Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Cognitivism in Practice



Hiraman Byrd 
Blog 2


Every year students go away for the summer and come back to school and information is lossed over the summer.  Teachers are faced with the challenge of reviewing past lesson prior to incorporating new lessons for the current year.  Teachers use cognitive tools which “allow students to interact with information in order to acquire, synthesize, create, and share new knowledge” (Orey, 2001, p.5).  In our Laureate video Dr. Orey talks about the three types of memory.  He also talks about amount of information our short term memory allows us to use for example (7+/-2 pieces of information at one time).  If teachers know that student can only remember so much pieces of information then it mandatory that teachers provide students with information that will become long term information.

We were also asked to develop a concept map.  Concept mapping allows students to organize information by making connections, and thereby storing the information in their long-term memory.  Using concept maps also includes the dual coding hypothesis, which states people can remember pictures, smells, that can be stored as text (Laureate Education Inc., 2011).  Elaboration was also discussed as a active process where the learner is engaged in. Elaboration involves getting to the information in your mind or ability to make connection to remember the information.When using a concept map students not limited to inputting text, but they can also put in links to pictures, articles, etc.
Cues, Question, and Advance,  Organizers
In our classroom our student use calculators as technology to see images in 3D such as graphs and mathematical problems.  When students are making visuals then they began to develop critical thinking which is good when students are making connection to problems.   Also when information is remember through visuals then information can be organized quickly thus it will help students remember information quickly.    Another good way to organize information is through note taking.  Our student are asked to take notes so that when information needs to be access then it can be access through the short term memory and after reading your paper over and over the information will be accessed in the long term memory.

Pitler, Hubbell, and Kuhn (2012) say that by “using cues, questions, and advance organizers at the beginning of a lesson or unit focuses learning on the important content to come” and can motivate and “tap into [the students’] curiosity and interest” (p. 91).  When students ask question then critical thinking is being accessed which is part of a learners short and long term memory.  Also when learner are given cues to answer question they have to think fast this means that the information is stored in their long term memory and it can be used again once a cue is used to get the answer.  

References

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011). Program five: Cognitive learning theory [Video webcast]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and technology. Retrieved from http://laureate.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=5700267&CPURL=laureate.ecollege.com&Survey=1&47=2594577&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=0&bhcp=1
Orey, M. (Ed.). (2001). Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Cognitive tools. Retrieved fromhttp://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Main_Page

4 comments:

  1. Hi Hiraman,
    You mentioned in your blog how you teach graphing skills to your students with calculators that create 3D images. I have three daughters that range from eight years old to seventeen years old, who all remind me that 3D is cutting edge technology. I would love to teach graphs in my second grade classroom with a 3D calculator. A 3D calculator is a great example of a cognitive learning tool. My students would be totally engaged and commit graphing skills into their long term memory, and when it is exam time, I would take out the 3D calculator to reactivate all the information they learned about graphing.
    Val

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    1. Hey Val in todays classroom their is so much technology available for students and teachers that it is hard to get up. Truth be told when our IT person is going over the latest in technology I have to have him come by my classroom and explain just to really understand how to use the technology for my classroom purposes. I love 2nd grade students I did elementary school for summer school for 5 years and teaching those students was fund some of them made me think deep about creativity in a short period of time. Thank you for your comments

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  2. Hi Hiraman,
    I like that your addressed how over the summer students seem to forget important information over the break. I do agree that it is integral for us as teachers to continuously find new ways to help them store this information in their long term memory. This is highly essential for students of mathematics, because in order to begin teaching an Algebra II class we are already expecting them to have retained the skills in Algebra I and Geometry. I do find using visual help and showing demonstrations as well. Besides using calculators, do you currently use other aids to help students store information in their long term memory and if so in what ways?
    Thanks for sharing,
    Nicole A

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  3. Hey Nicole it is good to communicate with a fellow mathematic educator. I use a lot of tutorials that help my students review the work prior to me going over it step by step. I also use old fashion student intervention and games that help develop their memory.
    thank you for your comments.

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