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COLLEGE REFORMS & TRAININGS, HED, PUNJAB
Introduction
Introduction
Cognitive skills are the fundamental skills used by the brain to think, learn, read, reason, remember, and pay attention. Working together, these skills help an individual process new information by taking that information and distributing it into the appropriate areas of the brain. When that certain information is later needed, the brain uses cognitive skills to retrieve back that information.
Each of the cognitive skills play an important part in processing new information. That means, if one of these skills are weak, no matter what kind of information is coming, grasping, retaining, or using that information is impacted. In fact, learning struggles are usually caused because of one or more weak cognitive skills.
By developing cognitive skills, the human brain works more quickly and efficiently and ensures that an individual understands and effectively processes new information.
Learning Objectives:
To think, give opinions, to understand, and to remember things that happened in students’ daily lives.
To encourage creative and critical thinking in problem solving.
To increase an individual’s knowledge.
To instill leadership and responsibility.
To make effective decisions.
This section will allow educators and students to comprehend the human brain’s abilities through three sub – themes:
Decision-Making
Problem Solving
Logic & Reasoning
Decision-Making
Decision-Making
Decision-making is the process of making a choice from a number of options and committing oneself to a future course of action. Using systematic decision-making process can help an individual make deliberate, thoughtful decisions. The following approaches will help an individual in making a satisfying alternative possible:
1. Identify the decision
2. Gather relevant information
3. Identify the alternatives
4. Weigh the evidence
5. Choose among alternatives
6. Take action
7. Review the decision and its consequences
The objectives behind decision-making are that students will be able to:
increase decision-making awareness
learn to use decision-making strategies
evaluate decisions and examine outcomes
reward themselves and learn from mistakes
Activity: DECISION EXERCISE
Material needed: paper and pen/pencil
Exercise: Using the instructions given below for “Decision Making Strategies” and “Things to Do,” discuss important decisions that you have made in the past. Think about those decisions that had good outcomes and compare with those that had poor outcomes. Discuss in terms of the differences between the two.
Good Outcomes:
Poor Outcomes:
Preparing for a decision:
The difference between you and someone who seems to succeed most of the time may just have a lot to do with preparation. People who habitually make bad decisions usually lack sufficient information, and make decisions based upon emotions or they may not be thinking clearly. Other causes may have to do with making spur of the moment decisions. Lastly, some people feel by not making a decision, they are prolonging the inevitable, not knowing that things not addressed can often get worse.
Things to do:
1. Obtain as much information about the issue as you can.
2. Analyze the available information—learn as much as you can
3. Decide if the risk is too high
4. Determine what the opportunities would be and their value
5. Seek counsel if needed. Discuss your ideas with someone who can be objective.
After the decision has been made:
Once you have followed the steps of preparation and you have made a carefully thought out decision, you must learn to live with the consequences of that decision. If there are things you can do to change it and you so desire, follow the steps of decision-making and decide how to proceed. Making good decisions up front brings good outcomes and the good outcomes are experienced as rewarding. The more you make sound decisions, the more pleased you will be with the outcomes. When we make hasty and bad decisions, the outcome tends to be less than desirable. However, when life throws us a curve ball and we make a bad decision, we may have to live with it. It is to our advantage, if we learn to accept the things that we cannot change. While we try to learn from our poor decisions, sometimes it takes us longer to change. We must be patient and remember, we are after all, only human!
Decision making strategies:
Things to consider when making that next big decision:
1. Decide whether or not you need to make a decision at this time.
2. Rule out illegal, dangerous, or unethical options that can lead to trouble.
3. Consider the advantages and the disadvantages of your decision.
4. Determine how your decision will affect others
5. Consider the advantages and the disadvantages of your decision.
6. View more than one solution to the dilemma; you may have overlooked some things.
7. Compare the costs and potential gains because of your decision.
8. Know that once a decision has been made there is often little that can be done to change it. 9. Remember, no decision is a decision!
10. Try to make decisions you can live with based upon your views and values.
11. Learn from your decisions: Know what went right and what went wrong, for the next time around.
Activity: WOULD YOU RATHER…
Material needed: paper and pen/pencil.
Allot students a specific amount of time (1 min per question) to solve the worksheet.
Example:
Choose a suitable answer.
1. Would you rather have many good friends or one best friend?
2. Would you rather have more time or more money?
3. Would you rather forgive or forget?
4. Would you rather live in the past or the future?
5. Would you rather live without internet for a week, or not use a phone for a week?
6. Would you rather read a book or watch a movie?
Debrief
Teachers can give more questions (at least 10) related to college, career, home, etc. and ask the students to discuss why these chose the relevant answers.
Problem Solving
Problem Solving
Problem solving is the act of defining a problem, determining its cause, identifying it, prioritizing it, and selecting alternative solutions and implementing them.
The benefits of acquiring problem-solving skills are:
Improved academic performance
Increased confidence
Establishing leadership mindset
Preparation for future careers
Activity: SURVIVAL
Material needed: paper and pen/pencil
Divide students into groups and give them a situation they need to solve.
For example:
You and your friends are stranded in the college classroom. The doors are locked and breaking down the doors and windows is not an option. You have 30 minutes to decide on 10 different items you can use for survival and rank them in order of importance.
Write down your analysis here:
Activity: WHAT WILL YOU DO?
Material needed: paper and pen/pencil
Divide students into groups and give them a certain problem to solve. In this activity, however, students have to think of the dumbest ideas they have to solve the particular problem. Once they have made a list of all the possible dumb ideas, they choose the least dumb one and shape it into an effective solution for the problem.
For example:
You have an exam at 8:00 am. You woke up at 7:30 am and missed the bus. You take at least 10 minutes to get ready and the college is 15 minutes away. College gates close exactly at 7:55am. Your options are your bike, which is low on petrol and the petrol station is 5 minutes away, or a taxi, which will take 5-7 minutes to reach your home. What and how can you reach college before 8:00 am?
Write down your plan here:
Debrief
Once students have given their solutions for the problem, paste the solutions on the whiteboard or pin them on to the soft board. Get the students to read out their solution and discuss how they reached to this solution step by step. Allow them to clarify their thinking process while they were coming to this solution. Teacher may also put himself or herself and discuss their solution with the students. This will help the whole class understand how one can develop thinking patterns before reaching a solution for any specific problem.
Logic and Reasoning
Logic and Reasoning
Logic is the systematic study of correct reasoning, especially regarding making inferences. Whereas reason refers to the power of the mind to think, understand, and form judgements logically.
In the context of a given problem, students will be able to do the following by mastering logic and reasoning:
Identify the assumptions needed to analyze the problem
Identify the relevant information presented in the problem
Identify alternative solutions to the problem
Derive solutions or discuss the best solution to the problem
Discuss the conclusions that follow from the solutions
Activity: CRITICAL ANALYSIS MCQs
1. Ahmed, Ali, and Ahsan are 3 brothers. If the following statements are all true, which of them is the youngest.
Ahmed is the oldest. Ahsan is not the oldest. Ali is not the youngest.
o Ahmed
o Ali
o Ahsan
o Both Ali and Ahsan
2. D lives between B and F. E and A live on successive floors. B lives on the topmost floor. There is exactly one person between C and E. There are exactly two people between F and G. Who lives on the 7th floor?
o D
o F
o A
o B
o G
3. Below given are a series of 5 numbers.
446 362 576 495 241
If the middle digit in all the numbers are removed, then which of the following will be minimum?
o 446
o 362
o 576
o 495
o 241
Debrief
Once students have finished their analysis, get them to read it out to the class and discuss how they came up with the relevant inquiry: allow them to clarify their thinking process. Teacher may also provide answers to the questions. This will help the whole class to get a grip on how to critically analyze certain situations.
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