A Mental Road Trip: Correlations to Cognitive Learning Theory

            Before starting on any trip when growing up, my family would always check the maps.  Usually this process included a map, an atlas, and a AAA Triptik as well.  My mom would have a small spiral notebook where she recorded restaurants, gas stations, and hotels along the way and would make comments on what we passed by and experienced.  My mom is the ultimate cognitivist.  Today, my family is far more apt to plan at the last minute, grab the GPS, and enter a destination, using a smart phone to make reservations along the way and to read or play games on instead of looking out the window.  Is the experience the same?  I think that depends on from whose eyes you see things.  Creating those maps, planning out strategies, and reflecting on what we did are all strategies of cognitive learning theory that helps students in the classroom process information. 

            Cues, questions, and advance organizers at the beginning of lessons help to establish those maps, activating prior knowledge and creating a home for new knowledge.  Cues give hints as to what is coming, questions allow teachers to discover what students already know, and advanced organizers serve to draw attention to important ideas to come and highlight main concepts to which students may already be able to relate (Pittler, Hubbell, & Kuhn, 2012, p. 91).  When a teacher clarifies what a class’s focus is, asks inferential questions that allow students to elaborate their thinking and knowledge, and uses graphic organizers that appeal to more than just linguistics, deeper learning can occur (Pittler et al., 2012, p. 92).  Establishing a route or a plan ahead of time allows the students to enjoy the ride and make better connections to what they know and what they are learning as they process information.  Using graphic organizers, especially those with pictures in addition to just maps, allows for dual coding to take place in the brain, a hypothesis that Paivio introduced suggesting that people remember content better if it comes associated with an image; these connections allow us to store more information in our long-term memory (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010a).  Resources such as PowerPoint, Prezi, or Google Docs allow teachers to do this with technology, and concept mapping tools allow boxes or nodes to better connect ideas and create networks.

            The use of this idea of mapping continues with summarizing and note taking as students synthesize information.  Just like with maps and directions, some people like to see them, hear them, write them out, or drive the route themselves.  Providing students with a variety of ways to summarize and take notes will help them better and more deeply process the information they are receiving.  Combination notes allow for several techniques at once: outlining, webbing, pictographs, and words (Pittler et al., 2012, p. 151).  These combined facets allow for dual coding which appeals to multiple senses and allows learners to process more (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010a).  Completing teacher-made outlines allows students to organize declarative information.  Brainstorming what they know about a concept at the beginning of a lesson helps them establish a platform on which to add, and summarizing allows them to think critically and evaluate what they are learning, reflecting on how it connects to what they know.   Adding a virtual field trip, an experience that creates an episode which is part of the cognitive learning theory process, can further engage students and deepen their learning.  Here, too, students can engage in critical thinking and evaluate, store, and connect ideas they see and experience (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010b).  Mapping and summarizing are good ways to check for student comprehension, as well. Students demonstrate their knowledge in a clear, direct manner and teachers can just as clearly clarify any misconceptions or “wrong turns.” 

            Taking a mental road trip means establishing a plan or map and guiding students to a destination.  They will be a part of experiences along the way, and they are engaged with their learning through visuals such as pictures and graphic organizers, auditory information from questions, presentations, or videos, and through written words that allow them attach new information to pre-existing knowledge in a way that will process new, short-term memory into older long-term memory that will last as a solid foundation of education. 

References

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011a). Program five: Cognitive learning theory [Video

        webcast]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and technology. Retrieved from

        http://laureate.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=5700267&CPURL=laureate.ecol

        lege.com&Survey=1&47=2594577&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=0&bhcp=1

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011b). Program six: Spotlight on technology: Virtual field

        trips [Video webcast]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and technology. Retrieved from

        http://laureate.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=5700267&CPURL=laureate.ecol

        lege.com&Survey=1&47=2594577&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=0&bhcp=1

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E. R., & Kuhn, M. (2012). Using technology with classroom instruction that

            works (2^nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD