Technological University of the Philippines

College of Industrial Education

Educational Technology 1
Deanne S. Zapanta
BSIE-AE/3A
TITLE:
o Undesrtanding Cognitivism Theory that shaped the Communication
Theory
o Learning Behaviorism Theory that shaped Interconnectivity to the internet

COGNITIVISM THEORY

WHAT IS..

1. Cognitive learning theories draw

attention to how the learner
attains the knowledge of how to
perform that action. In other
words, the spotlight is on not the
response itself but the mental
activities that precede that
response (Etmer & Newby,1993)
2. Cognitive theories focus on the
importance of the attainment of
knowledge. From a cognitive
standpoint, learning takes place
when new knowledge is obtained
or existing knowledge is adapted
3. Cognitive learning theories
operate under the assumption
that new knowledge is added to
existing knowledge.
4. Most refer to this concept as
scaffolding. Scaffolding is a way
of presenting instruction that
always builds on existing
knowledge; the new information
is built on top of the alreadyknown information.

COMMUNICATION THEORY

1. the branch of knowledge dealing

with the principles and methods by
which information is conveyed
2. Communication theory is a field of
information theory and mathematics
that studies the technical process of
information and the process of
human communication
3. The origins of communication
theory is linked to the development
of information theory in the early
1920S.
4. Communications theory looks at
how information is communicated
from one place or person to
another. This theory looks at the
processes involved in transmitting
information and how the methods of
the transmission will affect the
interpretation of the message.

Cognitivism focuses on the mind, and more specifically, mental proceses such as
thinking, knowing, memory, and problem-solving, with the goal of opening the black box of the
human mind, the process of which is deemed valuable and necessary for learning to occur.
Knowledge is approached as schema constructions, and learning is viewed as a change in the
learner's schemata, or the redefining of prior knowledge.

Key Concepts:

Mind as a "Black Box"

Learning is explained as a "recall"

of stored information

Instruction usually grabs the attention of learners and helps make sense of the information
so it can be stored more readily stored (learned) later for recall.

Key Words (and Definitions)

Schema Theory is defined as a mental representation of something previously known,

including actions, events, and perspectives. These are the building blocks of knowledge.

Gestalt Theory states that perceptions are entirely dependent upon the whole and not of the
individual parts. All of our understanding is built upon whole objects, events and not of their
small parts.

Equilibrium is the state in which our minds exists before we learn something new. The
process, called "adaption" by Piaget, flows as follows:
Equilibrium-->New Situation/Schema-->Disequilibrium-->Accomodation-->Assimilation

Applications in Educational Technology

The best way for a teacher to approach using cognitivism in the classroom is
1. to ask questions to help students refine their thinking and recognize where they
may be wrong.
2. You want to approach topics that they may think they already know and introduce
some new aspect to make them redefine something.
3. Alternately, for entirely new topics, you want to draw upon background
knowledge before you challenge existing ideas (schema) and create learning
toward amplification or change of those schemata.
Some great examples of Cognitivism in educational technology can be found
1. in online games and reinforcement activities,
2. such as sorting games, puzzles, and flashcards.
a. These games will often present prior knowledge schema in a
different method, thus creating disequilibrium and a need to
adapt and learn the new information in order to continue.

For example, the online resource Quizlet creates a means of listing

vocabulary, pictures, and even mathematical procedures and then taking that
list and producing several ways of practicing the previously known schemata,
including the incorporation of audio and video .

Cognitivism theory according to..

JEAN PIAGET

1. Through his observations of his

children, Piaget developed a
stage theory of intellectual
development that included four distinct
stages: The sensorimotor stage, from
birth to age 2. The preoperational
stage, from age 2 to about age 7. The
concrete operational stage, from age 7
to 11
2. Piaget emphasized the importance
of schemas in cognitive development,
and described how they were
developed or acquired. A schema can
be defined as a set of linked mental
representations of the world, which we
use both to understand and to respond
to situations.
3. Assimilation is a term referring to
another part of the adaptation process
initially proposed by Jean Piaget.
Through assimilation, we take in new
information or experiences and
incorporate them into our existing
ideas.
4. Through a series of
stages, Piaget proposed four stages
of cognitive development: the
sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete
operational and formal operational
period. The sensorimotor stage is the
first of the four stages in cognitive
development which "extends from
birth to the acquisition of language".

More of Cognitivism...

o During the 1960s, discontent with the inadequacies of behaviourism another

school of thought was developing besides the behavioural thinking, the cognitive
aspects. The behaviourist perspective could not easily explain why people
attempt to organise and make sense of the information they learn.
o One example includes remembering general meanings rather than word for word
information. Among learning psychologists there emerged a growing realisation
that mental events or cognition could no longer be ignored
o
o Cognitivists disagree with the behaviourists in one critical aspect. By observing
the responses that individuals make to different stimulus conditions, cognitivists
believe that they can draw inferences about the nature of the internal cognitive
processes that produce those responses.

o Many ideas and assumptions of cognitivism can be traced back to the early
decades of the twentieth century. Of all theories, the theories of Jean Piaget of
Switzerland are the ones that have provided psychology with very elaborated
account of developmental changes in cognitive abilities.

Jean Piaget (1896-1980).

Jean Piaget was one of the most influential cognitive psychologist. He was a student of
biology and zoology and learnt that survival requires adaptation. Therefore he viewed
the development of human cognition, or intelligence, as the continual struggle of a very
complex organism trying to adapt to a very complex environment. According to Piagets
theory, human development can be outlined in terms of functions and cognitive
structures. The functions are inborn biological processes that are identical for every
one and stay unchanged throughout our lives. The purpose of these functions is to
construct internal cognitive structures. The structures, in contrast, changes repeatedly
as the child grows (Vasa, R., Haith, M.M., Miller,S.A.,1995, p.,33).

Piaget emphasises on two main functions; one is organisation (or equilibrium).

Organisation refers to the fact that all cognitive structures are interrelated and that any
new knowledge must be fitted into the existing system. It is the need to integrate the
new information, rather than adding them on, that force our cognitive structure to
become more elaborate.

The second general function is adaptation. Adaptation refers to the tendency of the
organism to fit with its environment in ways that promote survival. It is composed of two
terms; assimilation and accommodation.

Assimilation is the tendency to understand new experience in terms of existing

knowledge. Whenever we come across something new, we try to make sense of
it, built upon our existing cognitive structures.

Accommodation occurs when the new information is too complex to be

integrated into the existing structure - this means that, cognitive structures
change in response to new experiences (Spencer, K., 1991,p.,175).

Piaget did many experiments on childrens way of thinking and concluded that human
beings go through several distinct stages of cognitive development. Each stage
involves the acquisition of new skills and rest upon the successful completion of the
preceding one.

The first stage is the sensorimotor, (0-2year). Until about four months of age, the infant
can not differentiate itself from the environment. Gradually the child learns to distinguish
people from objects and that both have an existence independent of their immediate
perception. This stage draws it name, sensorimotor, from that the child learns mainly by
touching objects, manipulating them and physically exploring the environment. By the
end of this stage the child understands that its environment has distinctive and stable
properties.

The next stage is called the pre-operational (2years-7years). This is the stage when the
child acquires a mastery of a language and becomes able to use words to represent
objects and images in a symbolic fashion. Piaget terms this stage pre-operational
because children are not yet able to use their developing mental capabilities
systematically. At this stage children are egocentric, which means that the child has the
tendency to interpret the world exclusively with its own position. The child does not
understand, for an example, that others see things and objects from a different
perspective from their own. During this phase of development the children have no
general understanding of categories of thought that adults take for granted, ideas such
as causality, speed, weight or number.

The third stage is the concrete operational period (7years-11years). During this period
children master abstract, logical notions. They are able to handle ideas such as
causality without much difficulty, and they are fit to carry out the mathematical

operations of multiplying, dividing and subtracting. By this stage children are much less
egocentric.

The fourth stage is called the formal operational period (11+). During adolescence, the
developing child becomes able to comprehend highly abstract and hypothetical
concepts. When faced with a problem, children at this stage should be able to review all
possible ways of solving it and go through them theoretically in order to reach a
solution.

According to Piaget, the first three stages of development are general, but not all adults
come to the formal operational stage. The development of formal operational thought
relies in part on the process of schooling. Adults of limited educational achievement
tend to remain to think in more concrete terms and retain large traces of egocentrism
(Giddens, 1994).

The educational interest of Piagets work lies firstly in this procedure he used to make
educationists aware of the childs thought processes and the conditions under which
intellectual structures are established at different ages.

There are four principles that are most often cited in Piagets theory regarding to
education. The first is the important of readiness. This principal follows from his
emphasis on assimilation. Experience, educational or otherwise, does not simply
happen to a child; rather it must always be assimilated to current cognitive structure. A
new experience can only be of any value if the child can make sense of it. Teaching that
is far away the childs level is unlikely to be useful.

The second principle concerns the motivation for cognitive activity. Educational content
that is either to advanced or too simple is unlikely to be interesting. The educational
subject has to be slightly beyond the current level of the child so that it provides
experience familiar enough to assimilate however challenging enough to provoke
disequilibrium.

The third is the awareness of what level the child has reached and the information of
what it can be expected at that level and what not. Piagets studies often identify steps
and sequences through which particular content domains are mastered. It is therefor
possible not only to determine were the child is but also to know the natural next steps
for development.

The final principle is more functional. It concerns Piagets emphasis on intelligence as

an action. In his view education should be build on the childs natural curiosity and
natural tendency to act on the world in order to understand it. Knowledge is most
meaningful when children construct it themselves rather than having it imposed upon
them (Vasa,R., Haith,M.M.,Miller,S.A.,1992).

The experience in acquiring a new knowledge through action allows two different kinds
of knowledge to develop, the physical experience and the logico-mathematical
experience. Physical experience produces knowledge of the properties of the objects
acted upon. Logico-mathematical experience result in knowledge, not of the objects,
but of the actions themselves and their results.

From physical experience, one would gain knowledge of the weight of objects; or the
fact that, other things being equal, weight increases as volume increases, and so on.
When speaking of logico-mathematical experience the point is that even the highest
forms of abstract reasoning have their origin in action (Donaldson, 1987).

The aim for education, according to Piaget, is to make individuals who are critical,
creative and inventive discoverers. So the major part of the childs learning relies on
active experimentation and discovery. The active classroom has been associated with
the term progressive teaching, where pupils are in active role, learning predominantly by

discovery techniques, with emphasis on creative expression. Subject matter tends to

be combined, with the teacher performing as a guide to educational experiences and
encouraging cooparitive work. External rewards and punishments are seen as being
unimportant, and there is not so much concern with traditional academic standards and
testing (Spencer, 1994).

As a biologist Piaget tended to look at development more from the physical change and
the readiness for each stage to develop any further. Another perspective in the
cognitive movement was from those who saw the connection between the environment
and the child development in a constructive way, and Jerome Burners ideas are those
that are well known.

Shannon and Weaver Model of

Communication
In 1948, Shannon was an American mathematician, Electronic engineer and Weaver
was an American scientist both of them join together to write an article in Bell System
Technical Journal called A Mathematical Theory of Communication and also called as
Shannon-Weaver model of communication.

This model is specially designed to develop the effective communication between

sender and receiver. Also they find factors which affecting the communication process
called Noise. At first the model was developed to improve the Technical
communication. Later its widely applied in the field of Communication.

The model deals with various concepts like Information source, transmitter, Noise,
channel, message, receiver, channel, information destination, encode and decode.

Sender : The originator of message or the information source selects desire message

Encoder : The transmitter which converts the message into signals

Note: The senders messages converted into signals like waves or Binary data which is
compactable to transmit the messages through cables or satellites. For example: In
telephone the voice is converted into wave signals and it transmits through cables

Decoder : The reception place of the signal which converts signals into message. A
reverse process of encode

Note : The receiver converts those binary data or waves into message which is
comfortable and understandable for receiver. Otherwise receiver cant receive the exact
message and it will affect the effective communication between sender and receiver

Receiver : The destination of the message from sender

Note : Based on the decoded message the receiver gives their feed back to sender. If
the message distracted by noise it will affect the communication flow between sender
and receiver

Noise: The messages are transferred from encoder to decoder through channel.
During this process the messages may distracted or affected by physical noise like horn
sounds, thunder and crowd noise or encoded signals may distract in the channel during
the transmission process which affect the communication flow or the receiver may not
receive the correct message

Note : The model is clearly deals with external noises only which affect the messages or
signals from external sources. For example: If there is any problems occur in network
which directly affect the mobile phone communication or distract the messages

Practical Example of Shannon-Weaver model of communication :

Thomson made call to his assistant come here I want to see you. During his call,
noise appeared (transmission error) and his assistant received I want only. Again
Assistant asked Thomson (feedback) what do you want Thomson.

Sender

: Thomson

Encoder

: Telephone (Thomson)

Channel

: Cable

Noise

: Distraction in voice

Reception : Telephone (Assistant)

Receiver

: Assistant.

Due to transmission error or noise, Assistant cant able to understand Thomsons

messages.

*The noise which affect the communication flow between them.

Criticism of Shannon-Weaver model of communication :

1.
One of the simplest model and its general applied in various communication
theories
2.
The model which attracts both academics of Human communication and
Information theorist to leads their further research in communication
3.
Its more effective in person-to-person communication than group or mass
audience
4.
The model based on Sender and Receiver. Here sender plays the primary role
and receiver plays the secondary role (receive the information or passive)
5.
Communication is not a one way process. If its behaved like that, it will lose its
strength. For example: Audience or receiver who listening a radio, reading the books or
watching television is a one way communication because absence of feedback
6.

Understanding Noise will helps to solve the various problems in communication