Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Cognitivism - so mental


Cognitive learning is about a change to mental associations due to experience, that is, the use of existing schema and formation of new schema to accommodate the new experience and information whereas, behaviourism (as discussed in my previous blog) was more about a change in behaviour due to experience. It should be kept in mind that cognitive learning theory is a must in a teaching context because much of the business of education is all about cognition and metacognition. The objective nature of cognitivism is useful when there is a body of knowledge or principles to be learned. It is therefore an approach of value to be used in conjunction with other learning theories. It is a valuable approach particularly for beginner teachers who may be novice at organising units of work and lesson plans. It gives some progression to the learning of higher level and more complex facts and concepts if that is the desired outcome.

Recently, in my context in the teaching of reading during Education Queensland’s Project 600 all of the online lessons were largely based on Gagne’s conditions of learning concept. This was titled IMPACT learning (an acronym) that is very similar to the Explicit Instruction framework. Although I had learnt this theory in my pre-teaching course I don’t think I had consciously remembered it for over 20 years. I must have developed a schema around the whole concept because when being trained to be a Project 600 facilitator it was familiar so I did not have to learn this on top of learning how to teach online. Therefore, cognitive overload was not a problem at this time. The EQ systemic expectation that explicit instruction be applied to the learning of new skills and concepts sits comfortably within my pedagogical approach.
If instruction is based on cognitive learning theories I would predict learners would all eventually arrive at the same outcome. BUT THEY DON’T aaagh. Too much of what we intend to make it to the learner’s long term memory doesn’t - so there must be a better way.
There seems to be some success in utilising this approach to learning when students have mastery of a given set of “basics” which they will be required to recall and then use to learn higher level facts or concepts. It is also useful in terms of graphic organisers which help students categorise and link information.

The problem with basing pedagogy purely around cognitive learning theory is when it is over used it can become boring for the learner and the learner is not at the centre of the process.
Also, if the basic body of knowledge has not been processed to the long term memory in the brain what then is the foundation for further and more complex learning in a topic or content area.

2 comments:

  1. Cognitivism and beginner teaching do appear to go hand in hand. I can recall experienced teachers subconsciously advising me to focus on 'cognitive aspects' through comments such as "learn your craft" or "focus on the content". Do you think there are limitations for beginner teachers in taking this focus?

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  2. I think you need to have both the behavioural and cognitive approaches within your learning plans for your students. sure constructivism is a great way for students to take ownership of the learning but as you say Justine not all kids come to the same conclusion. Surely this is where the socialist constructivism comes into play. However a point to consider in this is the time constraints placed on students and schools in when a subject or topic must be completed. Maybe we need to also consider that some student will take longer than others to reach their destination. The push on explicit teaching, regardless of whoever's theory you are following all have the same basic principles. Find out where the student is starting from (prior knowledge and setting the scene), give them the opportunity to transform information from short term to long term memory( drill and repetition), enable them to bring back long term concepts into short term working memory to develop or transform past knowledge into new ( review and warm up)and provide reinforcement through feedback (review of what has been learnt or in our case reflection and assessment).

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