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.