Abstract :
Starting with the known areas where students find difficulty learning in
the sciences, Johnstone directed research students in a series of studies
that led eventually to the key understanding that the limited capacity of
working memory controlled thinking, extent of understanding and
success in problem solving. It has long been known that subjects like
mathematics, chemistry and physics are regarded as difficult. Science
students have to deal with different concepts, symbols, equipments,
equations etc. Johnstone addresses key issues related to learning such as
specific areas of difficult learning and reasons of such learning
difficulties. Johnstone research pointed to simple ways by which
difficulties could be reduced. In learning, the role of working memory is
very much significant. The capacity of working memory is found to be
fixed genetically and cannot be expanded. However, it can be used more
efficiently but this seems to depend on growing knowledge and
experience and not on formal instruction. When the number of pieces of
information gets to be near the capacity of ‘short-term memory’,
performance suddenly collapses. This review outlines the way he
approached the research, his key findings, their implications for l
Keyword :
Working memory, information load, chunking, over load