Cognitivism Exhibit

What is Cognitivism?

The theories: Information Processing, Constructivism, Constructionism, and Sociocultural.

In this branch of learning theories, the overarching theme is that learning happens internally, through cognitive processing, or in the mind. Unlike behaviorism which measures learning via observable behaviors, cognitivism explores the internal workings of the mind and how that influences learning and behaviors. Learners can assimilate or accommodate new knowledge into their mental frameworks and how they do this is considered in the cognitivism theories.

These theories have strengths in that they explore beyond observable behavior, and they account for the thoughts and feelings of the subjects/learners better than behaviorism tends to. However, I think they each fall short in accounting for some creative problem solving, and spontaneous or individual knowledge production. When I was in first grade, in detention, the teacher gave me a math worksheet and said not to do problems m, n, and p. I had finished the rest of the addition and subtractions on the worksheet and was getting bored, so I looked at problem m. It had two numbers with an operator I hadn't used yet, "x", on the line. I thought, "well that looks like a sideways plus sign, I wonder if that means we need to do [multiplication but I didn't have the word for it at the time]." I did not write an answer on that line because I was very sternly told not to do those problems, and I didn't want to get into more trouble. Maybe that is a very unusual coincidence, I love math and from what I hear, most people do not, but I find it hard to believe that I'm the only one that had at least one moment of spontaneous knowledge production. 

An example of such an amazing coincidence may be Van Gogh's Starry Night and its resemblance to turbulence, James Beattie with the American Physical Society (2019) acknowledges that "it’s unlikely Van Gogh was making predictions about the turbulent eddies found in real stars when he painted The Starry Night." Even so, what if the artist wanted to capture that natural phenomena and visualize it for the rest of us? Some of our most well-established concepts must have spontaneously generated from someone at some point, surely multiple people are capable of being an origin point as much as the next human, and I think that's beautiful.

Sociocultural Theory

I had ChatGPT create a poem about sociocultural theory to the tune of "We didn't start the fire" (shortened because ChatGPT had the chorus in there three times):

(Verse 1)

Vygotsky's theory, minds converge,

Zone of Proximal, learning surge,

Scaffolded by culture's hand,

Language shapes, across the land.

(Verse 2)

Tools of culture, in our hands,

Play and observation expand,

Reflexes guide, as we grow,

In the social web, we sow.

(Chorus)

Sociocultural fire, burning bright,

In the dance of learning, day and night,

From more knowledgeable others, we acquire,

In the realm of shared desire.

(Bridge)

Language sings, in vibrant tones,

As we navigate, the social zones,

Zone of Proximal, ever near,

In the sociocultural sphere.

(Outro)

So let's embrace, this theory true,

In the fabric of what we do,

Sociocultural flames, ignite,

Guiding us through learning's flight.

Information Processing

I initially missed the instructions about modeling lessons from my professional context until after I created this example model but I pulled this from my experience as a learner in a welding class so I feel like the concepts still apply. I used Canva to create this model poster of how Information Processing Learning Theory might explain how students learn about welding. I have not taught much in my position as an IT Systems Engineer but when troubleshooting login issues with Bay Mills Community College (BMCC) users respond very well to this method of showing and explaining to them how their account or software works (iconic and echoic memory), letting them "drive" through the experience with my guidance (short-term memory and feedback), then successfully accessing and using their accounts or software on their own (mastery and long-term memory). So in my example we have welding students who learn from reading or looking at textbook examples of welds, they have a teacher demonstrate safe technique, they practice with repetition, then from feedback and repetition they learn how to create an acceptable weld.

One thing Information Processing Learning Theory doesn't explain well is problem solving or creativity. For example, when I took welding in high school it was so I could learn how to make metal sculptures. There weren't examples of welding rods to spheres like I wanted to use in a double helix piece that I wanted to make. The instructors went over safety very thoroughly and as long as we followed those rules they were comfortable with us exploring methods and techniques that might help us achieve the sculpture piece that we wanted. The information processing model would have had the instructors informing me of and showing me a specific method that I could practice to achieve those welds but that is not how I learned them; they did teach me how to practice my welds safely which they drilled us on quite a bit considering the high wattage/voltage/amperage we were dealing with.

References

American Physical Society. “Arts & Culture: Turbulence in The Starry Night.” Physics, vol. 12, Apr. 2019, p. 45. APS Physics, https://physics.aps.org/articles/v12/45.