LEARNING THEORIES

COGNITIVISM AND CONNECTIVISM

There is one learning experience that I would like to get back to : would the problem-solving experience in primary school have been more successful if the exercise had been “goal-free”?

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I think that the answer is partly yes – I mean “partly” because by then, I had already developed a strong aversion to anything remotely connected with calculations and logical processes (another example of missed learning outcome?).

I might have been able to come up with possible answers or suggestions rather than trying hard to find the solution that the teacher was expecting.

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Being assessed in front of the classmates and feeling pressured to react on the spot, with little preparation, increased extraneous cognitive load. My brain became cluttered and was unable to respond.

A worked example or a partially solved problem could have been good alternatives as both examples would have provided a “safety net”, therefore giving the opportunity  to transfer previously acquired knowledge to a new but partially familiar learning situation. Who knows, my attitude to maths might have been completely different!

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Sorden, S.D. (2005), A Cognitive Approach to Instructional Design for Multimedia Learning. Informing Science Journal, 8, 263-279. Retrieved from http://www.inform.nu/Articles/Vol8/v8p263-279Sorden34.pdf