How do we fully explain human learning?
In 1950s behaviourism emphasized learning that was observable and measurable, but there was something missing, namely mental events. In other words, what is going on in the minds of the learner when he or she is learning or thinking.
Share your insights on how you differ “memorization” and “understanding”.
Learning about the brain should improve teaching. We as educator must have some appreciation of how multifaceted the brain is in order to more fully appreciate the complexities involved in education.
ReplyDeleteChildren that memorize tries to learn ideas and concepts word for
ReplyDeleteword only. Unlike children that have fully understood a concept converts ideas and concepts into own words. They can apply ideas to real life situations.
Yap it's true! the brain has many functions in our head. It's very fascinating to how our minds works. We simple cannot understand how God's creation is done. God made teacher with a mind of helping young ones to be better in life.
ReplyDeleteI agree that that learning about cognitive psychology is important for us teachers since it helps us to understand how learning takes place in our class. I believe that memorization like learning is important. They work hand in hand since learning depends on memory. As a result, the brain consists of many functions. A child should be able to use the memory to learn. For instance, children must memorize their times table before moving forward in Math.
ReplyDeleteHello everybody
ReplyDeleteIt is true that the brain has a huge sensory memory. The brain has the capacity to hold long term memory and short term information. The student in a classroom always uses long term rather than short term memory. The child needs long term memory in order to memorize spelling words,his/her address,birthdate etc.
Hey guys.. Why is it that some teachers do not believe in memorization? Many believe that children should learn and not memorize.Cognitive Psychology allows teachers to understand what the child is learning and at what paste the child is learning. Like Dominga, I believe that both short term and long term memory are important since it helps the child to learn the information. In my opinion we should encourage memorization and learning.
ReplyDeleteWell to my understanding memorizing means to learn by heart. While understanding is to grasp the meaning of something. It also means to be thoroughly familiar with something. In the classroom, it is quite observable that students have an incredible ability to memorize. When I first started teaching, I was utterly amazed at how ell students could read from their textbooks.It was not long however, before I realized that they were not reading but memorizing. This demonstrated two things to me. Firstly that they could not read and secondly that they had been tricking their teachers into believing that they could read. However, just because you memorize something does not mean that you understand it. If you memorize, your knowledge is limited to what specific situations you studied. Understanding creates new opportunities of interpretation and allows you discover new methods or approaches.
ReplyDeleteMemorization is used by many people even at an infant level. when children want to spell words they would simple memorize their list of words. Children who really understand wwould try its best to use it in sentences and related with other words. Some difference between memorizing and understanding would be the following:
ReplyDeleteMemorization
Tries to learn ideas and concepts word for
word only
Difficult to explain ideas to someone else other
than word for word.
Difficult to see how ideas apply in real-life
situations or case studies.
Relevance of ideas outside the classroom is
difficult to see and are typically not sought.
Does not see differences, similarities, and implications
of ideas.
Understanding
Converts ideas and concepts into own words
Able to use own words to explain something clearly
to someone else.
Can apply ideas to real life situations or case
studies.
Seeks connections between knowledge from
the classroom and the outside world.
Can identify differences, similarities between
ideas and implications of these ideas.
I agree with you guys that learning is important. for instance whenever children are reading. children need to know how to relate their memory with learning. Brain based is a combination of brain science and common sense. I believe this is so because some children solve arithmetic problems by using their common senses.
ReplyDeleteHi once more guys
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about learning is the foundation.The Brain is like a computer,it is a long term memory since it has the capacity to hold a huge amount of information. However,I believe that children uses the brain in terms of memorization.For the few months I've been teaching at Belize I got to know that my children used the short term memory an example for instance is when I teach a lesson that particular day,the other day I would have to refer to it again.So,the children are using short term memory there.On the other hand some of my students are able to capture the lesson quickly by just starting with a brief introduction.Overall I believe that the brain of a child is just a gift and how they were developed before birth.
According to my understanding memorization is the ability to retain information. We as teachers encourage children to memorize information such as sight words and times tables. Many people use a device, such as a mnemonic, to remember such things as the order of the days of the week, months of the year or planets--did you ever use the "Sandy , my teacher was taken for supper", or something similar, to remember the days of the week?
ReplyDeleteContrary to memorization, understanding is the ability to integrate those pieces of information to see how they fit into a larger picture. For example, let say you're teaching time tables to your class. If you ask any of your students the questions "Three times nine?” I am sure that almost everybody will be able to give the correct answer. But later on you give a problem solving where the same multiplication fact is given the students will be confuse and scores will be poor. This is because they have MEMORIZED multiplication fact as they were presented to them, without really understanding the concept or meaning of the multiplication fact.
I strongly agree with my colleague, Norry, there are some children who memorize some stories. When the teacher asked them to read, their reading is fluently and most of the time they read without looking on their books. If teacher takes the words from the story he or she will have problems in reading it. Once more memorization is done.
So I can conclude that memorization is retaining information; understanding is being able to memorize AND apply that information.
Summary
ReplyDeleteIt is essential for teachers to have knowledge of cognitive psychology. It will help tremendously to know how learning takes place; the different approaches that will make teacher and students achieve their objectives, and the benefits of proper planning. Rote methods are used daily when quick memorization is required, such as learning one's lines in a play or memorizing a telephone number. Examples of school topics where rote learning is frequently used include phonics in reading, the periodic table in chemistry, multiplication tables in mathematics, anatomy in medicine, cases or statutes in law, basic formulae in any science, etc. By definition, rote learning eschews comprehension, so by itself it is an ineffective tool in mastering any complex subject at an advanced level. For instance, one illustration of Rote learning can be observed in preparing quickly for exams, a technique which may be colloquially referred to as "cramming". Cramming simply means studying everything at the last minute, even though, time was given. You might not get A but will save you from getting F.
We as teacher should be aware of the different approaches and with which children a specific approach is efficient.
Very good job, group! Memorization should only used in cases such as multiplication tables and few other instances. And even at that, students need to understand what exactly are multiplication tables. Please use memorization sparingly.
ReplyDeleteVery good presentation of your blog and very good discussion.
Your grade for this assignment is 6.5/7