Cognitivism
OVERVIEW
In the late 1950's, cognitivism took shape as psychologists and educators began to move away from observable behaviour and started to focus on how the mind processes information.
Cognitivism looks at how the learner acquires knowledge, organizes it in their brain, and then retrieves for future learning. Tony Bates (2015) discusses Cognitivism: “Cognitivists therefore have focused on identifying mental processes – internal and conscious representations of the world – that they consider are essential for human learning. Fontana (1981) summarises the cognitive approach to learning as follows:
‘The cognitive approach … holds that if we are to understand learning we cannot confine ourselves to observable behaviour, but must also concern ourselves with the learner’s ability mentally to re-organize his psychological field (i.e. his inner world of concepts, memories, etc.) in response to experience. This latter approach therefore lays stress not only on the environment, but upon the way in which the individual interprets and tries to make sense of the environment. It sees the individual not as the somewhat mechanical product of his environment, but as an active agent in the learning process, deliberately trying to process and categorize the stream of information fed into him by the external world.’ (p. 148).” (2.4.1).
When discussing cognitivism and how the mind processes information there have been a number of different theories, including those by Piaget and Vygotsky. Piaget viewed cognitive development as the learner’s ability to interact with objects in their environment and receive feedback on this interaction. Vygotsky’s theory on cognitive development focused on the learning through social interactions and the influence of culture.
In terms of education, one of the most common cognitive approaches is related to Blooms’s taxonomies of learning objectives. Cognitivists focus on Bloom’s “thinking” domain (Bates, 2015). Bloom’s taxonomy states that there is a hierarchy of learning, from basic recall all the way to analysing and evaluating information.
When designing instruction, a cognitivist approach would focus on the learner’s ability to process information based on prior knowledge. “Instruction must be based on a student’s existing mental structures, or schema, to be effective. It should organize information in such a manner that learners are able to connect new information with existing knowledge in some meaningful way” (Ermter, 2013, p.53). It is also important for the instructor to organize or “chunk” the material, so it is easily processed by the learner. Finally, since Cognitivism views the learner as an active participant in their learning, opportunities for direct feedback should be included.
Here is a short video showing how a Cognitivism can be used in the classroom:
Implications for Online Learning Theory
Cognitivism matches up really well with online learning theory as it can be applied to each of the four centers outlined by Anderson, including learner, knowledge, assessment, and community-centered approaches. Cognitivist theories contend that learners process new bits of information by comparing to knowledge in their long-term memory. Online learning can assist in this process in a number of ways, including the organization of material into appropriate sized chunks, diagnostic testing to evaluate current knowledge, and feedback tools for immediate processing.
Learner-Centered
Cognitivism fits in very well with a learner-centered approach where it is thought that each learner brings their own unique understanding and prerequisite knowledge to the learning context (Anderson, 2008). Just as Anderson outlines, cognitivists look to assess the student’s current level of understanding to ensure that the instruction can be assimilated to the individual student (Ertmer, 2013).
Tony Bates echoed these sentiments about cognitivism, “The cognitive school recognizes the importance of individual differences, and of including a diversity of learning strategies in online instruction to accommodate those differences” (Bates, 2015, p. 2.5.3). When looking at diagnostics, there is a direct connection where both theories aim to make the learner aware of their existing knowledge. Cognitivism places an emphasis on having the learner part of the learning process, through self-planning, monitoring, and other revising techniques (Ertmer, 201). Also, Piaget’s thoughts on the interaction between the individual and their environment fits in well with a learner-centered approach where there is a focus on an environment that accommodates particular cultural attributes.
Knowledge-Centered
When looking at knowledge-centered learning, Anderson (2008) talks about each discipline or field having a unique way of understanding knowledge. He also talks about the need for the online instructor to use scaffolding to help frame all of the information online into discipline specific learning. From a cognitivist approach, this could be seen as a form of structuring or organizing to increase the ability to process the information (Ertmer, 2013). Alzaghoul (2015) states, “The learning content should be chunked to prevent cognitive overload. Exceeding a number of five to nine items to learn, linear, hierarchical, or spider-shaped information maps should be provided.” (p. 28). Anderson (2008) goes on to discuss the need for reflection by the students to ensure the successful transfer of knowledge and to develop new understanding. Again, this matches up well with Cognitivism that promotes the idea that learners should make connections with previously learned material (Johnson, 2012).
Community-Centered
In discussing the community-centered approach, Anderson (2008) talks about how students in a learning community can work together to construct knowledge. While cognitivism focuses mainly on how the brain processes information, there are components of the theory that could be applied to a community-centered approach. Vygotsky’s theories on the importance of social interaction in cognitive development match up well with this approach. Anderson (2008) even references Vygotsky in his article, “Here we find Vygotsky’s (2000) popular notions of “social cognition” relevant, as we consider how students can work together in an online learning context to collaboratively create knowledge.” (p.51).
Assessment-Centered
Assessment-centered does not mean supporting high stakes, summative testing (Anderson, 2008). Rather the focus is on formative and summative assessment that provides feedback, information, and ultimately, motivation to the learner. Anderson (2008) also suggests that assessments should be developed that measure not only end results, but also cognitive processes. He suggests the use of online, automated assessments that include simulations and virtual tools. Cognitivism fits in really well with the assessment-centered thinking. Ertmer (2013) suggests that a cognitivist approach to instruction should include practice with feedback so that learners can assimilate new information within their cognitive structure. Similarly, Bates (2010) discussed the usage of intelligent tutoring systems and problem-based learning as ways to incorporate cognitivist thinking into course design.
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