Cognitive Approaches to Student

Learning: New Developments in

Educational Psychology
David Hallowell
Drexel Learning Center
 Disclaimer
• These are models.
• Models are not real.
• They are approximations of reality.
• Use what is useful.
• Throw away the rest.
 Conceptual Terrain

Student
Development
Intelligence

Information
Processing

Orientation
Towards
Learning

Educational
Objectives
 Educational Objectives*
Knowledge Types Process Types
• Factual • Remember
• Conceptual • Understand
• Procedural • Apply
• Metacognitive • Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create

* Krathwohl, D. and L.W. Anderson. Taxonomies of Educational Objectives.

Modified from earlier work by Benjamin Bloom.
 Rationality as Objective?*
• Neither a knowledge or process type.
• Rationality is critical to the development of
our metacognitive functions:
– Epistemic Cognition
– Identity
– Morality

* Daniel Abbott, University of Nebraska. (Personal Communiqué.)

 Conceptual Terrain

Student
Development
Intelligence

Information
Processing

Orientation
Towards
Learning

Educational
Objectives
Trait Theory of Learning Personality

Styles Approaches Motives Educational Objectives

• Strategies • Vocational
• Tactics • Academic
• Skills • Social
• Personal

Not Visual, Auditory, Learning Objectives

and Kinesthetic! • Meaning
• Reproduction
• Achieving
• Non-Academic
 Failure of “Learning Styles”
• Myth: Everyone learns equally well, just differently.
– The human brain is not hardwired for efficiencies in
reading and mathematics.
– Normally functioning human adults are more likely to
remember information they perceive through multiple
channels through rehearsal and elaboration.
– Students with reading difficulties exhibit deficits in
auditory/visual processing or memory systems.
– Extraverts may express a preference towards auditory
modes of learning (“talking things out”), but this is an
expression of the individual’s personality, not a preference
for auditory information.
 Conceptual Terrain

Student
Development
Intelligence

Information
Processing

Orientation
Towards
Learning

Educational
Objectives
 Memory

Retrieval

Sensory Working Long-Term

Memory Memory Memory

Not Transferred to Next

Stage, Forgotten
 Dual-Processing Theory
System I: Implicit Guidance System II: Explicit Control
• Rapid • Slow
• High Capacity • Low Capacity
• Associative • Reflective
• Default • Inhibitory
• Modular Cognition • Fluid Intelligence
• Parallel • Sequential
• Requires Working Memory
On which side does logic belong? • Uniquely developed in
humans through language
Implications of Dual Processing Theory
• “Belief-based reasoning [in System 1] is the default to
which conscious effortful analytic reasoning in System
2 may be applied to overcome.” (Evans, 2008.)
• Eric Mazur at Harvard has noted that students’ beliefs
regarding a whole host of phenomena remain
fundamentally unchanged through basic physics
education.
– Provoke learners with counter-intuitive knowledge.
• For example: entropy implies both low energy states and high
disorder at the same time.
– Encourage understanding of types of knowledge, process
taxonomies, and problem states.
 Systems Model*

Why might extrinsic motivation reduce decision-making capacity?

* Daniel Abbott, University of Nebraska. (Personal Communiqué.) Based

on unpublished work of influential military strategist John Boyd.
 Memory

Retrieval

Sensory Working Long-Term

Memory Memory* Memory

Not Transferred to Next * Working memory is

Stage, Forgotten
composed of a central
executive, an episodic
buffer, a visuospatial
sketchpad, and a
phonological loop.
 Cognitive Load Theory*
• Takeaway
– Working Memory and Cognitive Load are the Keys
to Learning
• Effects
– Goal-Free, Open-Ended Problems
– Worked Examples
– Split-Attention
– Redundancy

* Sweller, J. and P. Chandler. (1991).

 Implications of Cognitive Load Theory
• Effective instructional strategies recognize the limits of
working memory when dealing with novel information.
• Strategies that reduce cognitive load also promote schema
acquisition and increase performance.
• Goal-free (i.e., open-ended) problems are more effective in
promoting schema acquisition than conventional problems.
• Worked examples are effective only when (1) disparate
sources of information are maximally integrated and (2)
redundancy is eliminated.
• Process worksheets have positive effect on learning task
performance.
– These sheets outline the phases of problem solving as well as hints or
rules of thumb that may be helpful at each phase.
 Managing Cognitive Load
1. Use visuals and audio narration to exploit working
memory resources.
2. Focus attention and avoid split attention.
3. Weed your lectures to manage limited working
memory capacity.
4. Provide external memory support to reduce working
memory load.
5. Use segmenting, sequencing, and learner pacing to
impose content gradually.
6. Transition from worked examples to practice to
impose mental work gradually.
 The Reading Brain

Translation to Sound Comprehension

Angular Wernicke’s
Eye Gyrus Area

Visual Broca’s
Thalamus
Cortex Area Reading

Visual Patterns Syntax

 Conceptual Terrain

Student
Development
Intelligence

Information
Processing

Orientation
Towards
Learning

Educational
Objectives
 Intelligence
• Types
– General Intelligence
– Crystallized Intelligence
• A person's knowledge of words and language, and learned skills
such as solving arithmetic problems.
• Ability to reproduce information stored in long-term memory.
– Fluid Intelligence
• Set of cognitive processes (independent of specific content) that
people bring to solving novel tasks and representing,
manipulating, and learning new information.
• Localized in the prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex,
amygdala, and hippocampus.
• Flynn effect -- fluid abilities have been rising steadily in Western
countries for over a century. (Thoughts on why?)
 The Failure of Multiple Intelligences
• Myth: We are all equally intelligent, just in
different ways.
– Fluid intelligence has been highly correlated with
working memory.
– General intelligence is a stronger predictor of
poverty than is socioeconomic background.
– Capacity of working memory can be improved
through training.
– And yet, the best educational experiences are
reserved for individuals with higher intelligence.
 Conceptual Terrain

Student
Development
Intelligence

Information
Processing

Orientation
Towards
Learning

Educational
Objectives
 Appreciative Inquiry
• Work with student to develop an understand
of and appreciation for their strengths,
talents, and assets.
• Work with student to provide the appropriate
level of structure as a function of
development. (Scaffolding.)
• Holistically support and encourage sustained
student development.
 Selected Student Assets
• Critical Thinking
• Argumentation
• Creative Thinking
• Curiosity
• Rational-Moral Development
• Risk Taking
• Skepticism/Questioning
• Appreciation for Nuance
• Tolerance for Ambiguity
• Pattern Recognition
• Security
• Support & Encouragement
• Self-Regulation
• Agency
• Incremental Beliefs
• General Mood
• Identity, Self Regard
• Assertiveness
• Problem Solving
• Interpersonal Skill
• Stress Tolerance
• Impulse Control
• Adaptability
• Persistence
• Resilience
Problem Solving Process

Current
Path Analysis Problem State
& Sequencing

Operators
that Reduce
Goal State
These
Differences

Differences
Between States
 Transference
• Prerequisites
– Schema Acquisition
– Rule automation
• Traditional instruction encourages
transference that is limited to problems that
are highly similar.
 Curricular & Instructional Design
• Visioning
– Curriculum Assessment
• Develop SWOT
– Program Objectives
• Articulate Attributes of Ideal Graduate
– Program Focus
• Identify Foundational Content
• Identify Desirable Educational Experiences
• Development
– Curriculum Mapping
– Program Structure
• Alignment
– Align Program and Course Objectives
– Align Foundational and Course Content
– Align Program and Course Learning Experiences
 Selected Articles
• Evans, J. (2008). Dual-Processing Accounts of
Reasoning, Judgment, and Social Cognition. Annu. Rev.
Psychol. 59: 255–78.
• Sweller, J. (1991). Evidence for Cognitive Load Theory.
Cognition and Instruction. 8(4): 351-362.
• Paas, Fred. (1992). Training Strategies for Attaining
Transfer of Problem-Solving Skill in Statistics: A
Cognitive-Load Approach. Journal of Educational
Psychology. Volume 84(4): 429–434.
• Wolf, P. (2007). A Model for Facilitating Curriculum
Development in Higher Education. New Directions for
Teaching and Learning. 112: 15-20.
 Selected Books
• The Jossey-Bass Reader on The Brain and
Learning. (2008).
• Learning Strategies and Learning Styles.
(1988). Schmeck, R. ed. Plenum Press.
• A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and
Assessing — A Revision of Bloom's Taxonomy
of Educational Objectives. (2001). Anderson,
L.W., David Krathwohl, et al. (Eds.) Addison
Wesley Longman, Inc.
 Further Reading
• Osigna, Frans. (2007). Science, Strategy and
War: The Strategic Theory of John Boyd.