Cognitive and Metacognitive Factors in Learning

Cognitive and Metacognitive Factors

• The learning process is most effective when it's intentional and involves constructing meaning from information and experience.
• The goal of learning is to create meaningful representations of knowledge and acquire thinking and learning strategies.
• Successful learners link new information with existing knowledge in meaningful ways, integrating it into their understanding.
• Strategic thinking involves using a repertoire of thinking and reasoning strategies to achieve complex learning goals.
• Higher-order strategies for selecting and monitoring mental operations facilitate creative and critical thinking.
• Learning is influenced by environmental factors, including culture, technology, and instructional practices.

Motivational and Affective Factors

• Motivation, affected by emotional states, beliefs, interests, and goals, influences what and how much is learned.
• Intrinsic motivation is stimulated by tasks that are novel, difficult, relevant, and allow for personal choice and control.
• Acquisition of complex knowledge and skills requires extended learner effort and guided practice, facilitated by motivation.

Developmental and Social Factors

• Learning is most effective when it considers differential development within and across physical, intellectual, emotional, and social domains.
• Learning is enhanced by social interactions, interpersonal relations, and communication with others.

Individual Differences Factors

• Learners have different strategies, approaches, and capabilities for learning, influenced by prior experience and heredity.
• Learning is most effective when differences in learners' linguistic, cultural, and social backgrounds are taken into account.
• Setting high and challenging standards and assessing learning progress are integral to the learning process.

Growth and Development

• Growth refers to quantitative changes in an individual, such as increases in size, height, or weight.
• Development refers to qualitative changes leading to maturation, involving a series of orderly progressions towards maturity.

Principles of Development

• Development follows an orderly sequence, occurring in a predictable pattern.
• The cephalocaudal pattern shows that greatest growth occurs at the top (head) during infancy.
• The proximodistal pattern shows that muscular control of the trunk and arms comes earlier than control of the hands and fingers.
• Development involves continuous change, including both growth and learning.

Domains of Development

• Physical Development includes gross motor development (large muscles) and fine motor development (small muscles and coordination).
• Social/Emotional Development involves the development of self-concept, self-esteem, and forming relationships with others.
• Language Development includes speech (articulation and voice quality) and language development (receptive and expressive language).
• Cognitive (Intellectual) Development involves thinking processes like concentration, imagination, problem-solving, and using logic.

Developmental Tasks (Robert Havighurst, 1972)

• A developmental task is a task that arises at a certain period in life, successful achievement of which leads to happiness and success in later tasks.

Stages of Human Development

• The pre-natal period involves tremendous growth from a single cell to a fully developed organism with brains and behavioral capabilities.

Periods of Prenatal Development

• The germinal period is the first two weeks after conception, involving the creation of the zygote and attachment to the uterine wall.
• The embryonic period is from 2 to 8 weeks after conception, the zygote becomes an embryo, and organs begin to form.
• The fetal period is from 2 months after conception to birth, involving maturation of organ systems to sustain life outside the womb.

Hazards to Prenatal Development

• Teratology is the study of the causes of congenital (birth) defects, with teratogens being substances that cause these defects.

Reflexes and Early Childhood

• The startle or Moro reflex is a response to sudden sounds or movements, where infants throw their arms and legs out and then pull them back in.
• The Galant reflex is a response to stroking an infant's back next to the spinal cord, causing the baby to curve toward the side being stroked.

Developmental Tasks (Ages 0-6)

• Early childhood tasks include learning to walk, talk, take solid food, control elimination of body waste, and developing concepts for social and physical reality.

Middle and Late Childhood (Industry vs. Inferiority)

• Middle childhood tasks (ages 6-12) include learning physical skills for games, getting along with age mates, developing conscience, morality, values, and achieving personal independence.

Adolescence (13-18 years)

• Adolescence is a transition from childhood to adulthood, characterized by significant physical, emotional, and social changes.

Cognitive and Metacognitive Factors

• The learning process is most effective when it's intentional and involves constructing meaning from information and experience.
• The goal of learning is to create meaningful representations of knowledge and acquire thinking and learning strategies.
• Successful learners link new information with existing knowledge in meaningful ways, integrating it into their understanding.
• Strategic thinking involves using a repertoire of thinking and reasoning strategies to achieve complex learning goals.
• Higher-order strategies for selecting and monitoring mental operations facilitate creative and critical thinking.
• Learning is influenced by environmental factors, including culture, technology, and instructional practices.

Motivational and Affective Factors

• Motivation, affected by emotional states, beliefs, interests, and goals, influences what and how much is learned.
• Intrinsic motivation is stimulated by tasks that are novel, difficult, relevant, and allow for personal choice and control.
• Acquisition of complex knowledge and skills requires extended learner effort and guided practice, facilitated by motivation.

Developmental and Social Factors

• Learning is most effective when it considers differential development within and across physical, intellectual, emotional, and social domains.
• Learning is enhanced by social interactions, interpersonal relations, and communication with others.

Individual Differences Factors

• Learners have different strategies, approaches, and capabilities for learning, influenced by prior experience and heredity.
• Learning is most effective when differences in learners' linguistic, cultural, and social backgrounds are taken into account.
• Setting high and challenging standards and assessing learning progress are integral to the learning process.

Growth and Development

• Growth refers to quantitative changes in an individual, such as increases in size, height, or weight.
• Development refers to qualitative changes leading to maturation, involving a series of orderly progressions towards maturity.

Principles of Development

• Development follows an orderly sequence, occurring in a predictable pattern.
• The cephalocaudal pattern shows that greatest growth occurs at the top (head) during infancy.
• The proximodistal pattern shows that muscular control of the trunk and arms comes earlier than control of the hands and fingers.
• Development involves continuous change, including both growth and learning.

Domains of Development

• Physical Development includes gross motor development (large muscles) and fine motor development (small muscles and coordination).
• Social/Emotional Development involves the development of self-concept, self-esteem, and forming relationships with others.
• Language Development includes speech (articulation and voice quality) and language development (receptive and expressive language).
• Cognitive (Intellectual) Development involves thinking processes like concentration, imagination, problem-solving, and using logic.

Developmental Tasks (Robert Havighurst, 1972)

• A developmental task is a task that arises at a certain period in life, successful achievement of which leads to happiness and success in later tasks.

Stages of Human Development

• The pre-natal period involves tremendous growth from a single cell to a fully developed organism with brains and behavioral capabilities.

Periods of Prenatal Development

• The germinal period is the first two weeks after conception, involving the creation of the zygote and attachment to the uterine wall.
• The embryonic period is from 2 to 8 weeks after conception, the zygote becomes an embryo, and organs begin to form.
• The fetal period is from 2 months after conception to birth, involving maturation of organ systems to sustain life outside the womb.

Hazards to Prenatal Development

• Teratology is the study of the causes of congenital (birth) defects, with teratogens being substances that cause these defects.

Reflexes and Early Childhood

• The startle or Moro reflex is a response to sudden sounds or movements, where infants throw their arms and legs out and then pull them back in.
• The Galant reflex is a response to stroking an infant's back next to the spinal cord, causing the baby to curve toward the side being stroked.

Developmental Tasks (Ages 0-6)

• Early childhood tasks include learning to walk, talk, take solid food, control elimination of body waste, and developing concepts for social and physical reality.

Middle and Late Childhood (Industry vs. Inferiority)

• Middle childhood tasks (ages 6-12) include learning physical skills for games, getting along with age mates, developing conscience, morality, values, and achieving personal independence.

Adolescence (13-18 years)

• Adolescence is a transition from childhood to adulthood, characterized by significant physical, emotional, and social changes.

Explore the nature of the learning process, goals of learning, and how to create meaningful representations of knowledge. Learn how to construct meaning from information and experience.