Cognitive learning theory

Presentation deals with the factors that impact on the learning process as posited by Piaget, Bloom, Bruner and Ausubel

1. COGNITIVE
LEARNING
THEORY

2. Basis and Focus
•Basis: Principles of cognitive psychology
•Focus: Role of cognitive processes in
learning

3. Focus
•The mental processes involved in
learning:
–Observing, categorizing, forming
generalizations to make sense of the
information provided

4. Main Assumptions
•Learning results from internal mental
activity and not from externally imposed
stimuli

5. •The learner comes with knowledge, skills
and related experiences to the learning
situation

6. Role of the Learner
•Active participant in the learning process,
using various strategies to process and
construct their personal understanding of
the content to which they are exposed

7. Piaget, Bloom, Bruner, Ausubel
•Each of these psychologists focused on
different cognitive conditions that impact
on learning

8. Jean Piaget
•Constructed models of child development
and the learning process
•Identified 4 developmental stages and the
cognitive processes associated with each
of them

9. Developmental Stages
•Sensory-motor - understands his
environment through the basic senses
•Intuitive /Pre-operational - Thoughts
more flexible, memory and imagination
begin to play a part in learning, capable of
more creativity

10. •Concrete Operational – Can go beyond
the basic information given, but still
dependent on concrete material and
examples to support reasoning
•Formal Operational – Abstract reasoning
becomes increasingly possible

11. Accommodation
•Accommodation – The process by which
we modify what we already know to take
into account the new information

12. Assimilation
•The process by which new knowledge is
changed / modified / merged in our minds
to fit into what we already know

13. Equilibration
•The balance between what is known and
what is currently being processed,
mastery of the new material

14. Implications for the Classroom
•Learning is the process of relating new
information with what was previously
learnt
•Learning is cumulative

15. Implications
•Learners should be assigned tasks that
are age and stage appropriate

16. Bloom’s Taxonomy
•Identifies and describes, in hierarchical
order, the cognitive processes involved in
learning

18. Implication for Teaching
•Use verbs aligned to the taxonomy to plan
lessons that would ensure that learners’
cognitive skills develop from LOTS to
HOTS

19. Revised Taxonomy
•The original taxonomy has now been
revised to make provision for the new
knowledge and skills that now exist as a
result of the integration of web 2.0 tools in
teaching

22. Original and Revised
Taxonomies

23. Bloom (Rev.) and Web 2.0

24. Jerome Bruner - Focus
Development of conceptual
understanding, cognitive skills and
learning strategies rather than the
acquisition of knowledge

25. Bruner’s Focus
•Teaching Approach - Learners should be
encouraged to discover solutions via
appropriate tasks which require the
application of relevant critical thinking
skills

26. Bruner – Modes of Thinking
•Extended aspects of Piaget’s theory. He
identified three ways in which learners
process information

27. •Enactive Level – learning takes place via
direct manipulation of objects and
materials

28. •Iconic Level – Objects are represented by
visual images and are recognized for what
they represent

29. •Symbolic Level – Learning can take
place using symbols, objects and mental
images. Language is used to represent
thoughts and experiences

30. Implications for Teaching
•Providing opportunities for learners to be
actively engaged in making sense of the
language input, through meaningful tasks

31. •Providing opportunities for learners to
develop the ability to analyze the
language, make generalizations about
rules, take risks in trying out the language,
and to learn from errors

32. •Catering for interaction of learner with
curriculum material and the learning
environment
•Catering for the three modes of thinking
(Bruner)

33. •The Spiral Process: The cumulative
nature of learning requires frequent
opportunities for reviewing previously
learnt material even as new material is
introduced.

34. David Ausubel - Focus
•Stressed the importance of active mental
participation in meaningful learning tasks
•Learning must be meaningful to be
effective and permanent

35. •Made a distinction between meaningful
learning and rote learning
•Meaningful Learning – relatable to what
one already knows so it can be easily
integrated in one’s existing cognitive
structure

36. •Rote Learning – the material to be learnt
is not integrated / subsumed into an
existing cognitive structure but learnt as
isolated pieces of information

37. Implications for Classroom
•Teacher has to enhance the
meaningfulness of new material to
increase the chances of its being
anchored to what is already known

38. •New material must be organized to be
easily relatable to what is already known
•New material must be appropriately
sequenced to facilitate integration

39. •Use of advance organizers. These
facilitate the learning process by providing
ideas to which the new knowledge can be
attached

40. Advance Organizers
•Introductory material presented in
advance of the new material
•Information that activates relevant
background knowledge

41. Advance Organizers
•Material that orients learners to the subject
matter and relates new learning to what is
already known
•Can take the form of textual material,
pictures, titles, topic summaries, questions

42. Attention should be given to:
•The need to organize and structure
meaningful learning activities.
•The requirements of the task must be
appropriate to the developmental stage
(Piaget, Bruner) and allow for the
development of HOTS (Bloom)

43. Moving from LOTS to HOTS