12.11.06
Posted in competitive, Social cognitive, social interaction, metacognition, Achievement, motivation, Cognitive, Cooperative Learning, Tutoring, Information Processing at 11:45 am by youngsah
O’Donnel, A., Reeve, J.M. Smith, J. (2006) Chapter 12: Learning from Peers. Educational Psychology: Reflection for Action, Wiley. p. 388-425.
Generally a good overview of peer learning including cooperative learning and peer tutoring. It gives an overview of several perspectives and brings in specific theorists and their ideas while talking about the application of their ideas to classroom practice. I didn’t realize how much I needed an overview to consolidate my thinking until I read this chapter. It bridged application and theory very well for me and helped me compare and contrast different perspectives more effectively. Also, it got me thinking a bit about special education and ESL students in cooperative learning which I haven’t really looked at all that much.
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09.25.06
Posted in Cognitive, Information Processing, Annotated References - Class readings at 12:35 pm by youngsah
TIP.org: Information Processing Theory, George Miller.
This article gave a brief overview of George Miller’s most well known contributions to psychological theory. These are “chunking” and TOTE (Test-Operate-Test-Exit). The first relates mainly to working/short-term memory while the later has many applications.
Again, I’m teaching TE 150 this semester, we just covered chunking, and in undergrad I taught an intro psych lecture on memory so “chunking” is one of those concepts close to my heart. It is one of those things that are so simple that you don’t think about it until directed to.
Though I had not previously been formally introduced to TOTE it is a simple explanation of natural processes (behavioral or mental) so it is also intriguing in that kind of “huh, I never thought about that in that way before” kind of way. It reminded me of those step-by-step decision making models in elementary and middle school textbooks. The language of TOTE is different however. The decision making model was to be used to frame decision making in and was made from the inside looking out, while TOTE has the feeling in the language of someone from another field looking in.
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Posted in Cognitive, Information Processing, Annotated References - Class readings at 12:34 pm by youngsah
Miller, P. H. (1993). Information processing theory
This piece was an overview of information processing theory. The author covered some of the theory’s impact on psychology. It’s introduction of the mind as computer metaphor and how it looks at development (children as microcomputers?). Also, the author covered specific topics that information-processing theory tends to cover like memory and knowledge construction/organization. Also, the different approaches within information processing theory such as computer simulations were covered.
My first semi-formal introduction to this approach was in my Intro Psychology course in undergrad and my reintroduction (more formal this time) was in my Cognitive Psychology course. I didn’t realize that much of how we think of the memory system stems from this approach directly. It makes sense when you step back from it but it’s not something I’ve thought of before. I guess I just accepted the little boxes with arrows between them.
Near the middle of the end of this article I flashed back to my high school’s attempt to teach us computer programming (I was passable but not good at basic, if I remember right). It’s an interesting concept to try to duplicate human thinking through a computer simulation though it is problematic because you can get to the same processes in very different ways so I don’t know that it’s helpful.
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