Transcript Cognitive Strategies - Stanford University

Cognitive Strategies
Vamshi Krishna
EDUC391X
A strategy or group of strategies
or procedures that the learner
uses to perform academic tasks or
to improve social skills.
• A cognitive strategy serves to support the
learner as he or she develops internal
procedures that enable him/her to perform
tasks that are complex (Rosenshine,
1997). The use of cognitive strategies can
increase the efficiency with which the
learner approaches a learning task. These
academic tasks can include, but are not
limited to, remembering and applying
information from course content,
constructing sentences and paragraphs,
editing written work, paraphrasing, and
classifying information to be learned.
Examples of Cognitive Strategies
Concept Mapping
Dump and Clump
Visualization
Making Associations
Chunking
Questioning
Scanning
Underlining
Accessing Cues
Using Mnemonics
Sounding out words
Self-checking and Monitoring.
Concept Mapping
• Using concept mapping, students
construct a model for organizing and
integrating the information that they are
learning.
• Concept mapping can be used
1) prior to an assignment as a
brainstorming activity
2) during an assignment as an organizing
strategy, or
3) as a post-assessment activity.
How to Use it ?.
1) Choose a key word or topic related to a unit of
study.
2) Write the word on on a sheet of chart paper.
3) Think of as many words and ideas as you can
relate to the focal word.
4) Write the words on a map in clusters or
categories.
5) labels the categories
Dump and Clump
To provide a step by step process for
organizing thinking and facilitating learning of
new and difficult material. It provides a process
for organizing our prior knowledge and making
projections
• "Dump"- Develop a list of words, items, or new
information related to the topic of study.
• "Clump"- Using the "dump" word list, group
words on the list into categories and assign
labels.
• Write a descriptive summary sentence for each
category of words in your list.
Visualization
-> Enhances the right brain
activity.
-> Very Effective instead of
mere sentenses
Eg: Circulation of blood in
heart. Arrows indicates
the direction of blood flow
Strengths and Weaknesses of
Visual Learning
• Strengths
– Information in multiple modes improves
comprehension
– Organization improves memory
– Complex relationships or processes can be easier
to understand
• Weaknesses
– Simple diagrams cannot accurately convey
complexity of process or its time scale
– Complex diagrams are too advanced for most
learners
Making Associations
Associating the new ideas and information
with the knowledge one already posses, is
a good technique to learn new things.
Chunking
Breaking a complex task into small
and tractable tasks is a useful
strategy to handle complex tasks
Questioning
Reading comprehension is an area where
cognitive strategies are important. A selfquestioning strategy can help students
understand what they read.
Scanning
Before reading any piece of information (article,
chapter etc …), scanning through it once,
observing the key concepts, side headings etc.
gives a good overview of the material and helps
us in better understanding
Underlining
As you read, underlining the important
points, new words, concepts, ideas etc
helps in organizing, understanding,
revising and memorizing the material
Cues
visual or verbal prompts to either
remind what has already been learned or
provide an opportunity to learn something
new.
.
Mnemonic
A device for remembering, such as a first-letter
mnemonic for writing: PLAN (Pay attention to the
prompt, List main ideas, Add supporting ideas,
Number your ideas). Rhyme, rhythm, music, and
key-word mnemonics are also useful memory
tools.
Sounding out words
New words can be easily remembered by
sounding them out
Self-Checking and Monitoring
It is a very important strategy. This involves to
checking oneself the way one learns and the
strategies he is using, and modifying them
according to the task and situation, leading to
enhancement in performance.
What happens to students when
they become strategic?
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Students trust their minds.
Students know there's more than one right way to do things.
They acknowledge their mistakes and try to rectify them.
They evaluate their products and behavior.
Memories are enhanced.
Learning increases.
Self-esteem increases.
Students feel a sense of power.
Students become more responsible
Work completion and accuracy improve.
Students develop and use a personal study process.
They know how to "try."
On-task time increases; students are more "engaged."