The "cognitivist[s] focus on learning as a mental operation that takes place when information enters through the senses, undergoes mental-manipulation, is stored, and is finally used" (Pitler, 2007, p. 16). The instructional strategies described in the resource this week definitely connect to the principals of the cognitive learning theory. Many of the strategies assist students in activating the proper schema, jogging prior knowledge memories, priming the students for future learning to take place. In particular, I enjoyed the advance organizers, which "...are structures that teachers provide students before a learning activity to help them classify and make sense of content they will encounter" that may be confusing or unorganized in nature (Pitler, 2007, p. 73). I have used multiple forms of advance organizers in my class before, a personal favorite being the K-W-L chart, to activate prior knowledge and spark active discussion amongst my students.
As a science teacher, other strategies I rely heavily on are tables, charts, and graphs as activators. I am also a big proponent of providing students with rubrics prior to a large writing assignment or project. I use the website http://rubistar.4teachers.org/ to assist me in creating quality rubrics for my students. I find that these organizers "help students organize their thoughts around the essential information and gets them thinking about what they know about the topic even before the teacher has fully begun the lessons" (Pitler, 2007, p. 74).
I have also encountered issues with instructing students about how to take adequete, yet concise, notes in class. I usually provide them with most of the notes in handout form, but I remove one main word per line (usually a vocab word) and they are responsible for filling in the blanks. I find that this method engages students because they are listening for the wholes in their notes. I really like the format of the Problem/Solution template in Inspiration from page 128 in the course text. Many of the concepts in my class can fit into that format, and it would benefit the students to use more critical thinking skills while contemplating new concepts (the fill-in-the-blank notes do not develop those skills). I like how the multimeda aspect adds an extra motivation and helps students visualize what they are learning (Laureate Education Inc., 2008). There is truly nothing like intergrating technology into the learning process to inspire kids to do their best.
Resources:
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer).(2009). Cognitive Learning Theories.[Motion Picture]. 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.
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When I was in high school, one of my Social Studies teachers would provide us with the class notes with words missing. Since I was not very strong in this subject, I found these outlines to be very beneficial. I was able to focus on what I needed to fill in, and I ended up just absorbing all of the other information anyway, since I was constantly listening for it.
ReplyDeleteI think that note taking is a very important skill for students to learn. For my math students, I tell them to draw a line down the middle of the page, and put any classroom examples or practice problems on the left, while writing all of the vocabulary and procedural processes for the problems on the right. By doing this, they will be able to look back and see exactly how the practice problems were done, so that they can work through homework examples. Also, they can cover up the right side of notes, and try to do the problems without seeing the step-by-step explanations.
Erin,
ReplyDeleteInspiration is an excellent tool to use to help students .in the note-taking process I have found a great deal of success using this too because students struggle with taking effective notes, either writing down everything they hear, or not being able to pinpoint the main points of a discussion. Using concept mapping tools serves to not only direct students attention to the important point of the lesson, but to provide visual learners with the graphical representations they need to aid in their understanding of the topic. Even students who do not tend to learn visually can benefit a great deal from the images within a concept map. Novak and Canas (2006) point out that "our brains have a remarkable capacity for acquiring and retaining visual images of people or photos, and are stored as iconic memories" (p. 8),and thus aid in the information processing and retention of information that is part of the cognitive learning theory.
References:
Novak, J. D. & Cañas, A. J. (2008). The theory underlying concept maps and how to construct and use them, Technical Report IHMC CmapTools 2006-01 Rev 01-2008. Retrieved from the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition Web site: http://cmap.ihmc.us/Publications/ResearchPapers/TheoryUnderlyingConceptMaps.pdf