English teaching methodologies and new technologies Course Year 2012-13

Assignment : CRITICAL COMMENTARY

Gemma Majada Gassiot
January 2013

_____________________________________________________________________________

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this paper is to analyse an article written by Michael Schneider and Elsbeth Stern based on the Cognitive Perspective on Learning. Since it is difficult to summarise all the findings from cognitive science they present ten cornerstone findings which they find the most important. In their article they explain that to have a successful learning as well as a good acquisition of new knowledge, many factors have to be taken into account. In addition, they use a varied range of examples and different situations to show how both teaching and learning can be improved by using the findings of cognitive science. The authors start their article with an introduction referring to the importance of knowledge, assumptions underpinning the Cognitive Perspective and the structure of knowledge and after that introduction they present and explain the ten points from cognitive research which they consider very important in order to improve learning.

English teaching methodologies and new technologies Course Year 2012-13

Assignment : CRITICAL COMMENTARY

Gemma Majada Gassiot
January 2013

_____________________________________________________________________________

CRITICAL COMMENTARY

As mentioned above, the authors aim is to show the reader that teaching and learning can be better understood and improved by implementing the findings of cognitive science (using their own words). Firstly, they highlight the importance of knowledge, explaining an example of a teacher who teaches students about the Earth, with the only use of his/her words, and a week after, when the students were asked to draw the Earth they did it wrongly, producing huge mistakes. The authors explain this case as an example to illustrate that even with many positive factors (experienced teachers, motivated students or small group) learning did not improve when these factors did not lead to the successful acquisition of new knowledge. In my opinion, here the authors miss an important part of information for the reader: it should have been positive to include a short explanation analysing briefly what were the teachers mistakes, in other words, what was wrong in the teachers methodology in order to make the students acquire new knowledge.

After this first point, the authors explain the Cognitive Perspective assumptions and the modern-day cognitive science researches. There is the assumption that knowledge lies at heart of learning, so when children learn new information -in learning environmentsthey will be able to use that information in life. To do this, children need to understand new concepts correctly and store this information in their long-term memory. The authors are right and I agree with this assumption. According to my own experience, not only as a student but as a teacher, only when children learn in a meaningful way will
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English teaching methodologies and new technologies Course Year 2012-13

Assignment : CRITICAL COMMENTARY

Gemma Majada Gassiot
January 2013

_____________________________________________________________________________

they be able to use that information in real life, to establish connections and to relate experiences. When children learn concepts by heart without understanding them properly (I mean when they study just to pass a test) fail in the future. They have not stored the concepts in their long-term memory and as the time goes by, they do not remember the concepts. This happens when the information is not meaningful, as the example of the teacher explaining the Earth; it is not mentioned the age of that group (something important to be taken into account when doing research) but it seems clear that the information was not meaningful. The teacher gave convincing explanations to the children but they understood it wrongly because there were weaknesses in the method (childrens previous knowledge, bringing Earth globes to the class to manipulate them, asking them questions, make them think, lead them to make hypothesis and formulate conclusions, etc.) As mentioned in the article, over the years researches have seen how different interactions shape a persons knowledge structures. So I agree with the statement that knowledge acquisition lies at the heart of the learning but furthermore, I would say that it is also very important the interactions with the social and physical environment; it is very important the students previous knowledge, based on his/her own experiences in real life. There has to be a link between the acquisition of new knowledge in the school and the previous knowledge students have, so if the child is not able to do these connections, it will be the teacher the one in charge of helping the student using all sort of tools and methods.

English teaching methodologies and new technologies Course Year 2012-13

Assignment : CRITICAL COMMENTARY

Gemma Majada Gassiot
January 2013

_____________________________________________________________________________

The last point of their introduction refers to the amount of knowledge and the structure of knowledge. Traditionally, people involved in the process of learning (teachers, parents, researches and students) have always related the success of learning to the amount of knowledge acquired (and I would dare saying that nowadays there are still teachers who worry about the how much knowledge instead of worrying about other more important things such as the method, the quality, the weaknesses of the system, etc.). It is also well-known that a student can have a high amount of knowledge in a certain domain but still s(he) can have problems in real life, due to a lack of skills to solve it. I have had children who were considered (by other teachers or even parents) very intelligent and having a great amount of knowledge but when facing problems of daily real life, they would fail. They would not know what to do and I found myself teaching strategies, giving tools and even giving advice to them in order to lead them to the acquisition of a different type of knowledge, making them relate the knowledge I wanted them to learn to the problem. I must admit that it is not a simple task, especially when the child has been labelled as intelligent -what a huge mistake- and s(he) knows it and finds difficult to solve the problem and sometimes s(he) does not accept the teachers help.

After having explained those three main points as an introduction, the authors present ten results from cognitive research, which they consider to be very important to understand and improve learning. All points contain aspects of how to build up wellorganised knowledge structures.
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English teaching methodologies and new technologies Course Year 2012-13

Assignment : CRITICAL COMMENTARY

Gemma Majada Gassiot
January 2013

_____________________________________________________________________________

The first point is referring to the fact that it is the learner who learns, so the student has to create the knowledge structures by her/himself and s(he) will be the centre of the class, i.e., the most important person. I absolutely agree. From my point of view teachers should forget about teacher-centred sessions and focus on students. Give them the necessary tools to let them think, investigate, create or let them ask any questions they need. This implies that the teacher will need to have an awareness of how students built up knowledge in a content domain a part from knowing good pedagogy and content knowledge, of course. This goes to a further extend, which means that teachers have to be flexible and open-minded and they should adapt their teaching methods to the needs of their students. This is something that, according to my experience, not all teachers do. The younger the teacher is the more open-minded but the older, the worst. Nowadays, the group heterogeneity makes more difficult to cope with all different levels and students interests and with the everyday rushes, teachers are struggling to do everything. In my opinion, changes require time and a good plan, so it is very important to set a plan and to study carefully the students needs. This means having a good and clear communication between teachers. Once everything has been studied and a solution is found, teachers can work easier and happier. But this is a long task to do (identifying students needs, identifying weaker students and finding ways to reinforce their knowledge, identifying the best ones and creating new materials to have extra work according to their level, etc.)

English teaching methodologies and new technologies Course Year 2012-13

Assignment : CRITICAL COMMENTARY

Gemma Majada Gassiot
January 2013

_____________________________________________________________________________

The second point is regarding the students previous knowledge. The teacher will be able to help the students only when s(he) knows their prior knowledge during the teaching. The case of the teacher mentioned at the beginning of this summary, did not take into account the children previous knowledge about the Earth and that was one of the main problems. As students have different levels of prior knowledge teachers have to adapt to this situation, and as knowledge changes and improves during the process of teaching, teachers have to assess constantly their students knowledge and progress.

The third point highlights that learning requires the integration of knowledge structures. When concepts are taught without linking them to the students previous knowledge, the students can acquire correct and but incorrect concepts too, and most of the times they do not even notice this contradiction. What it seems logical for an adult or a teacher may seem confusing or chaotic for a student, so teachers should help students to link their knowledge pieces. There are many different tools based on abstract relations to achieve this goal. For example, the use of mind maps where arrows link concepts or simple diagrams with summarized concepts linked one another. I am very fond of mind maps, diagrams and charts for many reasons: students can visualise the whole subject at a glance, all concepts are related clearly, it shows the most important concepts and it helps learning in a different way (more visual). At a very early stage I make them copy the mind charts because they are not able to do them alone, but later on, at higher levels I make them produce their own charts to study. I always teach how to do it by giving them all sort of tricks and advice. Usually I draw their attention to a first question:
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English teaching methodologies and new technologies Course Year 2012-13

Assignment : CRITICAL COMMENTARY

Gemma Majada Gassiot
January 2013

_____________________________________________________________________________

What do I want to learn? or What do we want to study?, this leads to the main subject, e.g., animals, which we write it in the centre of the board and then we start building up a map around the title which will include labels such as vertebrates, invertebrates, characteristics, nourishment, reproduction, etc. We built up the map all together, making sure every one collaborates and making sure it makes sense, and of course, including their previous knowledge not only the concepts we have been learning in class. In my opinion, all these instructional practices which focus on abstract relations are very helpful and they can be used according to all different levels in the class. The weaker students make more simple charts but meaningful for them; students having a higher level love to enlarge their maps and finding additional information. I use mind maps either at the beginning of a unit or at the end. Lastly, the authors mention that good communication between teachers is a precondition for knowledge integration across subjects. I would say that good communication is a must and it is basic to achieve our goals. Teachers should not work alone on their own, but in teams sharing information, ideas and goals.

The fourth point refers to concepts and procedures. In order to integrate students knowledge structures teachers should help them linking concepts and procedures. Concepts are abstract and procedures are rules, in other words I would say that concepts are the what and procedures are the how. In my opinion procedures are as important as concepts because they enable students to solve problems in real life. When I give instructions to my students to do something, I take care and I make sure they
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English teaching methodologies and new technologies Course Year 2012-13

Assignment : CRITICAL COMMENTARY

Gemma Majada Gassiot
January 2013

_____________________________________________________________________________

understand the how. If they are able to solve the exercise with the procedure, they will be able to do the same in real life, so they will link the knowledge learnt at school to their lives. The authors say, however, that having concepts and procedures is not enough. Students need to see a relationship between those concepts and the procedures, so I think that both must be taught at the same time. For example, as mentioned previously, the teacher in the introductory example should have brought some globes to manipulate and explore; having changed the procedure the concept would have turned into meaningful. Lastly, the authors also mention the meta-cognition, which is cognition about ones own cognition, i.e., notice and being aware of consistencies in ones own knowledge base. If the learner is able to do this process then concepts and procedures will be reinforced.

The fifth point of this article explains that learning builds knowledge structures through hierarchical organization and this is a characteristic all people have. The knowledge is structured this way and this is true for perception, language, abstract concepts and problem-solving procedures. One of the examples the authors give is when we read unscrambled- letter words; we are able to read them because knowledge about letters helps to identify words and knowledge about words helps to identify letters (letters at the basic level and words at a higher level.)

The sixth point deals with structures in the external world and in the mind. It is ironic to see how teachers make great efforts to make their students acquire knowledge structures
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English teaching methodologies and new technologies Course Year 2012-13

Assignment : CRITICAL COMMENTARY

Gemma Majada Gassiot
January 2013

_____________________________________________________________________________

but in the end they cannot put them into their students heads. The authors mention that to solve this problem, teachers can provide structures by preparing learning environments. To be able to do this, they have to be aware of four things: the structure of the content area, the structure of students prior knowledge, the knowledge structures the learners are supposed to build up and the hierarchical structure of the concept they are going to teach. One of the most important tools for providing structure in a learning environment is language, so teachers will be in charge of choosing with care the right words in order to highlight the relationship between concepts and procedures. A clear example is the one of the sun and the stars. In school and in daily life as well, people refer to the sun and the stars as if the sun was not a star and this causes confusion to children because when they are taught that the sun is actually a star, the link to their previous knowledge does not work. So by having a good labelling of the concepts the teacher can help the children (e.g. the sun is a star). The authors also mention the importance of the language, not only because the right choice of words is important, but also because language is important as a structure of classroom discourse. Encouraging children to discuss in class and to exchange ideas helps them to acquire more knowledge, to respect others opinions and to learn how to express in public. Classroom discussions also help the teacher to assess his/her students knowledge. I am a great fan of class discussions and I try to have chances of discussion, from time to time (it is not always possible due to a lack of time). Using discussions in class help me to observe different things: their level of knowledge, their mistakes, their oral expression, and furthermore, who is enthusiastically participating all the time and who is sitting down
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English teaching methodologies and new technologies Course Year 2012-13

Assignment : CRITICAL COMMENTARY

Gemma Majada Gassiot
January 2013

_____________________________________________________________________________

doing nothing, without participating at all (either for shyness or for laziness). Structuring and planning things well also provides structures, so teachers have to plan very well the sessions, be open-minded and ready to improvise a bit, according to the students reactions and comments. The authors also mention that new technologies can help when creating structuring learning environments, bearing in mind that technical equipments should be used as a tool to foment students construction of knowledge structures. Lastly, they mention as well that it is very important for the students as well as the teacher to know the learning goals. Students have to understand the reasons behind their learning activities. When a child asks me why are we doing this? s(he) makes me think that something goes wrong.

The seventh point refers to the architecture of human cognition which has important properties for the design of structured learning materials. Here the authors explain what working memory is and what long-term memory is. The former is where information is processed but it is quickly lost if it is not updated; the latter is where the information is stored and it can last for years. When transferring information from the former to the latter new information is filtered, so it is here where the teacher plays a very important role: the given information must be meaningful, only like this will the students do the links to their previous knowledge and the teachers explanations will make sense to them.

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English teaching methodologies and new technologies Course Year 2012-13

Assignment : CRITICAL COMMENTARY

Gemma Majada Gassiot
January 2013

_____________________________________________________________________________

The eighth point is about the importance of motivation and the authors point out three factors here. One is the fact that although there is a tendency to see motivation as a motor that drives learning (it is either on or off) it should be taken into account that motivation changes through the process of learning. Second, motivation it also deals with the thoughts about ones own competence. And third - and maybe, from my point of view- the most important factor would be the fact that cognition and motivation influence each other.

The ninth point refers to the transfers of knowledge structures. It is well known that teachers do not know which knowledge will be important for their students since they do not know how their lives are going to be. The authors analyse two approaches: the training of domain general competences and the fostering knowledge transfer. They show that whereas the former is ineffective since domain-general competences (intelligence, working memory capacity, brain efficiency) are very difficult to train, the later fostering knowledge transfer- seems to work. This alternative seems to be more effective since it helps the transfer of knowledge to new situations in life. The role of the teacher here is to make students learn about comparisons (using examples to study similarities or differences) or analogies so they can establish connections between the concepts they are learning at school and the outside world in real life. This means that the examples that teachers use must be, again, meaningful real-life problems, close to their students everyday life. I agree with this statement because it is only like this when the learner will do the transfer easily. An example which clearly illustrates what the
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English teaching methodologies and new technologies Course Year 2012-13

Assignment : CRITICAL COMMENTARY

Gemma Majada Gassiot
January 2013

_____________________________________________________________________________

authors are saying is, for instance, in the teaching of a foreign language, when having to produce a letter. Teachers and books always tend to ask the students to write a letter to a pen-pal, which I have to admit I find it nonsense since the pen-pal does not exist. In this case students are writing for nothing, they will not get any answer, they will get the teachers corrections instead. I have always the same discussion with colleagues: in my opinion it would be better writing for a real purpose whenever it is possible. If it is not possible to find another school to the exchange, it can be done between different classgroups. When the school is big enough, most of the times students dont know each other, so a nice activity would be exchanging letters (or e-mails) to know each other. This activity should be more developed in depth and now it is not the case but it is just an example to illustrate that when students have to produce something for real, it will be easier then to transfer this knowledge to their real life.

The tenth and the last finding in this article, talks about the fact that the learning process requires time and effort for both teachers and students. I agree with the fact that investing time and effort in problem-solving and extending ones knowledge are the most important factors to achieve the success of learning. Effort, in my opinion, is one of the things that teachers should try to inculcate to their students; effort is the base. Authors finish their explanations of the ten cornerstone findings with a very interesting statement: Learning can and should be fun, but it is the type of fun that it is to climb a mountain- not the type of fun it is to sit at the top and enjoy the view. I have found this

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English teaching methodologies and new technologies Course Year 2012-13

Assignment : CRITICAL COMMENTARY

Gemma Majada Gassiot
January 2013

_____________________________________________________________________________

statement crystal clear and it should be a good motto for encourage both teachers and students to face their work.

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English teaching methodologies and new technologies Course Year 2012-13

Assignment : CRITICAL COMMENTARY

Gemma Majada Gassiot
January 2013

_____________________________________________________________________________

CONCLUSIONS

After having analysed the ten points described by the authors, we can conclude that creating effective learning environments is one of the most important tasks for teachers. Good learning environments promote the transfers between content domains as well as the learning situation and real-life. To create a good learning environment the authors give in their article clear guidelines which I find them very useful. According to their own words, teachers should stimulate learners to be mentally active; get to know their previous knowledge; integrate fragmented pieces of knowledge into hierarchical knowledge structures; balance concepts, skills and meta-cognitive competence; provide structures that help learners to develop well-organised knowledge structures; present adequate information for efficient processing in the human mind given its limitation (working memory); maximise motivation (meaningful contents and clear goals in lessons) and finally, a teacher should also emphasise the relevance for life outside of the learning environment, and by sensitivity to their students interests, goals, and selfperceptions. I would add a slight but yet an important detail which is not mentioned in the article by the authors: a teacher has to love his/her job, otherwise s(he) will not succeed; then the person will be bored and demotivated and this, unfortunately, will have direct implications in the learning process of her/his students.

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