Teaching and Learning

The Cognitive Theory a Bunch of Bananas

The ‘aha’ moment when the penny drops

Photo by Anastasia Eremins on Unsplash

The cognitive theory is complex as it deals with what happens inside our brains when we learn. It was brought to life when a chimpanzee called Sultan was left in a box with a bunch of bananas that were just out of reach and had to cognitively learn how to reach his favourite snack. The furry friend is said to have experienced the ‘aha’ moment when the penny dropped and he got his prize!

It is an abstract concept brought about by the Gestalt school of thought. It is generally believed that when information is taken in we process it and the brain tries to make sense of it. The Gestalt motto is ‘the whole is greater than the sum of its parts’, meaning that on their own the parts may not have meaning but as a whole they do.

Broadly, cognitive theory is interested in how people understand material, and thus in; aptitude and capacity to learn (thus fringing onto psychometrics and testing), and learning styles. It is also the basis of the educational approach known as constructivism, which emphasises the role of the learner in constructing his own view or model of the material, and what helps with that.

Atherton, 2000 [online]

One of the best examples of Gestalt psychology was the founder Wolfgang Köhler. Köhler was a German-American psychologist who gained recognition through his studies with animals on processing and problem solving. Köhler did not agree that animals learned through trial and error or the behaviourists association to stimulus and response. Instead after studies in 1910 with monkeys he believed that they had solved problems through understanding. For example when a chimpanzee called Sultan was put in a cage with boxes and a banana hanging from the ceiling out of reach, he was able to stack the boxes to reach the fruit. Therefore he believed that animals like humans were capable of insight and solving solutions to problems often known as the ‘aha’ moment, when the penny drops. (Books and Writers 2010, [online])

This according to the theory means that learning is defined through a change in cognitive structures. The animal had all of the elements to solve the problem, however it was only when he identified the relationship between them did it imply meaning and he was therefore able to solve it. Consequently learning was achieved through insight; the organisation of information within what was already known, bringing about a change of the whole. (Gould, 2009, 46)

Implications of Cognitive theory for teaching and learning

Cognitive theory concentrates on the intrinsic and is opposed to the behaviourist theory. It concentrates on what happens in the mind and how learning is achieved through insight. This has specific implications today for teaching and learning as unlike behaviourist theory planning cannot start with measurable objectives as the mind is subjective. Elliot Eisner, professor of Art and Education, approached this by producing what he called expressive objectives specifically for Art as a subject; instead of a specific learning outcome he describes it as an educational encounter.

However when planning under this theory a lesson would need to be activity or theme based using activities that looked at the whole picture, such as discussion, reasoning, synthesis and analysis. The motivation for this theory is intrinsic and relies on the satisfaction of making sense of the task. Methods would use a discovery approach such as research, experiments, open questioning and projects. When assessing for this type of learning, it could be open to subjectivity as it would not be looking for a clear set of answers and does not conform to a set of clear measurable objectives, therefore an essay, presentation, assignment or performance would be some of the assessment techniques used.

When learning more complex information, concept formation takes place: Firstly discrimination, being the sorting out the information, then abstraction, looking for commonalities, finally classification, fitting things in to a group according to their commonalities. Jerome Bruner, an American psychologist, believed this should be done through discovery learning or the inductive approach, starting from examples and then supplying the definition or rule. On the other hand David Ausbel, also an American psychologist, believed in the deductive approach, starting from the definition and then illustrating with examples, however both concepts are cognitive in their approach. (Kearsley, 2010, [online])

Cognitive theory within Performing Arts

I have identified that teaching Performing Arts includes a large amount of cognitive theory. The subjects require students to be reflective learners and critical thinkers with enquiring minds. Students study topics which build on insight, awareness and understanding of the medium and forms within each genre. Planning for this requires the integration of knowledge from the start to build on understanding and assessment can be subjective as it relies on creativity and performance as well as written reflective essays.

This approach demonstrates the difficulty for setting measurable objectives as required in education. Often the purpose is for the student to ‘understand’ how meaning is created and interpreted on stage; instead this has to be measured instead by using a specific method or skill. This highlights the cognitive nature of the genre and how each person’s awareness of the subject could be different.

The final summative examination within this genre is portrayed as observation against a checklist relating to four areas of performance, there is grading against the checklist, therefore although the assessment method could be viewed as Behaviourist, however there is not a predetermined answer. Instead there are levels within the list relating to mastery and performance, therefore for this reason the examination is subjective and complies more with the cognitive theory of assessment. Or perhaps it really is just a bunch of bananas!

Article written by Drama Llama | Educator | Writer | Academic | Consultant