Cognitive Learning Theories

When we talk about cognitive learning and using cues, questions, and other ways of triggering learning in our students.  We need to understand how our students learn.  When we give our students cues we are trying to trigger what has been learned.  In order for cues to work we will have needed to helped our students to attached the new information to something they have already known.  It will now be tethered and able to retrieved.  Scaffolding is very similar when you build upon something already learned.  Remember it is all about getting new information to your students but I think most importantly how do have them learn how to retrieve that information for years to come.  We have to learn how they learn best and then teach them so they know how they best learn.

 

Using concept mapping in your classroom is a great way to connect new material to material that has already been learned.  If you wanted to introduce new content and review old content at the same time using a concept map is a great way to do that.  It is like a good old fashion brain storm.  You are able to bring in old ideas and tie it to new ones.  Allowing students to make new connections to the new material.  That is very key to learning new information because now they will have something tethered  and will be easily retrievable unlike short term memory that will be easily forgotten because it is not tied to anything and the student will forget how to retrieve that information.   Summarizing is something we as teachers always do.  We take information that we want our students to know and understand, but instead of  just reading it out of a book we give it to them in our own words.  By putting it into our own words we will be more likely to use those same words again as we discuses the project or lesson again.  When we review it is always in a summarizing manner.  Note taking with any word processing programs will be a great advantage to our students as well.  Remember we are needing to get new information to our students and to have them be able to remember it and retrieve it easily.  Being in a word document on a computer can print out the material that the students are needing to remember.

 

Taking your students on a virtual field trip is amazing technology.  Once again you are trying to introduce new information to your students and have them experience something new.  By giving your students new experiences they will be able to tether that new information to that experience.  Also lets think about the financial benefit to your school.  You will be able to take students to Washington D.C. or to New York.  Places that your school or students may not be able to go in the real world.  A virtual field trip will allow you to go any ware even into space.

 

Reference

 

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E. R.,& Kuhn, M. (2012). Using technology with classroom instruction that works (2^nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD.