Chapter 10 Learning Log

What?

Social Cognition - This is one of the 4 main theories we've studied in this unit. Social cognition, which is covered in chapter 10, deals with how students learn on a social level. This includes several different concepts, including community of learners, modeling, vicarious learning, and other such learning concepts that are carried out in social situations. It also covers many concepts that deal with the individual within a social environment. These include self-regulation and self-efficacy.

So What?

The most important aspect of the theory of social cognition was reciprocal causation. I really like the theory because it encompasses so many different strategies which eventually lead to self-regulated learning. My favorite aspect of reciprocal causation is that students are able to influence their environment. To me, this is as "real-world" as it gets. That reciprocation becomes a reinforcer, motivator, and the final goal. I've always thought that if students were able to really see the effects of their good behavior and learning, they would become far better motivated to learn.

Now What?

The trick is, how can I apply the concept of reciprocal learning in my classroom? I believe the trick will be to be consistent about how behaviors are reinforced. First, I need to figure out what my students prior knowledge and current interests are. Then, I will adjust my classroom environment and instruction accordingly. I will differentiate using group learning and individual projects. The end result should be that the students will be able to control the environment in a positive fashion.

Chapter 6 Learning Log

Chapter 6 covers learning cognition- at least as an introduction. There was a particular emphasis on the theory of memory and the journey that stimulus takes to make it to long-term memory.
input- SENSORY REGISTER -attention- WORKING MEMORY -in.depth processing- LONG-TERM MEMORY. This is the general pathway involved in this theory. Most of the chapter addressed issues involved with the specific steps.
Another major part of this chapter was about different memorization techniques and how we, as teachers can use different strategies to get knowledge into the large capacity of our long-term memory. This is referred to as constructivism in the text.
The class discussion was riveting to me. We talked about the chapter at large, but went more in depth about cognitive theory. I specifically remember the portion of our discussion about memory recall and how our brains actually grab information from various areas, including emotional areas.

Understanding learning cognition is something that would definitely be extremely helpful for an educator. The issue I see is that we still have many questions about learning cognition. In essence, understanding learning cognition only complicates how we teach. This is due to the fact that each of our students have vastly different prior knowledge, along with their own way of learning and remembering things.
However, learning cognition is such a progressive theory, and it really shapes how we teach today in comparison with older, more traditional styles of education. I especially consider the aspects of "active learning" and "implicit knowledge". These both cover the idea that our students are going to take out of the lesson whatever they choose. We can no longer have the naive idea that they are blank slates, and we are to fill them with knowledge.

I got so excited while discussing this chapter in class. I almost want to be a psychologist now and devote my life's work to cognition- learning how the mind stores memories, and then recalls those memories. It was so interesting to think that my own memories are so entirely SUBJECTIVE and that I am creating them from so many different areas of my mind.
As a teacher, there are so many practical lessons that I learned from this chapter as well. The majority of the chapter covered different strategies that we should implement to help our students take inputs (in the form of stimulus) from the sensory-perception, to working-memory, and most importantly long-term memory. Organization, mneumonic devices, elaboration, and linking to prior-knowledge are all different strategies that I plan to use. That knowledge is in the long-term memory for a very very long time, its capacity is so large. However, it is important that we organize our teaching so that students know what to put in the memory so their won't be a roadblock in the working-memory.