Introduction to Cognitive theories of Learning

1. Introduction to Cognitive theories of Learning Understanding Learning:MOD001256

2. Learning Objectives By the end of the session, you will: • Review some of the research of the cognitivist learning theorists: Piaget, Vygotsky and Bruner. • Consider how cognitivist learning approaches are used currently in a range of learning contexts and settings.

3. Cognitivist theory • Learning is an internal process, associating previous knowledge with new information, and organising knowledge and reinforcing memories • Input (Attention) receiving information • Process (Encoding) Translating information into a meaningful form which can be remembered • Output (Retrieval) identifying and recalling information for a particular purpose • Learning is a meaning making process where individuals CONSTRUCT their own meaning of experiences.

4. Cognitivist theory • Learning is a search for meaning. • Meaning requires understanding of ‘wholes’ as well as parts. • Teachers need to understand the mental models students use and the assumptions they make. • Students have to construct their own meaning rather than memorise the ‘right’ answers. • Assessment has to be part of the learning process.

5. Timeline J. Piaget (1896-1980) [active 1920’s – 1970’s] L. Vygotsky (1896–1934) [active 1920’s – 1930’s, but translations influenced mainly in 1960’s – 1970’s] J. Bruner (1915) [active 1950’s – 1990’s]

6. Jean Piaget (1896-1980) • Swiss, natural scientist: biologist and epistemologist (the theory of knowledge). • Best known for his research on children’s cognitive development. • Interested in how children learnt and their increasing capacity to understand the world through the process of maturation (growing up). • Studied children from infancy to adolescence (including his own) through observation and setting exercises and tests for the children to complete.

7. Jean Piaget (1896-1980) • Vygotsky (1986 [first pub. 1936], p.12) on Piaget: • ‘Psychology owes a great deal to Jean Piaget. It is not an exaggeration to say that he revolutionized the study of the child’s speech and thought. He developed the clinical method for exploring children’s ideas that has since been widely used. He was the first to investigate the child’s perception and logic systematically; moreover, he brought to his subject a fresh approach of unusual amplitude and boldness.’

8. Jean Piaget (1896-1980) Key areas to Piaget’s Cognitive Theory • Schema – innate and acquired. • Children are actively engaged in the learning process. • Changing cognitive structures: equilibrium, assimilation and accommodation. • Developmental stages of children which are age defined.

9. Schema • Understanding and knowledge of the world. • How you make sense of and categorise knowledge. • Representations in the mind of a set of perceptions, ideas, objects and actions. • Schemas can be acquired/learnt or innate (e.g. reflex). • Schemas are not fixed but develop with experience. • For example, part of an 8 months old baby’s schematic knowledge is that when a rattle is shook, it will make a noise.

10. Cognitivists to Constructivists Understanding Learning Week 4

11. Assimilation, accommodation and equilibrium • Assimilation • “…is the integration of external elements into evolving or completed structures” (Piaget, 1970, p.706) • “The process by which a person takes material into their minds from the environment”. (Atherton 2011) • Accommodation • “The difference made to one’s mind or concepts by the process of assimilation…. assimilation and accommodation go together: you can’t have one without the other.” (Atherton, 2011) • The adjustment or modification of schemas as new information is assimilated.

12. The Developing Brain to the Constructing Brain • Cognitivism • The growing and maturing brain able to engage with its environments • Constructivism • The child constructing its identity and understandings of its environments • Social constructivism • The child constructing its identity and understandings within her/his social environments

13. Assimilation, accommodation and equilibrium

14. Assimilation, accommodation and equilibrium • Equilibrium • “…is the force which drives the learning process, as we do not like to be frustrated and will seek to restore the balance by mastering new challenges…an unpleasant state of disequilibrium occurs when new information cannot be fitted into existing schemas.” (McLeod, 2012) • Equilibration is Piaget’s equivalent to the notion of ‘motivation’ • http://www.simplypsychology.org/piaget.html

15. Jean Piaget - developmental stages • Sensorimotor Stage (Birth to 2 years) • Children: • Differentiate self from objects. • Develop knowledge of touch, smell, sight and taste. • Develop knowledge of object permanence – children recognise that objects exist even when they are no longer in their presence. • (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue8y-JVhjS0&feature=related)

16. Jean Piaget - developmental stages • 2. Pre-operational Stage (2 – 7 years) • Children learn to use language and to represent objects by words and images. • Their thinking is egocentric. They have difficulty taking the viewpoint of others. • Children have difficulty in adjusting to changes in appearances of matter – lack of conservation. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLj0IZFLKvg&feature=related

17. Jean Piaget - developmental stages • Concrete Operational Stage (7 – 11 years) • Children: • Can think logically about objects and events. • Can use logical rules to solve problems. • Objects can be ordered to features such as height, weight or speed. • Concept of conservation is developed and grasped. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMgb42EBpMc&feature=related

18. Jean Piaget - developmental stages • Formal operational stage (11 – 15 years) • Thinking becomes more flexible. • Children/teenagers can think logically about abstract concepts. • Thinking becomes more symbolic. For example: symbols can stand for numbers in Maths. What is Y in the sum 3 x X = Y, if X is 4? • Children/teenagers become concerned with the hypothetical and the future. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjJdcXA1KH8&feature=related

19. Jean Piaget – in practice • Learning should be child centred and tailored to meet the child’s readiness to learn. • Learning should be constructive and active. There should be an emphasis on practical activities. • The teacher is a facilitator rather than an instructor. • Materials and learning activities should help children to construct learning and to progress from discovery to discovery. • Gray and McBlain, 2012

20. Jean Piaget - Critiques • Piaget does not consider how factors such as environment and culture impact on children’s cognitive development and learning. • Piaget’s stages are too rigid. Children develop at different rates. Some will never attain the formal operation level or may not be asked to display this level of knowledge. • Piaget’s theory places less emphasis on the role of the teacher, where theorist such as Bruner and Vygotsky believe the role of the teacher is essential. • Criticism of the research methods use by Piaget: • The language used in tests was too complicated for the children to understand. (Meadows 1993) • Sample sizes were too small. They did not include a range of children from different cultures and also included Piaget’s own children (Calloway, 2001)

21. Social Constructivism Understanding Learning Week 5

22. Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) • Russian psychologist (originally studied law) – active in 1920’s & 1930’s. Came to influence Western researchers mainly in 1960’s and 1980’s when translations of his work became available • Much of his research is based on language learning in children.

23. Lev Vygotsky: Ideas • Key ideas/concepts: cognitive development is essentially a social process. • Thought development is determined by language. • Intellectual growth is contingent upon the development of the social key of language. • Social Development/Constructivist Theory • Definition: Social construction emphasizes the importance of culture and context in understanding what occurs in society and constructing knowledge based on this understanding (Pagram and McMahon, 1997) • Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

24. Lev Vygotsky: Social Development/Constructivist theory • Children do not develop in isolation but in a social world. • The child’s environment, age, culture and life experiences, social relationships and their interactions with other adults and children, need to be considered when reaching conclusions about children’s development. (socio-cultural influences) • Learning is based in real life experiences. Social and cultural interaction is vital for learning to take place.

25. Lev Vygotsky: Social Development/Constructivist theory • Language is essential to learning. It is the main means by which adults communicate and transmit information to children. • Children internalise language as thought and ‘inner speech’. Therefore, thought is the result of language. This is criticised by Fox (2001), who argued that if thought cannot exist without language, then until a child speaks; they must be devoid of thought.

26. Lev Vygotsky: Ideas • Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) • Learning is accelerated through the learner working with or the teaching of a ‘More Knowledgeable Other’ Source http://www.instructionaldesign.org/theories/social-development.html

27. Zone of Proximal Development • “…not a specific quality of the child, nor is it a specific quality of the educational setting or educators…it is… collaboratively produced in the interaction between the child and more knowledgeable others. The aim of the collaborative interaction is to lift the learner to become a ‘head taller’” (Vygotsky, 1978, p.102)

28. Jerome Bruner (1915) • American psychologist. Focused on schooling in 1950’s. Bruner believed the role, purpose and method of education should reflect the values of society. • Influenced by Vygotsky and the social constructivist approach to learning. Bruner was interested in how context and culture influenced learning.

29. Jerome Bruner - Key ideas: Three modes of learning • Bruner proposed they are three ways or modes of making sense of our world… • Enactive: actions • Muscle memory: a baby remembers how to shake a rattle, adult: how to type or drive a car. • Iconic: images and pictures • Information is stored as mental pictures. This is why diagram and images are useful to learning. • Symbolic: Information is stored as a code, symbols and language. • Symbols offer flexibility in that they can be manipulated, ordered and classified. They can also be used to describe and explain abstract information that cannot be explored through the enactive and iconic modes.

30. Jerome Bruner - Key ideas: • Constructivist • Learning is an active process. Learners construct new ideas/concepts based on current and previous learning. Bruner’s work supported discovery learning and children engaging in problem solving activities. • Smidt (2011, p. 10) comments, • “For Bruner, meaning has always been at the heart of any investigation into mind and cognition. When we talk of meaning we are talking about making sense of something, of understanding or comprehending it.”

31. Jerome Bruner - Key ideas: • Language • Language is important in learning, as it helps learners to develop thinking skills, to problem solve and to deal with abstract concepts. • Motivation • Learners need to be interested and motivated to learn. • Social learning • Bruner like Vygostsky emphasised the social nature of learning and felt adults should play an active role in children’s learning. The teacher role is to facilitate learning and to encourage and support children to learn. • Scaffolding • Complex tasks are broken down into smaller tasks for the child to achieve. The adult works along side the child offering support. The support is gradually reduced as learning takes place and the child can work independently.

32. Jerome Bruner - Key ideas: Spiral curriculum – This opposes Piaget’s stages of learning and his concept of readiness to learn. Bruner argued that: • Schools waste time trying to match the complexity of subject material to a child’s cognitive stage of development. • Children are held back by teachers as certain topics are seen as too difficult to understand.

33. Spiral Approach Different topics are studied more than once. Each time they are revisited, it is at a deeper and more complex level. ‘We begin with the hypothesis that any subject can be taught effectively in some intellectually honest form to any child at any stage of development.’ (Bruner, J., 1960, The Process of Learning, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press) Advantage: A spiral curriculum can help learners to link a topic to a range of concepts, as it is revisited. Criticism: Some learners may view the spiral approach as too repetitive. Image from: Neary, M., 2002, Curriculum Studies in Post-compulsory and Adult Education. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes Ltd

34. Cognitivist: key impacts on learning • Child/learner centred approach to teaching and learning: Discovery learning; Active learning; Inquiry based learning; Reciprocal learning. • Teacher as facilitator: Role is guiding/helping student to learn rather than transmission of information – zone of proximal development and scaffolding. • Education is shaped by Society: Alignment with values and belief systems

35. References • Atherton J. S., 2011. Learning and Teaching; Piaget's developmental theory. Accessed 5 October 2012 from: http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/piaget.htm • Calloway, W. R., 2001. Jean Piaget: A Most Outrageous Deception. New York: NOVA • Fox, R. 2001. Constructivism examined. Oxford Review of Education, 27, 1 23-35. • Gray, C. & MacBlain, S. 2012. Learning Theories in Childhood. London: Sage • McLeod, S., 2012. Jean Piaget. Accessed 2 October 2012 from: http://www.simplypsychology.org/piaget.html • Meadows, M., 1993. The Young Child as Thinker: The Cognitive Development and Acquisition of Cognition in Childhood. London: Routledge • Pagram, J. & McMahon, M. 1997. WeB-CD: An Interactive Learning Experience for Distance Education Students Studying Interactive Multimedia. Poster presented at ICCE97 International Conference on Computers in Education, Kuching, Malaysia, 2-6 December. • Piaget, J. P., 1970. Science of Education and the Psychology of the Child. New York: Orion. • Smidt, S., 2011. Introducing Bruner: A Guide for Practitioners and Students in Early Years Education. London: Routledge • Vygotsky, L. S. 1978 [first published together]. Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. • Vygotksy, L.S. 1986 [1934]. Thought and Language. Newly revised and edited by Alex Kozulin. Cambridge, Ma.: MIT Press.

36. Further reading & resources – check the Weblinks section on the VLE. • Cognitive Learning - general: • http://www.infed.org/biblio/learning-cognitive.htm • Piaget: • http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/piaget.htm • http://tip.psychology.org/piaget.html • http://www.simplypsychology.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/piaget.html • Vygotsky: • http://tip.psychology.org/vygotsky.html • http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/constructivism.htm#Vygotsky • http://www.simplypsychology.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/vygotsky.html • Bruner: • http://www.infed.org/biblio/learning-cognitive.htm • http://tip.psychology.org/bruner.html • http://www.infed.org/thinkers/bruner.htm • http://www.simplypsychology.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/bruner.html

37. Further reading: Cognitivist theorists Chapter 4 Cognitivist Theories in: Jarvis, P., Holford, J., Griffin, C., 2003. The Theory and Practice of Learning. 2nd edn. London: Routledge (E-book - library) Chapters 4, 5 & 7 in Gray, C. & MacBlain, S. 2012. Learning Theories in Childhood. London: Sage Publications Limited. pp.212-219 & pp. 225-233 in Barlett, S & Burton, D. 2012. Introduction to Education Studies. Third Edition. London: Sage Publishing Limited. pp. 37-62 & pp337-340 in Woolfolk, Hughes & Walkup. 2013. Psychology in Education. Second Edition. Harlow: Pearson