The Cognitive Learning Theory

Well, the task for my Walden cohorts and me this week is to take a look at the cognitive learning theory and evaluate how the strategies we read about this week correlate. We read two chapters of the book Using Technology with Instruction that Works, "Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers" and "Summarizing and Note Taking." We also looked at concept mapping and virtual field trips. I am going to tackle these in reverse order.

Virtual field trips have a strong correlation to the principles of the cognitive learning theory. In this theory, information processing goes through three stages. First of all, we receive the information through our senses. If the information is attended, it goes into our short term memory. If the information is processed deeply enough, it goes into our long-term memory. Information that makes it into our long-term memory can be procedural memory, declarative memory, or episodic memory. Of these, episodic memory is the strongest. According to Dr. Michael Orey, this the memory of the events in our lives. Virtual field trips provide the opportunity to artificially create these events and subsequently create episodic memory. For instance, my fourth grade students last year were studying France, so I took them on a virtual field trip to Paris. Obviously, I couldn't fly 90 students to Paris, but thanks to technology we were able to visit the Louvre, a little cafe, the Metro, etc. My students saw images of Paris to accompany the text they read and in some cases had the sounds of Paris as well. All of this played into Paivio's dual coding hypothesis that images are more easily remembered than text. We compared what we saw in Paris to life in our town in SC and with other palces the students had visited. This was to create connections with the students. I hope my students will well remember our trip to Paris.

Concept mapping is another strategy that we learned about. I have always heard this referred to simply as graphic organizers. With these tools, we can help students organize information, but they can also create visuals to take advantage of Paivio's dual coding, just as we did with virtual field trips. Concept mapping also allows the students to create a visual depiction of the links and pathways that a learner makes in their mind relating to a subject. These pathways are crucial for information to become stored in long-term memory.

Summarizing and note taking also correlate to the principles of the cognitive learning theory. As I stated earlier, only information that receives enough of our attention actually makes it to our long-term memory. By having our students take notes and summarize the information, we are having them to think about it and evaluate what is important in it. Obviously, the students are attending to the information in this process. I really liked the combination note idea presented in our text because it included nonlinguistic elements that, once again, allow the student to use dual coding. Also, if we allow the students to use graphics that are meaningful to them in their note taking, we are encouraging them to elaborate on the topic, thus increasing the connections they will make and their chances for retrieval.

Honestly, I don't know what else to say about cues, questions, and advance organizers, so forgive me as I repeat myself. These items help the students to make connections with the information by helping them to organize and make sense of it. Students cannot connect with what they do not understand. Videos, as the text suggests, will go far in aiding understanding. It is one thing to read about an event, but to see it is another. Once again, we are back to the dual coding hypothesis. Storing the visual is so much more powerful than just storing the words.

These strategies really do have powerful implications in the classroom. I think that many of them are used by teachers on a regular basis without their understanding of why they are so effective. I hope as my understanding of the cognitive learning theory increases, so will my implementation of its principles in my classroom.