Blog 7

Cognitive learning seems to be all about learning strategies, memory, retrieval, and knowledge. This makes a lot of since to me because we all have little tricks that we use to help us remember things. I think, as teachers, keeping cognitive learning and all the things that fit into the cognitive learning theory is important. If we know children remember things easier because our lesson is unusual, or if we trigger an emotion then why not intentionally teach with those strategies? It makes our job easier as educators because the students will be completely engaged in our lesson and the children will remember it because you used which ever teaching strategy in order to help them remember it.

I think that if children are aware of how they learn best and can identify their weaknesses and strengths, they will be able to succeed in school. As teachers we can help them by giving them tools and switch up our teaching strategies to focus on differentiated learning. A website I visited said that if children have a hard time with auditory knowledge, they may have trouble hearing blends and therefore have a hard time reading. Knowing this, can help us help students. This is just one of many examples on this website, but knowing where a child falls short cognitively is important.

Some learning skills that can help students include:
- meaningful learning- relating things to things they have already learned
-elaboration- learners use prior knowledge to embellish on a new idea
-rehearsal- repeating information
-organization- making connections
-visual imagery- pictures, envisioning
-mnemonics

Teachers can also use different skills to help students learn such as:
- distinctiveness
-use of emotional overtones
-connections
-regular practice
-relevant retrieval cues
-wait time


http://www.learningrx.com/what-is-brain-training.htm

Constructivism- is constructing your own knowledge

When thinking about constructivism, I think about exploration, experiences, the environment, reflection, problem solving, active learning, etc.

This is my favorite learning theory because I believe students will learn best when they are constructing their own knowledge through explorations they are interested in. I feel it is the teachers job to facilitate the students learning and provide curriculum (that is required) within this context. If the teacher can relate it to what they children are interested in, I think they will remember/ learn it better because it will be more meaningful.

This is similar to the cognitive learning theory due to the fact that they both rely on past experiences but constructivism relies more on the children being active in their learning. While in the cognitive theory it seems to be more of the teacher directing learning in a meaningful-ish way.