Zainab Nadeem

 Case study: Cognitive and learning styles Case study: Cognitive and Learning styles Fatima is a student in second grade classroom. She rushes through her arithmetic problems making many mistakes and seldom checking for errors. When writing, her words are jumbled together and she erases so often that she sometimes makes holes in the paper. You suspect that she might be an impulsive learner. What interventions would you recommend that would help her develop a reflective learning style? Cognitive and learning styles mainly refer to the ability of a person to think, perceive, remember and solve problems. Each person or an individual prefers different learning styles and techniques. Everyone has a mix of techniques. Learning and performance of a student in the class mainly depends on the concentration, intelligence, personality, temperament, attention and ability to make concepts. Intelligence: In every classroom there are students of every type. Some of them being intelligent and other are dull. Some of them are slow learners or impulsive learner and others are reflective learners. There are different learning tests taken to categorize students according to their intelligence level. The most common and famous test is The Binet Tests. In 1904 the French Ministry of Education asked Alfred Binet to develop a method of identifying children who were unable to learn in school. This method was mainly introduced to reduce crowds in the school by placing such children in special schools. The test was known as 1905 Scale. It consisted of 30 questions ranging from the ability to touch one’s ear to the ability to draw designs and patterns from memory and define abstract concepts. He developed the concept of mental age. Later in 1912 William Stern created the concept of intelligence quotient (IQ) that refers to the person’s mental age divided by the chronological age. If the mental age is below the chronological age than the IQ is less than 100. Other famous tests which were developed and used by the psychologists are The Wechsler Scales and Group Intelligence Tests. These tests are used to determine the intelligence levels of students and are categorized accordingly. Students with low IQ demand more attention of the teachers while those with higher IQ can study and learn quickly and mostly just need guidance rather than attention and time of the teacher. The two famous theories presented by the psychologists to determine the capabilities of an individual are: Sternberg’s triarchic theory Gardener’s eight frames of mind Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory: According to Robert J. Sternberg, triarchic theory of intelligence, intelligence comes in three forms: Analytical intelligence: involves the ability to judge, analyze, evaluate, compare and contrast Creative intelligence: consists of ability to create, design, invent, originate and imagine. Practical intelligence: focuses on the ability to use, apply, implement and put into practice. Every student has a strong and a weak side. Some are good at mathematics while the other who is weak in mathematics might have strong skills in painting and drawing. Sternberg also believes that wisdom is linked to both practical and academic intelligence. In his view, academic intelligence is necessary but in many cases insufficient requirement for wisdom. Practical knowledge about the realities of life are also needed for wisdom. He also emphasizes that such aspects of wisdom must be taught in schools. Gardener’s Eight Frames of Mind: Howard Gardener argues that there are many specific types of intelligence or frames of mind. These frames of mind are: Verbal skills: the ability to think in words and to use language to express meaning. Spatial skills: the ability to think three dimensionally. Bodily-kinesthetic skills: the ability to manipulate objects and be physically adept. Musical skills: a sensitivity to pitch, melody, rhythm and tone Intrapersonal skills: the ability to understand oneself and effectively direct one’s life. Interpersonal skills: the ability to understand and effectively direct one’s life. Naturalist skills: the ability to observe patterns in nature and understand natural and human made systems. Gardener argues that each form of intelligence can be destroyed by a different pattern of brain damage. Every student has ability in different fields. Not all students can qualify in all the eight frames of mind. Although there are so e students who are impulsive learners and need extra attention and different strategies to learn. Deep/surface styles: Deep/surface styles involve how students approach learning materials. Students who approach learning with a surface style fail to tie what they are learning into a larger conceptual framework. They tend to learn in a passive way, often rotely memorizing. Surface learners learn to get good grades and for the short term benefit just to pass the examination. Mostly students who learn with surface style do selective study. They cannot reproduce better than the original content learned. Goals of such students are extrinsic, motivated by the environment and short term. On the other hand students who have deep learning styles study for their own understanding rather than temporary goals. Deep learners are more likely to actively construct what they learn and give meaning to what they need to remember. Deep learners mostly take constructivist approach to learning. Deep-learners are most likely to be self-motivated. Deep learners go to the depth of the content they learn. The material they learn are almost permanently craved in mind. Children/students with deep learning styles have clear concepts and to the point (relevant) answers. Deep learners have intrinsic motivation rather than temporary achievement. Temperament: Temperament also affects the mental level of the student. Closely related to personality and to learning and thinking styles temperament is the person’s behavioral style and characteristic ways of responding. Temperament classifications: An easy child: is generally in a positive mood, quickly establishes regular routines in infancy and adapts easily to new experiences. They can be easily handled and can be soothe with anyone’s effort. A difficult child: reacts negatively and is difficult to handle. A slow to warm up child: has a low activity level, is somewhat negative, and displays a low intensity of mood. Impulsive Learning Style: Impulsive learners are those who hurry in making their decisions and don’t think before attempting to perform any task. Impulsive learning is considered to be weak behavior. Students who prefer impulsive learning rush to do everything at a time which makes it difficult for them to complete every task. Such students have difficulty in learning because they try to grasp all the tasks at a time. Impulsive attitude begins its growth during the preschool years and may be a deeply entrenched habit. Impulsive learning means that the child acts using instincts and without thinking which he/she later regrets. Impulsive learners make quick and inappropriate decisions. Such type of learning stays in mind for a shorter span of time which is why they have to do a lot of effort as compared to their class-mates. Teachers should monitor students and identify the ones who are impulsive learners. Impulsive learners are the ones who want to get rid of learning therefore they find shortcuts and instinct ways to solve their problems which leads to a lot of errors in their work like Fatima (student under case study). This makes the child avoid learning and understanding material rather they find easy and quick ways to complete their tasks. This type of learning is temporary and the child soon forgets what he/she has learnt. This is one of the reasons why teachers should promote reflective learning rather than impulsive learning. Slow learners: Slow learners are those students who struggle in learning, memorizing and developing concepts than the other class-mates .Slow learners are markedly different from the under achievers, they unlike the under achievers try to get hold of the concepts and the subjects taught but because of lack of attention, low IQ level or temperament have to struggle comparatively harder than the other average class-mates. Slow learners need more time, more repetition and more resources from teachers to be successful. Although these students are not mentally disabled or intellectually less than the other class-mates but they need extra effort to achieve almost same as the other fellows. Reflective Learning Style: Reflective learning is the form of learning in which the students reflect upon their education. Reflective learning involves students thinking about what they have done, read or learned. It is developing concepts rather than just learning the formulas, dates etc. there are a lot of advantages of reflective learning some of them are given below: Children accept responsibility for their learning. They become metacognitive. They become aware of their motives. These advantages play a vital role in the positive performance of the student. Reflective learning has a lot of benefits for the students in their future. The students who study and learn according to reflective learning achieve higher and avoid mistakes that students with impulsive learning styles make. Reflective learning theories: The most prominent people who studied the abilities of the children and gave theories on reflective learning are John Dewey, Donald Schon and David Kolb. John Dewey: Dewey believed that reflection was a necessary precursor to action. In other words, Dewey advocated that students need to think and mull over what they read and encounter, and after doing this, they can apply that knowledge better. Donald Schon: Schon studied Dewey and his theories very carefully, and he believed in two types of reflection: Reflection-on-action, which is an unconscious event that deals with the knowledge we use to solve problems and carry out actions. Reflection-in-action, which occurs as the action is happening. In other words, you reflect on what you're doing while you're doing it. David Kolb: Kolb developed an entire learning cycle, which includes elements of feeling, watching, thinking, and doing. While in this cycle, the learner is actively observing, conceptualizing, experimenting, and finally, experiencing. Kolb felt that moving through the different steps in this cycle was very important to being a reflective learner. Case study (educational psychology underpinnings related to the case): According to the situation of the girl Fatima, she has problem understanding mathematics and often jumbles the spellings because of which she has to erase a lot and sometimes might also tear the page. According to the thorough research and studies it is concluded that the girl is an impulsive style learner and slow learner. Slow learner is not used as a term but is often referred to the students who have problem in learning and keeping pace with their class-mates. As studied by different psychologists children who have lack of interest in learning often develop impulsive style learning, such students often have problems in future because they do not study thoroughly. The problem going on with Fatima is impulsive learning style. Because of being an impulsive learner she has problems in grasping new concepts. Any task done in a hurry cannot be understood properly which is why Fatima has problem in learning. Other than being an impulsive learner she might be a slow learner and can have difficulty in understanding new things immediately. Solutions to Fatima’s problems: There are specific strategies for students who have impulsive learning style. There are different strategies used for students who are slow-to-warm up and impulsive learners which are: Don’t place such type of students in group immediately, let the student become involved in groups at his own pace initially. Such students should be encouraged rather than being pushed into a task Assign such students with students with the same temperament. They should be given activities that they appear to be hesitant about. This slowly makes them develop interest in the task. Teachers should give special attention to such students and help them more than the other students so that they develop interest in learning rather than finding shortcuts. Fatima being an impulsive learner avoids getting into the depth of the subject, her teacher and parents should give her rewards. This will help in developing interest. The teacher should be more analytic, reflective and auditory. This helps get the attention of the student. Students with impulsive learning styles should always be reminded that reflective learners are better and they can achieve better. Rather than being sarcastic parents and teachers should encourage such students to perform like reflective learners. Such students should be given work and tasks on daily basis. This will help them learn and study according to a time-table. References: