Cognitive Theory

As an early childhood major, cognitive theory has been one of the main theories we looked at when understanding children’s learning. I completely agree that children build on their learning. I have been able to see the importance of teaching something from the beginning in order to move forward to the next stage of learning. One example was when I began working in the preschool classroom in the early learning center. I wanted to do an art activity with the children, that required cutting and pasting paper to make a turkey for thanksgiving. When I began working with my children, I realized that many of them were struggling with the materials I had given them, which were glue and scissors. I took a step back and thought; first I needed to teach them how to use them before I could even do such an activity with them. Many of them don’t have easy access to scissors or glue at home. I redesigned my lesson, by first working on using scissors. This took longer than expected because young children are still trying to refine their fine motor skills. Afterwards, I worked with handling glue, and how much glue is appropriate to use when working with certain materials. After my children had mastered these skills I was able to then move to a more complex activity for them, which would be to cut out and glue paper to make a turkey. I think cognitive theory applies to almost every content area because we are constantly strengthening our learning by using our previous knowledge and applying it to new synapsis in our brain. Our brain is similar to constructing a building. We begin with a foundation, which is the base of the information, as the information builds ad grows, the building continues to build more floors and becomes taller and taller. However, once the information is retained in our brain and the building is complete, we are still constantly learning more, which in a building could be seen as remodeling. We are making our ideas more applicable, modern and innovative.