Cognitive StrategiesVamshi Krishna

EDUC391X

A strategy or group of strategies or procedures that the learner

uses to perform academic tasks or to improve social skills.

• A cognitive strategy serves to support the

learner as he or she develops internal procedures that enable him/her to perform tasks that are complex (Rosenshine, 1997). The use of cognitive strategies can increase the efficiency with which the learner approaches a learning task. These academic tasks can include, but are not limited to, remembering and applying information from course content, constructing sentences and paragraphs, editing written work, paraphrasing, and classifying information to be learned.

Examples of Cognitive Strategies Concept Mapping Dump and Clump Visualization Making Associations Chunking Questioning Scanning Underlining Accessing Cues Using Mnemonics Sounding out words Self-checking and Monitoring.

Concept Mapping

• Using concept mapping, students construct a model for organizing and integrating the information that they are learning.

• Concept mapping can be used

1) prior to an assignment as a brainstorming activity

2) during an assignment as an organizing strategy, or

3) as a post-assessment activity.

How to Use it ?.

1) Choose a key word or topic related to a unit of study.

2) Write the word on on a sheet of chart paper.

3) Think of as many words and ideas as you can relate to the focal word.

4) Write the words on a map in clusters or categories.

5) labels the categories

Dump and Clump

To provide a step by step process for organizing thinking and facilitating learning of new and difficult material. It provides a process for organizing our prior knowledge and making projections

• "Dump"- Develop a list of words, items, or new information related to the topic of study.

• "Clump"- Using the "dump" word list, group words on the list into categories and assign labels.

• Write a descriptive summary sentence for each category of words in your list.

Visualization-> Enhances the right brain

activity.

-> Very Effective instead of mere sentenses

Eg: Circulation of blood in heart. Arrows indicates the direction of blood flow

Strengths and Weaknesses of Visual Learning

• Strengths– Information in multiple modes improves

comprehension– Organization improves memory– Complex relationships or processes can be easier

to understand

• Weaknesses– Simple diagrams cannot accurately convey

complexity of process or its time scale– Complex diagrams are too advanced for most

learners

Making Associations

Associating the new ideas and information with the knowledge one already posses, is a good technique to learn new things.

Chunking

Breaking a complex task into small and tractable tasks is a useful strategy to handle complex tasks

Questioning Reading comprehension is an area where

cognitive strategies are important. A self-questioning strategy can help students understand what they read.

Scanning

Before reading any piece of information (article, chapter etc …), scanning through it once, observing the key concepts, side headings etc. gives a good overview of the material and helps us in better understanding

Underlining

As you read, underlining the important points, new words, concepts, ideas etc helps in organizing, understanding, revising and memorizing the material

Cues

visual or verbal prompts to either remind what has already been learned or provide an opportunity to learn something new.

.

Mnemonic

A device for remembering, such as a first-letter mnemonic for writing: PLAN (Pay attention to the prompt, List main ideas, Add supporting ideas, Number your ideas). Rhyme, rhythm, music, and key-word mnemonics are also useful memory tools.

Sounding out words

New words can be easily remembered by sounding them out

Self-Checking and Monitoring It is a very important strategy. This involves to

checking oneself the way one learns and the

strategies he is using, and modifying them

according to the task and situation, leading to

enhancement in performance.

What happens to students when they become strategic?

• Students trust their minds. • Students know there's more than one right way to do things. • They acknowledge their mistakes and try to rectify them. • They evaluate their products and behavior. • Memories are enhanced. • Learning increases. • Self-esteem increases. • Students feel a sense of power. • Students become more responsible • Work completion and accuracy improve. • Students develop and use a personal study process. • They know how to "try." • On-task time increases; students are more "engaged."