EDUC 6711 - Cognitivism in Practice

Cognitivism in Practice

          After learning about Behaviorism in last week’s resources and assignments, it is time to switch gears and focus on Cognitivism in the classroom. When looking at Behaviorism in a school setting, some theorists and professionals believe too much time was spent focusing on different environmental factors and also behaviors as a result of a single event (Smith, 1999). As a result, the tide shifted and theorists began focusing on how information was stored in to short-term and long-term memory. Cognitive Learning Theory deals with short-term memory where Orey (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011a) says we can store around seven pieces of information at one time. Information is stored in to long-term memory through networks of information that can be declarative (facts), procedural (how to do things) and episodic (events) in nature. Obviously, many instructional strategies have been created as a result of cognitive learning theory. Some specific strategies that teachers can use during instruction are cues, questions, and advance organizers, summarizing and note taking, virtual field trips, and concept maps.

Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers

            Teachers use cues, questions, and advance organizers often throughout their daily activities. These three strategies relate to cognitive learning theory in that they “all focus on enhancing students’ ability to retrieve, use, and organize information about a topic” (Pitler, Hubbell, & Kuhn, 2012, p. 91). The instructional strategies all deal with processing and storing information, which is the basis for cognitive learning theory.  Teachers may give cues to students when presenting new information to help them connect it to prior knowledge. Questions are used when teachers need to gain an understanding of what students already know about a topic. Questions also help students recall prior knowledge. Advance organizers can be used when teachers want to make connects between previously learned information and new ideas while showing relationships among the information.

            The book Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works (Pitler, et al., 2012) shares many ideas for using cues, questions, and advance organizers with our instructional practices while using various technology applications. KWL charts and other graphic organizers can be created using various iPad and computer applications and are a great way to organize information while questioning students about prior information. One particular idea outlined by Pitler et al. (2012) was the use of an Inspiration organizer to cue and question students about an upcoming lesson or unit of study. Teachers can include the essential question in the middle of the graphic organizer so the students have clear expectations of the learning goal. Other information on the organizer can include cues and graphics, which can aid in the learning process. Cues can help students elaborate on ideas to make connections between new and previously learned information. According to Orey (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011a), this will allow students to “get back to that info” as students have made multiple connections, which helps store information. Furthermore, the graphics can relate to the dual coding hypothesis and the idea that information is stored as images and text.

            Advance organizers are used often in my classroom as a way to organize students’ information, particularly for essays. Even though they can be viewed as a brainstorming activity, they do help students connect new information to prior knowledge so they can organize their thoughts in meaningful patterns. Readwritethink.org offers many interactive maps and organizers that can be used in various ways as cognitive tools. This link provides a list of all of their interactive maps: http://www.readwritethink.org/search/?sort_order=relevance&q=interactive+map&srchgo.x=0&srchgo.y=0&old_q=

Summarizing and Note Taking

            Pitler et al. (2012) relate summarizing and note-taking to cognitive learning theory because they are both strategies that help students break down given information, state that information in their own words, and create a new way to paraphrase the information so it is stored in the brain.

            Summarizing can be a difficult concept for all students, but especially for those who struggle with reading and comprehension. Summarizing helps students comprehend a text while highlighting important information that may need to be retrieved at a later time. There are some word processing applications and web sites that will actually summarize a text for students.

            Note taking is also an important skill for students because it allows them to synthesize information they have learned or read and paraphrase it in their own words all while keeping a log of the information to go back and review if needed. While taking notes is an important skill for all students, teachers often forget to teach students “the art” or skill of note taking. Pitler et al. (2012) offer some suggestions when having students take notes:

1)    Make copies of notes prepared by the teacher.

2)    Show students a variety of different ways to take notes (individual preference/learning style).

3)    Students should be able to go back to read their notes and revise them as needed based on any new information they may have learned.

One form of note taking that I really like to use with my students is word clouds. Specifically, my students use the web site www.wordle.net to generate ideas about any number of topics. Last year, while focusing on persuasive writing, I had my students make a word cloud based on key terms that are associated with persuasive writing. The neat thing about the word clouds on Wordle is the more times you type a word, the larger it will appear on the image. So, students could stress ideas and key terms were more important (in their opinion), and they could later use the graphic image to help them complete their persuasive essay. Here is an example of a word cloud as created by one of my students.

Virtual Field Trips

            Advancements in technology have allowed students to “see” places they could not see before thanks to the idea of a virtual field trip. Orey (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011b) says virtual field trips cognitive in nature because they can be used to create episodes or experiences for students to store information in long-term memory.

They not only save time and money, but they allow students to see images and graphics to help create pictures and thus networks of information) in their memory.

According to Zaino (2009) virtual field trips “can be customized for your students and the educational goals you want to meet” (para. 6). In our discussion question for this week, I talked about the use of virtual field trips for our class research projects. Each student picks a person of historical significance (8^th grade) or a scientist or inventor (7^th grade). Because each child is researching a different person and because each child may have different goals and areas of focus for their report, virtual field trips are a great way to individualize instruction. They can challenge students to take obtain their information from more than just primary sources like books and encyclopedias and compare the accuracy of the primary sources.

For our application assignment this week, I had a group of students access the Disneyland Explorer iPad application, and they toured the different themed areas of Disneyland. Their goal was to compare the elements of the theme parks they have visited to Disneyland and create a guess as to why Disney moved from making cartoon characters to theme parks. (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/disneyland-explorer/id496004846?mt=8)

Concept Mapping Tools        

            Concept maps are great tools for learners to organize information as well as link the information to other pieces of information. (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011a). Novak and Canas (2008) believe concept maps have become such helpful tools for learning is that they “serve as a kind of template or scaffold to help to organize knowledge and to structure it” (p. 7). They maintain that the human memory is an interrelated system that organizes incoming information with knowledge that is stored in long-term memory. Therefore, concept maps be done in a way that provides evidence and examples that connect the new material to the learner’s prior knowledge.

            This week, we were asked to create a Concept Map to be used in conjunction with a virtual field trip. As stated above, a group of students is research Walt Disney and focusing on why he moved from creating cartoon characters to building theme parks. We viewed a tour of Disneyland using the iPad application Disneyland Explorer. You can check out my Concept Map on Disneyland here: http://www.mindmeister.com/389242798/disneyland-why-build-theme-parks

References

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011a). Program five: Cognitive learning theory [Video webcast]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and technology. Retrieved from http://laureate.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=5700267&CPURL=laureate.ecollege.com&Survey=1&47=2594577&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=0&bhcp=1

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011b). Program six: Spotlight on technology: Virtual field trips [Video webcast]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and technology. Retrieved from http://laureate.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=5700267&CPURL=laureate.ecollege.com&Survey=1&47=2594577&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=0&bhcp=1

Novak, J. D., & Cañas, A. J. (2008). The theory underlying concept maps and how to construct and use them, Technical Report IHMC CmapTools 2006-01 Rev 01-2008. Retrieved from the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition Web site: http://cmap.ihmc.us/Publications/ResearchPapers/
TheoryUnderlyingConceptMaps.pdf

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E. R., & Kuhn, M. (2012). Using technology with classroom instruction that works (2^nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Smith, M. K. (1999). The cognitive orientation to learning. The encyclopedia of informal education. Retrieved from http://www.infed.org/biblio/learning-cognitive.htm

Zaino, J. (2009, Sep/Oct). Field-Tripping goes virtual. Instructor, 119(2), 34-36.