Running head: LEARNING PERSPECTIVES

Learning Perspectives and Engaging Strategies
Donna M. Prince (Dee)
Grand Canyon University
EDU 313 N
May 22, 2011 Learning Perspectives and Engaging Strategies Cognitive psychology or the manner in how one teaches intrigues researchers to find out what methods of presenting information are successful to promote learning. Teachers who understand the connection between mental processes for retrieving information and solving problems will prepare lesson plans that will enhance the learning experience to change any erroneous beliefs or concepts (GCU, 2011). Individual performance and preference of a learning perspective depends on how the information is processed in one’s brain and how new information is relative to what one has learned previously. These processes will determine how one may learn by an associative perspective that focuses on behavior, a cognitive perspective that focuses on understanding, and a situative perspective that focuses on learning by participating in group activities (Conole, Littlejohn, Falconer, and Jeffery, 2005). An associative perspective controls behaviors through reinforcement, and this perspective observes the responses caused by stimulating events or one’s interaction with his/her environment. The methods used to teach a lesson will cause students to respond and interact in the classroom. One of the strategies that I will use to encourage participation will include sticks with the students' name on them which will be selected in random order to promote an equal opportunity for participation. The conditioning from this activity will not only get the class involved, but it will also evoke a response and prevent students who blurt out answers in a disruptive manner. Teachers often create lesson plans that will allow students to learn by associating what they already know when introducing new information. Association with familiar concepts promotes understanding. Cognitive responses are generated when the information that is presented produces a mental image that one can relate to his/her personal experience. Sometimes an emotional response is exhibited by cognitive responses. An emotional response may explain why a change in attitude takes place if the information viewed is considered to be happy or sad; thus, explaining how some students may laugh out loud while others cry silently over pictures (Riding, Glass, & Butler, 1997). According to Eklund and Woo (1998), learning is the accumulation of knowledge that is organized and retained in the semantic memory. When students make the cognitive connection and understand what is presented in a lesson, retention will improve. As teachers create lesson plans, there are several things to consider. Some of these considerations include the social learning theory that will establish acceptable classroom behaviors (Ormrod, 2008). The lesson should direct the students’ attention in order to foster retention. If the lesson is motivational, then the grades received for the assignments will reflect how much the students engaged in the learning process. Teachers are the vessels that pour into the students. Instead of giving the students a handful of principles, teachers will teach students how to develop skills that will help them communicate and collaborate with other classmates (Sorohan, 1993). Since the classroom is an interacting social system, the interrelationships of each individual will need to be taken into account in order to promote learning as a group. There is an established relationship that takes place between behavior and the mental processes that are related to problem solving, perception, and how one thinks and commits information to memory (Learning Theory, 2008). In the classroom, cognitive responses are the bridge that encompasses acceptable behavior and motivates one to pay attention so memorization is achieved. Consequently, the environment and a student’s emotional