Cognitivism in Practice

This week I explored two instructional strategies that embed technology from Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works. The first strategy is “Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers” and the second strategy is “Summarizing and Note Taking.” I found both of these strategies to be quite useful for classroom instruction.

The best way to describe the first strategy is that it “focuses on enhancing students’ ability to retrieve, use, and organize information about a topic” (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007, p. 73). This strategy aligns with the principles of the cognitive learning theory. This strategy really stresses the importance of utilizing an organizer to gather concepts and thoughts into a more organized format that is clear and easy to read. Many of the advance organizers can include images and text that supports Paivio’s dual coding hypothesis (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010). This is a great way for students to begin piecing together content in a way that is easy for them to remember. As stated in the “Cognitive Learning Theory” video, “Images are really powerful tools to use in the classroom” (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010). I think they can be great representations and visuals for students to see in their minds to capture and process the information. It was also suggested that multimedia can be incorporated into the cueing and questioning process (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007). This is another great tool for the cognitive learning process because it is another method of sensory input of information (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010). The “Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers” will help me teach for understanding because it helps me see the information the students are processing and I can incorporate higher-level or lower-level questioning to gauge student learning and to make sure all of the students understand the content.

The second strategy is “Summarizing and Note Taking.” This strategy “focuses on enhancing students’ ability to synthesize information and distill it into a concise new form” (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007, p. 119). The idea of summarizing and note taking is to take content and to effectively break it down into parts that your brain can easily understand. One of the tools mentioned in Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works is Inspiration. This program is designed with templates where you can incorporate any type of data into an organizer. It is easy to read and is to the point. Lengthy word descriptions are minimal and key points are identified. This strategy correlates with the cognitive learning theory because it allows the reader to take pieces of information at one time and to apply it and using it in short-term memory and eventually transcribing it into long-term memory (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010). Note-taking can be an elaborate process, however, it should be presented in various ways (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007). Elaboration is a component of the cognitive learning theory and is a primary way to store information long-term (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010). This instructional strategy will help me teach for understanding because it will allow me to see students who are synthesizing the information presented and if they are appropriately applying the content.

References

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010). [Webcast]. Cognitive learning theories. Baltimore, MD: Author.

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