Complex Cognitive Processes. How do we learn concepts? Concepts: set of defining attributes...
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Transcript of Complex Cognitive Processes. How do we learn concepts? Concepts: set of defining attributes...
How do we learn concepts?• Concepts: set of defining
attributes -distinctive features shared by members of a category
– Prototypes: best representative of a category
– Exemplar: a speific example of a given category that is used to classify an item
– Schemas: recognition of a concept
– Simplicity principle: simplest category or rule
How can we teach concepts?• Defining attributes and
prototypes– Concept attainment: construct
an understanding of specific concepts and practice skills and practice thinking skills
• Components needed:– Examples (prototypes),
nonexamples – Relevant & irrelevant attributes– Name of concept– Definition– Use it (do exercises, solve
problems, write, read, explain, etc)
Teaching Concepts through Discovery• Estructure: fundamental ideas,
relationships, patterns of the field.
• Be active: identify the key principles; identify the interrelationships (discovery learning)
• Inductive reasoning: use specific examples to formulate a general principle.
• Intuitive thinking: make guesses based on incomplete evidence and then comfirm or disprove them.
Teaching Concepts through Exposition• Use deductive reasoning: draw
conclusions by applying rules or principles; move form general to specific.
– Expository teaching: teachers perent material in complete, organized form, from broadest to more specific
– Meaningful verbal learning: focused and organized relationships among ideas and verbal information
• Use advance organizers: statements of inclusive concepts to introduce and sum up material that follows
– Comparative: organizers that activate working memory
– Expository organizers: knowledge that students will need to understand the upcoming information
• Relate contect back to organizer: think how you could expand on the original advance organizer.
Learning Disabilities and Concept Teaching
• Use analogical instruction: identify knowledge that “weak” students already have in memory that can be used as a starting point for learning the new, complex material
Problem solving• Problems: well-structured, ill-structured
– Initial state– Goal– Path for reaching the goal
• Problem solving: a) General– Identify problems and opportunities– Define goals and represent the problem
• Focus attention• Understand the words• Understand the whole problem• Translate the problem• Represent the problem
– Explore possible strategies• Algorithms• Heuristics:
– Means-ends analysis– Working-backward strategy– Analogical thinking
– Anticipate outcomes and Act– Look back and learn
Factors that hinder problem solving:
• Fixation:– Functional fixedness– Response sets
• Some problems with heuristics:– Representativeness
heuristic– Availability heuristic– Belief perseverance– Confirmation bias
What's creativity?
• Myths about creativity:– People are born
creative– Creativity is related
with negative qualities– Creativity is a fuzzy,
soft construct– Creativity is enhanced
within a group
What is creativity?• It's the ability to produce
work that is original, but still appropriate and useful.
– People are creative in
particular areas.– Inventions must be intended– It should be applied to any
subject– It often involves more than one
person– It results in a new and useful
product in a particular culture or situation
What are the sources of creativity?
• Creativity is the result of cognitive processes, personality factors, motivational patterns, background experiences, and social environments.
What do we need to be creative?• Domain-relevant skills: talents
and competencies valuable in the domain
• Creativity-relevant processes: work habits, personality traits
• Intrinsic task motivation: deep curiosity and fascination with the task
• Sometimes we need to incubate or restructure in order to be able to come up with a solution.
How can we assess creativity?• There are two types of creativity
tests:– Verbal: think and say– Graphic: create
– These tests require two types of thinking:• Divergent: proposes many answers• Convergent: identifies only one
answer
– Responses to these tests score:• Originality: fewer than 5-10
people/100.• Fluency: number of different
responses• Flexibility: categories of responses
How can I identify creativity in my students?
• Curiosity• Concentration• Adaptability• High energy• Humor• Independence• Playfulness• Nonconformity• Risk-taking• Attraction to complex and
mysterious• Willingness to fantasize and
daydream• Intolerance for boredom• Inventiveness
Encouraging Creativity• Accept and encourage divergent thinking
• Tolerate dissent
• Encourage students to trust their own judgment
• Emphasize that everyone is capable of creativity in some form
• Provide time, space, and materials to support creative projects
• Be a stimulus for creative thinking
• Encourage brainstorming
• Encourage play
The Big C: Revolutionary Innovation
• Who? Those who were explorers, innovators, and tinkerers.
• Warning:– Avoid turning intrinsic into
extrinsic motivation– Avoid making him miss his
childhood– Avoid making him so perfect
that his rewards be lavish– Foresee possible
psychological wounds
Learning Strategies and Tactics
• Learning strategies: general plans for approaching learning tasks
• Learning tactics: specific techniques for learning that make up the plan
How to get students to use learning strategies?
1. Teach them different strategies as well as specific tactics (mnemonics, skimming, writing answers to possible questions)
1. Teach them when, where, how, and why to use them
1. Develop the desire to use these skills
1. Teach students using such strategies
How can students get learning strategies into action?
• Decide what’s important: focus attention, find the central idea, identify headings, bold words, outlines, an other indicators to identify key concepts and main ideas.
• Use summaries: find the topic sentence, identify big ideas, find supporting information, delete redundant information.
• Underline and highlight: be selective and transform the ideas into your own words. Don’t use the book’s words. Note conections and draw diagrams.
• Take notes: translate, connect, elaborate, and organize the information. Don’t get distracted from the lecture with your note taking. Find key ideas, concepts, and relationships
How can we organize information?
• Use graphic organizers such as maps or charts
• Map relationships
• Use Venn and Tree diagrams
What strategies can we use when we read?
• R eview chapter• E xamine words• A sk what you expect to learn• D o it!• S ummarize
When reading literature:• C haracters• A im• P roblem• S olved it?
• K now• W ant to know• L ike to know
How can I make sure my students use learning strategies?
• Make sure the learning task is approppriate. Do your students care for learning and understanding? What are their goals? (value learning)
• Your students must believe that the effort they invest is reasonable and worth it. Do they think they will make it? (effort and efficacy)
• What do your students believe about their own learning and strategies? (epistemological beliefs)– Structure of knowledge– Stability/certainty of knowledge– Ability to learn– Speed of learning– Nature of learning
Teaching for transfer
• Low-road transfer– Direct-application
transfer
• High-road transfer– Forward-reaching– Backward-reaching
Teaching for Positive Transfer• Avoid situated learning
• Decide what is worth learning
• Be aware of what the future is likely to hold for your students
• Use overlearning to make sure your students will master a skill
• Create powerful teaching-learning environments
How can we transfer strategies?• Acquisition phase: students
should receive instruction about a strategy, be told how to use it, and rehearse it
• Retention phase: practice and feedback
• Transfer phase: provide new problems that can be solved with same strategy
• Point out how this will help students to solve many problems and accomplish many tasks