Information Processing: Stage Theory and what it means for teaching.

Stage Theory:

1. Environmental input--from sensory registers (visual, auditory, haptic/tactile).
2. Then your brain has to process those inputs
3. And you have a response output/long-term store/permanent memory
4. Information retrieved for use by the connections you have made to it.
   

Short term memory can have connections with speech/auditory even though it might be presented visually... you "say" letters in your head.

Implications:
Deep Learning requires understanding.
Good comprehension skills must be based in understanding.
Learning is based on connections.

Reading an Arabic text--helps you understand what its like to start reading for the first time.

Updating the Model

• Not as linear, things go both ways.
  
• Multidisciplinary notion of how the brain works.
• Learning is complex
  
• it requires situating things in what you already know

Principles of Learning from Cognitive Science

1. Must clear up misconceptions, and connect with prior knowledge.
2. Competence in an area of inquiry, requires a deep understanding of factual information. This gives you the broader framework to retrieve and apply the information.
   
3. Learner is the important one! Metacognitive approach is essential. Learners control their own learning.

In Other Words.....

• teachers use what students know to help them understand the unknown
• teacher enhance learner competence by using conceptual framework and ways of organizing
• teachers use a metacognitive approach to help learners control their own learning

Attributes of Learning and Teaching

Attributes of Learning
Brainstorm List:

• Social
• Interconnected
• Motivation--intrinsic/extrinsic
• Authentic
• Embodied Aesthetic Wholeness (Learning is Living)
• Building on Correct Understanding
• Metacognitive
• Learner Factors
• Environment/Contextual Factors

Pat's List:
Active--observing and doing, dialoging with self and others
Intentional (mindful)--working toward real and meaningful goals
Reflective--monitoring, thinking about
Complex-- ill-structured, unpredictable, no simple formula for solution
Contextual--reflect real-world problems & tasks; authentic environments & cases
Conversational--alternate forms of communication used; discussing
Collaborative-- working together toward a common goal, profiting form each other's strengths
Responsible--buy in, create, maintain, take over on own.
Thoughtful--can't learn without thinking