Improving Teaching and Learning Outcomes – A Novel Cognitive Science Approach

Abstract

Three principle approaches to education are behaviorism, constructivism and cognitive science. However beyond that there are a wide and diverse range of methods such as outcomes based education, problem based learning etc. All these approaches and methods have their associated advantages and disadvantages. The effectiveness of the educational process is measured by a learning taxonomy such as Bloom or Structure of the Observed Learning Outcome (SOLO). The paper links the cognitive science approach with the SOLO taxonomy as the basis of a quantitative approach to measuring cognitive load which is a measure of mental effort. This can then be used as the basis of curriculum design in order to optimize learning outcomes.