Connecting my learnings to CLT

 

When I was in Grade school, I remember the way I memorized concepts was through visual and auditory means. An example would be when we were required to study the multiplication table, where I would have the chart in my hands and I would read it out loud over and over again. It helped me retain the table faster. Upon learning about the Cognitive theory, I can now explain that it is because of Dual Coding, where the information is comprised of both verbal and visual representations, which are distinctly processed in the human mind (Sternberg. 2006). It elucidates why as a child I could retain ideas successfully in both verbal and non-verbal form. Thankfully, I was able to convert it to long-term memory.

There were instances when I was younger when the teacher would check attendance first, by the time we get to the lesson, my attention would be wandering off and flying in different directions. It's clear to me now that this is a result of the Primacy-Recency effect. I guess, by the time the teacher introduced the lesson, I was already antsy in my seat because of the "down-time".

So far, of all the theories that we have studied, I find the Cognitive theories the most interesting, maybe because of the connections that I can make in my own personal experiences. What piqued my interest most is the concept of declarative-procedural knowledge. Declarative being the interconnected ideas in our brain of data, facts, names, music, dates, and events, while procedural is all the skills and habits that we've formed over the years. I remember learning how to ride a bike in my childhood, cycling those pedals and eventually gaining balance. I haven't ridden a bike in years, but I know that if I get to ride one again, I still know how. Through Cognitive theory, I now know that it's anchored in procedural memory. It's amazing how we can retain these kinds of information and retrieve them easily when needed.

I also remember cramming for certain tests, it wasn't effective though, our working memory can only hold so much. Our working memory has a limit and too much information presented at the same time will only go to waste. 

As educators, we must learn to understand how to present ideas to our students, which is the appropriate time, and how much. Being able to be creative in providing visual aids and accompanying it with auditory data enables the students to learn faster. Cognitive Learning theory encourages educators to analyze, understand, and study the learners' capacity in absorbing knowledge. It motivates us to think out-of-the-box, particularly in catching and sustaining the students' attention and helping them convert these learnings to long-term memories.

Resources:

  • <a href="http://www.freepik.com">Designed by Freepik</a>
  • https://www.simplypsychology.org/memory.html


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