Session 1

How can we help students to learn more effectively?

Students learn using an assortment of cognitive strategies. Cognitive strategies are known ways that people learn. We can help students to learn more effectively by helping students to learn how to learn. By explicitly modeling and using cognitive strategies in the activities we develop for students we can make them more efficient and effective learners.

There are four families of cognitive strategies. Each is listed and explained below. If you wish to look at a specific strategy you may jump to it from this table of contents:

chunking strategies| spatial learning strategies| bridging strategies| general rehearsal strategies

Four Families of Cognitive Strategies

1. Chunking Strategies

There are three subgroups of chunking strategies and 10 single strategies. Each is listed below.

These are NOT memorable strategies. They must be supplemented by more powerful strategies, e.g., framing, mapping, rehearsal. However, chunking strategies are good preparation for other strategies. Emphasize the most appropriate chunking strategy in the design of the activity. Then, combine it with other strategies.

Space, Time, Procedures, and Logic

Spatial Strategies

Arrays of information organized by location in space. When a student has to learn the arrangement of information in space, e.g., the location of countries in Africa, divide it into subspaces. Helps recall of concrete arrays of information, e.g., maps.

Time Strategies

Time as an organizer is more typical in history but there are many times when in the course of geography we expect students to learn a sequence of events, e.g., the way paleoIndians occupied North America. Narratives, story telling, sequencing, problem-action-result flows, cause-and-effect. Often, using flow charts helps students to organize a narrative.

Procedures

Steps and stages, e.g., life events such as seasons, climates, food gathering, all of these can be organized by using a procedural chunking process.

Logic

Structured around induction and deduction, stories that unfold from statements.

Classification

Taxonomies

Language families.

Typologies

Based on structural features, similarities, functions, e.g., bodies of water, landforms, soils, human features. Highlight any typological scheme to help students organize and learn material.

Multipurpose Sorting

Cause and Effect

An example is gravity...downslope movement; poverty...social instability

Similarities and Differences

Compare and contrast. Think about something students learn about and transfer/compare to something new. Governments, occupations, world regions, cities in the U.S. versus cities in Europe, and so on.

Forms and Functions

Organize material by structure (What is X like?) and function (How does X work?). Use ideas of process and system.

Advantage and Disadvantage

Sort by advantages and disadvantages, pros and cons.An example would be the pros and cons of sources of energy, or the impact of construction on the environment.

2. Spatial Learning Strategies

There are three types of spatial learning strategies. Each is explained and illustrated below. These strategies can easily be incorporated into learning activities and web-based modules.

Frames 1

Visual display (grid, matrix, framework) of substantial amounts of information. This type of spatial learning strategy provides a big picture which students can use to assimilate facts, pieces of information, and so on. Main ideas are labeled in the rows and columns. Information is provided by recall or found in reference material.

TYPES	FORMATION	COMPOSITION	TYPES	USES
Igneous	.	.	.	.
Sedimentary	.	.	.	.
Metamorphic	.	.	.	.

Frames II

Same as Frames I but a law-like principle or statement allows, through inference, the completion of slots, e.g., "Where Native Americans lived and the climate tell you much about how they lived." Students construct facts logically, elicit personal knowledge from memory, and place that knowledge into the visual array (the frame or grid).

NATIVE GROUP	TOOLS	FOOD	CLOTHING	SHELTER	ENVIRONMENT
Coast	.	.	.	.	.
Forest	.	.	.	.	.
Desert	.	.	.	.	.

Concept Mapping

Structure of material visually displayed as a chain, spider, hierarchical, or hybrid "map"

3. Bridging Strategies

Advance Organizer

Helps students to recall what they know and to transfer knowledge to new topics. Should be brief, abstract, an introduction of the new material and a restatement of prior knowledge. Provides students with a structure of the new information and encourages transfer and application.

Metaphor and Analogy

Good metaphors are rich in imagery and figurative language. They are concrete and meaningful, e.g., "A glacier flows like potato pancake batterŠ"

4. General Purpose Strategies

Rehearsal

Repetition, asking and answering questions, predicting and clarifying, restating or paraphrasing, reviewing and summarizing, selecting, note taking, underlining, SQ3R, and so on.

Imagery

Pictoral analogues in the mind. Creating images which link ideas, statements and so on.

Mnemonics

Devices used to remember, e.g., "Malawi is a wee skinny nation."