Instructional Strategies and their Correlation to the Cognitive Learning Theory

Cognitive tools allow students to interact with information in order to acquire, synthesize, create, and share new knowledge (Orey, 2001). Cognitive tools have four roles: information seeking, information presentation, knowledge organization, and knowledge integration. These roles can play a large responsibility in helping students understand information they are learning and apply it in a manner that makes sense to them. Two strategies, discussed this week, that relate to the cognitive learning theory are “cues, questions, and advance organizers” and “summarizing and note taking.”

The instructional strategy cues, questions, and advance organizers focuses on enhancing students’ ability to retrieve, use, and organize information about a topic (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007). This strategy correlates to the cognitive learning theory because it helps students with the role of information seeking. Students are able to identify information that they feel is important by seeking out the key topics in what they are reading or discussing. When students are ready to present the information, they are able to use concept maps, and advance organizer. This is a way for students to connect new information to prior knowledge and present the information in a meaningful way. Concept maps are a great way for students to organize their information, build on prior knowledge, and prepare for a test. This strategy will deepen a student’s understanding of material.

The instructional strategy summarizing and note taking focuses on enhancing students’ ability to synthesize information and distill it into a concise new form (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007). This is a strategy that students will need modeling and practice with for the younger grades. I like the idea of combination notes, inverted T chart, for younger students. This is something that I can fill out ahead of time for students to use as a guide and then fill out during the discussion. By having the students write a sentence on the bottom, they are summarizing what they have learned. This can also be used as a study guide when preparing for a test. This also allows the student to focus on the key terms the teacher listed, information seeking, and pay attention to the left side of the inverted T chart. The teacher has taken out the step of organizing the information for younger students. Students can also use this chart when going on a virtual field trip to record the important information they have learned.

I am very interesting in using the four roles described in Dr. Orey’s article when preparing lessons so that students have the opportunity to explore various forms of technology to take their learning to a higher level of thinking. Students will be able to develop a vast amount of knowledge and retain it for future use.

Here is a link to an interesting article: http://www.twinpinefarm.com/pdfs/games.pdf, titled Considering Games as Cognitive Tools: In Search of Effective “Edutainment.” If you have time to read it, you may find it very interesting.

References:

Orey, M.(Ed.). (2001). Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Main_Page

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.