Cognitive Learning Theories
Cognitive
Learning Theories
In my fifth-grade
classroom, we are going through a Social Studies project on becoming an expert
of the country of their choice. As I am teaching virtually this school year,
everything is digital and online. The platform that I am using to have students
submit their work is called Seesaw. Seesaw is a tool where I am able to assign,
grade, and post work for the students to engage and interact with their schoolwork
and content. Dr. Orey discussed that an important component of cognitive
learning theory is elaboration, which is the “process of building connections to
store information” (Laureate Education, 2015c). Another component of cognitive
learning theory is dual coding hypothesis, which demonstrates how images can
be a powerful tool to use in the classroom as our senses are used. As I am
using virtual field trips to help my students use their senses through their
research, the connection of using a graphic organizer helps students verbalize what
they see visually.
With the use of
virtual field trips, Dr. Orey discusses the impact of “creating episodic memories
that you can then tie constructivist activities” to immerse students into
having a foundation of what they are learning (Laureate Education, 2015j). For
my social studies project, I wanted students to be able to explore important places
and visualize what their country looks like through the interactive experience
of the country they are researching. As students explore the country that they
are researching through the virtual field trip, they are making multiple
connections from what they see and hear. By allowing students to have a graphic
organizer to write down their thoughts and their observations, the graphic
organizer is a tool to “engage in critical thinking activities” (Laureate
Education, 2015j). By providing students opportunities to engage with what they
are learning in different ways, we allow students to access “cognitive tools of
the Internet that is able to access much more information interactively.” When
students engage with virtual field trips students are interacting “with
information in order to acquire, synthesize, create and share new knowledge” (Orey,
2010, p. 280). This ties into the ISTE standards of the knowledge constructor
as my students are curating “information from digital resources using a variety
of tools and methods to create collections of artifacts that demonstrate
meaningful connections” (International Society for Technology in Education
(ISTE), 2016). Technology platforms like the virtual field trip allows students
to form multiple connections through those episodic memories in order to
enhance the process of the cognitive learning strategy of elaboration.
The graphic
organizer that I used is a graphic organizer that helps with note-taking when
they are engaged in their virtual field trip of the country of their choice.
The graphic organizer allows students to organize their thoughts with a two column
notes template that “helps students organize their thoughts around the
essential information and gets them thinking about what they know about the
topic” even before diving into their research (Pitler, 2012, p. 76). For this
lesson, I wanted my students to compare and contrast two countries that they
will be exploring on their virtual field trips. One of the countries is the one
they are becoming an expert on, and the other is a country of their choice that
they want to compare the differences and similarities to. The graphic organizer
is a helpful tool when students are exploring their countries as it allows
students to “gradually fill in this skeleton with explanatory text, weblinks,
and pictures” as they gather their information and research (Pitler, 2012, p. 76).
Insights I gained from working
with students to complete the graphic organizer for my virtual field trip
lesson was that students were able to organize their thoughts more clearly and
get to the main idea or essential information to their research more efficiently.
I learned that when students have an organizer that they are working on SeeSaw
while they are engaged in their virtual field trip, it was easy for students to
“easily revise them and email them home for study” (Pitler, 2012, p. 76). I
also noticed that regarding cognitive learning theory, students were able to
access their information in a “meaningful and appropriate representation”
(Orey, 2010, p. 281). For instance, as they had a task to complete and had
focuses to research on from their graphic organizer, students used their time a
lot more efficiently when researching and exploring through their virtual field
trips. Another insight I was able to gain from this experience was the usage of
knowledge integration in this lesson. As students were already experts of one
country, they were able to apply what they knew about their country they were
experts in to researching and exploring another country as they were “assessing,
reorganizing, and verifying new and gathered information” (Orey, 2010, p. 282).
One of the biggest
applications I learned is through the popular source I found called “Cognitive
Load Theory, How Do I Apply It?” which helps educators organize the information
we are teaching in a way where students will be able to access the information better.
The video discusses that when we “reduce the extraneous load” we can then see “retention
goes up” (Hendricks, 2017). Another source that I found that I can apply is
through a scholarly article on the cognitive load theory and how understanding the
role of memory in learning is beneficial to our students. This source explains
the importance of creating a learning process that is long term so that
information is retained and remembered. In this article, it explains how when
connections are strong and revisited over a long period of time, “a schema may
incorporate a huge amount of information and become automated” (Paas &
Ayres, 2014). I might want to integrate this in my hour of code lessons by providing
students graphic organizers to help enhance the connections that they are
making in the lessons. By providing students a form where they can look back to,
they will be able to revisit the information they gathered and enhance those
connections they made that tie their foundational and new knowledge together.
In conclusion, it
is important to use cognitive learning theories in the classroom so that
students are able to retain the knowledge they learn. A few effective ways to
do this is by using tools to create opportunities that allow students to access
information in multiple ways. For instance, virtual field trips and the use of graphic
organizers is one of the many ways we can help build strong connections for
students that bridge their knowledge that they already know to new knowledge
that they are learning.
https://www.360cities.net/video_gallery
Template of Graphic Organizer:
References:
Hendricks, D.
(2016, April 17). Cognitive Load Theory, How Do I Apply It? Retrieved
November
23, 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stJ-MkTgRFs
International Society for
Technology in Education (ISTE). 2016. Standards for students.
Retrieved from http://www.iste/org/standards/standards/for-students-2016
Laureate Education (Producer). (2015c).
Cognitive learning theories [Video file]. Baltimore,
MD: Author.
Laureate Education (Producer).
(2015j). Spotlight on technology: Virtual field trips [Video file].
Baltimore, MD: Author.
Orey, M. (Ed.).
(2010). Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved
From http://textbookequity.org/Textbooks/Orey)Emergin_Perspectives_Learning.pdf
Paas, F., &
Ayres, P. (2014). Cognitive load theory: A broader view on the role of memory
in
learning and education.
Edcational Psychology Review, 26(2), 191-195. http://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1007/s10648-014-9263-5
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