Lydia Zeller

Blog for Class March 3, 2014

(a)  What aspects of cognitive theory do I agree and disagree with?

a.       Agree – Cognitive processes influence what is learned. I personally have faced the same problem as Kanesha from our text in trying to learn anatomy. I try to make connections that make sense in my head….sometimes they are accurate and sometimes they are not.

b.      Agree – People’s cognitive processes can sometimes be inferred from their behaviors. The example from the text talks about remembering lists giving insights to how material is mentally organized. I use this kind of information to find misconceptions in students knowledge.

c.       Agree/Disagree – People are selective about what they mentally process and learn. I agree that students naturally tune out most stimuli by choice (shoes on feet, a ring on a finger, etc.). However, some stimuli cannot be ignored. I also believe students do not always choose the correct things to focus on.

d.      Agree - Meanings and understandings are not derived directly from the environment; instead, they are constructed by the learner. Students in my experience for sure remember information in interesting ways. I often wonder how they came up with certain answers. This component of cognitive theory puts that wonder into words.

e.      Agree/Disagree – Maturational changes in the brain enable increasingly sophisticated cognitive processes with age. I agree with this component in that as we age we can pay attention for longer, hold more information at one time, and increase difficulty of assignments (even from the beginning to end of one school year). I, however, feel environment at home and what parents place value on (education or other activities) affects the age at which students start to take school seriously (if ever). If a student does not place importance on education and learning, the harder it is the longer they wait.

(b)  How might cognitive theory work (or not work) with my (future) students/subject area?

a.       I have learned from experience in this first year of teaching many things. I can tie a lot of my experiences to cognitive theories. First, learning how much students can handle in one day (information wise) and how much is being partly lazy has been difficult (1e). I also try to dispel misconceptions as I teach but it is amazing what students come back to class the next day with when we review (1d). Often, I try to offer easy ways to remember certain terms and concepts (1a).