Ed Psyc Week 4 Notes

What are Complex Cognitive Processes?

• Complex cognitive processes are cognitive processes that involve going far beyond the specific information they’re studying.
• Major examples highlighted in the chapter: metacognition, self-regulation, transfer, problem solving, creativity, and critical thinking.
• These processes underlie how learners apply knowledge, think about thinking, and regulate their own learning in real-world contexts.

Big Ideas about Complex Cognitive Processes (overview from early slides)

• Effective learners regularly reflect on, take charge of, and strive to improve their learning efforts.
• General principles, strategies, and attitudes learned in school are often transferable to a wide variety of situations.
• Greater knowledge and flexible thinking about new tasks promote creativity and effective problem solving.
• Critical thinking requires a sophisticated view of knowledge and a disposition to scrutinize new information and ideas.
• Effective teachers foster students’ metacognitive development and self-regulation skills in age-appropriate ways.
• Classrooms that support flexible application and critical analysis of subject matter help students transfer learning to new contexts.

Metacognition

• Definition: Metacognition involves knowledge and beliefs about one’s own cognitive processes, as well as conscious attempts to engage in behaviors and thought processes that increase learning and memory.

  • Includes reflecting on the nature of thinking and learning.
  • Includes knowing the limits of one’s own learning and memory capabilities.
  • Includes knowing which learning tasks are realistically accomplishable within a given time.
  • Includes planning a reasonable approach to a learning task.
  • Includes knowing which learning strategies are effective and which are not.
  • Includes applying effective strategies for learning and remembering.
  • Includes reflecting on previous learning efforts.

• What teachers need to know about metacognition:

  • Some effective study strategies are readily seen in learners’ behaviors.
  • Study strategies are effective only to the extent that they involve productive cognitive processes.
  • Metacognitive knowledge and skills gradually improve with age.
  • Learners’ beliefs about the nature of knowledge and learning influence their approaches to learning tasks.

• How to promote metacognitive development and self-regulation:

  • Encourage metacognitive self-reflection.
  • Explicitly teach effective learning strategies.
  • Communicate that acquiring knowledge is a dynamic, ongoing process—that one never completely knows something.
  • Guide and support self-regulated learning and behavior.

Self-Regulation

• Definition: Self-regulation is taking control of, monitoring, and evaluating one’s learning and behavior.

• Central idea: The Central Executive oversees the flow of information throughout the cognitive system.

• Self-regulating learners do (typical behaviors listed in the chapter):

  • Establish goals for their performance and plan actions accordingly.
  • Control and monitor their processes and progress during a learning task.
  • Monitor and try to control their motivation and emotions.
  • Seek assistance and support when needed.
  • Evaluate the final outcomes of their efforts.
  • Self-impose consequences for their performance.
  • Most learners become increasingly self-regulating over childhood and adolescence, partly due to brain maturation.

• Components of self-regulated behavior: (Textbook Slide 4.8)

  • Note: The slide summarizes typical components of self-regulated behavior; see course materials for the exact breakdown used in class.

Transfer

• Meaningful learning and conceptual understanding increase the probability of transfer.
• Transfer can be positive or negative:
  • Positive transfer: something learned previously facilitates later learning or performance.
  • Negative transfer: something learned previously interferes with later learning or performance.
• Transfer can be specific or general:
  • Specific transfer: the original task and transfer task overlap in content.
  • General transfer: the original task and transfer task are different in content.
• Factors influencing transfer:
  • Positive and negative transfer are more likely when a new situation is similar to a previous one.
  • General principles are more easily transferred than discrete facts.
  • Learning strategies and general beliefs and attitudes can transfer to new situations.
  • Transfer increases when the learning environment encourages it.
• How to predict transfer:
  • Consider how similarly the new situation resembles the original learning context and whether the learner can recognize underlying principles.

Problem Solving and Creativity

• Problem solving: using existing knowledge or skills to address an unanswered question or troubling situation.
• Convergent thinking: pulling several pieces of information together to draw a conclusion or solve a problem.
• Divergent thinking: moving in a variety of directions from a single idea.
• Creativity: new and original behavior that yields a productive and culturally appropriate result.
• Key influences on problem solving and creativity:
  • The depth of learners’ knowledge influences their ability to solve problems and think creatively.
  • Both convergent and divergent thinking are constrained by working memory capacity.
  • How learners encode a problem or situation influences their strategies and eventual success.
  • Problem solving and creativity often involve heuristics that facilitate but don’t guarantee successful outcomes.
  • Effective problem solving and creativity are partly metacognitive activities.

Critical Thinking

• Critical thinking is the evaluation of the accuracy, credibility, and worth of information and lines of reasoning.

• Forms of critical thinking include:

  • Verbal reasoning — understanding and evaluating persuasive techniques found in oral and written language (e.g., deductive and inductive logic).
  • Argument analysis — discriminating between reasons that do and do not support a conclusion.
  • Probabilistic reasoning — determining the likelihood and uncertainties associated with various events.
  • Hypothesis testing — judging the value of data and research results in terms of methods used and potential relevance.

• Epistemic beliefs:

  • Beliefs about the nature of knowledge or knowledge acquisition.

• Critical thinking is both a disposition and a cognitive process:

  • Disposition: a general inclination to approach and think about learning and problem-solving tasks in a particular way.

Promoting Metacognitive Development and Self-Regulation Skills (Teaching Strategies)

• Encourage metacognitive self-reflection in students.
• Explicitly teach effective learning strategies.
• Communicate that acquiring knowledge is a dynamic, ongoing process—not something one fully “knows” once and for all.
• Guide and support self-regulated learning and behavior.

Creating a General Classroom Environment that Nurtures Complex Processes

• Create an atmosphere in which transfer, creative problem solving, and critical thinking are expected and valued.

• Teach complex thinking skills within the context of specific topics and content domains.

• Pursue topics in depth rather than superficially.

• Provide numerous and varied opportunities to apply classroom subject matter to new situations and authentic problems.

• Use computer technology to simulate real-world-like tasks and problems.

• How can teachers create a general classroom environment that consistently nurtures complex processes? (Continuation of Slide 4.17)

  • Present questions and tasks that require students to think flexibly and across classroom topics.
  • Encourage critical evaluation of information and ideas presented in printed materials and on Internet websites.
  • Support complex cognitive processes through group discussions and projects.
  • Incorporate complex cognitive processes into assessment activities.

Case Study: Taking Over Textbook (Metacognition in Practice)

• Focus question: Why are students having trouble mastering the eighth-grade math curriculum?
• Possible factors interfering with learning:
  • The students lack prerequisite knowledge and skills.
  • Students believe that learning should come quickly and easily and not involve a lot of effort.
  • Students don’t understand that understanding subject matter is an active, constructive process and that certain strategies can enhance their learning.
  • Students view math problem solving as a quick, mindless enterprise rather than a step-by-step process that requires logical reasoning and frequent self-checking.

Big Ideas for Effective Teaching (From Early Slides)

• Effective learners regularly reflect on their learning efforts and strive to improve.
• General principles, strategies, and attitudes learned at school are potentially applicable to a wide variety of situations.
• Learners tend to be more creative thinkers and more effective problem solvers if they have substantial knowledge to draw on and can think flexibly about new tasks.
• Critical thinking requires both a sophisticated view of the nature of knowledge and a general disposition to scrutinize and evaluate new information and ideas.
• Effective teachers foster students’ metacognitive development and self-regulation skills in age-appropriate ways.
• Effective teachers create general conditions that encourage students to flexibly apply and critically analyze classroom subject matter.