Cognitivism in Practice

Cognitive learning refers to "how one thinks" (Duffy & McDonald, 2008,p.20). In this week's learning resources, Pitler,Hubbell,Kuhn,& Malenoski refer to cues, questions, and advanced organizers as ways to "enhance students' ability to retrieve, use, and organize information about a topic" (2007, p. 73). This relates to the cognitive learning theory directly by describing ways that students learn best. Teaching students to use organizers will help them retain information. I believe that breaking down the information makes it easier to "digest". When I begin a new unit, we typically create a KWL and review and discuss it daily.

"Summarizing and note taking focuses on enhancing students' ability to synthesize information and distill in into a concise new form" (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007, p. 119).My kindergarteners learn best from hands-on activities and visual lessons. Often times we take notes on the ACTIVboard and read and discuss daily as a class. Since the children are just learning to write, I mostly do the writing. At the end of each day, we sit on the carpet and summarize our day. Repeating what we have learned for the day helps children retain the information taught. We usually make things into songs which really helps the children.

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.