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Cognitivisim

Cognitivism views learners as information processors and emphasizes understanding the mental processes behind learning, contrasting with behaviorism. Key contributors include Merrill, Gagne, and Bruner, with a focus on how knowledge is acquired, organized, and retrieved. Learning is seen as a change in mental structures, requiring active participation and internal processing by the learner.

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6 views8 pages

Cognitivisim

Cognitivism views learners as information processors and emphasizes understanding the mental processes behind learning, contrasting with behaviorism. Key contributors include Merrill, Gagne, and Bruner, with a focus on how knowledge is acquired, organized, and retrieved. Learning is seen as a change in mental structures, requiring active participation and internal processing by the learner.

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M E L I O D A S
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Cognativism

Cognitivism
◼ The cognitivist paradigm essentially
argues that the “black box” of the
mind should be opened and
understood. The learner is viewed
as an information processor (like a
computer).
◼ Originators and important contributors:
 Merrill -Component Display Theory (CDT),
 Reigeluth (Elaboration Theory),
 Gagne,
 Briggs,
 Wager,
 Bruner (moving toward cognitive constructivism),
 Schank (scripts),
 Scandura (structural learning)
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http://www.learning-theories.com/cognitivism.html
Cognitivism - Origins
◼ 1960s - cognitivist revolution replaced behaviorism in as the dominant
paradigm.

◼ Mental processes such as thinking, memory, knowing, and problem-


solving need to be explored (Snelbecker, 1983).

◼ Knowledge can be seen as schema or symbolic mental constructions.

◼ Learning is defined as change in a learner’s schemata.

◼ A response to behaviorism, people are not “programmed animals”


that merely respond to environmental stimuli; people are rational
beings that require active participation in order to learn, and whose
actions are a consequence of thinking. Changes in behavior are
observed, but only as an indication of what is occurring in the
learner’s head. Cognitivism uses the metaphor of the mind as
computer: information comes in, is being processed, and leads to
certain outcomes.

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http://www.learning-theories.com/cognitivism.html
Focus - inner mental activities
◼ Ulric Neisser coined the term 'cognitive psychology' in his book, Cognitive
Psychology, published in 1967
 “The term ‘cognition’ refers to all processes by which the sensory input is
transformed, reduced, elaborated, stored, recovered, and used. It is concerned
with these processes even when they operate in the absence of relevant
stimulation, as in images and hallucinations...”

◼ The main issues that interest cognitive psychologists are the inner
mechanisms of human thought and the processes of knowing. Cognitive
psychologists have attempted to throw light on the alleged mental structures
that stand in a causal relationship to our physical actions.

◼ Cognitivism investigates the internal mental processes of thought, such as:


 Visual processing
 Memory
 Problem solving
 Language

◼ Opening the “black box” of the human mind is valuable and necessary for
understanding how people learn.
4
How does learning occur?
◼ Learning is equated with discrete changes between states of knowledge,
rather than with changes in the probability of response

◼ Cognitive theories stress the acquisition of knowledge and mental


structures

◼ Focus on students’ conceptualization of learning processes

◼ Address the issues of how information is received, organized stored and


is retrieved by the mind

◼ Concerned not so much with what learners do, but with what they know
and how they come to acquire it

◼ Knowledge acquisition is described as a mental activity that requires


internal coding and structuring by the learning. The learner is a very
active participant in the learning process.
Ertmer, P. & Newby, T. (1993) 5
Information processing model
Explanations for
how cognitive
processes work are
known as
information
processing theories
or models.

The three-
component model
of information
processing is
taught in
Educational
Psychology.

6
http://www.innovativelearning.com/educational_psychology/cognitivism/index.htm
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Which factors influence
learning?
◼ Environmental conditions play a role (like in Behaviourism)

◼ Teacher
 Instructional explanations
 Demonstrations
 Illustrative examples
 Practice
 Corrective feedback

◼ Student (mental activities of the learner)


 Mental planning
 Goal-setting
 Organisational strategies
 The way learners attend to, code, transform, rehearse, store and retrieve information
 Learners’ thoughts, beliefs, attitudes and values are influential in learning process

◼ Focus of cognitive approach is on changing the learner by encouraging him/her to


use the appropriate learning strategies (to cope with unstructured domains)

Ertmer, P. & Newby, T. (1993) 8

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