Well, it blog time again everyone! This week I am going to comment on the relationship and correlations between the cognitive learning theory and two teaching strategies; summarizing and note taking and advanced organizers. These two strategies present the students and the instructor with an opportunity to improve cognitivism and reach deeper levels of learning.
After reading the chapter Cues, Questions, and Advanced organizers in the text Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works, I was aware of the importance of organizers in the field of education. Many applications of technologies such as Word Processors, Spreadsheets and brainstorming software can be used to ask students to answer higher level thinking questions that lead to deeper levels of understanding. As the text emphases this can help students’ with their ability to use and organize information about multiple topics (Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K., 2007, pg. 73).
These forms of technology should be used to help students focus on what is important rather than what is unusual within a topic. These tools are very versatile and often times easy to use both for the instructor and the students. As an example a spreadsheet can be used to assist an instructor in quickly capturing student data and responses, and then turning those responses into usable data for the classroom (Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K., 2007, pg. 75).
A student’s ability to synthesize information and then to distill that information into a new format is one of the foundations of the learning theory. The ability to take notes and summarize is crucial for our students’ success in the work place and college on many levels. Students must be able to separate what is important from what is fluff quickly and concisely to be successful at the next level. The text stresses that to successfully summarize a student must delete information, substitute some information, and then keep the truly valuable information for later use (Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K., 2007, pg. 119). I find that as an English teacher I spend a lot of time instructing my students on how to take notes and summarize material in the proper fashion. Note taking and summarizing are a learning trait and practice truly makes perfect. I find that the best way to instruct students about note takeing is to stress the importance of finding their own best way to take notes. Each student is different and every students needs to find what works for them. I try to incorporate technology into my classroom to help my students with notes. I use guided notes and presentations to accommodate visual learnings. I rarely use verbatim notes which the text referenced as the least effective way to retain information. Note taking and summarizing is a staple of the cognitive learning theory in that it asks the students to find a deeper level of understanding within a certain topic. The students must make analysis, compare and contrast, and challenge the information they are presented with in order to select the most important pieces.
You bring up a very good point about how students need to incorporate or "assimilate" new knowledge into their pre-existing knowledge or "Schema" (Orey 2001). I wonder, however, how effective of an "external artifact" these notes and concept maps are to contribute to the constructionism format of learning. I do feel that the baseline of assimilation is evident when they have to come up with their own way of taking notes that works best for them. Maybe an extension project where they explain why their format of note taking works for them and how they are using their notes to support their knowledge growth, connections, and retention.
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