Module 1: Activity 2 Information Processing

Module 1: Activity 2 Information Processing

“If you are thinking one year ahead plant rice.  If you are thinking 10 years ahead plant trees. If you are thinking 100 years ahead educate people”. 

Information processing (learning theory) or paradigm is a cognitive theory which seeks to explain how we acquire information, store it, process it, and retrieve it from the mind when it is needed. According to the readings, the information processing theory is based on comparing the functioning of the mind to a computer. The reading goes on to state that people process information in much the same way as a computer does. Information is received, processed and stored and later retrieved when needed. 

An understanding of the manner in which the mind processes information would go a long in enabling teachers to better assist learners. Let’s take a cursory look at the processes involved. There is the input of stimuli from the sensory receivers (eyes, ears, nose etc.). The neurological processing of this information in the sensory register is very brief ranging from one to four seconds then it disappears. Because it is not humanly possible to pay attention to everything at the same time, we selectively attend to certain inputs in the sensory register. Of importance too, is perception. Research has shown that perception can influence what we pay attention to and how we behave. 

We as educator must remember that effective learning cannot take place without attention. This takes effort and is a limited resource as learners can only pay attention to one cognitively demanding task at a time. Teachers must therefore be attention getters, attracting and maintaining students’ attention. We must also be cognizant of the fact that information can only be processed if it is registered in the sensory register. This too, is dependent on the attention paid to it. How it is registered is dependent on the learner’s perception of it. Paying attention to or perceiving the meaning of a stimulus transfers it to the short-term memory or working memory. Working memory has limited capacity so learners must do one of three things continuously rehearse the information so that it stays there, move it out of the area by shifting it to the long-term memory, or move it out of the area by forgetting it. 

Moving information from the short term or working memory to the long term memory requires encoding. According to Piaget quoted in the readings, encoding involves linking new information to existing knowledge or rearranging it to make it meaningful. This process modifies existing schemas through accommodation, assimilation, adaptation and organization. 

What are the implications for learning and teaching?

1.      Teachers should pay attention to the process of children’s thinking and not just the product.

2.      Design learning experiences as developmental bridges to more advanced stages of development.

3.      Provide a variety of activities that permit learners to act directly on the physical world

4.      Emphasize the constructivist model of teaching

5.      Provide new examples and illustrations of previously learned information so that learners can extend old learning.

6.      Provide learners with the opportunity to explain how they arrive at their answers. This would force them to engage in introspection and help them to develop divergent thinking rather than convergent thinking.

7.      Additionally cooperative or group learning and questioning have also proven to improve critical thinking.

We need to realize also that children will only develop complex conceptual understanding and problem solving skills when they are ready, and when they have had enough experiences with simpler more elementary problems.

Self Activity

Task 1: I was able to draw the Queen’s head but omitted the wording. It however, wasn’t a detailed drawing. In retrospect, the information on the coin wasn’t deemed important so was never encoded and stored in the long-term memory. 

Task 2: This activity was regarded as a waste of time. I could not establish the relevance hence my perception affected how I dealt with the information. I gave up after the first five letters.

Task 3: I was better able to complete task 3 because the letters were grouped as words. My attention was focused not so much on the letters but on the words. The information fitted into an existing schema and hence I was able make sense of the information and was able to retrieve it a few seconds after.

Although a simple activity by nature, the difficulty of information processing was brought to the fore. As a teacher, I have to be mindful to design activities that cater to the individual needs of my students giving them every opportunity to encode the information properly in the long-term memory.