Cognitive Processes and Learning Strategies: Metacognition, Problem Solving, Creativity, and Critical Thinking

2. Chapter 7 Complex Cognitive Processes

3. Metacognition and Learning Strategies

4. Cognitive Processes • Lower-level processes • using basic facts, skills • Higher-level processes • doing something complex with information

5. Metacognition • Knowledge and beliefs about one’s own cognitive processes • develops over time • Greater metacognitive awareness = more likely to use effective strategies, have high achievement

6. Effective Learning Strategies • Overt strategies • taking notes • creating summaries • Covert strategies • identifying important information • regularly monitoring learning • self-explanation • self-questioning

7. Factors Affecting Strategy Use • The nature of the task • Recognition that current strategies are ineffective • Epistemic beliefs • Instruction and guidance on strategy use

8. Diversity, Disabilities, & Exceptional Abilities • Cultural differences in students’ epistemic beliefs • definition & purpose of learning • role of effort • learning strategies • Students with disabilities may need explicit instruction, scaffolding

9. Transfer

10. Knowledge Transfer • Positive transfer • something we’ve learned before helps us learn something new • Negative transfer • something we’ve learned before makes it harder for us to learn something new

11. Knowledge Transfer • Specific transfer • what we learned before overlaps with what we’re learning now • General transfer • learning in one situation affects learning and performance in somewhat dissimilar situation

12. Factors Affecting Transfer • Meaningfulness of original learning • Similarity to original learning • Material • principles, theories more easily transferred than discrete facts • Relevance • context-free material more easily transferred than context-bound • Cultural environment, expectations

13. Problem Solving

14. Problem Solving • Well-defined problems • clearly stated goals • information needed to solve problem is given • only one correct answer • Ill-defined problems • desired goal unclear • information needed to solve problem is missing • several possible solutions exist

15. Facilitating Effective Problem Encoding • Present problems in a concrete form. • Encourage students to make problems concrete for themselves. • Highlight aspects of problems that students can competently solve, and when those elements appear again in a different problem, point out that the same information can be applied or the same approach to problem solution can be used.

16. Facilitating EffectiveProblem Encoding • Give problems that look different on the surface yet require the same or similar problem-solving procedures. • Mix the kinds of problems that students tackle in any single practice session. • Have students work in cooperative groups to identify several ways of representing a single problem—perhaps as a formula, a table, and a graph.

17. Problem-Solving Strategies • Algorithm • specific sequence of steps that guarantees a correct solution • Heuristic • general strategy that facilitates problem solving

18. Factors Affecting Problem Solving • Working memory capacity • Encoding • Mental sets may be counterproductive to proper encoding • Metacognitive processes

19. Creativity

20. Creativity • Two components • new, original behavior • productive result • Involves divergent thinking

21. Fostering Creativity • Show students that creativity is valued • Focus on internal rewards • Promote mastery of subject area • Ask thought-provoking questions • Teach and encourage cognitive and metacognitive strategies that support creative thinking • Give students freedom, security to take risks • Provide time

22. Critical Thinking

23. Critical Thinking • Evaluating accuracy, credibility, worth of information and lines of reasoning • verbal reasoning • argument analysis • probabilistic reasoning • hypothesis testing

24. Fostering Critical Thinking • Teach fewer topics, greater depth • Encourage intellectual skepticism • Model critical thinking • Provide opportunities to practice • Ask questions • Debate controversial issues • Help students understand that critical thinking involves considerable mental effort, but it’s worth it • Embed critical thinking skills in authentic activities

25. Diversity in Complex Thinking Processes

26. Diverse populations • Respect culture • multicultural background enhances critical thinking skills • Assist students who have special needs

27. The Big Picture

28. The Big Picture • Meaningful learning, conceptual understanding encourage higher-level thinking. • Higher-level thinking skills are best learned within specific academic topics. • Sophisticated epistemic beliefs increase higher-level thinking skills. • Group discussions, projects provide supportive context in which to acquire, practice higher-level thinking skills. • Authentic activities can help promote transfer to real-life settings. • Higher-level thinking skills must be a priority in assessment as well as in classroom instruction.