Cognitivism and Connectivism
Cognitivism
During the time of WWII and the Great Depression, Jerome Bruner and his team began to look at how needs, motivations, and expectations influence a child’ perception. Learning is impacted by whether a child is hungry, has a personal interest in a subject, or believes he can succeed. This led to a focus on how human cognition develops and is impacted by education. In 1960, his Process of Education described children as active learners who can grapple with and solve difficult problems.
We teach a subject not to produce little living libraries on that subject, but rather to get a student to think mathematically for himself, to consider matters as an historian does, to take part in the process of knowledge-getting. Knowing is a process not a product.
Bruner, 1966
In the late 1960s, Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin created a model for how the human brain learns new information. This showed educators the importance of getting students’ attention, activating their prior knowledge, practicing in various ways, and making the information meaningful and relevant.
Known for his famous Bobo doll experiment, Albert Bandura built on his ideas of imitation in relation to learning processes in the 1970s. He believed that we are actively processing our environment and learning through observation. Humans don’t just imitate behavior, they make decisions about who and when to imitate. Those decisions are impacted by their interpersonal relationships and experiences. This means that we can learn through vicarious reinforcement. Learning can also be impeded if the person lacks self-efficacy and agency, which are needed to fuel the hard work of mastering a new skill. This puts importance on social and emotional aspects of the learning environment.
Information Processing Model
Around the same time, Alan Baddeley and Graham Hitch proposed a more detailed Information Processing Model with a focus on what processes occur in working memory. Cognitive Load Theory, developed by John Sweller in the late 1980s, focused on strategies for maximizing the efficiency of working memory. Research showed that working memory can only handle about 5 chucks of information at a time, or it will experience Cognitive Overload. To increase the likelihood of retention and integration to long-term memory, a number of strategies can be used by educators.
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Assessing readiness and providing the appropriate level of difficulty.
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Use information chunking and break down problems into smaller parts
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Model processes with examples and partially completed problems
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Reduce split-attention visual information, merge text with visuals
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Use both channels of working memory, one visual and one auditory
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Minimizing extraneous, distracting, or redundant information
Connectivism
In the midst of the internet revolution at the turn of the century, some theorists proposed that all other learning theories were becoming obsolete. Instead of focusing on behaviors or cognition, it has become more important to study the structure and flow of knowledge in an ever-changing society. George Siemens had a significant role in explaining this new way of conceptualizing information and knowledge.
Learning (defined as actionable knowledge) can reside outside of ourselves (within an organization or a database), is focused on connecting specialized information sets, and the connections that enable us to learn more are more important than our current state of knowing.
George Siemens (2001)
Knowledge is a network consisting of nodes and relationships at the neural, conceptual and external levels. Nodes can be added or dropped over time to adapt to changing conditions. This makes the creation and flow of knowledge dynamic and dependent on the connections between students, teachers and researchers.
Principles of connectivism:
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Giving students the tools to learn more in the future is more important that giving them facts in the present that will be obsolete or irrelevant when they enter the workforce.
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Learning is a process of connecting nodes or gaining access to information sources. Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning.
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Core skills needed to gain knowledge in the future include: seeing the relationships between concepts and ideas, evaluating what information is important, and making decisions in a world where knowledge is constantly updating
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Learning can take place in new technology, e.g. AI, which is important because it enables society to have access to the most current information possible
AlDahdouh, Osório and Portugal (2015)
Managing Cognitive Load Example
Since you need a MasterClass subscription to view the course, here is the public link with preview. https://www.masterclass.com/classes/rupaul-teaches-self-expression-and-authenticity
RuPaul’s “Self-Expression and Authenticity” course begins with the story of his life and career as a drag queen. (RuPaul does not claim a gender pronoun and presents male here.) The videos are short and grouped into units like “Cultivating Your Tribe” and “Owning the Room.” In last half, he interviews his head stylist who demonstrates mostly universal techniques for make-up and wardrobe. This is accompanied by a PDF workbook that adds more information, tips, activities, and questions. There is also a Community blog for people to share as they go through the course and try the activities.
Managing Essential (Intrinsic) processing: The appeal of MasterClass is that the course is mostly video with a human speaking conversationally in a relevant setting. Some titles, pictures, or video footage appear when referenced but do not fight to share the screen with the speaker. Your visual channel is not multitasking while you listen with your auditory channel. If you want to use the workbook along with the course, it isn’t designed for you to take notes while you watch. It offers different information and suggestions to avoid redundancy. RuPaul uses modeling through language, speaking patterns, posture, body language, facial expressions that support his message.
Fostering Generative (Germane) Processing: The course is self-selected, self-paced, there are no requirements or assignments, and you don’t get a certificate when you’ve completed it. RuPaul doesn’t assume your goal is to become a drag queen. He even personalized it by explaining how his styling tips could be applied by women, which I didn’t expect and greatly appreciated.
Fixing Overload: He could include a “Quiz” at the beginning to help you assess where you are on the journey to Self-Expression and Authenticity. From there, you could choose from a menu of options leading you to some targeted reflection questions, viewing suggestions, discussion board hashtags, recommendations, resources, etc. This would incorporate more reflection and scaffolding into the experience and help integrate the information with prior knowledge in long-term memory. I also binge-watched the whole course in one weekend, which created self-inflicted overload. They could either include gentle suggestions/reminders to take your time or limit you to one unit of videos per week.
References
Mayer, R. E. (2014, May 5). Research-Based Principles for Multimedia Learning. Lecture presented at Harvard Initiative for Learning and Teaching.
Mind Tools Content Team. (December). Cognitive Load Theory: Making Learning More Effective. Retrieved May 30, 2020, from https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/cognitive-load-theory.htm