Chapter 6: Cognitive Psychology

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 thing I want my students to take away from my class is an ability to recall information. I have a terrible memory, but I want to attempt to create great memories in the children I teach. Through consistent routines and repetition of (necessary) material, I think I could be successful in this, although maybe not at first. It will take many years to master this skill. I also want my students to be able to apply their knowledge to events out in their world outside of school. There is nothing more exciting and satisfying than being able to apply what you learn in out of school settings. It is a great confidence booster when children are able to express their knowledge; especially when they are able to express their knowledge to adults whom they might think they are "teaching." 

Cognitive psychology and the ways in which the brain works are intriguing topics, that I think can even be explored with children, beginning at a certain age. Attention is one interesting topic that would be great to discuss and share with children. Many lessons could be devoted just to attention, and how to best retain our focus on a subject. Possibly by helping everyone in the class recognize and understand each other's attention "getters" and "distractors" may create a more harmonious atmosphere for learning. 

How might your knowledge of the memory processes guide your instructional decisions?

I really like the bulleted table on page 187 from chapter 6. I could see myself making a simplified classroom chart from this information that reflects my views on getting all children involved in the attention process. As far as memory, I think I would try to use repetition as much as possible. Also, I would provide many presentations of material- visual, audio, a combination- as well as creating fun ways to remember certain procedures. I have typically learned and remember several concepts, procedures, and even foreign songs through singing and through learning songs. This is something I really want to incorporate in to my class. I think it is just another technique to encourage memory. 

I found this picture, and I really like it's representation of the mind, because it really does work like gears. Our minds are constantly turning and processing information, and I believe, if we do not think deeply about our intake of information and just barely scratch the surface, our minds can rust, just like metal gears.