COGNITIVE SCHOOL OF THOUGHT (Week 2)

Hello everyone.

Why when a teacher teaches in a classroom, not all students learn? Have we wondered why? What is it that leads to the failure to engage students in the lesson? These are the few of the many questions that will be answered in the upcoming posts based on the School of Thoughts that I am currently learning.


COGNITIVE SCHOOL OF THOUGHT

This school of thought emerged in the 1960's to study how people think. There are two important ideas to be understood, which are information processing and meaningful learning which helps us understand how people learn and remember.

a) Information Processing

Figure 1.1. Information processing

As we can see in the diagram on the left, it shows a simple breakdown of how the brain works with information and memory. We encounter many stimuli but pay attention to some which results in the discarding of some information whereas the rest goes to the short term memory or working memory. Short term memory is a storage system that holds only limited amount and certain kinds of information for few seconds. From there, with repetition of information, slowly the attended information moves to the long term memory which must be recalled from time to time. 

We should take note on anything that helps in holding the learner's attention in the learning environment, how much information can be placed in the short and long term memory and how to organize information to make it memorable.


These are a few guidelines to help teachers hold the attention of students in the class. They are;

• Make the learning experience pleasant and satisfying,
• Get to know the interests and needs of students,
• Avoid monotonous way of conveying knowledge, instead make use of the various sensory channels,
• Understand students' differences in ability to attend to information given,
• Provide activities that require more concentration in the morning rather than the later in the day,
• Call for direct attention when teaching and learning process occurs,
• Try to eliminate all distractions if possible.

b) Meaningful Learning

Meaningful learning is necessary so that information students receive can be used better and understood. It is also to develop to approaches which includes the following;

• Prepare relevant content,
• Present it in a clear and logical way,
• Connect it to prior knowledge,
• Help students review past knowledge,
• Assist students in processing and using new information,
• Summarize the lesson learnt with students.

Figure 1.2. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

As we see in Figure 1.2, it is quite related to meaningful learning. Students tend to move up better to self actualization when they have a sense of worth and are being appreciated. For example, a student who gives opinions in class will feel better and dare to contribute even more when the teacher relates his opinion to the lesson, or accepts and corrects his inaccurate answer instead of saying something that can chip off his confidence.





Cognitive Approach to Teaching and Learning Process

Cognitive Approach	Authentic Learning	Scaffolding	Reciprocal Teaching	Problem Solving
Important Facts	Knowledge is meaningful when remembered and related to student.	Helps students solve problem through gradual shedding of outside assistance.	Dialogue takes place between teacher and student regarding what is about to be learned.	Situation exists where learners consider how they solve the problem.
How it works	Direct experience is better than abstract or secondhand kinds. This adds to personal achievement and self-discovery.	Provide learners with support. Teachers need to be sensitive towards students’ changes and needs.	Before, during, after lesson, students should be able to employ 4 learning strategies Predicting; predict what is about to be learnt Questioning; they create questions they would like to answer Clarifying; they clarify doubts Summarizing; identify key words to their understanding.	Well-structured problem; fixed procedure to solve the problem. Unstructured problem; no specific procedure, more complex or real life issues.
Example	Student teaching among themselves.	Peer helping and teaching, students may understand what their friends are unable to catch and help them from there.	Group discussions where students take up role of teacher and explain the content to their understanding.	Students gain experience in problem solving through application of relevant methods.

Table 1.1.Cognitive Approach to Teaching and Learning Process

I hope you have learned something from this post. Do keep up with the other upcoming posts as well. Thank you and have an edifying day.