Cognitivism in Practice

Cognitivism in Practice...

Cognitivism is a three step information processing program that your brain goes through. The first step is sensory input of information that goes to the second step, which is short-term memory, where the information is hopefully stored in the step three, long-term memory. Dr. Orey sums it up when he said that integrating multiple senses in presentations improves learning. Another part of cognitive learning theory is Paivio's dual coding hypothesis. I like this hypothesis because it says that information is stored better when a person has the opportunity to put an image with the text. I do this a lot in my vocabulary powerpoints each week. I will give the text definition of the words and use them in a sentence; then, I also show three pictures that connect to the word and have the students deduce why the picture and the word are connected. They really remember the vocabulary words better and often use the pictures they saw to help them remember the definition for the test. Elaboration is another part of cognitivism and this is the primary mechanism for storing information in long-term memory. We make many connections to the information. Sometimes we forget what we learned and Dr. Orey said that we didn't lose the information, we just lost the connection to the information. Eventually, something else will trigger the connection and we will remember it again, at least until the next time we forget it!!!

Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers

In this chapter of the book, they talk about different technology applications that can be used to enhance cognitive learning. One application was to use a word processing program to make graphic organizers. Dr. Orey talked about concept maps, which is what a graphic organizer is. Graphic organizers allow the students to build numerous connections to the information when they connect subtopics to the main topic. Another application is the Excel spreadsheet. Math is a great subject to use spreadsheets in because they are a mathematical concept map. They allow the students to find declarative information and then use procedural information to put the facts into the spreadsheet and figure out the formula to get the final answer. Lastly, a powerpoint slide show was used to show the Great Depression. This application correlated to Paivio's dual coding hypothesis because the images from the slide show help the students retain the factual text better.

Summarizing and Note-Taking

In this chapter, the author discusses different techniques for helping students summarize and take notes. One technique for summarizing is by tracking all changes in Microsoft Word. When a student is able to see the changes they made to their paper, it helps them understand the concept of summarizing and makes it easier for them to grasp the concept...dual coding. Summary frames are an example of using concept maps to help the students learn how to summarize and what is needed in a summary. The teacher creates the summary frames by filling in the subtopics and the students will answer the subtopics with what they know. A technique for note taking is to have teachers teach their students a variety of techniques on note taking. Using graphic organizers and Microsoft Word outlines are good examples as to how the students can visualize the ideas and connections between the ideas.