Cognitive Processes in Teaching and Learning

The Teaching-Learning Process

The process of education is related to both the teacher and the student's learning. However, there is a causal relationship between them; learning does not happen simply because a teacher teaches, as not everyone in a classroom can learn alike. We can identify various learning styles:

• By reception: receiving information from the environment.

• Rote learning (memorization): recording concepts without understanding their positions.

• By discovery: observation and the creation of assumptions.

• Social learning: learning rules and conduct considered positive in our society. We learn by repetition when we receive recognition, and practice avoidance of punishment.

• Learning power: acquiring skills and competencies.

• Problem-solving: developing solutions to challenges.

Educational Theory and Memory

In the theory of education, the purposes of education are more important than the "why". Teaching stimulates the learning process based on the conditions of the subject, their environment, and their objectives. When a learning process occurs, there is always a change in the subject and their environment. Human beings need sources of information in the teaching-learning process. When information is received by sensory registers, it can result in an observable response (action). Records are kept in short-term memory (up to 7 items) while we perform the action; this memory is useful because it allows us to react immediately and prevents us from storing useless information. Long-term memory is a store that has no limit.

Theories of Forgetting and Omission

• Trace theory (Teoría de la huella): new information superimposes on the old, and eventually, it disappears.

• Constructive knowledge design: prior information may conflict with new information; to achieve balance, we amend the prior information.

• Freud's theory: if the ego finds a conflict, it suppresses it and sends it to the unconscious. However, this information does not disappear; it can emerge through dreams and hypnosis.

Cognitive Actions in Learning

During the teaching-learning process, we carry out various cognitive actions:

• Attention: selective perception of stimuli.

• Encoding: the received information reaches the brain, which decodes it to produce an action as a response.

• Storage: when we want to save information in long-term memory, we must store it consistently and link it with prior information to be able to retrieve it.

• Retrieval: constantly recurring to stored information.

Elements of Cognitive Structures

Through these four elements, we build and enrich our cognitive structures. The elements of cognitive structures include:

• Contents: information from whatever source it comes; it varies from one person to another and also over time.

• Organization: some people have their information more organized than others.

• Operation: the way we process and enter information, which occurs through two processes:

  1. Assimilation: adapting new relational information to fit existing structures.

  2. Accommodation: changing our cognitive structures so they can fit the new information.