learning after some time has passed
- correcting mistakes
- explaining an idea in our own words
- using a skill in different exercises
- connecting new knowledge with previous knowledge
- applying what we have learnt in different situations
This also helps explain why studying for many hours right before a test does not necessarily produce the same result as revisiting and using the material at different times.
Practice is not simply repeating the same thing many times.
It can also involve remembering, correcting, connecting and applying.
In this way, something that initially required considerable attention and effort can gradually become more accessible and easier to use.
Learning is not simply receiving and understanding information. For learning to last, we need to be able to retrieve it, practise it and use it when we need it.
What Role Does Long-Term Memory Play?
Long-term memory allows us to retain knowledge and experiences beyond the immediate moment.
But we should not imagine it simply as a storage space where information is transferred after we have repeated it enough times.
What we already know influences how we understand new information.
When a child already has knowledge about a topic, they can connect a new idea with that existing knowledge.
For example, learning the word orbit becomes much more meaningful if the child already understands some basic ideas about planets and the solar system.
Building knowledge over time can therefore make future learning easier to understand.
Learning something new also depends, in part, on what we already know.
Knowledge is not simply the end result of learning. Existing knowledge can also become a resource for further learning.
From Remembering to Using
Remembering information matters, but learning does not end there.
We can think of a progression:
know → understand → remember → use → apply in new situations
Not all learning follows these exact steps, nor does it always occur in a linear sequence, but this progression helps remind us that memorising and understanding do not need to be competing goals.
We need knowledge that we can retrieve in order to think with it.
And we need understanding in order to use that knowledge meaningfully.
The goal is not to choose between memory and understanding. It is to help children develop knowledge they can understand, retrieve and use.
How Can Parents Help?
Parents do not need to become memory specialists to support learning.
They can begin with some very simple questions.
Instead of asking only:
"Have you finished?"
they can ask:
"What did you learn?"
"Can you explain it to me without looking?"
"Which part did you find most difficult?"
"What do you remember from what you studied yesterday?"
"Where could you use this?"
These questions shift the focus slightly.
The goal is no longer simply to complete a task. It begins to include understanding, retrieving and using what has been learnt.
This also gives parents a different role.
Rather than immediately checking whether every answer is correct, they can create small opportunities for the child to recall, explain and think about what they know.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Working Memory Have a Limited Capacity?
Yes.
We cannot hold and manipulate an unlimited amount of new information at the same time.
Effective capacity also depends on the task, prior knowledge and how the information is organised.
That is why applying a fixed number of items to every learning situation is not particularly useful.
The practical principle is more useful: when introducing something new, the amount and complexity of information need to be manageable for the learner and the task.
Does Stress Prevent Learning?
Not necessarily.
Some level of activation or challenge can be a normal part of learning.
The problem arises when pressure, anxiety, difficulty or other factors significantly interfere with attention, participation or performance.
It is more useful to consider what is happening with the individual child than to assume that any experience of stress automatically prevents learning.
Does Practice Help Us Remember?
Yes, but the type of practice matters.
Trying to retrieve an answer, distributing practice over time, correcting errors and using knowledge in different ways can be more useful than simply rereading or repeating something mechanically.
Practice gives us opportunities not only to encounter information again but also to do something with it.
Is Memorisation the Opposite of Understanding?
No.
Memory and understanding can complement each other.
Having knowledge that we can retrieve relatively easily can help us understand and solve more complex problems.
At the same time, understanding helps us connect and use what we remember meaningfully.
The educational goal does not need to be memorisation or understanding. It can be knowledge that is understood, remembered and usable.
Learning Is More Than Receiving Information
Learning is not simply listening to an explanation and storing the information somewhere in the brain.
We need to pay attention, connect new information with what we already know, understand, practise, try to remember and use what we have learnt again.
We also need to accept that some difficulty and some forgetting are part of the process.
For parents and educators, this reframes an old question.
Instead of thinking only:
"How many times do I have to tell them this?"
we can ask:
"What does this child need to do with this information in order to understand it, remember it and be able to use it later?"
That shift takes us from simply presenting information to creating genuine opportunities for learning.
Because learning something new means not only understanding it now, but being able to remember and use it later.