"The instructional strategy cues, questions, and
advance organizers focuses on enhancing students' ability to retrieve, use and
organize information about a topic" (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, &
Malenoski, 2007, p.73). This is one example of a cognitive learning strategy to
use within the classroom. Cueing, questioning and creating advance organizers
helps students activate multiple senses and make connections in their brain.
This way they will be able to use their prior knowledge and build upon that
knowledge to acquire new information. This instructional strategy will help
students understand the material more effectively because it will be presented
and provided in various ways giving students more opportunities to understand
it. Summarizing is another great instructional strategy because you have to
synthesize the information you have learned and put it in your own words. (Pitler,
Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007). When summarizing you have to understand
what you have read, heard, or learned in order to successfully be able to put
it in your own words. This is another great tool to use for understanding that
supports the cognitive learning theory.
"Cognitive tools
impact student learning by causing them to think about information instead of
reproducing and/or recalling information." (Orey, 2001) Therefore, questioning,
organizing, cueing, and summarizing are all tools that will support cognitive
learning. All of these strategies allow
for students to really think about the information. This means that students
have to access prior knowledge and build upon that knowledge to learn and
understand new topics.
Whether you use the
cognitive learning theory to support student understanding or not, it is
important to know what it is and how instructional strategies can be used along
with this theory.
References
Laureate
Education, Inc. (2011). Cognitive
Learning Theories. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_1342106_1%26url%3D
Orey,
M. (Ed.). (2001). Emerging perspectives
on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Cognitive_Tools
Pitler,
H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works.
Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Aneta,
ReplyDeleteI believe all effective teachers must use cognitive learning theory to guide their instruction, whether they know it or not. After reviewing the resources, I find that I unknowingly use these strategies everyday in many of my lessons. The technology implementation will be fairly new to me though, and I look forward to the challenge. Great post!
Matthew
Hey Aneta, I agree that it is important to know what the cognitive learning theory is and the implications it causes when used but as Matthew mentioned, teachers are using it whether they know it or not.
ReplyDeleteSummarizing along with note taking are definitely beneficial skills that our students will always need yet some still have a tough time doing. If we can successfully teach and guide our students to be adept in both of these skills, it would imply that they are processing the information they are being taught. If they could then also verbally articulate their findings, that would be an added plus in their repertoire of skills for life.
Thanks for the post!
Matthew and Michelle,
ReplyDeleteYou are both right, teachers are using many of these strategies that we are reexamining and do not even know it. I am one of those teachers and I am truly excited to be looking at these theories once again.
Matthew, as you mentioned, it will be challenging for many teacher's to find ways that these strategies can be used with technology, but we need to try and see what works in our classroom and for our students.
Michelle, you also mention summarizing and note taking and I agree many of our students have trouble knowing what to write down and what is of importance. Focusing on teaching our students how to properly note take and summarize will in the end help their understanding.
As Matt mentioned, a lot of these cognitive strategies are embedded in our teaching and we use them unconsciously. I think it is interesting that concept mapping software mimics the brain's natural activities as explained by the information processing model. As we are teaching, it makes sense that we often get it right without trying! But as we expand our knowledge and use of active strategies to activate brain processing patterns, we become more effective instructors.
ReplyDeleteAneta,
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with your last statement "Whether you use the cognitive learning theory to support student understanding or not, it is important to know what it is and how instructional strategies can be used along with this theory". We are lucky enough for providing us these instructional strategies that we can use what theories that they are applicable.