Below are a few short excerpts from the last “model of learning” in this series. These excerpts highlight the work of John Flavell and Robert Sternberg. Their ideas address a range of learners: those who succeed easily and those who are challenged.
I chose to focus on these two authors because of their emphasis on how learners process and manage information: their attention, short term memory, working memory, long term memory, and problem solving skills.
“Educators are very interested in the study of how humans learn. This is because how one learns, acquires new information, and retains previous information guides selection of long-term learning objectives and methods of effective instruction. To this end, cognition as a psychological area of study goes far beyond simply the taking in and retrieving information. It is a broad field dedicated to the study of the mind holistically. Neisser (1967), one of the most influential researchers in cognition, defined it as the study of how people encode, structure, store, retrieve, use or otherwise learn knowledge. Cognitive psychologists hypothesize an intervening variable or set of variables between environment and behavior—which contrasts it with behavioral theories.”
http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/papers/infoproc.pdf
Information Processing and Memory
“One of the primary areas of cognition studied by researches is memory. There are many hypotheses and suggestions as to how this integration occurs, and many new theories have built upon established beliefs in this area. Currently, there is widespread consensus on several aspects of information processing; however, there are many dissentions in reference to specifics on how the brain actually codes or manipulates information as it is stored in memory.”
……..
“The implications of this research are clear. If learning—relatively permanently change—is to take place, new information must be transferred into long-term memory. Therefore, repetition and maintenance rehearsal are not sufficient to produce a lasting effect. This has great relevance to instruction and teaching, for if the aim of education is learning, information must be presented in such a way that it can be incorporated into the memory structure.”
Development of Memory and Information Processing
As previously stated, cognition is the encoding, structuring, storing, retrieving, using, or otherwise learning knowledge (Neisser, 1967). There are important developmental aspects for INFORMATION PROCESSING
According to Flavell et al. (2002), from an information processing perspective some of the most important are:
- Brain changes brought about by biological maturation or experience;
- Increased processing capacity, speed, and efficiency as a result of both maturation and knowledge development;
- Modifications of connections in a neural network;
- New emergent concepts arising from repeated self-organization as a result of adapting to the demands of a changing environment; and
- Increased capacity for problem-solving and metacognition
“Another theorist firmly grounded in the information processing approach is Sternberg (1988). Sternberg’s theory suggests that development is skills-based and continuous rather than staged and discontinuous as stage theorists believe, and his focus is on intelligence. This focus on intelligence separates his ideas from stage theorists because it rejects the idea of incremental stages, but rather suggests that development occurs in the same way throughout life differentiated only by the expertise of the learner to process new information….First, and very importantly, Sternberg’s model does not differentiate between child and adult learning….. Cognitive development is viewed as a novice to expert progression; as one becomes better at interaction and learning, one is able to learn more and at higher levels. Development changes as a result of feedback, self-monitoring, and automatization. In this theory, intelligence is comprised of three kinds of information processing components: metacomponents, performance components, and knowledge-acquisition components.”
“In Sternberg’s (1988) model, each of these three components works together to facilitate learning and cognitive development. Metacomponents are executive in nature. They guide the planning and decision making in reference to problem solving situations; they serve to identify the problem and connect it with experiences from the past….”
“In summary, there are many different theories of information processing that focus on different aspects of perceiving, remembering, and reasoning. One of the most important agreements is that elaboration is a key to permanently storing information in a way that facilitates its quick retrieval when it is needed. Bloom et al (1956) and Anderson and Krathwohl (2000) provide some excellent suggestions as to how we can encourage increased elaboration among our students. However, as proposed by Hummel and Huitt (1994) if students are not required to demonstrate the results of elaboration on meaningful tasks such as examinations or projects, they are not likely to adequately develop the skills required for higher-level thinking. It is, therefore, imperative that educators and parents require the development and use of these skills as a normal process of students’ lives. If we do that, the amounts and types of student knowledge will increase dramatically and students will be better prepared for life as adults in the information age.”
