As a teacher, when we teach concepts, information, processes, and everything else to students, our ultimate goal is that every student will learn and are successful. However, often times students ask, “Why do I have to go to school? Why do I have to learn this? Why is this important? As a child, I was one of those children who always wondered why I had to learn certain concepts and was what the teacher was teaching of any significance to me or anything I would do in my life. Now I am on the other side and I am the teacher and I have to answer those very same questions that I once had, for my students who often times wonder the same thing.
Throughout the last few days, my graduate school class has been learning about the cognitive theory and exactly what cognitivism is. While doing some additional research on the cognitivism learning theory, I found a website that described what cognitivism is exactly in two short words. Cognitivism is the “black box of the mind which should be opened and understood” (Learning Theories Knowledgebase, 2011). In this week’s video resources. Dr. Orey took a moment to explain that students must be able to “understand, retain, and recall information.” (Laureate, 2011). He goes on to say that “ideas must be connected to other ideas” to become long term memory. (Laureate, 2011). When we test students, our hope and goal is that the material we have taught has taught in that “black box” in their mind. We want them to be able to recall steps to solving a math problem or strategies to use when determining what the best answer is for a question on a reading selection. All the information that we teach should be taught in an effort to prepare each child for their future as an adult in the real world. We must teach them information that they will use to become successful and positive citizens who will contribute something to our world. Before they reach that point, however, they must learn and receive an education. We must teach them concepts that they will store in their “black box” and be able to retrieve when it is needed.
The tough question is how do we do that? How do we ensure that information we are teaching our students is being put into that “black box” in their mind? It must become long term memory as Dr. Orey discussed. I believe that for this to take place we must do as Dr. Orey said and we must make connections for students to be able to not only be engaged in the material but also see relevance to the reasoning behind why the information being presented is important. Virtual field trips not only allow students to experience things they may not get to experience otherwise, but it is also engaging and allows students to see the information being taught in a real world scenario. They are able to make a connection to something in real life and can then internalize the information being taught and store it in their mind. If we can use virtual field trips to create a link in their mind, a child can later recall the information much better than if we were to present the information through pure lecture or a worksheet. A virtual field trip would provide an intriguing visual that would enable the child to process the information on another level.
After learning more about virtual field trips and its importance in making connections with the learning experience, I foresee my classroom in using more virtual field trips to give students an opportunity to experience things that they will not experience otherwise. Incorporating virtual field trips will really bring a whole new level of engagement to my students because my students consist of a population that is in extreme poverty and have very little that they ever experience outside of school. Most of my students have never been to the neighboring county because they have no transportation. As a result, they definitely have no experience of going to a beach or even the movie theatre for most of them. Virtual field trips are extremely important and I definitely plan on using them a lot more! Hopefully with virtual field trips, my students will be able to make more connections or build an understanding for why the information being taught is important and how it is applied to real world scenarios.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010). Cognitive Learning Theories [Video webcast]. Bridging Learning Theory, Instruction, and Technology. Retrieved from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=6072034&Survey=1&47=8554320&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=1&bhcp=1
Learning Theories Knowledgebase (2011, November). Cognitivism at Learning-Theories.com. Retrieved November 15th, 2011 from http://www.learning-theories.com/cognitivism.html
Leonor,
ReplyDeleteYou posted an amazing post! I completely understand what you are saying about how we have to make sure as teachers that are students are fully learning the concept that we are trying to teach them. We don't want our students to just memorize facts for a short time and then lose the information. We have to make the connection so that they can recall the facts by connecting it to something they understand and know about.
You are absolutely right! The term "black box" really gave me a better understanding of cognitivsm. The black box is the most important part of an airplane and is the part that gives all the information about a plane. The brain works the same way and stores all the information. As teachers it is our job to present that information and make it meaningful and valuable enough for students to want to put into their own "black box".
ReplyDeleteYes, and I feel that a perfect way of doing this is adding fun to the assignment. Some of my most fond memories of school include the teacher making us do a play or completing some kind of project which was fun and allowed us to collaborate with peers. I think this way of learning is much more meaningful then paper and pencil work. Also I feel that making work competitive, i know it seems funny, but the kids really love competing against each other.
ReplyDeleteLeonor, you found a great analogy. The idea of the “black box” does not only serve as a descriptive resource but gives us teachers a challenging role in being able to reach our students’ deepest level of learning and understanding. I found your post really interesting and I´m sure that through virtual field trips you are going to be able to target what Dr. Orey refers as episodic memory. From what I have experienced using virtual field trips is a perfect combination between motivation, attention, discovery and information. In this week´s application I also realized that using them as a source of information that later has to be synthetized through strategies like concept maps is a great reinforcement for long term memory storage of meaningful information. In previous occasions I had worked virtual field trips having them closed with a more narrative resource. With tools like SpiderScribe students were able to write and at the same look for familiar images and even locations to be included into the map. Next week groups are going to expose their maps to the whole class so I am hoping I can evidence they have acquired a larger comprehension of the topic. I´m looking forward to see what happens.
ReplyDeleteTricia I agree that students learn more and develop memories of school more and enjoy it because of the fun connections we make that make it a memorable experience. Maria, I agree with you. I too found a tremendous impact on how concept mapping adds much more depth to the content that is being taught.
ReplyDelete