Learning theories and their importance in raising the quality of learning during the preschool stage: Cognitive theory
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Introduction:
Learning theories are a set of theories and ideas that seek to understand how individuals acquire and develop knowledge and skills over time, and understanding these theories is essential in several fields, including education, psychology, and sociology, as they contribute to guiding, renewing, and improving learning processes.
Historically, learning theories have evolved through many different schools and ideas, resulting in a variety of foundations. These theories aim to shed light on learning processes and explain them in different ways, whether by focusing on behavioral aspects, psychological, social or cultural factors that affect the learning experience.
Understanding learning theories will help educators optimize their teaching methods and adjust them according to children's needs and responses and will also contribute to guiding scientific research aimed at understanding the nature of learning and identifying the factors that influence it.
We will briefly review some of the most prominent learning theories and provide an overview of how they affect the field of education and how important they are in raising the quality of learning.
The importance of studying learning theories for educators lies in several reasons:
Understanding the learning process: Learning theories help educators understand how children learn and how they absorb information and concepts, and enable them to direct activation methods in ways that suit the abilities and needs of children in the early age stage.
Developing effective activation methods: Using theories about the learning process, educators can develop more effective and child-friendly activation methods.
Addressing learning challenges: Educators face many challenges in the course of children's learning. By studying learning theories, educators can recognize potential obstacles that children may face in learning and identify appropriate methods to address these challenges.
Improve interactions with children: Understanding learning theories helps educators to interact better with children and understand their needs and interests, and educators can adopt learning methods that encourage communication and positive interaction with children.
Capitalize on recent developments: Learning theories are constantly changing with the development of research and technology, and learning about these developments helps educators stay up to date with the latest activation methods and techniques.
Overall, the study of learning theories is an important foundation for improving activation skills and providing more effective and efficient learning experiences for elementary school children.
Cognitive theory:
Definition: Cognitive theory is a theoretical approach that focuses on mental processes, thinking and knowledge in explaining human behavior and responses. This theory is based on the assumption that the human mind processes information, thinks and analyzes to understand the world and make decisions. Cognitive theory is concerned with the internal factors that affect human behavior, including emotions, memory, reasoning and learning.
This approach views humans as creatures who are successful in solving issues and adapting to the environment through the use of their knowledge and mental abilities.
Concepts of cognitive theory:
Knowledge: These are the mental processes that allow humans to understand the world around them, and include perception, thinking, memory, and language.
Perception: It is the process that allows humans to receive and interpret information from the environment through the five senses such as sight and hearing.
Memory: The process by which humans can retain and retrieve information at a later time, including short memory and long memory.
Learning: The process by which humans acquire new knowledge and develop new skills through interaction with the environment and experiences Language is a key tool in cognitive theory, as language reflects the ability to think and communicate effectively
Reasoning: The process of reasoning that allows humans to think and make decisions based on available information.
Problems and decisions: These concepts include the processes that humans use to solve issues and make decisions based on analyzing information and thinking.
Mental visualization: The ability to create mental images of objects and concepts without the need for them to actually exist.
Attention: The process that allows humans to select important information and ignore unimportant information.
Organization and categorization: refers to the human ability to organize and categorize information based on common features.
These concepts form an important part of cognitive theory and contribute to understanding how humans interact with the world around them and how they use their knowledge and mental abilities to understand phenomena and make decisions.
Principles of cognitive theory:
There are a number of key principles of cognitive theory:
Cognitive thinking: These principles form the basis of cognitive theory, as the approach focuses on mental processes and knowledge in understanding behavior and interacting with the world.
Prior knowledge: Proponents of cognitive theory believe that an individual's prior knowledge greatly influences how they receive and interpret new information.
Mind-body interaction: The interplay between mental processes, bodily activities, and sensory sensitivities is an important part of cognitive theory.
Development of the mind over time: Cognitive theory focuses on how the mind and cognitive abilities develop over the course of an individual's growth and development.
Reasoning and logical thinking: Cognitive theory encourages the development of reasoning and logical thinking as tools for solving issues and making decisions.
Learning and knowledge formation: Cognitive theory emphasizes the importance of learning processes and how to acquire knowledge and learn from experiences.
Environmental Importance: Cognitive theory recognizes the role of the environment and social experiences in shaping and influencing mental processes.
Individuality and individual difference: Cognitive theory emphasizes the importance of individuality and individual differences between individuals in their response to and interaction with information.
These principles guide research and applications in the field of cognitive theory, which studies how the human mind works and how to improve mental performance and develop the cognitive abilities of individuals.
Pedagogical application of cognitive theory:
Cognitive theory has important pedagogical applications in the field of education, and these applications contribute to improving the efficiency of learning processes and enhancing the interaction between children and knowledge:
Active and engaged learning: This approach encourages children to learn actively and participate in all learning, as they are encouraged to use their critical thinking to understand the material and solve issues.
The use of modern educational technologies: Modern technologies such as multimedia and interactive help to achieve rich learning experiences for children and contribute to enhancing their understanding and comprehension, and these technologies are based on the principles of cognitive theory because they rely on interaction and effective motivation.
Comprehensive assessment: The concepts of cognitive theory can be used to design educational evaluation patterns that reflect children's understanding and cognitive abilities, and these methods can be a comprehensive evaluation that focuses on children's understanding and use of knowledge rather than just memorizing information.
Develop critical thinking skills:
Cognitive education can help children develop critical thinking skills, helping them to better understand and evaluate information and make better decisions.