Complex Cognitive Processes How do we learn concepts

Complex Cognitive Processes

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 » Through exposition

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. – – • Use advance organizers: statements of inclusive concepts to introduce and sum up material that follows – – • 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 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 • Problem solving: – – – Initial state Goal Path for reaching the goal a) – – General Identify problems and opportunities Define goals and represent the problem – Explore possible strategies – – • • • Focus attention Understand the words Understand the whole problem Translate the problem Represent the problem • • 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

Effective problem solving • Expert knowledge • Novice knowledge

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