Infographic on COG Learning Theory
Infographic on COG Instructional Design Theory
Learning Scenario
Observation Checklist
Reflection on COG Theory
At the beginning of the unit, I immediately connected to this perspective on learning because I felt it applied more to my classroom experiences, especially this semester. This semester, many of my students are very quiet, which makes it difficult to measure whether or not they’re understanding/learning the material. When I was thinking about how behavioralist methods measure observable changes in one’s behavior, I realized that this is sometimes hard to measure with my students. So, the cognitive perspective taught me other ways that I can check in to see if students are learning, like by having them make graphic organizers, mind maps, mini-narratives…etc. I’ve never implementing such activities in my courses before, but I think they’re extremely useful, especially when the class is quiet or reluctant to participate, even in small groups.
My feeling of connection toward the cognitive perspective only grew as I continued my reading and read our class discussions. I found it really interesting to learn about how important it is to make meaningful the information being presented and to link it back to prior knowledge and to learn that others in the class feel the same. I often have tremendous difficulty remembering definitions of words and important facts, so I think that by giving such information personal meaning to me, or by linking it to what I already know, I’ll have an easier time remembering. Making the cartoon for the discussion part of this course was really helpful, as I can still remember what each part of the drawing symbolized. (I’ll always see the little brain cartoon I rendered whenever I hear the word “schema.”)
I’ve always found meaning-making to be a critical aspect of a writing course, as students often don’t like to write about things that mean absolutely nothing to them. For this reason, Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction really felt spot-on. Without that key component of class, students tend to zone out because they don’t have a reason to care about the subject. Generally, in my class, I tend to stray away from literary-interpretation papers and more toward self-reflective papers on a topic that a student chooses, because I find they write better (and enjoy it more) when they care about the topic. I think this is an excellent example of cognitive theory at work. Since cognitive theory is rooted in learning that is not always visible, I want to move forward in my teaching career with that awareness at the forefront of my mind. Though I’ll need to assess my students in some way, I shouldn’t interpret their silence in class, for example, as being a lack of understanding or focus. As I continue to help students find meaning in class activities, organize the information that’s being presented, and bridge the material to other areas of their lives/academic careers, I will continue to trust the cognitive perspective to ground and guide my teaching.