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Cognition and Student Learning

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Guided Cognition for Unsupervised Learning

Year: 2005
Name of Institution:
Fordham University
Goal: Development and Innovation
Principal Investigator:
Whitten, William
Award Amount: $623,390
Award Period: 3 years
Award Number: R305H050062

Description:

Co-Principal Investigator(s): Rabinowitz, Mitchell

Purpose: In this project, the researchers proposed to test specific strategies for structuring homework assignments in ways that would increase the likelihood that students would study productively. From the perspective of cognitive scientists in the early 2000s, the value of homework assignments for improving student learning depends on how the assignments are structured. If the homework can lead a student to have cognitive experiences that common in supervised group-learning environments (such as classrooms) while studying alone, then the homework may lead to better outcomes. The researchers aimed to create theory-based guidelines to help teachers and instructional designers construct assignments that will support effective self-studying behavior by helping to mimic the experiences they may encounter in group settings.

Structured Abstract

THE FOLLOWING CONTENT DESCRIBES THE PROJECT AT THE TIME OF FUNDING

Setting: The schools are located in a suburban area located in the mid-Atlantic United States.

Sample: Participants include middle and high school English and science students in low, average, and advanced placement classes. The students are White, Asian, Indian, Middle-Eastern, and African-American. Some students are recent immigrants and are classified as English language learners. Socioeconomic status ranges from lower-middle to upper class.

Intervention/Measure/Factor(s): A new method to improve the efficacy of unsupervised learning (e.g., homework) is introduced and evaluated in this project. This method, called "guided cognition", structures study tasks to guide the learner to engage in specific, observable cognitive events (e.g., drawing a diagram, listing multiple approaches to solving a problem, listing specific evidence that support conclusions). These cognitive events are hypothesized to elicit underlying cognitive processes that have been shown to facilitate learning in laboratory-based experiments. Unlike traditional homework, students completing guided cognition homework are provided with questions that are designed to elicit specific cognitive events. The researchers have developed these questions or tasks based on observations of the types of strategies teachers use to elicit thoughtful responses from their students. For example, in the context of classroom instruction, teachers often ask students to relate content to prior experience, to answer a question from more than one point of view, or to illustrate visually a principle described in a text. The research team has identified a set of strategies that teachers use and adapted them to create questions and tasks that can be incorporated into homework. Whereas a traditional homework question might be "Why does Macbeth visit the witches?" a guided cognition question might be "Give two opposite but potentially valid reasons for this visit by Macbeth to the witches." The researchers hypothesize that incorporating guided cognition questions into homework will improve student learning.

Research Design and Methods: The effect of guided cognition for students with different ability levels is being assessed through a series of 12 experiments in which students are randomly assigned to experimental or control conditions. Experiments are addressing the issues of time-on-task, learning-payoff-per-unit-time, novelty effects, guided cognition study without prior teaching, the relative effectiveness of specific cognitive events for facilitating learning, the extension of the paradigm to different subject matter and to different age groups, and transfer of learning as measured by students' abilities to construct learning strategies that include previously experienced cognitive events.

Control Condition: In the control condition, students will study in a controlled but unsupervised individual setting and are provided with traditional verbal study questions.

Key Measures: Learning is being assessed by unannounced quizzes on the content studied. Quizzes will not impact student grades. Student opinion data is being gathered via survey.

Data Analytic Strategy: Simple analysis of variance techniques are being used to examine student performance on the quizzes as a function of participation in the experimental or control condition.

Related IES Project: Guided Cognition for Unsupervised Learning of Mathematics (R305A080134)

Products and Publications

ERIC Citations: Find available citations in ERIC for this award here.

Select Publications:

Books

Whitten II, W. B., Rabinowitz, M., & Whitten, S.E. (2019). Guided Cognition for Learning: Unsupervised Learning and the Design of Effective Homework (1st ed.). Academic Press. doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-817538-5.00003-1.