Investigating Cognitive Psychology Approaches To Increase Educational Performance (Low-Cost Techniques To Improve Education)

Cognitive psychology is a science that studies information processing processes in the mind such as attention, perception, memory, language, problem solving, creativity and reasoning. Cognitive psychology, like psychoanalysis, focuses on internal processes. But in this perspective, rather than emphasizing desires, needs, and motivation, it emphasizes how people acquire and interpret information and use it to solve problems. Contrary to psychoanalysis, cognitive support is not based on hidden motivations, emotions, and conflicts, but on mental processes that we are aware of or can easily be aware of. This approach is opposed to learning theories that consider the external environment as the main cause of behavior. Basically, the cognitive perspective is concerned with current thoughts and problem solving methods rather than personal history. In this perspective, the relationships between emotions, motivations, and cognitive processes, and as a result, the overlap between the cognitive perspective and other approaches are revealed. Cognitive and educational psychologists have identified strategies that greatly improve learning and retention of information, and yet these techniques are not generally applied in education nor taught in education schools. In fact, teachers often use instructional practices known to be wrong (i.e., massing rather than interleaving examples to explain a topic). We identify three general principles that are inexpensive to implement and have been shown in both laboratory and field experiments to improve learning: (۱) distribution (spacing and interleaving) of practice in learning facts and skills; (۲) retrieval practice (via self testing) for durable learning; and (۳) explanatory questioning (elaborative interrogation and self-explanation) as a study strategy. We describe each technique, provide supporting evidence, and discuss classroom applications. Each principle can be applied to most subject matters from kindergarten to higher education. Applying findings from cognitive psychology to classroom instruction is no panacea for educational problems, but it represents one helpful and inexpensive strategy.

کلیدواژه ها:

Inexpensive Techniques ، Improve Education ، Cognitive Psychology ، Enhance Educational Practice