Cognitive Psychology in Education – Term Paper

Sognitive psychology and education

     Cognitive psychology is concerned with studying of the mind and is functions of learning, reasoning, keeping of memory and perceptions. In the classroom setting where the aim is to gain new knowledge and remembering it in the future, various tools were used to achieve this in the most effective way. The teacher used advanced organizers to create a bridge between what the students know already and the new content that they are expected to learn. By making this connection from the familiar to the unknown, retention of the information improves.

      To achieve this, the instructor used various methods. One is setting objectives for the lesson at the start of the lesson to ensure the students remain on track throughout the lesson. The teacher also outlined the items on agenda and crossed them out as we went through them one by one to ensure that the students followed up with the discussion in class. Skimming through the topics and the sub-topics in the coursework also ensured the learners had the overview of information they are about to study. The use of narratives where the teacher presents the concepts in a story format is also common. Graphic organizers were important to present the information in a way that creates a visual impression in the mind by showing the highlights and the relationships that are vital such as concept mapping. 

Sognitive psychology education requirements

      The teacher used discover learning where the students were to discover content that is new by themselves by investigating and solving problems using  experience or earlier knowledge. It involved experimenting and exploring various methods to arrive at the desired result. Groups were preferred to make discoveries on the new areas of study as the members could share ideas on how to tackle the problem at hand. The members of the group who had no prior experience with the subject matter could get clues from the ones who were a bit familiar with it. 

     Generally, the teachers asked questions that were close-ended especially where they are testing recognition and recalling of the facts.  However, in the case of experiments where the aim is to get predictions and to get the students to reason, the questions are open-ended. The learners on the on the other hand usually ask open-ended questions where prior knowledge and closed ones where they are familiar with the topic.