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Cognitive Theory
Cognitive theories look beyond behavior to explain brain-based learning. It focuses on how the students process their learning and conceive knowledge.
Jerome Bruner is a well-known contributor to constructivism theory; we find him also enforced the concept of cognitive theory as he believed that students have to be active learners who conceive learning through different tools that allow them to create and invent something new to show their learning output.
Cognitivist stresses the implication of the learning processes in terms of the aspects of the brain (including attention, memory, problem-solving, and more.)
Adapted from Mcleod, S. (2016, February 5). Social Learning Theory. Retrieved June 4, 2020, from https://www.simplypsychology.org/bandura.html
Social Cognitivism
Albert Bandura's social cognitive theory agreed with the behaviorism learning theory. However, he added two fundamental ideas:
Mediating processes occur between stimuli & responses.
Behavior is learned from the environment through the process of observational learning.
Bandura's also believed that the learner agency's role is the key that prevents the learner from being just a recipient instead of being a doer. Another concept Bandura brought in social cognitivism is the concept of efficacy, which allows the learners to believe in themselves in being capable of learning and adaptively building their knowledge and be more productive learners.
Connectivisim
Connectivism is a learning theory that explains how Internet technologies have created many different opportunities for people to make learning happening through the World Wide Web and share information through various online tools. A key feature of connectivism is that much knowledge can happen across networks that take place online. In connectivism learning, a teacher will guide learners to information and answer critical questions to support students learning and sharing on their own. Students are also encouraged to seek out information on their own online and express what they find. A connected community around this shared information often results.
Cognitive Load Theory
John Sweller developed cognitive Load Theory. The theory builds upon the widely accepted model of human information processing shown in figure 1 (this was published by Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin in 1968.) Their research came with the information processing model, which includes; sensory memory (STM), working memory, and long-term memory (LTM). Here's how the process works: information from your sensory memory passes into your working memory, where it is either processed or discarded. Working memory can generally hold between five and nine items (or chunks) of information at any one time.
The cognitive load concept has been especially crucial for the study of multimedia learning: learning from computer-based media, including videos and educational games, presentation tools that include images, audio, and more. Let's look more at the cognitive theory in multimedia learning.
Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning
Richard E. Mayer is most known for his work in educational psychology. His most significant works deal with problem-solving and multimedia learning. He developed the cognitive theory of multimedia learning.
Mayer explains that the brain takes in information and processes it in multiple channels, based on how it is presented. The first channel is for visually represented material, and the second is for auditorily designed content. When the information introduced through any multimedia format (picture, video, graphic text, or chart), it goes to through the first channel (the visual . channel) stays in the sensory memory (STM) for a short time and processed there. Auditory information includes spoken words in narration and other non-verbal sounds, and these are processed by the brain separately from the visual the second channel. The learner will take the information received by the first channel through the short memory then add to it the information collected from the second channel and use the working memory to put them together and take it to the extended memory.
Example of Cognitive Load Theory:
Khartoum American School is implementing a new Learning Management System (LMS) called Schoology.
The technology coordinator is preparing online materials to allow the staff and faculty to be ready before the school starts in August 2020. The coordinator has looked into some training videos from youtube channel and chose one video that will be very informative and good for learning. New to Schoology
What is the purpose of the instructional materials (the video)?
Give an overview of how to use the Schoology application as an LMS system.
Introduce the new user to Schoology to the necessary information they need to learn to be able to use the system
Allow the learner to practice the data they collected.
Explain how to create assignments
Teach how to create assessments and quizzes
Take attendance
Show how to use the grade book function
Schoology New LMS System
What are the elements of the instructional material?:
The instructional is a video made with someone familiar and expert in using the tool
The content is produced in about an hour-long.
The narrator of the video has a relaxed tone and speak slowly so the learner can follow up quickly.
Analysis of the instructional material:
The video is very informative, and the presenter's velocity is perfect, especially for teachers who like to use step-by-step training materials. However, if we take the concept of cognitive load in mind, we can find the video is very long to be taken in one sigma. Their research came with the information processing model, which includes; sensory memory, working memory, and long-term memory. Here is how the process work: information from your sensory memory passes into your working memory, where it is either processed or discarded. Working memory can generally hold between five and nine items (or chunks) of information at any one time.
To fix the long video, I will create a smaller chunk of videos, make a series of them, and put them on the Schoology channel for people to learn. This way, we will avoid the Cognitive Load and will smooth the training process for learners.
References:
- McLeod, S. A. (2016, February 05). Bandura - social learning theory. Simply Psychology. https://www.simplypsychology.org/bandura.html
- Pappas, C., & elearning industry . (2017, April 17). 7 Tips To Reduce Cognitive Overload In eLearning . Retrieved from https://elearningindustry.com/7-tips-reduce-cognitive-overload-elearning
- Miller, A. (2017, November 3). Getting Started With Project-Based Learning (Hint: Don’t Go Crazy). Retrieved June 11, 2020, from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/project-based-learning-getting-started-basics-andrew-miller
- K. (2017, February 4). Connectivism (Siemens, Downes). Retrieved from https://www.learning-theories.com/connectivism-siemens-downes.html
- McGraw-Hill. (2019). Richard Mayers Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning . Retrieved from https://www.mheducation.ca/blog/richard-mayers-cognitive-theory-of-multimedia-learning
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