Cognitivism is a theory that focuses on how information is organised, received, stored and retrieved by the mind. The mind is an information processor like a computer and information should be organised, sequenced and presented in a meaningful manner to the learner.
Ausubel (1960) and Bruner (1966) are the main proponents.
Bruner thought that learners should be allowed to explore the learning material themselves in a less restrictive way than Ausubel. Here the teacher is a facilitator and the skills learnt by the student can be applied in other situations, this is because he believes that people learn better if they discover things for themselves. In addition, Bruner believes even young children can understand complex information if it is introduced correctly. Information is introduced in a simplified form and then developed over time.
Ausubel thought that teachers should present learning material in a more structured way and advocated a more methodical approach. The teacher would present material in a final form, taught directly.
Examples of cognitivist tools- mindmaps (graphic organisers), chunking information into manageable information, teaching strategies (e.g. mnemonic devices, colour coding).
A summary of cognitivism’s strengths
The strength lies in situations where learners are to be trained such that they accomplish a task the same way on a number of occasions, for example, all members of a customer service department or a call center must be able to respond the same way to similar queries.
Cognitive studies have useful practical applications in everyday life. The cognitive approach is probably the most dominant approach in psychology today and has been applied to a wide range of practical and theoretical contexts.
The cognitive approach also provides objective evidence through controlled scientific study as a result cause and effect relationships can be discovered producing more valid results.
The cognitive approach can be combined with many other approaches and areas of study to produce, for example, Social learning theories, cognitive neuropsychology and artificial intelligence (AI).
The limitations of cognitivism (i.e. what this theory does and does not account for)
Internal processes are not necessarily related to changes in behaviour, i.e. how do you know that internal processes are what leads to the change in recorded behaviour.
High-quality instruction must be based on the student’s existing mental structures to be effective as previous knowledge and understanding are pre-requisites to learning new knowledge and actions.
Effective instructional strategies require the creation (or use of technology) of scaffolding that supports cognitive principles, e.g. appropriate and relevant metaphors to help learners organise and relate knowledge, understanding and use of mind-mapping tools.
Cognitive overload - the way in which information is presented can over or under load working memory.
Which methods of assessment are appropriate and relevant to determining the level and extent of knowledge and understanding. How do you measure understanding?
Useful predictions or implications of cognitivism
1.Strategies should be used to allow learners to perceive and attend to the information so that it can be transferred to working memory.
2.Strategies should be used to allow learners to retrieve existing information from long-term memory to help make sense of the new information.
3.Information should be chunked to prevent overload during processing in working memory.
4.Other strategies that promote deep processing should be used to help transfer information to long-term storage.
5.Online learning materials should include activities for the different learning styles, so that learners can select appropriate activities based on their preferred style.
6.In addition to activities, adequate supports should be provided for students with different learning styles.
7.Information should be presented in different modes to accommodate individual differences in processing and to facilitate transfer to long-term memory.
8.Learners should be motivated to learn. It does not matter how effective the online materials are, if learners are not motivated, they will not learn.
9.Encourage learners to use their metacognitive skills to help in the learning process.
10.Online strategies that facilitate the transfer of learning should be used to encourage application in different and real-life situations.
H817 Week 3 Activity 10 group work
Cognitivism
The main proponents of cognitivism
A summary of cognitivism’s strengths
The limitations of cognitivism (i.e. what this theory does and does not account for)
Cognitive overload - the way in which information is presented can over or under load working memory.
Useful predictions or implications of cognitivism
Bibliography
The main proponents of cognitivism
Cognitivism is a theory that focuses on how information is organised, received, stored and retrieved by the mind. The mind is an information processor like a computer and information should be organised, sequenced and presented in a meaningful manner to the learner.
Ausubel (1960) and Bruner (1966) are the main proponents.
Bruner thought that learners should be allowed to explore the learning material themselves in a less restrictive way than Ausubel. Here the teacher is a facilitator and the skills learnt by the student can be applied in other situations, this is because he believes that people learn better if they discover things for themselves. In addition, Bruner believes even young children can understand complex information if it is introduced correctly. Information is introduced in a simplified form and then developed over time.
Ausubel thought that teachers should present learning material in a more structured way and advocated a more methodical approach. The teacher would present material in a final form, taught directly.
Examples of cognitivist tools- mindmaps (graphic organisers), chunking information into manageable information, teaching strategies (e.g. mnemonic devices, colour coding).
A summary of cognitivism’s strengths
The strength lies in situations where learners are to be trained such that they accomplish a task the same way on a number of occasions, for example, all members of a customer service department or a call center must be able to respond the same way to similar queries.
Cognitive studies have useful practical applications in everyday life. The cognitive approach is probably the most dominant approach in psychology today and has been applied to a wide range of practical and theoretical contexts.
The cognitive approach also provides objective evidence through controlled scientific study as a result cause and effect relationships can be discovered producing more valid results.
The cognitive approach can be combined with many other approaches and areas of study to produce, for example, Social learning theories, cognitive neuropsychology and artificial intelligence (AI).
The limitations of cognitivism (i.e. what this theory does and does not account for)
Internal processes are not necessarily related to changes in behaviour, i.e. how do you know that internal processes are what leads to the change in recorded behaviour.
High-quality instruction must be based on the student’s existing mental structures to be effective as previous knowledge and understanding are pre-requisites to learning new knowledge and actions.
Effective instructional strategies require the creation (or use of technology) of scaffolding that supports cognitive principles, e.g. appropriate and relevant metaphors to help learners organise and relate knowledge, understanding and use of mind-mapping tools.
Cognitive overload - the way in which information is presented can over or under load working memory.
Which methods of assessment are appropriate and relevant to determining the level and extent of knowledge and understanding. How do you measure understanding?
Useful predictions or implications of cognitivism
1.Strategies should be used to allow learners to perceive and attend to the information so that it can be transferred to working memory.
2.Strategies should be used to allow learners to retrieve existing information from long-term memory to help make sense of the new information.
3.Information should be chunked to prevent overload during processing in working memory.
4.Other strategies that promote deep processing should be used to help transfer information to long-term storage.
5.Online learning materials should include activities for the different learning styles, so that learners can select appropriate activities based on their preferred style.
6.In addition to activities, adequate supports should be provided for students with different learning styles.
7.Information should be presented in different modes to accommodate individual differences in processing and to facilitate transfer to long-term memory.
8.Learners should be motivated to learn. It does not matter how effective the online materials are, if learners are not motivated, they will not learn.
9.Encourage learners to use their metacognitive skills to help in the learning process.
10.Online strategies that facilitate the transfer of learning should be used to encourage application in different and real-life situations.
Bibliography
Ertmer, P.A. and Newby, T.J. (2017) In: Foundations of Learning and Instructional Design Technology. Ed. West, R.E. Pressbooks. Chp 11. [eBook] Available: https://lidtfoundations.pressbooks.com/front-matter/introduction/
Chapter 11: Behaviourism, Cognitivism, Constructivism - worth a read. Reviews the learning theories in sequential order.
Note: the article was originally published in 1993, then re-published in 2013.
Behaviourism
Cognitivism
Constructivism
Strengths
- Uniformity (good for training in the workplace)
-Practical
-Evidenced in scientific study
Limitations
- Memory/mind can be overloaded with information
- Difficult to measure understanding.
- All teaching needs to be based on student’s prior knowledge (won’t always be known)
How do they assist the understanding of e-learning?
Cognitivist activities such as mindmapping and chunking, can be planned in.
- Activities such as learning journals to encourage self guided exploration, evaluation and self reflection can be planned in.
- Teacher can be a facilitator rather than an instructor, very important as online tutors have little time.
-interactive activities can be included