Betzi Bateman
Spring 2009
Educational Psychology/Cognition, Instruction, & Technology
Final Project
Introduction
What follows is an instructional plan for a module on “Concepts of Long-Term Memory and their Application” for an online Educational Psychology course for Undergraduates. Based on the idea of knowledge construction rather than knowledge acquisition, the guiding cognitive principles and instructional strategies attempt to help the student select, organize, and integrate new information (Mayer, 1992).
Since this module is not a stand-alone piece of instruction but is part of a larger unit, below are the unit topics as conceived of by me. This project focuses on the plan for Module 4: Schemata and Schema Activation.
Unit: Concepts of LTM and their Application
Module 1: Knowledge in Long-Term Memory
Module 2: Encoding Simple Information
Module 3: Concepts and Concept Attainment
Module 4: Schemata and Schema Activation
Module 5: Levels of Processing
Module 6: Metacognition
Module 7: Evolving Models of Long-Term Memory
Table of Contents:
- Introduction
- Narrated Mini-Lecture
- Driscoll Ch. 4: Meaningful Learning & Schema Theory
- Examples of Solving Instructional Problems with Schema Theory
- Threaded Discussion
- Comparative Organizer Wiki Page
Mindfulness Check:
Where is your mind right now?
Are you in a quiet room where you will not be interrupted?
Is your cell phone off?
Is your email program closed?
Have you rid your environment of any distractions?
Learning objectives:
After this module, you will be able to:
- define schemata
- distinguish a schema from a concept
- describe the structure of a schemata
- explain the role of learner prior knowledge in schema activation
- develop instructional solutions using schema activation theory
Slide 1 Narration:
In the previous module, you learned about concepts. Concepts are one way to understand the information stored in semantic Long-Term Memory. In this module, you will learn about another structure in Long-Term Memory, schemas. Schemas are mental models that explain one’s understanding of the world.
Slide 2 Narration:
What comes to mind when you think of house cleaning? You might think of the tools you use such as glass cleaner or a vacuum or a feather duster. You might think of a particular order in which things should be done. Maybe you think about certain chemicals like bleach and ammonia that shouldn't be used together. Each of you has a mental framework that comes to mind when you hear the term "house cleaning." This mental framework is called a schema.
Slide 3 Narration:
Wait a minute, you might be thinking. Can’t “house cleaning” also be a concept? What’s the difference? You could also think of “house cleaning” as a concept existing in a category of “cleaning” or “typical weekend activities.” You could think of defining attributes that make up the concept “house cleaning” to decide if an activity constitutes one associated with the category “cleaning house.” Yes, “house cleaning” can be thought of as a concept and as a schema. The difference is that concepts are more concrete structures in LTM, while schemas represent more complex representations and are used to fill in the blanks in order to understand knowledge representations. Schemas guide how knowledge is interpreted.
Slide 4 Narration:
For example, let’s say your friend tells you that she is going to clean her house. If she says, “well, I’ve got an hour after work before we meet for dinner so I might get some house cleaning done,” you’ll probably expect her to maybe do the dishes and pick up a little bit. But, what if she says, “on Saturday I’m going to be doing some spring cleaning.” You’ll probably assume that she’ll be spending hours cleaning floors, windows, clearing out clutter, etc. What if your friend was male instead of female? You use your schema for house cleaning to make sense of what your friend says he/she is going to do based on what you know about house cleaning, how much time it takes, the cleaning habits of your friend, etc. Your schema for house cleaning helps you comprehend what your friend is going to do when he says he’s going to clean house.
Slide 5 Narration:
So, why is schema theory important for educators? Let’s say you are a fourth-grade teacher beginning a unit on heat conduction. Your learners will not have a well-developed schema for this topic, but they probably have some prior relevant knowledge. By activating their budding schema by asking about the difference in temperature between a cup containing hot chocolate vs. one containing ice water, your students will see that they already know something about the topic. They will be primed to add new information to their budding schema and will be more likely to remember the information being taught because it has been made meaningful to them. (Example from Bruning, et. al., p. 49).
Slide 6 Narration:
As teachers, we need to help students develop well-formed schemata. We need to help them fill in the slots with knowledge that leads to understanding. After listening to this presentation, read Chapter 4 of Marcy Driscoll’s text and study the examples given in this module. Then, complete the discussion activity in which you will think about your own teaching and the problems you’ve encountered to come up with your own solutions based on schema theory. Finally, add to your comparative organizer wiki page.
Page 3: Web page with links to examples of how instructors use schema theory to solve instructional problems. The examples will illustrate the use of questioning in lecture to activate prior knowledge, advance organizers to activate prior knowledge, and comparative organizers that help learners make sense of course content.
Threaded Discussion Activity:
Think of an area you have taught that has been particularly difficult because your students lack a sufficient schema for the information. Present and explain your example to the class, give a possible solution based on schema activation, and read through the examples posted by others. Respond to other student examples with any possible solutions you can come up with.
Comparative Organizer Wiki Activity:
During the unit of LTM, students will fill in a comparative organizer after each module. Each student works on his/her own comparative organizer individually (hidden from other students). At the end of the unit, the comparative organizers are shared and students can comment on each others’ work. / Learning new information is a resource-limited task, and working memory has a limited processing capacity. Therefore, instructors should help learners allocate “one’s limited attention as carefully as possible on the most important information one needs to learn,” (Bruning et al, p. 24). In this sense, attempts are made to help the learner focus on the instruction and not distractions since “Multitasking has its downside. Eventually, a person can try to do too much at once and wind up doing everything poorly,” (Bruning et al, p. 24).
Learners need to be made aware of what they are to learn in order to direct attention to stimuli that will help them reach instructional goals. “Holding an expectancy about what one is to learn will influence subsequent processing of information related to that expectancy,” (Driscoll, Ch. 10, p. 373).
Split-attention theory; presenting graphics and text both visually increases cognitive load (Mayer, 1997). Because processes are limited, instructors should try to decrease the extraneous cognitive load in the instructional design. Paivio’s dual coding theory states that information can be coded into both the verbal and imaginal coding systems and that doing so leads to higher recall of information. It is an efficient use of working memory processes based on Baddeley’s model in which the visual and auditory sensory registers are separate, (Bruning et al, p. 53).
Though learners often have relevant prior knowledge that can help them learn a new concept, they don’t always activate it themselves, (Driscoll, Ch. 4, p. 137). To learn new information it should be tied to previous knowledge in LTM through activating existing schemata, (Bruning et al, p. 75; Driscoll, Ch. 10, p. 358).
Activation of prior knowledge to tie new information to it in LTM. (Driscoll, Ch. 4, Bruning et al, Ch. 4).
In order to learn a concept, it needs to be made distinct in LTM from other concepts, (Bruning et al, p. 78; Driscoll, p. 360). Distinctiveness leads to better encoding into LTM.
“Elaborate processing is not merely reprocessing the same information, but rather it is encoding the same content in different but related ways,” (Bruning et al, p. 79).
Elaborate processing continued.
Learners need guidance in focusing their attention to appropriate stimuli essential to learning.
To make a concept meaningful to the learner, it needs to be made distinctive. And, according to Kalyuga et al, (2001), novice learners need worked examples before jumping into problem solving in order to reduce cognitive load.
Levels of processing; elaboration of processing (Craik & Lockhart, covered by Bruning, et. al., Ch. 4).
Elaborative processing through producing distinctiveness among different concepts. / Gaining attention (Gagné’s nine events of instruction).
Informing the learner of the objective (Gagné’s nine events of instruction).
Decrease cognitive load by presenting graphics with audio explanations rather than text that is read by the learner (Mayer, 1997). Use graphics as cues to aid in remembering information, (Bruning et al, p. 68).
This chapter is also an advance organizer for Driscoll’s Chapter 4, a required reading for the module.
Activate prior knowledge through an advance organizer (Driscoll, Ch. 4, pp. 138-143). Begin the teaching of a concept by presenting the definition, (Gagné).
Schema activation through walking the student through an example of which they already possess in LTM, (Driscoll, Ch. 4; Bruning, et. al., Ch. 4).
Continuing concept learning by presenting a non-example and building learners’ understanding of the distinctiveness of schema vs. a concept.
Building on the activated schema for “house cleaning” by looking at it in a different way.
Presenting another example of schema and putting into the context of how and why schema activation is used in education.
Presenting the stimulus and eliciting performance (Gagné’s nine events of instruction).
Providing rich and varied examples and worked examples.
Students generate their own examples and solutions based on the content to make the content meaningful. Eliciting performance and providing feedback (Gagné).
A comparative organizer provides “a means for systematically comparing and contrasting concepts,” (Driscoll, p. 144). / This module is part of an online course and will contain pages developed in HTML, an audio narrated presentation, and links to interactive tools. The table of contents and content plan is provided in the “Instructional Narrative” section.
Presented with a “mindfulness” graphic included on the first page of each module cueing the need to focus on the learning tasks.
Graphics (rather than text/bulleted lists) with audio narration (used throughout presentation; specific graphics for each slide described below)
Graphic representing the structures of LTM used in this Unit with the Schemata part highlighted.
Graphic representing house cleaning that works with the audio narration to activate the schema for house cleaning.
Table of “house cleaning” as a concept.
Graphic of men and women cleaning house
Graphic of a cup of hot chocolate.
Graphic of “next steps.” Used in each module audio presentation, this graphic will cue learners to focus on the activities to complete the module.
Link to threaded discussion tool.
Link to the student’s wiki page.
References
Bruning, R. H., Schraw, G. J., Norby, M. M., & Ronning, R. R. (2004). Cognition and instruction, fourth edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education Ltd.
Driscoll, M. P. (2005). Psychology of learning for instruction, third edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education Ltd.
Kalyuga, S., Chandler, P., Tuovinen, J., & Sweller, J. (2001). Then problem solving is superior to studying worked examples. Journal of educational psychology, 93(3), 579-588.
Mayer, R. E. (1992). Cognition and instruction: Their historic meeting within educational Psychology. Journal of educational psychology, 84(4), 405-412.
Mayer, R. E. (1997). Multimedia learning: Are we asking the right questions? Educational psychologist, 32(1), 1-19.