What
are the essential skills and/or learning outcomes you want your
students to know and be able to do that relate to cognitive learning?
One of the "basic assumptions" of cognitive learning that is mentioned in the text is that students should be able to construct meanings and understandings. The book then states that the "eduational implication" is that students should be able to make sense of learned topics. To me, this means that as a teacher, I should guide my students as they form their own meanings and understanding of themes in literature (for example). I want my students to be able to identify a theme, but then take that to a new level in their cognitive learning process by analyzing that theme, figuring out how it fits into the work as a whole, and then make recognitions about how that theme applies to their own lives and, on a larger scale, to our society.
How might your knowledge of the memory processes guide your instructional decisions?
I think that in getting students to analyze and apply learned material through constructing meanings and understandings, it is important to implement "meaningful learning" (recognizing relationships between new and preexisting information) as well as "hot cognition" (when thoughts and memories become emotionally charged). If I can make instructional decisions that promote these strategies and are conducive to students making connections, then hopefully my students will better learn the material. For example, if I can get students to make a connection between what they already know about Puritan culture and newly presented information about the themes of hypocrisy in Scarlett Letter, then they will better understand the text as a whole. Within that same lesson, if I can channel hot cognition by stimulating student memories of a time when they were publicly embarrassed or ridiculed, then they will be able to relate more with the character of Hester Prynne, and thus, become more interested in her outcome.
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