It emerged in the 1950s and 60s as a
reaction to behaviorism
Prior knowledge and mental processes not only play a bigger role than
stimuli in orienting behavior or response, but also intervene between a
stimulus and response.
The learner as an active participant
in the process of knowledge
acquisition and integration
Theorist and their claims
Jean Piaget
Theory of individual
cognitive development
Lev Vigotski
Theory of social cognitive
growth
Leon Festinger
Cognitive dissonance theory,
Rand Spiro
Cognitive flexibility theory
John Sweeller
Cognitive load theory
Jerome Bruner
Cognitive constructivist
learning theory
Edward Tolman
Theory of sign
learning
Cognitive revolution
It was in the middle of
1950s, the impact of
cognitive theories was so
tremendous
The cognitive revolution is the name
that has been given to the passage
from behaviorism to cognitivism
The main emphasis is on how knowledge
is used by the student during the
different phases of the learning process.
Acquired
Processed
Stored
Retrieved
Activated
Cognitive psychologists investigated mental
structures and processes to explain learning and
change in behavior. They have also observed
behavior empirically but only in order to make
inferences about the internal mental processes.
The cognitive school focuses on
meaning and semantics.
This new line of research is characterized by a
search for new ways to understand what
learning is and how it occurs
Cognitive school views
Learning as an active process “involving the
acquisition or reorganization of the
cognitive structures through which humans
process and store information”.
The learner as an active participant in the
process of knowledge acquisition and
integration.
The cognitive approach focuses on making
knowledge meaningful and helping learners
organize and relate new information to prior
knowledge in memory.
Important domains of learning
Cognitive (thoughts)
Affective (feelings)
Psychomotor (action)
the school teaches how to learn how to learn and how
to think. And this is why Bruner has three learning
models: