Cognitivism
• Cognitive psychology in contrast to behaviourism is interested in the way the human mind thinks and learns. It is interested in the cognitive processes that are involved in learning and how the learner is involved in the process of learning.
• The learner is seen as an active participant in the learning process using various kind of mental strategies in order to sort out the system of the language being learnt.
• Cognitive theories look beyond behavior to explain brain-based learning.
• Information processing model:
– Learning happens as a result of brain processes where knowledge is transferred from short to long term memory.
– In order for this to happen, new information must be linked to old information and information and concepts must be logically organised.
• The role of the teacher is to help learners organize new information for later recall.
Cognitivism and implications for learning
• Learning is an active process in which learners construct new ideas or concepts based upon their current/past knowledge.
• The learner selects and transforms information, constructs hypotheses, and makes decisions, relying on a cognitive structure to do so.
• Cognitive structure (i.e., schema, mental models) provides meaning and organization to experiences and allows the individual to "go beyond the information given".
• As far as instruction is concerned, the instructor should try and encourage students to discover principles by themselves.
• The instructor and student should engage in an active dialog (i.e., Socratic learning).
• The task of the instructor is to translate information to be learned into a format appropriate to the learner's current state of understanding.
• Curriculum should be organized in a spiral manner so that the student continually builds upon what they have already learned.
• Inquiry-oriented projects.
• Opportunities for the testing of hypotheses.
Constructivism
• Based on the work of Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky and Jerome Bruner.
• Constructivism views learning as a process in which the learner actively constructs or builds new ideas or concepts.
We can distinguish between:
• cognitive constructivism which is about how the individual learner understands things, in terms of developmental stages and learning styles,
• social constructivism, which emphasizes how meanings and understandings grow out of social encounters.
1. Cognitive Constructivism - Piaget
• From the moment we are born we are actively involved in the process of learning.
• We learn things as a direct result of our experiences but we make sense of those experiences at different stages of our lives.
• Piaget believed that cognitive development occurs through a sequence of successive qualitative changes in cognitive structures.
• Sensorimotor Stage (birth - 2 years):
– actions become more intentional and integrated into patterns, there is an increased awareness of self and surroundings.
• Preoperational Thought Stage (2 - 7 years):
–development of language and conceptual thought occurs.
• Concrete Operations Stage (7 - 11 years):
–increased ability to apply logical thought to concrete problems, thinking is still primarily related to immediate experience.
• Formal Operations Stage (11 years on):
– ability to apply logic to a variety of problems; higher order thinking occurs.
Implications for teaching
• Learning should be whole, authentic, and "real": Piaget helps us to understand that meaning is constructed as children interact in meaningful ways with the world around them. Thus, that means less emphasis on isolated "skill" exercises that try to teach something like long division or end of sentence punctuation. Students still learn these things in cognitive classrooms, but they are more likely to learn them if they are engaged in meaningful activities (such as operating a class "store" or "bank" or writing and editing a class newspaper).
• The richer the experience, the more elaborate the cognitive structure development.
• Materials and activities should be geared for the appropriate level of cognitive development.
2. Social constructivism - Vygostky
• Contemporary notions of social constructivism derive from the work of Vygotsky and Bruner.
• Vygotsky’s theory states that knowledge is co- constructed and that individuals learn from one another. It is called a social constructivist theory because in Vygotsky’s opinion the learner must be engaged in the learning process. Learning happens with the assistance of other people, thus contributing the social aspect of the theory.
Interactionist theory
• Language develops as a result of the interplay between the child and the environment in which the child develops.
• Caretaker speech is modified to suit the capability of the child. This modified language is a crucial element in the language acquisition process.
All what we have seen so far comes from the field of psychology and linguistics and addresses how human being learn in general or how they learn the mother tongue.