The cognitive movement in instruction∗

Wittrock, M. C.

doi:10.1080/00461527809529192

Cited by 127 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 42 publications

(28 reference statements)

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“…The dilemma in schooling is that the student cannot simply be taught the universe of frames that are judged to be important at any given time. Instruction must be to some degree incomplete, so that the student learns to search for principles on his or her own and to develop skills in the application of conceptual frameworks (Wittrock, 1978). Snow and Yalow note that, In education, intelligence is learning ability, in the sense that it is the active organization of abilities needed to learn from incomplete instruction, and to use what information may already be in the cognitive system, or can be induced therefrom, to help in doing this.…”

Section: The Architecture Of the Mindmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chapter 1: Cognitive Psychology and Educational Practice

Calfee

1981

Review of Research in Education

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Over the past quarter-century, no development in the social sciences has been more radical than the revolution-often referred to as the information processing revolution-in our way of understanding the processes of human thinking" (Simon, 1980a, p. 76). In this review I will examine the background for this remarkable statement, and will explore the educational implications of our new knowledge about the human mind.As befits a "re-view," I begin with a quick scan of the historical paths that lead to present-day cognitive psychology. Next I present what I see as major facets of our current conceptions of human cognition, concentrating first on the architecture of the mind, and second on mental activity. I then turn to education-what do we mean by the educated mind, and how does the school foster intellectual growth? This section moves next to a consideration of some promising applications of cognitive theory and research for the improvement of educational practice.This review is more an essay than a compendium. I have sought to represent major trends in cognitive psychology, while emphasizing works that seem most promising for educational practice. The conception of education presented in this chapter is not all encompassing, but is designed to match concepts and issues central in the thinking of cognitive psychologists. The paper is unabashedly theoretical, and some of the ideas are admittedly conjectural. My aim is to "accentuate the positive." The spotty character of our research knowledge, the apparent complexity of many behavioral and social phenomena, the practical barriers in the way of Preparation of this review was supported in part by grants from the Teacher Corps (U.S. Department of Education) and the National Institute of Education. I have benefited from the helpful comments of several people (implementing research findings-such concerns receive little notice in this paper. The reader interested in a more critical account can satisfy this need elsewhere (Cronbach, 1975;Rohwer, 1980; and especially the thoughtful comments on cognitive psychology by Jenkins, 1981). AN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVEContemporary cognitive psychology is, as Simon suggests, the result of a fundamental redirection of psychological theory and research during the past few decades. In this section, I will review the major developments during three epochs of this history: behaviorism, the watershed of the 50s and 60s, and present-day cognitive psychology (also cf. Simon, 1980b).Behaviorism. At mid-century, the behaviorism of Thorndike and Watson dominated American psychology. The approach focused on the empirical relations between stimulus and response. The theoretical efforts of Hull and Spence amounted to curve-fitting overlays; they were close kin of Skinner. There was great emphasis on learning, on the acquisition of simple skills over brief periods of time. Members of this school assumed the existence of basic learning principles of broad generality over organisms and situations.

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Section: The Architecture Of the Mindmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chapter 1: Cognitive Psychology and Educational Practice

Calfee

1981

Review of Research in Education

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“…It is a constructive activity, and learning activities therefore need to allow for individual encoding of information rather than constraining the encoding process (Clark, 1984). Learning is not a passive reception of someone else's organizations and abstractions (Wittrock, 1974(Wittrock, , 1978. Comprehension requires the proactive transfer of existing knowledge to new information (Jonassen, 1988).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

The Effects of Embedding an Instructional Map in Hypermedia Courseware

Barba

1993

Journal of Research on Computing in Education

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“…Examples of effective cognitive elaboration techniques include: coming up with illustrative explanations or self-derived examples, relating newly received information to previously learned topics of relevance, highlighting distinctive differences among seemingly similar concepts, constructing an overview or synthesis in various formats (e.g., in prose, graphics, or tabular form) (Hoffman, 1997;Reigeluth, 1992Reigeluth, , 1999. Studies on elaboration techniques have generally found supportive evidence for its effects on retention of information (Pressley, McDaniel, Turnure, Wood, & Ahmad, 1987;Reigeluth, 1999;Seifert, 1994), reading comprehension (Mohammad, 2011;Oh, 2001), and clarification of the relationships among pieces of information (Wittrock, 1978).…”

Section: Theoretical Foundations Supporting Sct-cognitive Elaborationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Third, while cognitive elaboration techniques have been found to strengthen knowledge networks, cognitive processing and structuring (Wittrock, 1978), information retention (Pressley et al, 1987;Reigeluth, 1999;Seifert, 1994), and reading comprehension (Mohammad, 2011;Oh, 2001), only a few elaboration techniques and strategies have been suggested and proven effective. With the confirmed effects of SCT for knowledge elaboration as found in this study (e.g., refinement of generated work by adding more explanatory description, including illustrative examples, and resorting to different presentation sequencing), this study helps to expand the limited effective elaboration techniques available for the instructor's consideration.…”

Section: Significance Of This Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Researchers in cognitive psychology have long held that to help cognitive processing and structuring, the learner must engage in some sorts of cognitive elaboration (Wittrock, 1978). Examples of effective cognitive elaboration techniques include: coming up with illustrative explanations or self-derived examples, relating newly received information to previously learned topics of relevance, highlighting distinctive differences among seemingly similar concepts, constructing an overview or synthesis in various formats (e.g., in prose, graphics, or tabular form) (Hoffman, 1997;Reigeluth, 1992Reigeluth, , 1999.…”

Section: Theoretical Foundations Supporting Sct-cognitive Elaborationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A student-constructed test learning system: The design, development and evaluation of its pedagogical potential

2015

AJET

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Although research has found that student-constructed tests (SCT) have some potential for promoting cognitive elaboration, as yet there are no systems available to support the associated activities. This study designed and developed an SCT learning system guided by the ideology of contribution-based pedagogies, accentuating the principles of adaptability and flexibility. To assess its learning potential, a group of 54 student teachers used the system, and data on their perceptions, generated work, and online log files were collected and analysed. The constant comparative method, descriptive and inferential statistics, and content analysis were employed in the data analysis. Several important findings were obtained. First, a global and macro view accentuating the integration and inter-connectedness of the study material was obtained by the participants based on the SCT activity. Second, a significant proportion of the participants considered SCT as their preferred assessment and learning approach, highlighting its affective and cognitive potential, in comparison to the traditional teacher-constructed tests. Third, SCT encouraged a majority of students to generate questions involving cross-chapter topics and engage in question revision behaviour to different extents, indicative of knowledge integration and elaboration. Significance of this study and suggestions for instructional implementations, online system development, and future study are provided.

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The cognitive movement in instruction∗

Cited by 127 publications

References 42 publications

Chapter 1: Cognitive Psychology and Educational Practice

Chapter 1: Cognitive Psychology and Educational Practice

The Effects of Embedding an Instructional Map in Hypermedia Courseware

A student-constructed test learning system: The design, development and evaluation of its pedagogical potential

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