Week 12 - Complex Cognitive
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This document discusses complex cognitive processes such as conceptual understanding, thinking, and problem solving. It describes how concepts are formed and ways to prompt concept formation, including learning features, defining concepts with examples, building concept maps, and hypothesis testing. It also discusses different types of thinking like reasoning, critical thinking, decision making, and creative thinking. Strategies are provided to encourage critical and creative thinking in students.
Week 12 - Complex Cognitive
- 2. Complex cognitive processes Conceptual understanding Thinking Problem Transfer solving
- 3. Conceptual Understanding help students understand the main concepts in a subject rather than just memorizing isolated facts
- 4. Concepts are…. categories that group objects, events and characteristics on the basis of common properties (Zacks & Tversky, 2001). elements of cognition that help to simplify and summarize information (Hahn & Ramscar, 2001; Klausmeier, 2004; Medin, 2000).
- 5. Concepts helps to generalize objects in meaningful order. Concepts are formed through direct experiences with objects or through symbols (e.g., words, formulas, graphs and pictures). Concepts helps to improve the efficiency of memory, communication and use of time. Some concepts are relatively simple, clear and concrete, while others are more complex, fuzzy and abstract.
- 6. Ways to Prompt Concept Formation Learning the features of concepts Defining elements or dimensions that make it different from another concept E.g., the feature “three-sided” is important of the concept of “triangle”, while size and colors are not.
- 7. Defining concepts and providing examples 4 steps in Rule-Example Strategy 1) define the concepts 2) clarify terms in the definition 3) give examples to illustrate key features 4) provide additional examples
- 8. Building concept maps It is a visual presentation of a concept’s connections and hierarchical organization. The concept map can be created with the assistance of students, or let them try to develop individually or in small groups.
- 9. Example of a concept map for dinosaur: Reptiles Characteristics - usually lay eggs - vertebrate - breathes by lungs - ….. Non-Dinosaur Reptilian - snakes - lizards - crocodiles - turtles - ……. Dinosaur Attributes - extinct - reptilian - ….. Types - triceratops - brontosaur - stegosaur - …..
- 10. Hypothesis testing Specific assumptions/predictions that can be tested to determine whether the theory holds up. This is done to come up with a rule about why some objects fall within a concept and others do not. Examples:
- 11. Prototype Matching A process to decide whether an item is a member of a category by comparing it with the most typical items of the category (Rosch, 1973). The more similar the item is to the prototype, the more likely it is said belongs to the category (e.g.: sparrow is more typical birds than ostriches). However, ones may vary greatly but still have qualities that make it a member of that category.
- 12. Thinking involves manipulating and transforming information in memory. Individuals can think about concrete or abstract objects; think about the past and the future; think about reality and fantasy.
- 13. Types of Thinking Reasoning logical thinking that uses induction or deduction to reach a conclusion. Inductive Reasoning deductive Reasoning
- 14. Inductive Reasoning involves reasoning from the specific to the general. Example: an empirical research of studying a sample of participants (specific) in order to draw conclusions about the population (general) from which the sample is drawn. Inductive conclusion may be very likely, but there always is a chance that it is wrong.
- 15. Deductive Reasoning involves reasoning from the general to the specific. Deductive reasoning is always certain in the sense that if the initial rules or assumptions are true, then the conclusion will follow directly as a matter of logic. Example: All philosophers are human. Socrates is a philosopher. So, he is a human. (true) All philosophers are human. Socrates is a human. So, he is a philosopher. (wrong)
- 16. Critical Thinking involves thinking reflectively, productively and evaluating the evidence. However, most schools emphasize on getting students to give single correct answer in an imitative way rather than encouraging them to expand their thinking by coming up with new ideas and rethinking earlier conclusions.
- 17. Guidelines to encourage critical thinking: Be a guide in helping students to construct their own thinking Use thinking-based questioning and teaching Provide positive role models for thinking
- 18. Decision Making involves thinking in which individuals evaluate alternatives and make choices among them. When we make decisions, the rules are seldom clear-cut and we may have limited knowledge about the consequences of the decisions. Normally, people choose the outcome with the highest expected value when making decisions (Smyth et al., 1994).
- 19. Common flaws in decision making : Confirmation bias the tendency to search for and use information that supports our ideas rather than refutes them. Belief perseverance It is the tendency to hold on to a belief in the face of contradictory evidence.
- 20. Overconfidence bias the tendency to have more confidence in judgments and decisions than we should base on probability or past experience. Hindsight bias the tendency to falsely report (after the fact) that we accurately predicted an event.
- 21. Availability heuristic a prediction about the probability of an event based on the frequency of the event’s past occurrence. Representativeness heuristic we sometimes make faulty decisions based on how well something matches a prototype rather than its relevance to the particular situation.
- 22. Creative Thinking the ability to think about something in novel and unusual ways and come up with unique solutions. Convergent thinking: -produces one correct answer -characteristic of the kind of thinking required on conventional intelligence tests. Divergent thinking: -produces many answers to the same question -more to characteristic of creativity.
- 23. Strategies to encourage creative thinking Brainstorming a technique in which people play off each other’s ideas and say practically whatever comes to mind that seems relevant to a particular issue Provide environments that stimulate creativity encourage independent work and make resources readily available. provide exercises and activities that stimulate students to find insightful solutions. organize field trips to locations where creativity is valued.
- 24. Don’t over control students Students’ creativity is diminished when teachers hold over expectations for their performance and expect perfection from them. In contrast, let students select their interests and support their inclinations will maintain their natural curiosity.
- 25. Encourage intrinsic motivation Intrinsic motivation is the satisfaction generated by the work itself. Competition for prizes & formal evaluations will undermine intrinsic motivation & creativity. Foster flexible and playful thinking Having fun helps to disarm the inner censor that can condemn a student’s ideas as being off-base.