Bekah Wolford - In Place of Class Mar. 3rd Cognitive Processes

The two theories I agree with most:

Socail Cognitive Theory – I agree that we from birth construct our knowledge and behaviors based on how we see those around us act. We have to have a starting point as to how we should act, otherwise we have no way of developing right from wrong.

Vygotsky’s theory of Cognitive Development – To an extent history and influences around us do affect the way we think and live our lives. Depending upon who we associate or interact with has a huge affect on how we develop. Also the ways of the world conform us to their standards in some way or another so that we end up in some sort of way living by the means of the world at times. Although we do make changes, we also allow changes around us to make changes in the ways we do things.

However, when it comes to Constructivism – I feel that we absorb things we see to construct knowledge.  They have to know something about the event in order to construct knowledge about it, but they can’t construct it without absorbing prior information about it.

I feel like all of these theories have parts that make sense, but then again are somewhat confusing, but all their points don’t add up. The cognitive process as a whole is something we all view differently, because none of us think in the same exact way. In the same way we all attain and gain knowledge, develop, and construct our selves in different ways, so there is not possible way of saying one theory is completely correct over another.

When it comes to teaching second grade using cognitive processes may work for some students, but not for others. At such a young age children already have problems interpreting and remembering things, so I do not feel that it would be the best way for them attain knowledge. We as teachers want children to be able to understand what things are more important than others, but at the second grade level the majority of material being taught is very important to the child’s future knowledge, therefore getting them to pick out those few specifics is not really reasonable. Plus, at that age it is not a skill you really want them to develop, because they will start using cognitive processes for everything, which could cause them to miss out on a lot of important information in their future that they may not view as important.