Cognitivism in Practice

"Tell me, and I will forget. Show me, and I may remember. Involve me, and I will understand"

(Confucius circa 450 BC).

Confronted, day after day, with diverse learning styles and students who have a “dominant sensory gateway” our students, and we as educators, benefit from the use of instructional strategies (Lever-Duffy & McDonald, 2008, p14). Involving our students through kinesthetic, auditory and visual methods, along with knowledge of differences in information processing, we can provide each student with success.

Utilizing some of the instructional strategies this week, we are given the proverbial net by which to catch the majority of students. For the visual student, the use of a graphic organizer allows dual coding and the ability to elaborate by assigning an image to a word, phrase or concept. As mentioned in the book, Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works (Pitler, Hubbell, & Kuhn, 2012, p. 154-155), the use of a graphic organizer template, such as definition frames or problem/solution frame gives students guiding questions by which to summarize their knowledge. Incorporating images within these frames accesses the dual coding taking what is in the working memory and processing it through to the long-term memory. I have used Wordle with my sixth graders, but not as a note taking or summarizing activity. Using Wordle, or even WordArt in Microsoft Word could have great potential with visual learners as they summarize information. As stated by Dr. Michael Orey, getting information into the long term  “is what we want to do in the classroom” (Walden Laureate, Inc 2011).  In addition to the graphic organizer

Teaching the auditory student, use of video and/or audio gives the student opportunities to listen to the material multiple times. Through numerous listenings, students are able to relate the audio/video into episodic experiences. Using what is heard and relating it to personal experiences, or events, assists in the transfer of short-term knowledge into long term. Additionally, the ability to absorb declarative facts and information aurally, gives those students a clear path for sustained knowledge. With regards to note taking and summarizing, the use of an app like Dragon Dictation, gives students the opportunity to verbally record their knowledge, transferring into text, by which they can edit and organize. Using this application myself allows me to record thoughts in random order, as that is how my brain works most often; after transfer into Word, I can apply order to those notes. Coming from the other direction, taking text from a word processing program or online app like Evernote and transferring them into a text to speech program such as vozMe, gives the auditory student and audio recording of their knowledge. This can prove useful for organization of notes or checking the completeness of a summarization.

For the kinesthetic learner, the “motion portrayed in the video” (Pittler et al., 2012, p.96) connects with their need to move. Also, the use of graphic organizers gives the kinesthetic learner hands on experience manipulating the nodes and information. Using the graphic organizer, students can get their information out and then organize it moving and positioning the different and related nodes. Using multimedia to summarize information can easily display the knowledge of the students. Working in iMovie this week with a group of fifth grader, they created short movies regarding what they had learned in history. One group of boys created a movie about taxation without representation. This allows the boys to be outside, verbally express their knowledge while in costume and staging a protest, a much more exciting way to demonstrate their understanding of the material, than writing a paper.

With the reality, that short, (working) memory can process seven, +/- 2 pieces of information at one time, we as educators need to utilize ways to present information to our students. With enough diversity in our lessons, we will be able to involve all our students, creating a successful environment.

References:

Lever-Duffy, J., & McDonald, J. (2008). Theoretical foundations (Laureate Education, Inc., custom ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc. Chapter 1: Theoretical Foundations

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E. R., & Kuhn, M. (2012). Using technology with classroom instruction that works (2^nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

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