Using Cognitive Tools to Enhance Learning Experiences

Growing up I always thought of myself as being a visual learner.  I thought of a visual learner as being the hardest person to teach because things didn’t come easy for me.  I remember the teacher’s explaining an assignment or activity and not really being able to process the information.  This was very disturbing for me and I always thought there was something wrong with me.  The fact is, you could not tell me how to do something but, instead you had to show me.  I always thought, when I become a teacher I will make sure my visual learners know what they are learning and doing before just assigning an assignment.  The idea here is not to teach one way but instead teach to all students.  Cognitive learning is the product of listening, watching, touching or experiencing.  If we select one over the other in terms of what to teach, we are leaving so many students behind and that is not what we as educators should be doing.    

The instructional strategies that I explored this week correlate with the principles of cognitive learning theory in many ways.  “The instructional strategy cues, questions, and advance organizers focuses on enhancing students’ ability to retrieve, use, and organize information about a topic” (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007 p73).  Cues are direct and given by the teacher.  Questions are targeting prior knowledge.  Advanced organizers are given before an assignment to help understand content.  “The instructional strategy summarizing and note taking focuses on enhancing students’ ability to synthesize information and distill it into a concise new form” (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007 p119).  Students are doing that by utilizing the resources they have and building on skills.  The cognitive learning theory is connected because the information is modeled using technology and later put to use by students.      

These instructional strategies will help me teach for understanding by allowing my students the opportunity to learn the way they do whether it’s auditory, visual or kinesthetic.  “The technology, in turn, provides you with editable visual aids and multimedia resources that appeal to a number of learning styles” (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007 p79).  Technology will be integrated into my classroom so that my students get the best education they can receive.   “One of the powerful things we could do from a cognitive theory perspective is we could create a rich experience and this rich experience could be the foundational experience in this network of ideas that a child could have when their learning a content” (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010).  I will teach my students how to process and remember information with the help of the web tools that are available.  “For many students, multimedia is very effective because it helps them both activate prior knowledge and develop a mental model to help them understand new information” (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007 p82).   

     

Reference:

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010). Program six. Spotlight on technology: Virtual field trips [Webcast]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and technology. Baltimore, MD: Author.

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

Learning Styles URL:

http://www.learningrx.com/types-of-learning-styles-faq.htm