Cognitive Learning Theory In Action

Instructional strategies help educators frame instruction for the varied learners who walk through their doors. In 2013, we have new theories as well as the older standby theories of learning and instruction to inform our methodology and practice. As educators,we are also blessed with the internet, and we can easily access just about any information we need in the form of  lesson plans, strategies, virtual field trips, units others have used successfully,  tests, quizzes and professional information to cause us to ponder what we do and why we do it. Never has there been more available at our fingertips. I hate to sound like Grandma, but when I was a new teacher either it came out of a book or you created it. I was the teacher who never had a budget so I created almost everything I used in the classroom. This has served me well for how I cater instruction to my learners now. I constantly create and design my students’ learning opportunities.

When we consider the instructional strategy of Cognitive Learning Theory, there are so many wonderful pieces of this theory that are easily adaptable and useful in any classroom. Virtual field trips, although not exactly like being there, hold a great deal of promise and can absolutely extend learning, engagement, and participation. In the Laureate Education video clip this week, Virtual Field Trips, we were able to witness how one teacher tapped into this relatively new technology to extend and enhance her students’ learning. The virtual field trip in the film clip of Ford’s Theater, was an awesome example of this. The students had gone to Washington the year before, but had not  been able to get in to Ford’s theater because it was being renovated These students missed out on a  great opportunity while in Washington.The next best thing was for this teacher to connect that  Washington experience with the virtual field trip of the events that occurred there; which was the assassination of President Lincoln. She did that  through the virtual field trip of Ford’s Theater. She then connected the boring static image from their textbook with the exciting presentation of the real place. She challenged  them to consider certain elements of where Lincoln was shot and how they knew what they knew by comparing and contrasting the static recreation image from the book  with the virtual field trip camera that she was able to manipulate and pan around the inside of the theater itself. She used cuing and questioning to frame her lesson. By using the students’ Washington trip from the prior year, she automatically connected new learning to their ‘old’ actual experience in Washington. Thus, she was successful in bridging and connecting students’ Washington experiences with technology and creating a technology rich full experience for her students using Cognitive theories in action.  

Cues are explicit reminders or hints about what students are about to experience. Questions perform the same functions as cues by triggering students’ memories and helping them to access prior knowledge.(Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, Malenoski, p73)

As I consider my use of many technology tools and how I use them to frame my own students’ learning experiences, I realize that I need to return to enhancing my own use of cueing and questioning. I use both presently,  but not in a conscious and  thorough enough way. I need to design that questioning right into my lesson intentionally and in ways that don’t illicit the dreaded, “I don’t  know” response.

When we consider all that technology brings to the table for learners in terms of framing their educational  experience; allowing choice in demonstrating  their knowledge; creating a learner centered ideal; and increasing internal motivation and excitement in their learning, how could we not provide them with these great technology tools allowing them to organize,assimilate information, seek and find relevant information to  their topic being studied all  while they advance and spark their own background knowledge and connecting new and old learning.

Learners function as designers using the technology as tools for analyzing the world, accessing information, interpreting and organizing their personal knowledge, and representing what they know to others” (Jonassen, 1991, p. 82). In addition, we can see from this research that using cognitive tools supports a constructivist model of learning. (Orey, p2)

Cognitive learning theories and all learning theories, give us a reason and a methodology for what we do in the classroom everyday. They are ‘recipes’ that we follow with a desired end in mind. Recipes list the ingredients and the process to follow. Often a recipe will give us variations  and substitutions to use. Sometimes we are given a visual image of the meal. Online sources give us tutorials of the recipe being made by the chef. In many ways the teacher is that chef. We have the ingredients in the form of students; the procedures are the learning and instructional theories, and the substitutions and variations in the recipe are those things we use to offer instruction. You can substitute blueberries for the raspberries, the recipe will tell us. In the classroom,perhaps we need to substitute an ipad for a book, or the Smartboard for a teacher’s lecture. Perhaps we will offer our  students choices in how they take notes: I Notes, Mind Maps, visual pictures. All of these learning  variations are essential to the success of learning today. Sometimes we meet with success and other times we know we need to flex and modulate the lesson, the delivery, the environment,  the tools, or the expectations. When we get it right, teachers help to create students who are filled to the brim with knowledge,motivation, and excitement for learning.  

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011). Program six: Spotlight on technology: Virtual field trips [Video webcast]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and technology. Retrieved January 21, 2013, 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

Orey, M.(Ed.). (2001). Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved January 21, 2013, from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/