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Chapter image Chapter 8: Strategy 6: Cognitive strategy instruction

Self Evaluation

Please rate yourself or a teacher you have closely observed.

Criterion

Indicators

Evaluation

6. Provides cognitive strategy instruction

You regularly assist learners to acquire cognitive skills by, for example, (a) helping them to organize information so that its complexity is reduced, and (b) teaching them how to integrate new knowledge into their existing knowledge.

You encourage reflection and approaching tasks in an efficient and effective manner.

Reference

Mitchell, 2014, pp93–104.

You ask learners to:

  1. review background knowledge;
  2. analyze the problem and predict ways of solving it;
  3. search for understanding;
  4. integrate new knowledge into existing knowledge.
  1. All the indicators are regularly met.
  2. All the indicators are occasionally met.
  3. Some of the indicators are occasionally met.
  4. None of the indicators are met.

YouTubeYouTube links

How do you incorporate metacognitive strategies into the classroom? (2.02 US)

Dr Saundra MacGuire discusses the active learning techniques that work best in the classroom.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tv6RsPDOsEI

Think about thinking – It’s metacognition!

An interview with Dr Saundra MacGuire.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_b44JaBQ-Q

LTS: metacognition. Prof Stephen Heppell.

One of a series of Learning and Teaching Scotland videos in their ‘Journey to excellence; views from leading thinkers’ series.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OsQ7ENMquM

websitesWeb links

Cognitive strategy instruction, University of Nebraska – Lincoln.

CSI is a tool intended to help students develop the necessary skills to be self-regulated learners. Our purpose is to introduce and explain the Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) model of implementation, as well as provide the foundational basis for its effectiveness. Information presented will include: 1. The steps (how you do it). and 2. The purpose behind each step (why you do it).

http://cehs.unl.edu/csi/teachingstrategy.shtml

University of Kansas.

Cognitive strategies are useful tools in assisting students with learning problems. The term ‘cognitive strategies’ in its simplest form is the use of the mind (cognition) to solve a problem or complete a task. Cognitive strategies may also be referred to as procedural facilitators, procedural prompts (or scaffolds). A related term is metacognition, the self-reflection or ‘thinking about thinking’ necessary for students to learn effectively.

www.specialconnections.ku.edu/?q=instruction/cognitive_strategies

journalsJournal links

Orlando, J.E. and Bartel, N.R. (2006). ‘Cognitive strategy training: An intervention model for parents of children with learning disabilities’. Journal of Reading, Writing, and Learning Disabilities International, 5(4), 327–344.

Research with parents of children who have disabilities suggests that a crucial element of successful coping behaviour in these families is the parents’ level of skill in assisting their children to conform to family rules and roles and to learn to solve problems in behavioural and social situations. Other research with children with learning disabilities, all conducted in school settings, indicates that an effective intervention with such children, bringing about significant improvement in academic and interpersonal problem solving, is that of cognitive strategy training. It is suggested that cognitive strategy training lends itself well to use by parents and represents a potentially powerful tool for parents of children with learning disabilities in helping their children function more effectively in day‐to‐day tasks and familial relationships.

Singer, R.N. and Chen, D. (1994). ‘A classification scheme for cognitive strategies: Implications for learning and teaching psychomotor skills’. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 65(2), 143–151.

The authors propose a framework for classifying strategies that incorporates four criteria: (a) source (externally imposed or self-generated); (b) orientation (task or person); (c) purpose (learning or performance); and (d) scope (task specificity or generality). The purpose of this classification is to aid in interpreting research on strategies, to provide direction for future strategies research, and to communicate how results might be applied. Psychomotor skills are discussed with respect to maximizing the effectiveness of strategy training.

Braten, I. (2006). ‘Cognitive strategies: A multi‐componential conception of strategy use and strategy instruction’. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 37(3), 217–242.

This article argues that efficient use of cognitive strategies involves not only strategies, but domain‐specific knowledge, metacognition and motivation as well. Besides, efficient use of cognitive strategies is seen as socially mediated. It is also discussed how each of the components of the strategy system may be modified through instruction. In the final section, issues concerning cognitive strategy instruction in the classroom and component analysis of complex instructional programmes are discussed. It is concluded that a hybrid model representing a compromise between the notion of cognitive strategies and current connectionism may best capture the characteristics of human information processing.

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