Content Mapping

Cognitive Learning

In my eyes, cognitive learning is about enabling people to learn by using their own minds. When the students can use their own abilities in order to problem solve, cognition is then occurring. It really seems to me that cognitive learning is based around teaching “real-life” applications of problems. When I was younger and a high school student I had trouble making connections as to why something was important or why something worked in the way that it did. Because of this, I now make sure to show my students what is connected to what we have learned and how to apply it.


This week’s learning resources connected to cognitive learning in a few different ways. When looking at the concept maps, I was thinking about something that I do in my classroom called KWL charts. They have to make a chart of what they Know, what they Want to learn and at the end what they Learned. Concept mapping could be a way of doing this as well, but just through electronic means. I have it a little tough because there are not many field trips for math fields, but the virtual field trips would definitely be an asset to other fields. It connected to cognitive learning because then instead of just hearing about something, they can then physically see what they are learning about.

Application 2: Behaviorist Theory

Behaviorist theory is something that Lever-Duffy and McDonald (2008) define as, “learning which is viewed as a response to external stimuli.” What this really means is that students learn through stimulus and response. Behaviorists also believe that students learn through rewards and punishments. Because of an action, they are either rewarded or punished and then the behavior is supposed to be corrected or reproduced. In this week’s learning resources, we read about ways to integrate technology into learning. Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, and Malenoski (2007) say that, “Homework and practice give students a chance to review and apply what they have learned.” Through homework and practice, the students can then really begin to understand the content and become more comfortable with the materials.




One way that this week’s learning resources correlate with the principles of the behaviorist learning theory is through tutorial instruction. Dr. Orey (2007) talked about how a quick tutorial online can begin a stimulus response for students to begin lesson work. In Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works, they showed a problem about parabolas that I could use in my classroom in order to show quadratic functions on the computer in Excel. Using this program in class could motivate the students to want to learn about it more because it is using technology as a stimulus to the unit. Using review games such as a PowerPoint are also a form of stimulus along with the rewards from winning the review games.



References:



Lever-Duffy, J. & McDonald, J. (2008). Theoretical Foundations (Laureate Education, Inc., custom ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.



Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.