Goodbye Behaviorists

Michelle Windell

ET

Yilmaz, K. (2011). The cognitive perspective on learning: Its theoretical underpinnings and implications for classroom practices.Clearing House, 84(5), 204-212.

This article begins by distinguishing behaviorism from cognitivism. Behaviorist learning theory asserts that learning is observable and measurable, encapsulated in the process of an organism responding to stimulus. In other words, it is a passive process. Conversely, cognitivism asserts that learning is an active process of making meaning out of new stimulus based on prior knowledge. The author distinguishes cognitivism from constructivism, indicating that teachers often confuse the two, but does not ever fully define constructivism. Instead, the two forerunners of cognitivism - Piaget and Vygotsky - are highlighted, along with implications for classroom instruction.

Piaget’s theory of cognitive development suggests that humans from the earliest age actively seek to interact with their environment. This interaction results in the individual assimilating, accommodating, or rejecting new knowledge based upon the mental constructs (schema) s/he already possesses. Vygotsky’s theory of social cognitivism suggests that people learn through social interaction, and that individuals have different optimum readiness levels for different information (zone of proximal development). The idea of scaffolding was born from this theory. Several other cognitive theorists are mentioned in less detail.

Five teaching methods based on the instructional implications are defined:

1. Cognitive apprenticeship, which incorporates modeling, coaching, student articulation, reflection, and exploration.
2. Reciprocal teaching, in which students are guided in the use of cognitive techniques to enable them to make meaning while reading.
3. Inquiry learning, in which students employ higher order thinking skills to examine an issue or test a hypothesis.
4. Discovery learning, similar to inquiry learning, in which the process of discovery and responsibility for one’s learning is emphasized over the content learned.
5. Problem-based learning, in which students are presented with a problem to solve and a variety of potential resources, resulting in a myriad of possible solutions.

This article is a good refresher on cognitive theory, and simple enough for the novice to understand as well. The section on instructional implications and teaching methods correlates with our class texts and transformation work. I enjoyed connecting our process to its theoretical bases.