Information Processing TIPR
QUESTION: "How does the teacher work with the students' information processing systems to promote learning? For example, how does the teacher focus students' attention, help them rehearse new information, and encourage them to encode and transfer information? Evaluate the teacher's use of wait time as part of this process. Cite specific examples and be sure to include a reference in your response."
Mrs. O isn't very good at this whole information processing system understanding and incorporation into her lessons. To get her students attention she yells or teases them. To help them rehearse new information she writes it on the white board for them to see. To encourage them to encode and transfer the information she repeats herself. A lot. I've watched this semester as she has students consistently not show up to class prepared and I recently helped her grade tests for her CE Theater class that the students didn't do very well on. Overall, I don't see a great deal of these strategies talked about in this lesson on Cognitivism being incorporated into her classroom and it's reflecting in her students performance.
In looking at a specific lesson that I observed I'm going to go through the strategies and ideas from Cognitivism and hypothesize on how their implementation could have possibly improved the outcomes from her students.
On one of my very last days of observation I came to Mrs. O's Intermediate Theater classroom on a performance day. The students had been given the assignment to come prepared to perform two contrasting pieces (monologues, songs, or both) as well as have a head shot and theater resume in the correct format to turn in. Mrs. O showed me the mock up resume she had given them. Of the 4 students that turned in resumes that day, none were in the correct format or style that had been presented in the mock up. Half of the class was still needing to perform and only 5 students preformed. One of the students that performed was only half memorized. All of this was shocking and frustrating to me and Mrs. O. She attributes it to the previous teacher not having a disciplined teaching style. But I do wonder what could be done to help it stick in these kids minds exactly what they need to prepare to complete the task.
Cognitivism is based around memory and how it works. This video is a great reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL8dPuuaLjXtOPRKzVLY0jJY-uHOH9KVU6&v=bSycdIx-C48 How can we help kids establish what goes into their long-term memory and how it can be retrieved? I felt Mrs. O's visual aid of the head shot and resume was brilliant but they didn't seem to remember that they had to follow it exactly. On this visual cue or with it could have been more clear instructions requiring their resumes to be in the same format and not to follow a template that appeared on Google Docs or Word.
In regards to memorization, Cognitivism would seem have been extremely beneficial in assisting the teaching process. In seeing that many students didn't perform because they weren't memorized, it would seem a good idea to incorporate memorization techniques of a performance piece into a unit or lesson plan. One memorization technique connects with an encoding strategy, elaborative rehearsal/meaningful learning, which is all about connecting new information with prior knowledge. The memorization technique is based on looking for operative language, or in other words, language that delivers an image visually or sensationally. Students are meant to go through the monologue and circle or underline the operative language. Here is an example: "I've never set foot on a ship, but I've heard many stories. I know that when sailors are caught in a storm they work their hands raw to save themselves and the ship. But when the storm is wild tempest and swallows them whole, they yield to the power of the water and ride the swells with silence." The idea is focusing on the operative language as you memorize and conveying the images as you speak rather than just memorizing a long list of words. With this idea in mind, the memorization will come faster than just basic repetition. The other encoding strategies that connect with this memorization technique are elaboration (expanding on the information) and visual imagery.
With these few ideas in mind it is possible that Mrs. O could have improved the outcome for her students. They may have been more prepared and remembered better what to have been prepared with.
Mrs. O isn't very good at this whole information processing system understanding and incorporation into her lessons. To get her students attention she yells or teases them. To help them rehearse new information she writes it on the white board for them to see. To encourage them to encode and transfer the information she repeats herself. A lot. I've watched this semester as she has students consistently not show up to class prepared and I recently helped her grade tests for her CE Theater class that the students didn't do very well on. Overall, I don't see a great deal of these strategies talked about in this lesson on Cognitivism being incorporated into her classroom and it's reflecting in her students performance.
In looking at a specific lesson that I observed I'm going to go through the strategies and ideas from Cognitivism and hypothesize on how their implementation could have possibly improved the outcomes from her students.
On one of my very last days of observation I came to Mrs. O's Intermediate Theater classroom on a performance day. The students had been given the assignment to come prepared to perform two contrasting pieces (monologues, songs, or both) as well as have a head shot and theater resume in the correct format to turn in. Mrs. O showed me the mock up resume she had given them. Of the 4 students that turned in resumes that day, none were in the correct format or style that had been presented in the mock up. Half of the class was still needing to perform and only 5 students preformed. One of the students that performed was only half memorized. All of this was shocking and frustrating to me and Mrs. O. She attributes it to the previous teacher not having a disciplined teaching style. But I do wonder what could be done to help it stick in these kids minds exactly what they need to prepare to complete the task.
Cognitivism is based around memory and how it works. This video is a great reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL8dPuuaLjXtOPRKzVLY0jJY-uHOH9KVU6&v=bSycdIx-C48 How can we help kids establish what goes into their long-term memory and how it can be retrieved? I felt Mrs. O's visual aid of the head shot and resume was brilliant but they didn't seem to remember that they had to follow it exactly. On this visual cue or with it could have been more clear instructions requiring their resumes to be in the same format and not to follow a template that appeared on Google Docs or Word.
In regards to memorization, Cognitivism would seem have been extremely beneficial in assisting the teaching process. In seeing that many students didn't perform because they weren't memorized, it would seem a good idea to incorporate memorization techniques of a performance piece into a unit or lesson plan. One memorization technique connects with an encoding strategy, elaborative rehearsal/meaningful learning, which is all about connecting new information with prior knowledge. The memorization technique is based on looking for operative language, or in other words, language that delivers an image visually or sensationally. Students are meant to go through the monologue and circle or underline the operative language. Here is an example: "I've never set foot on a ship, but I've heard many stories. I know that when sailors are caught in a storm they work their hands raw to save themselves and the ship. But when the storm is wild tempest and swallows them whole, they yield to the power of the water and ride the swells with silence." The idea is focusing on the operative language as you memorize and conveying the images as you speak rather than just memorizing a long list of words. With this idea in mind, the memorization will come faster than just basic repetition. The other encoding strategies that connect with this memorization technique are elaboration (expanding on the information) and visual imagery.
With these few ideas in mind it is possible that Mrs. O could have improved the outcome for her students. They may have been more prepared and remembered better what to have been prepared with.
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