Cognitivism in Practice

Cognitivists think of learning as a mental process when information enters the brain through the senses, is made sense of, and stowed away until it is used again. Cognitive learning theory involves active mental processing (Lever-Duffy & McDonald, 2008).  In the video, “Cognitive Learning Theories”, Dr. Orey discusses several ways that learners can improve their recall and application of newly acquired information.  He suggests the use of multiple senses while acquiring information, using elaboration for new concepts, keeping information manageable, and creating episodic memories (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010).  Cues, questions, advanced organizers, summarizing, and note taking are all strategies that can be associated with cognitivism.  All of the strategies can also be implemented through the use of various technologies.

According to Pitler, Hubbell, and Kuhn (2012), “cues, questions, and advanced organizers focus on enhancing students’ ability to retrieve, use, and organize information about a topic” (pg. 91).  When a teacher uses cues, they should be straightforward and be linked to information the students know and will learn throughout the lesson.  Higher order questions can push students to think deeper about the information presented.  Advanced organizers can be used to focus specific topics and make connections about new information (Pitler et al., 2012).  Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Inspiration, and Rapid Fire are all helpful tools for creating advanced organizers.  They can be used to create spreadsheets, Venn diagrams, KWL charts, concept maps, flow charts, etc. 

Summarizing and note taking are very important skills for all students to have.  Pitler, Hubbell, and Kuhn  (2012) explain that “summarizing and note taking focus on enhancing students’ ability to synthesize information and distill it into a concise new form (pg.147).   Students must be taught how to take notes and how to summarize in order for them to learn the skill.  There are now several tools available to assist with summarization.  Word has and AutoSummarize tool.  Text Compactor and Ultimate Research Assistant are some other tools that can help to summarize text (Pitler et al., 2012).  There are many formats that can be used for note taking: t-charts, concept maps, outlines, SQ3R, etc.  The use of wikis and blogs can also be a great way to encourage collaboration, note taking, summarization, critical thinking, problem solving, and 21^st century skills (Pitler et al., 2012). 

The use of these strategies benefits all students.   Cues, questions, and advanced organizers help students to organize their thinking in a meaningful way.  They help students to make deep connections with new content.  Advanced organizers can appeal to visual learners, thus helping to integrate additional senses in learning.  Summarization and note taking are skills that are used throughout each level of education and into professional careers.  Students that acquire these skills will be more successful learners.

Here are some resources that I currently use in my classroom to implement these strategies:

Questions:

https://www.ena.org/education/CNE/Documents/BloomsTaxonomy.pdf

http://www.readwritethink.org/parent-afterschool-resources/tips-howtos/encourage-higher-order-thinking-30624.html

http://ylapp.edublogs.org/files/2009/11/hots_questions.pdf

Note Taking:

Evernote  https://evernote.com/

Noteshelf  https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/noteshelf-notes-pdf/id392188745?mt=8 (One of my favorite apps)

Advanced Organizers:

Word

Pages

Rubistar http://rubistar.4teachers.org/ (great for creating rubrics)

References:

Laureate Education, Inc. (2010a). Cognitive Learning Theories.  Baltimore, MD: Author.

Lever-Duffy, J., & McDonald, J. (2008). Theoretical foundations (Laureate

             Education, Inc., custom ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E. R., & Kuhn, M. (2012). Using technology with classroom

             instruction that works (2^nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD.