Cognitive Learning Happens through Everyday Experiences - Research Paper Example

Cognitive Theory Education is the complex system of students’ intellectual development and moral well-being. Modern demands of survival and livelihood, require that students as future care takers of life should be educated and trained from the very early periods of their childhood, so that they can be better adapted to the changing times. Moreover, technology oriented jobs and work scenario demands that children should be keen enough to pave their way forward. Competition also exerts external pressure on children nowadays. All these circumstances put the modern education system in wonder, as to what will be the outlook of current education system. In this respect, determining the appropriate study tools, teaching techniques and understanding child psychology at appropriate levels of inquiries, require the use of best practices within the said context and understanding of the cognitive development of students at various age levels. Cognitive development involves thinking processes and the ability to acquire knowledge based on one’s thinking. Various psychologists and educationists suggest that learning is a complex process, depending on both internal and external factors. Internal factors are sometimes referred to as biological determinants affecting the growth, whereas external factors may be referred to as social and interactive determinants affecting the manipulation of the acquired information. Yet another dilemma is that, children learn through experience as they grow and mature, while others believe that children’s progress depends on their genetic structure (Oakley, 2004). Learning with which a person learns through various models based on his everyday experiences, may be described as cognitive learning. Cognition and learning is one of the most important phenomena in education. Earlier in period, people used to learn through facts and definite procedures of instructions given by the teachers. Now, psychologists and educationists suggest that learning can be done through cognitive learning processes, especially in science and mathematics, where child learns by experiencing and practicing the leant skills concurrently (Anderson, 2009). Jean Piaget, a Swiss Psychologist, described the complex process of learning with respect to children’s mental capacities. He was of the opinion that unless children take part in their own learning, they cannot retain the taught subject. He clearly differentiates the way adults learn with the way children acquire learning. He said that since birth, babies learn, relearn and unlearn things through their environment; he called these process, assimilation and accommodation. According to him, when children are able to process new information keeping in view their already learned knowledge, is called assimilation and when children begin to take meaning out of the new information is called accommodation. Piaget also clearly defined the relationship between external factors and children’s biological development. He said that children’s genetic structure and his exposure with the environment, determine his interpretation of the world and the way children learn. Piaget described four stages of human life (with respect to ages), and how thinking pattern is different in each of the stage. Each stage is the foundation onto which the other stage lies. It is like a series of ladder, which the child climbs as he grows with the period of time (McDevitt, 2007). The first stage is the Sensorimotor Stage. Sensorimotor Stage is from the birth till two years of age. It is the period where child undergoes rapid development. In addition to that, as the name indicates, in this stage, children learn through their sensory and motor organs. Between 0-2 years of the time, children also learn to walk and learn through reflexes (for example, sucking). Children’s actions are more repetitive because they are intuitive about discovering things and as during this stage, their organs are primitive, they only try to associate themselves with the simple things (Oakley, 2004). The preoperational stage lasts two to seven years of age. This stage applies that children try to associate themselves with the world with the primitive use of words, and symbols. In this stage, children begin to think independently and are able to speak little. Here, children began to associate themselves with their surrounding and take meaning out of various symbols on their own (Oakley, 2004). The tangible operational stage is from 7 to 11 years of age. Here, children are able to reason and ask questions more logically. However, children within these years of age can apply that reason and logic to concrete things only, but they have now become more organized. Children during these years have entered into the very critical stage of development, because during this stage, children learn by their experiences of concrete things and their parents are their role models (Oakley, 2004). The formal operational states range from eleven to fifteen years of age. In this final stage, children are able to reason beyond concrete things and are able to think abstract images and symbols. This stage also involves children’s comparison with their surrounding and the increase in the level of curiosity and discovering things with the help of their peers. All these four stages, highlights the critical phases of children’s life and keeping in mind their cognitive capacities, one should interact with them. Like in school, when children are exposed to literal and historical worldview, Piaget’s cognitive theory can be applied in order to comprehend the student’s learning effectively with their biological states of mind (McDevitt, 2007). Piaget was amongst the one who supported child-centered learning. He encouraged teachers to put children’s interest in the first place. He said this, because he truly believed that as the child grows and as his biological organs mature his mental capacity to understand the world around him changes with time (Oakley, 2004). When children are young, their mind works differently, but as they grow, they learn from their surroundings and begin to use their minds more profoundly. According to him, children should not be considered inferior that they don’t know anything with respect to adults. He says that children, with respect to their ages and environmental exposure know much and this knowledge develop with time as they grow. For this purpose, teachers should make their children, active and equal partners in the learning process and should keep in mind the stages of their mental development to design and organize the learning outcomes (Nucci, 2008). Piaget was in favor of letting the child discover knowledge and moral character by himself. Children, usually, do it by learning from their peers and observing their surrounding. He further noted that, children could learn completely by exploring the content themselves. With teachers bombarding the information to the children’s mind, children cannot learn fully. Through mere transfer of knowledge, children are not able to retain information for the longer period. Therefore, he suggests that children will be able to internalize the concept learnt and will be able to comprehend it in their lives ahead, when they take charge of the learning process (Nucci, 2008). In recent times, cognitive theories are more practical, with changing demands of the time and extensive use of technology and computer aided mechanisms, than they were before. In today’s practices in education and learning, teachers and learners should act as partners, enhancing their mutual learning and mental capacities. This is because, as the time has changed and with the increase in the quantity of information available for the children to process, teachers cannot be mere transmitter of knowledge. The way children think and process information, adapt to their surrounding situation is different. The gap between one stage and the other, no doubt, have been narrowed and this demands understanding the way children are developing from their early stages of life. One important point of concern to note here is that, it may seems that cognitive theory of Piaget and the like minded, cannot be implemented within the context of current education system, because time has changed and the age levels described by Piaget, no longer define the similar states of mind. However, one can truly say that it does not matter that age brackets have been narrowed; the point of learning is that, it is still possible to design the teaching practices and coursework tutoring in the manner children learn. In other words, it is very important to keep the context, in which children grow and develop. The change in the environment of learning and teacher’s attitude towards students can bring fruitful progress in the learning process. Teachers should plan all the activities, class work, and discussions well before the class. All the planned material should be inline with the status of the students and their mental capacities. Activities should engage students and not distract them. Activities should be relevant and would bring a positive change in the students. It should motivate them to learn themselves and would bring in their memories such an experience that not only enhance their understanding but also build a healthy teacher learner relationship. Taking Piaget’s cognitive development model, teachers can lead their children by asking them to repeat actions or by showing or hiding the concrete things like toys and picture cards to increase their curiosity. These activities are suitable for the children under two years of age. In the few years after the initial stage of development, teachers can provoke imaginary by using pictures, sounds and words to make them understand concepts. Children can be asked to share the learnt concepts in the school with their families and friends. Later in the years, teachers can also include field trips, group works, critical thinking and problem solving activities, in order to improve their decision making power and encourage them to differentiate between right and wrong. Yet another example can be of the learners between the ages five or six. They, usually, learn by seeing and experiencing things around. So the teacher should use, for example some blocks, shade cards and balls to let them count and discover the total amount of the given things themselves. Through trial and error and observing other classmates, the learning by child cannot match with the one when teacher is writing on the board and explaining the number series, without visual and realistic experience. Some educationists, including Piaget, are of the opinion that teachers should not be the mere source of information for their learners; they should be more than that. Teachers should be like facilitators, inculcating the very concept in the learners mind. Knowledge cannot be acquired by instructing the child and copying the narrated materials, but it should be constructed but the learner himself. This can be done when; teachers understand and comprehend the child’s level of understanding and psychology (Oakley, 2004). In current era, most of the teachers are trained about the child psychology and their affects on the learning capacities of the children, so that children’s progress can take place efficiently. Using this model, educationists are trying to make sure that such environment is provided to the children that promote wholesome learning. Cognitive learning capacities of children can also be affected by social interaction. Therefore, group learning verses individual learning methodologies should also be well planned. In other words, sometimes students’ learning takes place better within group, while other individual capabilities are enhanced when they work and study alone (Anderson, 2009). Choosing the suitable techniques is the key with which student’s attention and their learning can be maintained. Group learning techniques are generally appropriate where students are from the diverse backgrounds. It would generate the habit of teamwork, synergy and cooperation amongst the students. On the other hand, individual study techniques are appropriate when students are encouraged to be leaders and accountable for their own actions. Both the approaches towards classroom management and learning cannot be applied fully, but the mixture of two can be initiated in the classrooms to provide them the balance experience. Furthermore, not every student at every level of time behave similar to the other, even his own behavior at a time defer from that in some period. Therefore, teachers in this respect should strive to follow certain theories to better adapt their teaching practices with the context. In the classroom, teacher encounters students from all sorts of backgrounds. They come from various occupations, ethnicity and financial status and with the rise in immigration level in certain countries; classroom has become a mixture of such groups of people. That is why, teachers should be careful in applying the cognitive theories as it is. Students’ learning start from their homes, and when this child comes to school and mingle with others around, his learning depends on how he adapts to the changing situation and how well he is able to build a healthy relationship with all of his surrounding stimuli. Learning by example and by doing, is one other way to enhance the learning of the children. In this way, children will be able to see their teachers as their role models. Observing their teachers, foster learning and is one of the best ways to teach students the respect and humility (Anderson, 2009). In conclusion, most of the education systems today, are keeping in mind the level of the understanding of the student cognitive levels and therefore, most of the institutions are practicing student-centered learning procedures. Students themselves are nowadays more aware of their surrounding situations, which has put great emphasis on the teachers to keep themselves up-to-date and put children’s interest at the first place. References Anderson, John R., Reder, Lynne M., Simon, Herbert A. (2009). Applications and Misapplications of Cognitive Psychology to Mathematics Education. As retrieved on November 8, 2009, Texas Educational Review. http://act-r.psy.cmu.edu/papers/misapplied.html Leonard, David C. (2002). Learning theories, A to Z. Greenwood Publishing Group. McDevitt, T. M., Ormrod, J. E. (2007). Piaget's Four Stages of Cognitive Development. As retrieved on November 9, 2009; http://www.education.com/reference/article/piaget-four-stages-cognitive-development/ Nucci, Larry P., Narváez, Darcia. (2008). Handbook of Moral and Character Education. Routledge. Oakley, Lisa. (2004). Cognitive Development. Routledge. Read More