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Have you praised a learner for having a
wonderful memory for facts or asked learners what they remember
from a past lesson? Have you considered what your role is
in helping learners to think about how they can best process
information and retain important facts?
In this section you will consider:
- what is involved in thinking, remembering
and problem solving
- how the processing of information can
be assisted, and examine the importance of making links
to learners’ prior knowledge.
- ways in which an educator can help learners
remember and solve problems.
- what we mean when we talk about acquiring
knowledge, and how knowledge is a part of thinking, remembering
and problem solving.
The work of Piaget, which we will briefly
explore in Activity 8, forms one of the bases for ideas explored
in information processing. Piaget introduced the schema as
the organizer of ideas around a topic. The ideas about schema,
and Piaget’s introduction of the processes of assimilation
and accommodation, are all useful concepts in the information
processing approach. We will return to these ideas when we
describe memory processes in a sub-section below.
The information processing theory is based
on comparing the functioning of the mind to a computer. The
theory proposes that people process information in much the
same way as a computer does. It uses ideas about the input
of information, the manipulation of it, and the nature of
the outputs to help us consider ways in which we can improve
thinking. Information is taken in from the environment, converted
into some form so it can be stored in memory, and then it
is later retrieved from memory so that the learner can produce
a response.
Earlier, we wrote that if you can understand
how you yourself learn, you will be in a better position to
understand how learners learn. In order for learners to develop
the critical thinking skills necessary for problem solving,
they need to learn how to learn. In other words, they need
to become more aware of their own cognitive processes. Thus
the role of the teacher is to help learners understand their
own cognitive processes. Learners will then be better able
to regulate these processes in order to achieve specific learning
goals. Learners also need to monitor their own learning so
that they can recognize when certain strategies are ineffective
and change them. Many may argue that the most important outcome
of schooling is learning how to learn. Click
here to read more about an Information Processing Model
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