The e-Learning Reader by de Freitas Sara;Jameson Jill;

Author:de Freitas, Sara;Jameson, Jill;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Published: 2019-11-23T00:00:00+00:00

Cognitive Strategies

Most cognitive learning theorists distinguish another type of cognitive skill besides the procedural knowledge previously mentioned. Most speak of these learned entities as executive control processes (Atkinson & Shiffrin, 1968) or more generally as strategic knowledge (Greeno, 1978a). In many studies of learning and of human problem solving, it has been repeatedly shown that learners bring to new tasks not only previously learned declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge but also some skills of when and how to use this knowledge. Cognitive strategies for recalling word pairs may consist of constructing images and sentences, and such techniques have been taught to both children and adults (Rohwer, 1970). Strategies for encoding and for cueing retrieval are suggested by research from many sources (Anderson, 1980; Brown, 1978). Strategies of problem solving have been the subject of a good deal of research (Wickelgren, 1974). Greeno (1978b) has written an excellent article on geometric problem solving.

Cognitive strategies vary considerably in the degree of specificity or generality they possess. Some appear to be highly specific to the task being undertaken or to the problem being solved. A strategy of checking subtraction by converting numbers to multiples of ten is surely a useful strategy of limited generality. Strategies such as constructive search, limiting the problem space (Greeno, 1978a), and dividing the problem into parts have been suggested as having general applicability. The strategy called means-end analysis is very general in its applicability, according to Newell and Simon (1972). Correlated with the specificity of cognitive strategies may be their ease of learning and recall. Some strategies seem very easy to communicate to learners faced with a particular learning or problem-solving situation (‘put the two words into a sentence’ is an example). Usually, though, these are the strategies that are very specific to the task. More general strategies, such as ‘breaking the problem into its parts,’ although clear to the learner in relation to one task, may not be readily transferable to other novel problem-solving situations.

The definition I suggest for this kind of learning outcome is as follows. A cognitive strategy enables a learner to exercise some degree of control over the processes involved in attending, perceiving, encoding, remembering, and thinking. Strategies enable learners to choose at appropriate times the intellectual skills and declarative knowledge they will bring to bear on learning, remembering, and problem solving. Differences in strategies are usually inferred from differences in efficient processing (as it occurs in learning, thinking, etc.). Evidence of strategies and their use comes from learner’s reports, or protocols, of their own processing methods.

Despite the inferential nature of the evidence for one cognitive strategy or another, it is difficult to deny their existence or their role as executive processes that influence other forms of information processing. If we admit that cognitive strategies apply not just to problem solving but to all of the kinds of processing involved in cognition – perceiving, learning, remembering, thinking – then there must be many kinds of strategies for almost any conceivable kind of task. Greeno (1978a) has written about the ways strategies enter into problem solving, as has Newell (1980).

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