The article “Cognitive Apprenticeship as an Instruction Model,” uses two fourth grade classrooms, Ms. Beauchamp’s and Ms. Reed’s, at Cedars Elementary covering the topic of the Great Depression as a way to explain cognitive apprenticeship.
Cognitive apprenticeship practices, along with anchored instruction, learning communities, and in-situ assessment, are educational approaches derived from Situated Learning Theory. “Cognitive apprenticeship methods try to enculturate students into authentic practices through activity and social interaction in a way similar to that evident in craft apprenticeship,” as described by Brown, Collins & Duguid. Interestingly, apprenticeship is an old and well-established model for learning. Before schools appeared, apprenticeship was the most common means of learning and was used to transmit the knowledge required for expert practice in fields from painting and sculpting to medicine and law.
Cognitive apprenticeship seeks to engage learners in real-world scenarios in which they act and interact to achieve useful outcomes. The workplace has a number of strengths as a learning environment: authentic, goal-oriented activities; access to guidance; everyday engagement in problem solving; and intrinsic reinforcement. Cognitive apprenticeship is one example of situated learning in which learners participate in a community of practice that is developed through activity and social interaction in ways similar to that in craft apprenticeships.
Beyond striving to engage learners in activity in real-world situations, meaningful contexts, cognitive apprenticeship is known to embody certain characteristics known as modeling, coaching, scaffolding, reflection, articulation, and exploration.
Modeling in cognitive apprenticeship means showing how a process unfolds and giving reasons why it happens that way. There are two kinds of modeling that can be used in education: 1) modeling of expert performance and 2) modeling of processes in the world. The major responsibilities of the teacher during the modeling stage of cognitive apprenticeship are structuring situations of expert practice and demonstrating the expert’s thinking process in a manner that does not overwhelm the students.
A key component of cognitive apprenticeship is that students learn the cognitive processes in realistic contexts so that they may process their thoughts accordingly in actual situations.
Coaching and scaffolding are two critical components of the cognitive apprenticeship model. These elements are addressed together because they share many characteristics. Some researchers call coaching “the thread running through the entire apprenticeship experience.” Scaffolding, while distinct from coaching, can actually be categorized as a type of coaching.
Although, it is considered a separate component of cognitive apprenticeship, coaching has as much in common with the process of scaffolding. Both involve a teacher providing some type of assistance to a learner to facilitate attainment of a goal. Some researchers call coaching “the process of overseeing the student’s learning. The goal of coaching can be simply summarized as the learner accomplishes the learning goal.
There are six characteristics of the cognitive apprenticeship model, scaffolding if perhaps the best known. Scaffolding is all about a supporting framework. A scaffold is a structure that supports students while they work at a level higher than their ability allows without assistance. There are six elements of scaffolding: the sharing of a specific goal, a whole-task approach, the immediate availability of help, providing an optimal level of help and the conveying of an expert model.
Articulation and reflection are two more components of cognitive apprenticeship practices. They often go hand-in-hand. In terms of cognitive apprenticeship, articulation is described as consisting of two aspects: separating component knowledge and skills to learn them more effectively and, more common verbalizing or demonstrating knowledge and thinking processes in order to expose and clarify them. The goal of reflection is that students have guided opportunities to look back and analyze their individual and group performance and artifacts with an eye toward understanding and improvement.
Exploration in cognitive apprenticeship is pushing students to try out their hypotheses, methods, and strategies with processes similar to those that experts use to solve problems. Students are usually engaged in two kinds of exploration: 1) exploration of the world and 2) exploration of problem solving processes. Through exploration, learners are encouraged to carry out expert problem solving processes on their own.
Cognitive apprenticeship has both opportunities and challenges, as do most educational models. I think if enough thought and time are put into using the strategies challenges can be overcome and cognitive apprenticeship can be very beneficial.
Monday, April 2, 2007
Review of IP model article
The article “Information Processing,” discusses information processing (IP) as a cognitive theory and explains the three components of IP. The information processing theory seeks to explain how the mind functions. Most emphasis is places upon understanding how information is processed rather than how learning happens.
The basic information processing model has three components: sensory register (SR), short term memory (STM), and the long-term memory (LTM).
The best understood of the sensory registers (SRs) are for hearing (echoic) and seeing (iconic). Very little is known about the tactile (touch), olfactory (smell), and gustatory (tastes) sensory regulators. Each memory stage has four attributes: representation, capacity, duration, and cause of forgetting. For the visual sensory register, representation is iconic—limited to the field of vision and lasts for about 250 milliseconds. The main cause of forgetting is decay. Representation in the auditory register is echoic; it is limited to the sounds we actually can hear.
Short term memory (STM) is also known as working memory, and is where consciousness exists. Short term memory is where the world meets what is already known, and where thinking is done. You perceive and attend to stimuli: that information is then actively processed based on information stored in long term memory (LTM). The characteristics of this memory stage are that the representation is echoic, it is limited to 5-9 items, and it lasts only about 20 seconds. Interference is the principal cause of forgetting.
The final stage in the information processing model is long term memory (LTM), which is typically termed call memory. Long term memory is everything we know and know how to do. Long term memory can be categorized as one of three types of memory: declarative, procedural or episodic. Declarative knowledge can be defined as knowledge needed to complete this sentence. “Knowing that…” By contrast, procedural knowledge is, “Knowing how…” These two types of knowledge account for what is learned in work and school. The remaining type of knowledge is episodic which might also be called anecdotal. This is memory for specific events in one’s life.
Pavio has asserted that memory for images differ from memory for words. He offers dual coding hypothesis asserting that when we see an image, both the image and a label for that image are stored in memory. Others have suggested that there are mechanisms that control thinking and learning. These control processes are called metacognition. Metacognition often takes the form of strategies. These strategies indicate an executive function…that involve planning for learning, thinking about the learning process as it is taking place, monitoring…and evaluating learning. Metacognitive strategies might include using advance organizers, self-planning, self-monitoring, and self-evaluation.
Cognitive strategies are more task-specific, and often refer to “direct manipulation of the learning material itself. Examples of cognitive strategies are note-taking, repetition, guessing meaning from context, or using mnemonic devices. Socioaffective strategies refer to strategies that use association with or input from teachers or peers.
In order for information to get into the long term memory, the learner must be actively engaged with the material that is to be learned. This implies that learners should be actively relating this new piece of information to other ideas that they already know. Failure to remember information does not mean that is has been forgotten; it is merely the procedure for retrieval has been forgotten. More pathways to that piece of information should be created through elaboration. Therefore if the information is found, if has not been forgotten.
The basic information processing model has three components: sensory register (SR), short term memory (STM), and the long-term memory (LTM).
The best understood of the sensory registers (SRs) are for hearing (echoic) and seeing (iconic). Very little is known about the tactile (touch), olfactory (smell), and gustatory (tastes) sensory regulators. Each memory stage has four attributes: representation, capacity, duration, and cause of forgetting. For the visual sensory register, representation is iconic—limited to the field of vision and lasts for about 250 milliseconds. The main cause of forgetting is decay. Representation in the auditory register is echoic; it is limited to the sounds we actually can hear.
Short term memory (STM) is also known as working memory, and is where consciousness exists. Short term memory is where the world meets what is already known, and where thinking is done. You perceive and attend to stimuli: that information is then actively processed based on information stored in long term memory (LTM). The characteristics of this memory stage are that the representation is echoic, it is limited to 5-9 items, and it lasts only about 20 seconds. Interference is the principal cause of forgetting.
The final stage in the information processing model is long term memory (LTM), which is typically termed call memory. Long term memory is everything we know and know how to do. Long term memory can be categorized as one of three types of memory: declarative, procedural or episodic. Declarative knowledge can be defined as knowledge needed to complete this sentence. “Knowing that…” By contrast, procedural knowledge is, “Knowing how…” These two types of knowledge account for what is learned in work and school. The remaining type of knowledge is episodic which might also be called anecdotal. This is memory for specific events in one’s life.
Pavio has asserted that memory for images differ from memory for words. He offers dual coding hypothesis asserting that when we see an image, both the image and a label for that image are stored in memory. Others have suggested that there are mechanisms that control thinking and learning. These control processes are called metacognition. Metacognition often takes the form of strategies. These strategies indicate an executive function…that involve planning for learning, thinking about the learning process as it is taking place, monitoring…and evaluating learning. Metacognitive strategies might include using advance organizers, self-planning, self-monitoring, and self-evaluation.
Cognitive strategies are more task-specific, and often refer to “direct manipulation of the learning material itself. Examples of cognitive strategies are note-taking, repetition, guessing meaning from context, or using mnemonic devices. Socioaffective strategies refer to strategies that use association with or input from teachers or peers.
In order for information to get into the long term memory, the learner must be actively engaged with the material that is to be learned. This implies that learners should be actively relating this new piece of information to other ideas that they already know. Failure to remember information does not mean that is has been forgotten; it is merely the procedure for retrieval has been forgotten. More pathways to that piece of information should be created through elaboration. Therefore if the information is found, if has not been forgotten.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Review of article on Piaget and Cognitive Development
All of my life in psychology classes, I have heard of Piaget and his theory of cognitive development. Piaget's research on cognitive development greatly contributes to the understanding of the development of learning in children. The article discussed four of Piaget's concepts that apply to learning at any age: assimilation, accommodation, equilibration and schemas.
Piaget believed there were two major principle guides to intellectual growth and biological development. Those are adaptation and organization. First, for an individual to survive in an environment, he or she must adapt. There are two parts to the adaptation process: assimilation and accommodation. Piaget believed that human beings process mental structures that assimilate external events. These mental structures accommodate themselves constantly changing aspects of the external environment. Assimilation occurs when a child perceives new objects or events in terms of existing schemas or operations. Piaget emphasized the functional quality of assimilation, where children and adults tend to apply any mental structure that is available to assimilate a new event, and activity to use this newly acquired mental structure. Also, Piaget believed that cognitive development in children is contingent on four factors: biological maturation, experience with the physical environment, experience with the social environment and equilibration. Equilibration refers to the biological drive to produce an optimal state of equilibrium between people's cognitive structures and their environment. Equilibration is an attempt to bring about a state of equilibrium between the first three factors and the reality associated with one's external environment. This state must be present for cognitive development to take place.
Human beings continually attempt to make sense of the world around them by assimilating necessary information into pre-existing mental schemas and accommodating thought processes as necessary. This effort to maintain a balance, denoted by equilibration, allows for cognitive development and effective thought processes.
Piaget defined schema as the mental representation of an associated set of perceptions, ideas and/or actions. Piaget considered schemata to be the basic building blocks of thinking. As cognitive development proceeds, new schemata are developed and existing schemata are more efficiently organized to better adapt to the environment. Cognitive development becomes evident through changes in behavior as this adaptation takes place.
Cognitive development is a complex process comprising three principal concepts affecting the development process: assimilation, accommodation and equilibration. All three are associated with the formation of the schemata and their modification in order to attain a balanced sense of understanding of the external world.
Piaget believed there were two major principle guides to intellectual growth and biological development. Those are adaptation and organization. First, for an individual to survive in an environment, he or she must adapt. There are two parts to the adaptation process: assimilation and accommodation. Piaget believed that human beings process mental structures that assimilate external events. These mental structures accommodate themselves constantly changing aspects of the external environment. Assimilation occurs when a child perceives new objects or events in terms of existing schemas or operations. Piaget emphasized the functional quality of assimilation, where children and adults tend to apply any mental structure that is available to assimilate a new event, and activity to use this newly acquired mental structure. Also, Piaget believed that cognitive development in children is contingent on four factors: biological maturation, experience with the physical environment, experience with the social environment and equilibration. Equilibration refers to the biological drive to produce an optimal state of equilibrium between people's cognitive structures and their environment. Equilibration is an attempt to bring about a state of equilibrium between the first three factors and the reality associated with one's external environment. This state must be present for cognitive development to take place.
Human beings continually attempt to make sense of the world around them by assimilating necessary information into pre-existing mental schemas and accommodating thought processes as necessary. This effort to maintain a balance, denoted by equilibration, allows for cognitive development and effective thought processes.
Piaget defined schema as the mental representation of an associated set of perceptions, ideas and/or actions. Piaget considered schemata to be the basic building blocks of thinking. As cognitive development proceeds, new schemata are developed and existing schemata are more efficiently organized to better adapt to the environment. Cognitive development becomes evident through changes in behavior as this adaptation takes place.
Cognitive development is a complex process comprising three principal concepts affecting the development process: assimilation, accommodation and equilibration. All three are associated with the formation of the schemata and their modification in order to attain a balanced sense of understanding of the external world.
Review of article on Bloom's Taxonomy
After reading "Bloom's Taxonomy: Original and Revised," I feel more enlightented and have a better understanding of thinking and learning. The article addresses the question, "where do we begin seeking to improve human thinking?" One website responds with "One place to begin is in defining the nature of thinking. Before we can make it better, we need to know more of what it is." In fact, learning, teaching, identifying educational goals, and thinking are all complicated concepts interwoven in an intricate web.
The basis of this article is Benjamin S. Bloom's Taxonomy and it's revision by one of his former students, Lori Anderson.
Benjamin Bloom made the inprovement of student learning the central focus of his life's work. In 1948, Bloom led a group of educators in the task of classifying educational goals and objectives. This group's main purpose was to develop a method of classification for thinking behaviors believed to be an important part in the process of learning. The result was the taxonomy.
Bloom's taxonomy consists of three domains: the cognitive-knowledge based domain, the affective-attitudinal based domain and the psychomotor-skills based domain.
The word "taxonomy" confused me in the beginning but later in the article it is explained as being synonymous with "classification." Bloom's taxonomy is a multi-tiered model of classifying thinking according to six cognitive levels of complexity. Teachers have used the levels as ways of encouraging their students to climb to a higher level of thought. In Bloom's taxonomy, the lowest three levels are: analysis, synthesis and evaluation. Each level of the taxonomy is subsumed by the higher levels. A student functioning at the "application" level has already acconplished the material at the "knowledge" and "comprehension" level. In my opinion, it is sort of like building blocks, using what you already have learned to move on to a higher level and more complicated material.
In the 1990's, one of Bloom's former students, Lori Anderson revised the taxonomy to fit the 21st century. She wanted it to relate to today's students and teachers. The changes she and the team made came in three categories: terminology, structure and emphasis. Anderson and her team changed Bloom's six major categories from noun to verb form. Knowledge was renamed remembering, comprehension was renamed understanding and synthesis was renamed creating. Bloom's original was a one-dimensional form, the revised taxonomy takes the form of a two-dimensional table. One dimension is the Knowledge dimension and the second is the Cognitive Process dimension. The change in emphasis is placed upon its use as a more authentic tool for curriculum planning, instructional delivery and assessment.
Bloom's taxonomy is used by teachers to measure their students' ability accurately. The taxonomy has been applied to a variety of situations, but the educational setting (K-graduate) remains the most often used application.
The basis of this article is Benjamin S. Bloom's Taxonomy and it's revision by one of his former students, Lori Anderson.
Benjamin Bloom made the inprovement of student learning the central focus of his life's work. In 1948, Bloom led a group of educators in the task of classifying educational goals and objectives. This group's main purpose was to develop a method of classification for thinking behaviors believed to be an important part in the process of learning. The result was the taxonomy.
Bloom's taxonomy consists of three domains: the cognitive-knowledge based domain, the affective-attitudinal based domain and the psychomotor-skills based domain.
The word "taxonomy" confused me in the beginning but later in the article it is explained as being synonymous with "classification." Bloom's taxonomy is a multi-tiered model of classifying thinking according to six cognitive levels of complexity. Teachers have used the levels as ways of encouraging their students to climb to a higher level of thought. In Bloom's taxonomy, the lowest three levels are: analysis, synthesis and evaluation. Each level of the taxonomy is subsumed by the higher levels. A student functioning at the "application" level has already acconplished the material at the "knowledge" and "comprehension" level. In my opinion, it is sort of like building blocks, using what you already have learned to move on to a higher level and more complicated material.
In the 1990's, one of Bloom's former students, Lori Anderson revised the taxonomy to fit the 21st century. She wanted it to relate to today's students and teachers. The changes she and the team made came in three categories: terminology, structure and emphasis. Anderson and her team changed Bloom's six major categories from noun to verb form. Knowledge was renamed remembering, comprehension was renamed understanding and synthesis was renamed creating. Bloom's original was a one-dimensional form, the revised taxonomy takes the form of a two-dimensional table. One dimension is the Knowledge dimension and the second is the Cognitive Process dimension. The change in emphasis is placed upon its use as a more authentic tool for curriculum planning, instructional delivery and assessment.
Bloom's taxonomy is used by teachers to measure their students' ability accurately. The taxonomy has been applied to a variety of situations, but the educational setting (K-graduate) remains the most often used application.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
The argument of learners as digital natives and educators is one that is certainly valid. Speaking from the point of view of a digital immigrant wanting to be an educator, I know I must adapt and learn to speak the language and thinking mannerisms of the digital native.
Mr. Prensky makes several valid points in his articles. Today’s students do think and process information differently. They are used to receiving information really fast…immediately. Whereas, I would go to the library for information on a subject and possibly spend endless hours researching different books, journals, etc. for a project, a digital native would immediately go the Internet, spend half the time researching the same subject and probably have more current information. This, in my opinion, is natural instinct for the digital native.
Digital immigrant educators must accept the fact that students learn differently today. The entire learning environment, culture has rapidly changed in the last decade. Students spend more time in front of the television than reading a book. Methods that worked years ago are no longer valid. Some of the older methods may not even hold the digital natives attention because they find it slow and boring. Methods must be adjusted, the digital native will not adapt to the digital immigrants outdated methods. In my opinion, the best thing for the digital immigrant educators to do is to integrate and interact with the digital native students. In other words, take advantage of their technological knowledge. Let the students be an integral part of implementing the new language, methods and technology into the classroom. I’m not saying let the students take over the classroom, but learn from them what interests them, what methods hold their attention so that your content/concept can be learned faster…while at the same time, teaching the digital native good thinking skills.
Now, the creation of “edutainment”, I’m not so sure I agree with this idea. Video games are great, but they are just that…..games. I understand bringing the “mountain to Mohammed” but sometimes the mountain is too big to conquer and “Mohammed” may misuse the “mountain.” By this I mean, the digital native can get more caught up in playing the game rather than retaining the concept or content that the game is intended to teach.
As far as digital immigrants and digital natives thinking differently, I agree with that concept. However, I do not think it is because our brains are different. I think it is because of our life experiences and cultural environment. The ins and outs and goings on of the world of the digital native today is totally different than that of the world in which the digital immigrant was raised and educated.
Mr. Prensky, also, makes the point that the digital native has lost the ability to reflect…learn from experience. It is not that they do not reflect but life is so fast paced sometime there is just not time to reflect. It is up to the digital immigrant educator to figure out ways to implement reflection and critical thinking in their criteria. The lessons must be interesting enough to hold the digital natives attention but at the same time cover the concept in a way that it can be taught and learned quickly.
Mr. Prensky makes several valid points in his articles. Today’s students do think and process information differently. They are used to receiving information really fast…immediately. Whereas, I would go to the library for information on a subject and possibly spend endless hours researching different books, journals, etc. for a project, a digital native would immediately go the Internet, spend half the time researching the same subject and probably have more current information. This, in my opinion, is natural instinct for the digital native.
Digital immigrant educators must accept the fact that students learn differently today. The entire learning environment, culture has rapidly changed in the last decade. Students spend more time in front of the television than reading a book. Methods that worked years ago are no longer valid. Some of the older methods may not even hold the digital natives attention because they find it slow and boring. Methods must be adjusted, the digital native will not adapt to the digital immigrants outdated methods. In my opinion, the best thing for the digital immigrant educators to do is to integrate and interact with the digital native students. In other words, take advantage of their technological knowledge. Let the students be an integral part of implementing the new language, methods and technology into the classroom. I’m not saying let the students take over the classroom, but learn from them what interests them, what methods hold their attention so that your content/concept can be learned faster…while at the same time, teaching the digital native good thinking skills.
Now, the creation of “edutainment”, I’m not so sure I agree with this idea. Video games are great, but they are just that…..games. I understand bringing the “mountain to Mohammed” but sometimes the mountain is too big to conquer and “Mohammed” may misuse the “mountain.” By this I mean, the digital native can get more caught up in playing the game rather than retaining the concept or content that the game is intended to teach.
As far as digital immigrants and digital natives thinking differently, I agree with that concept. However, I do not think it is because our brains are different. I think it is because of our life experiences and cultural environment. The ins and outs and goings on of the world of the digital native today is totally different than that of the world in which the digital immigrant was raised and educated.
Mr. Prensky, also, makes the point that the digital native has lost the ability to reflect…learn from experience. It is not that they do not reflect but life is so fast paced sometime there is just not time to reflect. It is up to the digital immigrant educator to figure out ways to implement reflection and critical thinking in their criteria. The lessons must be interesting enough to hold the digital natives attention but at the same time cover the concept in a way that it can be taught and learned quickly.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
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