Cognitivism in Practice

Cues, questions, advance organizers, summarizing, and note taking are profound examples of cognitive learning theories in practice within the classroom.  Cognitive learning theory is summarized by Orey through the process of sensory registers input of information s into short term or working memory, which then gets stored into long term memory through practices of rehearsal and elaboration(Laureate Education, 2010e).  The main components of cognitive learning theories require that teachers: (1) integrate multiple senses, (2) understand the limits of information a student can attend to at one time, and (3) practice elaboration with the learning process.

Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers

The instructional strategy of cues, questions, and advance organizers, “focuses on enhancing students’ ability to retrieve, use, and organize information about a topic” (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn & Malenoski, 2007).  All three address the main components of cognitive learning theories.

Cues include the suggestions teachers utilize to assist students in arriving at the desired responses, approaches or conclusions. Cues observe the practice of elaboration in teaching students how to connect prior knowledge with newly learned notions.  Furthermore, depending on the type of cue a teacher provides, cues can integrate multiple senses within the learning process.  For example, a teacher can make a sound, release a scent, move their body in a particular fashion, or draw a picture in order to prompt a student.

Questions are used by both teacher and students to evaluate a student’s understanding of material.  Interrogations elicit the practice of short term or long term memory retrieval through elaboration.  Students perform the mental action of relating associations or connections with prior knowledge and learned information.  If a student answers the question incorrectly or insufficiently an instructor now has a better understanding of the students limit of information and can reteach the concept or continue the process of elaboration in order to cement the learning to long term memory.

Advance organizers, such as graphic organizers and concept maps, “enable information to be presented in meaningful and appropriate representations” (Orey, 2001); they assist students in interacting with information and concepts in order to “acquire, synthesize, create, and share new knowledge” (Orey, 2001).  In interacting with information students are chunking ideas in order to expand the limits they have on the amount of information they can attend to at one time.  Additionally, advance organizers provide exceptional elaboration practices that link and connect the relationships concepts have with each other.

Summarizing and Note Taking

“The instructional strategies of summarizing and note taking focus on enhancing students’ ability to synthesize information and distill it into a concise new form. Teachers work on helping students separate important information from extraneous information and state the information in their own word” (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn & Malenoski, 2007).  There are many different approaches to summarizing and note taking, however in order to be most effectively implemented close attention needs to be paid to the main components of the cognitive learning theory.

First and foremost students need to understand the basic principles that underlie how to summarize; this includes understanding and being able to distinguish between main ideas and supporting details.  Summarizing practices cognitive learning theory in that it allows students to link the main idea of the lesson to previous activities and lessons which subsequently provides a better understanding of the relationship between concepts.  It also acts as a chunking mechanism, thus increasing the amount of information that can be attended to.

Learning to summarize supports efficient note taking practices.  Varying note taking practices encourages students to stay focused and self motivated to learn new concepts and material – it also helps to address all aspects of the complexities of the cognitive learning theory.  Note taking can address multiple senses, if done accurately, which improves learning.  It also encourages rehearsal as students are able to refer back to their notes in order to cement learning.

Elaboration

In order to effectively address cognitive learning theories teachers must pay close attention to the role that elaboration plays within their classroom.  Relating prior knowledge to novice notions and concepts supports the theory that long term memories are stored in networks of information that can be easily retrieved through the understanding of how these networks are connected and related.  Components such as multiple sensory learning and limited learning capacities reinforce the utilization and efficacy of elaboration within cognitive learning theories and within the classroom.

References

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010e). Program #: Cognitive Learning Theories with Michael Orey. [DVD]. In Walden University: Bridging Learning Theory, Instruction, and Technology.  Baltimore: Author.

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.