Unit Three
COGNITIVISM
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Cognitivism, as a learning theory, focuses on the concept of how the mind of learners retrieves new information, organizes, and stores it (Ertmer & Newby, 2013). In contrast to behaviorism, which focuses on behavior from a stimulus-response perspective, cognitivism emerged as scholars began to reject behaviorist theory, which concentrates solely on results from reinforcement or punishment. Cognitivism emphasizes how people’s minds work in processing and transforming new information.
RESEARCHERS
John Piaget
(1896-1980)
Piaget developed the theory of cognitive development and proposed four stages of cognitive development, which are: the sensorimotor, pre-operational, concrete operational, and formal operational (Longe, 2016). Piaget’s work was focused on understanding how cognitive abilities develop over time.
Sensory motor stage(0-2years)- Infants learn through their senses, motor reflexes, and response.
Preoperational stage (2-7 years)- Children acquire the ability to represent ideas and engage with imagination.
Concrete Operational stage (7-11) - Children can think logically to process information and acknowledge others' points of view.
Formal Operational ( 7years +) - Children can think logically and abstractly (Clark, 2018).
Vygotsky (1896-1934)
Vygotsky, through his sociocultural theory, emphasized that social interaction plays a fundamental role in cognitive development. He believed that learners internalize knowledge and skills through social interactions with others. (Ivich, 2004).
Vygotsky's key ideas were:
Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) - It refers to the gap between what a learner can do independently and what they can accomplish with guidance or support from someone more knowledgeable (Miller, 2011).
Scaffolding- It refers to the temporary support provided to learners by someone more knowledgeable, such as teachers. The support is then gradually removed as learners become more confident and competent in completing the task (Miller, 2011).
Vygotsky believed that cognitive development is heavily influenced by interactions with more knowledgeable others, like parents, teachers, or peers.
Jerome Bruner
(1915-2016)
Jerome emphasized discovery learning. He believed there are three stages to the occurrence of cognitive development, which are enactive, iconic, and symbolic (Watnick,2018). His cognitive development approach to curriculum led to the development of a spiral curriculum (Pound, 2005).
Albert Bandura (1925-2021)
He proposed observational learning, which explains how children can learn new behaviors by watching others or imitating their behavior. He shared the idea of how behavior, thoughts, emotions, and the environment influence one another (Bandura, 2022).
Connection to Teaching and Learning.
Cognitivism has significantly impacted teaching and learning by emphasizing how learners process and store information in their brains.
Jerome Bruner’s discovery learning helps learners activate prior knowledge before introducing new information.
Vygotsky’s use of scaffolding guides learners to become confident and self-reliant. It also assists teachers on how to best guide learners to become confident and independent.
Piaget’s theory sheds light on how learners’ developmental stages and their engagement with their environment influence their learning.
Bandura’s observational learning enables learners to reflect on what they have observed and integrate it into new information. Cognitivism, therefore, emphasizes a learner-centered approach rather than a teacher-centered one for an effective teaching and learning process.
Implications for Instructional Design
The impact of cognitivism on instructional design is to guide designers to prioritize learners, using guiding principles to create and organize engaging experiences that help learners connect new information with their existing knowledge for effective learning (Clark, 2018).
Strengths and Limitations in
K-12 Education.
As an educator, I believe the strength of cognitivism relies solely on helping students in K-12 education to focus on mental processes, rather than memorizing concepts, to help them understand the material. The strengths of cognitivism include:
Encourages effective and meaningful learning using scaffolding to help students relate new knowledge to prior knowledge.
prioritizes learning based on learners' developmental stage and their engagement with their environment (Longe,2016).
The power of self-reflection in children to believe they can succeed in a specific task motivates their learning process. (Froman, 1987).
Limitations.
The concept of cognitivism is teacher-centered (Clark, 2018). This can lead to high concentration on content structure and can therefore lead to cognitive overload for learners that are yet to develop the mental capacity to navigate complex content. Cognitivism focuses on learners' mental processes such as memory, perception, and problem-solving, but lays less emphasis on social factors that strongly influence learning and motivation.
COGNITIVE LOAD THEORY
COGNITIVE LOAD THEORY
John Sweller developed cognitive load theory in the 1980s (Clark et.al, 2006). Cognitive load theory is a universal set of learning principles that focuses on the limitations of working memory and how the brain processes information during learning. Cognitive load theory provides instructional guidelines for professionals to implement with the understanding of why the guidelines work. There are three types of Cognitive load theory:
Intrinsic load- It primarily focuses on the complexity of the material naturally, for example, the mental effort needed to understand the variables and their relationships in a math equation.
Germane (Relevant load)- It refers to the cognitive effort imposed by instructional activities needed to understand new information for a better learning outcome. (Clark et.al,2006).
Extraneous (irrelevant) load- It focuses on how irrelevant mental resources are to learning goals, which results in the wastage of limited cognitive resources. For example, the use of confusing and illogical instructional materials during an arithmetic class can lead to content overload, which is ineffective for a positive learning experience.
INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIAL
Material Overview
It simplifies the information on each learning theory for understanding by reducing the Intrinsic load.
It utilized mental resources to reduce the use of irrelevant resources(Extraneous load).
The Germane load was increased by devising examples that allow learners to make sense of the information.
REFERENCES
REFERENCES
Ertmer, P. A., & Newby, T. J. (2013). Behaviorism, Cognitivism, Constructivism: Comparing Critical Features From an Instructional Design Perspective. Performance Improvement Quarterly, 26(2), 43–71. https://doi-org.ezproxy.umgc.edu/10.1002/piq.21143
Cognitivism. (2022). In J. L. Longe (Ed.), The Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology (4th ed., Vol. 1, pp. 233-234). Gale. https://link-gale-com.ezproxy.umgc.edu/apps/doc/CX8273700160/GVRL? u=umd_umuc&sid=bookmark-GVRL&xid=2a46d8ba
Clark, K. R. (2018). Learning Theories: Cognitivism. Radiologic Technology, 90(2), 176–179.
Ivich, I. (2024). Lev S. Vygotsky (1896 – 1934). Kulʹturno-Istoricheskai͡a︡ Psikhologii͡a, 20(1), 68–76. https://doi.org/10.17759/chp.2024200110
Watnick, B. (2018). Education Today : Issues, Policies & Practices. Salem Press.
Febrianti, Dewi Netta, & Purwaningrum, Jayanti Putri. (2021). Jerome Bruner’s Theory of Learning to Improve Basic School Students’ Understanding of Numbers by Learning in Stage. Mathematics Education Journal, 5(1). https://doi.org/10.22219/mej.v5i1.15047
Pound, L. (2005). How Children Learn : From Montessori to Vygotsky - Educational Theories and Approaches Made Easy. Andrews UK.
Clark, Ruth Colvin, Nguyen, Frank, & Sweller, John. (2006). Efficiency in learning : evidence-based guidelines to manage cognitive load (1st edition). Jossey-Bass.
Froman, R. D. (1987). Correlates of Infant Care Self-Efficacy: A Study of Mothers and Nurses Perceptions (Order No. 31077545). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (3073206458). http://ezproxy.umgc.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/dissertations- theses/correlates-infant-care-self-efficacy-study/docview/3073206458/se-2
Ronald Miller. (2011). Vygotsky in Perspective. Cambridge University Press.
The art of personal growth. (2021, August). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAxAegfVd00
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