Cognitivism - Learning Scenario 1

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When I was a junior in high school, I was tasked with writing my first major research paper in my British Literature course. 

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I had done smaller-scale papers like this before, and it was clear that my teacher made use of the class's prior knowledge in how he arranged the assignment - following the principles of Cognitivism in the process.  By teaching the students in advance about important parts of a research paper (such as the outline or works cited page), he helped us specifically conceptualize those in a way we could remember later.  These learned concepts, called "schema", are then more easily discussed later as part of a bigger assignment ("Cognitive Load Theory").

 

The concept of "cognitive load" refers to how many chunks of information a person can process at any given time - since each schema only counts for one piece of information, we were then able to discuss more in this complex project ("Cognitive Load Theory").  Our teacher knew that we had completed MLA citations in prior courses and that he did not have to use part of his students' cognitive load to go over it before we would be prepared to start finding and citing sources.  He also kept such a major project from feeling too overwhelming to us by chunking assignments.  First, we had to design a research plan.  Next, after we had mastered that part, we moved on to finding and recording sources.  Only after we had submitted each of these small tasks were we permitted to move on to the larger task of writing the paper itself.

 

Connectivisim - Learning Scenario 2

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As an elementary student learning to type on a computer keyboard, I did the majority of my practice in a program that started with the basics - home row keys - before moving on to typing full words and sentences.

 

Each year, the program never failed to restart us with the easiest lesson, typing f and j over and over again.  Only once we had learned this basic step were we permitted to move on to other home row keys (such as a, s, d, k, l).  The old keys were not forgotten and, in fact, frequently emerged in the midst of the new lessons.  Each keystroke was eventually associated with each other one so that we, the learners, could type full words and sentences.  Intentionally or not, this typing program used the principles of Connectivism by combining the separate typing maneuvers we were taught in order to teach us the knowledge-connecting skill of typing complete words.  In the philosophy of Connectivism, learning involves the connection of knowledge to other knowledge to hold meaning and allow for further learning in the future ("Connectivism").

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