COGNITIVE LEARNING THEORY

Basis and Focus

• Basis: Principles of cognitive psychology

• Focus: Role of cognitive processes in learning

Focus

• The mental processes involved in learning:

– Observing, categorizing, forming generalizations to make sense of the information provided

Main Assumptions

• Learning results from internal mental activity and not from externally imposed stimuli

• The learner comes with knowledge, skills and related experiences to the learning situation

Role of the Learner

• Active participant in the learning process, using various strategies to process and construct their personal understanding of the content to which they are exposed

Piaget, Bloom, Bruner, Ausubel

• Each of these psychologists focused on different cognitive conditions that impact on learning

Jean Piaget

• Constructed models of child development and the learning process

• Identified 4 developmental stages and the cognitive processes associated with each of them

Developmental Stages

• Sensory-motor - understands his environment through the basic senses

• Intuitive /Pre-operational - Thoughts more flexible, memory and imagination begin to play a part in learning, capable of more creativity

• Concrete Operational – Can go beyond the basic information given, but still dependent on concrete material and examples to support reasoning

• Formal Operational – Abstract reasoning becomes increasingly possible

Accommodation

• Accommodation – The process by which we modify what we already know to take into account the new information

Assimilation

• The process by which new knowledge is changed / modified / merged in our minds to fit into what we already know

Equilibration

• The balance between what is known and what is currently being processed, mastery of the new material

Implications for the Classroom

• Learning is the process of relating new information with what was previously learnt

• Learning is cumulative

Implications

• Learners should be assigned tasks that are age and stage appropriate

Bloom’s Taxonomy

• Identifies and describes, in hierarchical order, the cognitive processes involved in learning

Implication for Teaching

• Use verbs aligned to the taxonomy to plan lessons that would ensure that learners’ cognitive skills develop from LOTS to HOTS

Revised Taxonomy

• The original taxonomy has now been revised to make provision for the new knowledge and skills that now exist as a result of the integration of web 2.0 tools in teaching

Original and Revised Taxonomies

Bloom (Rev.) and Web 2.0

Jerome Bruner - Focus

Development of conceptual understanding, cognitive skills and learning strategies rather than the acquisition of knowledge

Bruner’s Focus

• Teaching Approach - Learners should be encouraged to discover solutions via appropriate tasks which require the application of relevant critical thinking skills

Bruner – Modes of Thinking

• Extended aspects of Piaget’s theory. He identified three ways in which learners process information

• Enactive Level – learning takes place via direct manipulation of objects and materials

• Iconic Level – Objects are represented by visual images and are recognized for what they represent

• Symbolic Level – Learning can take place using symbols, objects and mental images. Language is used to represent thoughts and experiences

Implications for Teaching

• Providing opportunities for learners to be actively engaged in making sense of the language input, through meaningful tasks

• Providing opportunities for learners to develop the ability to analyze the language, make generalizations about rules, take risks in trying out the language, and to learn from errors

• Catering for interaction of learner with curriculum material and the learning environment

• Catering for the three modes of thinking (Bruner)

• The Spiral Process: The cumulative nature of learning requires frequent opportunities for reviewing previously learnt material even as new material is introduced.

David Ausubel - Focus

• Stressed the importance of active mental participation in meaningful learning tasks

• Learning must be meaningful to be effective and permanent

• Made a distinction between meaningful learning and rote learning

• Meaningful Learning – relatable to what one already knows so it can be easily integrated in one’s existing cognitive structure

• Rote Learning – the material to be learnt is not integrated / subsumed into an existing cognitive structure but learnt as isolated pieces of information

Implications for Classroom

• Teacher has to enhance the meaningfulness of new material to increase the chances of its being anchored to what is already known

• New material must be organized to be easily relatable to what is already known

• New material must be appropriately sequenced to facilitate integration

• Use of advance organizers. These facilitate the learning process by providing ideas to which the new knowledge can be attached

Advance Organizers

• Introductory material presented in advance of the new material

• Information that activates relevant background knowledge

Advance Organizers

• Material that orients learners to the subject matter and relates new learning to what is already known

• Can take the form of textual material, pictures, titles, topic summaries, questions

Attention should be given to:

• The need to organize and structure meaningful learning activities.

• The requirements of the task must be appropriate to the developmental stage (Piaget, Bruner) and allow for the development of HOTS (Bloom)

Moving from LOTS to HOTS