Cognitive Learning Tools

This week I will be discussing two instructional strategies, "Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers" and "Summarizing and Note Taking", and how they tie into cognitive learning theories.

"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, & Malekoski, 2007, p. 73). The objective of a cue is to give insight to the students about what they are getting ready to learn about. Questions are there to simple spur their thinking, as well as trigger any prior knowledge (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malekoski, 2007). I like to think of advanced organizers as graphic organizer, this helps them categorize things, as well as help organize their thoughts. These strategies directly tie into the cognitivist perspective. Cognitivist view learning as a mental process (Lever-Duffy & McDonald, 2007). Once information enters, it is manipulated, stored, and then pulled out for use (Lever-Duffy & McDonald, 2007). The strategy helps to pull information stored and makes sense of new information as it enters through the senses. I have found cues, questioning, and organizer be highly effective in the classroom. My students really grasp the information being given and categorizing it helps to put the information in perspective. I use graphic organizers daily and would recommend this site to create and print your own: http://www.teach-nology.com/web_tools/graphic_org/

The other strategy discussed this week is summarizing and note taking. "Summarizing and note taking focuses on enhancing students' ability to synthesize information and distill is into a concise new form"(Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malekoski, 2007, p. 119). Again I think this focuses on manipulating and storing the information which links this to cognitive practices. As I was looking over the information provided on note taking I was a little surprised. Using Technology with Classroom Instruction recommends that the more notes taken the better. I have found that when too many notes are taken, students can become overwhelmed with information. Although, the book did recommend that teachers help students learn to separate important information from extraneous information (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malekoski, 2007). I do not use the the practice of note taking in my own room because I work with first graders. We do summarize as a class in written and oral form. You might be surprised at their ability to summarize. They have to be taught the strategy of picking out the most important information but once they learn that tool many are able to summarize with ease.

Overall, I do feel that both strategies discussed in this weeks reading directly tie into cognitive learning strategies. The assist with synthesizing and learning new material.

References:

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

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

Behaviorism: Yes or No?

Behaviorist learning is still very active in the classroom today. Technology has restrengthened this teaching strategy. The two teaching strategies that I feel strongly correlates with behaviorist learning are "reinforcing effort" and "homework and practice".

Effort is something we want all students to display. As mentioned in the reading, Using technology with classroom instruction that works, effort is something that as teachers we need to stress as important. I believe that a discussions needs to take place within the classroom about what positive effort looks like. The reading discussed using an effort rubric (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007). Working with first graders I do not feel that this approach would be age appropriate but I do something to reinforce effort daily. Every student at our school has what is called a cub card. The cub card monitors behavior and effort. Each day students who use great effort are rewarded with a smiley face and students who need improvement get a comment. At the end of the week the students get an effort grade of E (Excellent), S (Satisfactory), N (Needs Improvement), and U (Unsatisfactory). Throughout the year I constantly bring attention to what positive effort looks like. Orey discussed that positive reinforcement is much more powerful and long-lasting than negative (2007).

The other teaching strategy that was discussed in the reading is "homework & practice". I feel that this also relates to behaviorism. Orey discussed in his video clip that using technology as a tutorial can be highly useful. Homework and practice is a chance to revisit discussed topics for deeper levels of understanding. The wonderful thing about today's technology is that we are able to provide what could be looked upon as boring and redundant, something that is highly interactive and fun. I am attaching a link to a tutorial and enrichment program that we use at my school. I found this program to be highly effective and helpful to reinforce what is going on in the classroom: http://www.pearsondigital.com/sm21century/ .

Behaviorist learning strategies are still thriving in the classroom. The way a teacher goes about applying those strategies will will determine the positive or negative nature of the strategies. I believe they can be useful and enriching to students.

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

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