Report on Learning and Cognition: ELC 612 Assignment, September 2019

This report, submitted as an assignment for the ELC 612 Learning and Cognition course, explores Sir Ken Robinson's perspectives on the need for educational reform to equip students with future-ready skills, emphasizing the importance of creativity, diverse intelligence, and a shift from industrial-age standardization. The report analyzes Robinson's arguments, contrasting current education systems with the fast-food industry model, and advocates for a more personalized and engaging approach to learning. It also examines how children learn, highlighting the roles of active involvement, cognitive abilities, and social participation in the learning process, while emphasizing the need for meaningful and culturally relevant activities to enhance student engagement. The author supports Robinson's ideas, emphasizing the importance of recognizing diverse abilities, addressing the limitations of standardized education, and preparing students for future technological advancements. The assignment concludes by offering practical lessons for schools and suggesting areas for further research and reform to align education with the evolving needs of the 21st century.

ASSIGNMENT
SEPTEMBER 2019 SEMESTER
SUBJECT CODE : ELC 612
SUBJECT TITLE : LEARNING AND COGNITION
LEVEL : MASTER
STUDENT’S NAME :
MATRIC NO. :
PROGRAMME :
ACADEMIC
FACILITATOR
:
LEARNING CENTRE :

Part A
Sir Ken Robinson and Learning
Sir Ken Robinson suggests that there is need for radical changes to be taken to
improve the current education systems. The reasoning behind this is the need to have
education systems that will equip student with the skills of the future. The current education
system cannot sufficiently equip the students with the skills that they will need in a radically
changing environment. The students who are learning in the present time will probably be
retiring from the workforce in the 2070s (Do schools kill creativity? | Sir Ken Robinson,
2019). It is forecasted that the there will be great changes in the future especially when it
comes to technological advancements. Robinson argues that it is necessary to forecast the
changes that will occur in the future and make the students ready for those changes.
To support the need for a change in the education system, Robin argues that the
current education system was made to meet the needs of the industrialization period. The
industrialization period was in great need of a people knowledgeable in mathematics and
science. This phenomenon could help explain why the current education system treats
science, mathematics, engineering and technology as superior to humanities and art. There
are several changes that can be forecasted. One is that in the next 30 years, there will be more
persons graduating with academic degrees than at any other time in history. Secondly, there
most of the work that is currently being done by human beings will be done through
technology. Advancement in artificial intelligence is one of the technological factors that will
help replace human labour with technology.
It is important to have a diverse view of intelligence. There are many ways that to
view intelligence and not only having school education. While school education is good, it is
important to have a system education that equips a person to be all round and to be what
could be referred to as ‘future proof.’ If we could appreciate creativity from all disciplines,
then we would have a more diverse focus on what the future is likely to bring. This talk
concerning creativity is an interesting one especially to education professionals or any person
who is working in the education sector. It should also be embraced by the politicians for the
work of forming legislation and policies lies in their hands. Therefore, it is up to the to look
into the education systems and make the appropriate changes/ amendments. It is also right to
conclude that every person should be interested in this talk since every person on earth has a

right to access of quality education. In addition, the kind of education systems is likely to
affect every person in a country or region either directly or indirectly.
The greatest challenge when it comes to the education system is not reforms. Rather,
it is how to transform the current 19th century industrial based system to a 21st century
process based on varied principles (Bring on the learning revolution! | Sir Ken Robinson,
2019). It is appropriate to understand that education should be a personal process. Being a
personal process means that an education system should consider the true nature of a human
being. Human beings are organic, diverse, emotional and have purposes. In addition, human
beings have aspirations and hopes. It is therefore irrational or untenable to expect human
beings to develop in a way that is standardized and linear. A reliable education system should
focus on engaging people’s imaginations, energies and also the different ways of learning.
The best example to illustrate these arguments would be the fast food industry. This example
will be elaborated in the following paragraph.
There are two main systems of quality assurance that are used in the fast food
industry. The first is referred to as standardizing. This method focused on ensuring that a
product contains relatively the same amount of ingredients, colour, texture and other
parameters. In this method, a person who likes the food knows which outlets to find it from
and the food is almost always available. Despite being affordable and readily available, these
foods have been implicated in the causation of various non-communicable diseases. These
diseases include but are not limited to diabetes mellitus type 2 and some types of cancer. The
second system of quality assurance are star ratings. These restaurants do not necessarily
prescribe what will be on the menu and when they should open. Instead, they focus on
achieving quality through following a set of guidelines. These restaurants are better when it
comes to quality when compared to the standardized food restaurants. The star ratings hotels
are known to offer high quality services all over the world. The current education systems can
be compared to the fast food model of standardization and conformity. It does not necessarily
focus on quality and different aspects of personal learning. Education reforms should focus
on transforming the education systems to ones that focus on producing the best quality while
considering all the appropriate factors.
Human beings are different and diverse by nature. The best way to approach
education is not through command and control. Rather, it should be creating a climate of
change that enables every student to explore their full potential. Researchers should carry out

the appropriate research to guide the process of transforming education. The political class
should also be alert and open minded so that they can make the appropriate reforms with the
best interests of students and their countries. Although this is an involving process, it can be
done. It is important to understand what Robinson means by the term school. He does not
regard it to the physical structures that students and educators use for the purpose of learning.
Rather, it refers to any community of people who have come together with the aim of gaining
some education (How to Escape Education's Death Valley | Sir Ken Robinson, 2019).
Therefore, home-schooling, on-line learning and any other form of schooling is in the blanket
of the term school. Some features of current schools do not have anything to do with learning.
It is therefore important to bring a revolution to the current education system.
In my view, the points and views of Robinson make provide great insight and should
be considered by both educational professionals and the policy makers. There are several
reasons why I feel this way. One is that every person has unique and diverse abilities. Due to
this, it would not be tenable to have an educational system that makes all students to pass
through relatively similar conditions. For instance, let us suppose a person would excel
greatly in sports but not in academics. In such a situation, it is not necessary to have a system
that forces this person to do mathematics and other compulsory courses. However, it is
important to note that basic education is important and it is the right of every child. To
overcome the challenges that may be caused by a standardized education system, it is
necessary to consider having an education system that considers the true nature of human
beings. In addition, the system should consider the great variations that exist between
different people. As Robinson suggests, there is need to transform the education system to
one that focuses on bringing out the best of every student.
The second reason for support of Robinson’s ideas is that the current education
system makes most students feel inferior if they cannot perform well academically. The
current education system also deems art to be an inferior undertaking that is only done by
those who do not perform well in school. Therefore, the current education system undermines
who may be the stronghold or talent for a significant number of people in the population.
Therefore, the is urgent need to change this education system. The third and final reason why
I support the ideas of Robinson is because I believe that the future will bring with its great
changes. There are numerous technological advancements in the modern days and these are
likely to continue to the future. With these and other changes, it is important to have an
education system that is not only flexible but also focuses on the skills of the future.

There are several lessons that can be learnt for schools. One is that schools should not
undermine any person by the virtue of not being good in academics. Secondly, it is the high
time that schools started focusing on more ways of ensuring that every child is helped to
become better at what they know best. Educators and researchers should have a closer look at
the current education systems to identify the gaps that it may have. In addition, they should
also suggest ways of resolving these gaps so that education readies the current generation of
learners to the needs/ changes of the future (Expanding our definition of smart | Sir Ken
Robinson + Amanda Palmer, 2019). Therefore, it is true to conclude that Robinson has made
great observations and conclusions. The first step in bringing the appropriate changes in the
education system is having a concrete understanding of the future changes. Robinson has laid
out a great foundation for members of the education sector and also policy makers through
his works and ideas.
Part B
How Children Learn
Learning requires active and constructive involvement of the learner. This active
involvement means that the school should require the students to pay attention to what is
being taught. While this may seem obvious, it may not always be so. The cognitive abilities
that a school should require of students are to memorize, to understand and set relevant goals
for their own personalised learning. Teachers must play a pivotal role in helping children gain
these cognitive abilities and become goal oriented. There is also another aspect that is
important in children learning. This is the aspect of social participation. There has been
extensive research carried out on this area. Most of this research has shown that social
participation is the main method through which learning occurs. Social participation starts
very early in life. When a child is born, they interact with the parent in a way that teaches
them some important aspects of becoming effective members of the society. These aspects or
behaviours are instilled through the process of social participation. The environment in which
a child grows greatly determine what they learn through social participation. It is from this
environment that a child will observe and emulate certain behaviours, learn some vocabulary
and get other ideas. Therefore, children greatly learn from social activities. In addition, social
activities are unique in their own way and help students to focus on their academics. For
instance, children are more likely to look for measures to improve their projects or essays

when they know that such projects/ essays will be shared with other students. There are
several ways that can be used to encourage social participation of learners in a classroom.
One of these is assigning assignments to students and requiring them to work in groups.
Another mechanism is occasionally creating a classroom environment that requires students
to share some resources. There is also coaching method where teachers teach children how to
cooperate with each other.
Meaningful activities provide another great way of helping children learn. Extensive
research has found that in most learning environments, children neither understand what they
are doing or even why they are doing it. It may sound like a sad eventuality but unfortunately
represents the reality. There are several reasons why some school activities may not be
meaningful to students. The greatest reason is that that most of such activities are not
culturally appropriate. In the modern days, schools are composed of students who come from
diverse cultures and backgrounds. Therefore, there are certain differences in habits and other
aspects that significantly affect the learning process. In most cases, activities that may be
meaningful to a student from a certain culture/ background may not be meaningful to another
student who comes from a different culture. There are several strategies that can be used in
the classroom to ensure that activities are meaningful. One of these ways is teachers ensuring
that they state the context of an activity in a way that is not only clear but also authentic. In
addition, it is vey important for teachers to be aware that students have various differences in
terms of culture and respect those differences.
Relating new information to prior knowledge is another method of ensuring that
children learn in an effective manner. New knowledge should as much as possible be
constructed from what the children have already learnt and believed. Research has shown that
it is very difficult for someone to learn or understand something that is totally unfamiliar to
them. Having prior knowledge alone is not enough to facilitate effective learning. It is
important that this new knowledge be activated before learners are taught new concepts.
Research shows that when prior learning is not activated, learners may not associate the new
concepts with prior learning. Therefore, it is important for teachers to remind children of
what they have previously learnt and use this as the basis for teaching new concepts. There
are several ways that teachers can use to achieve this. One is to investigate the knowledge
that students have and clear any misconceptions and false beliefs that they may have prior to
teaching. Another method is to cover important prerequisite material or request students to
carry out their own research before the concepts are taught in class.

Children can also be helped to learn through being strategic. Extensive research
shows that students develop certain strategies that helps them learn. This research further
shows that this happens from a very early age. An example would be when a student is sent
to the supermarket to buy a list of items. On their way to supermarket, they may rehearse the
items in the list to make sure that they remember. This phenomenon clearly represents that
students learn some strategies to help them learn. In this case, the student has used rehearsal
as a strategy to memorize even if no one has taught them to do that. At school, teachers have
the responsibility of helping children acquire certain strategies to help them in solving
mathematical and other problems. The good thing about being strategic is that student
develop unique ways of dealing with the problem at hand. It is important to note that
strategies can make learning faster. In addition, strategies may be different based on such
aspects as accuracy and difficulty of execution. There are several strategies that teachers can
use to improve the strategic capabilities of their children. For instance, teachers can show
students how to note down the important points of a comprehension. While showing them,
the teacher should be explicit to improve the chances of success. After teaching a student how
to use a certain strategy, the teacher should be sure to equip the student in a way that they
(students) have the ability to use these strategies on their own and handle unique situations.
Another strategy is engaging in self-regulation and being reflective. The term self-
regulation refers to the ability of a student to understand what they learn. The term also refers
to the ability of a student to identify when they make errors and know how to effectively
correct those errors. Reflection is important and works hand in hand with self-regulation.
Reflection is important in self-regulation as it helps an individual become aware of their own
beliefs, feelings and even strategies. Reflection is also important because it helps a person to
differentiate illusion/ appearance from reality. Teachers can use self-regulation and reflection
to improve children learning through such as helping children set their own goals and
knowing the best strategies to use and actually make use of them. Restructuring prior
knowledge may also help students to learn in a better and more effective manner. Sometimes,
existing knowledge may stand in the way of grasping new concepts or learning new aspects.
Here is an example. In the physical sciences, student may form misconception around the
scientific idea that the earth is round with flattened top and bottom. Children may not
understand this for they may tend to view the earth as being flat. Therefore, the teacher
should explore any possible misconceptions regarding a topic and help students overcome
them through such methods as succinct explanations or even using pictorial evidence.

The other aspect of helping children learn in an effective way is through ensuring that
children gain understanding rather than just memorize. Memorizing means that the concepts
are only understood superficially. Understanding on the other hand helps students have the
ability to remember learnt information in a permanent manner. Therefore, teachers should use
teaching methods that help students remember what they learn. There are several ways that
the teacher can achieve this. One is through asking students to explain a concept or
phenomenon in their own words. Another is to show students how to prove or illustrate a
concept. Another important method in helping students learn effectively is through helping
them learn to transfer what they learn in class in to real world application. This method can
be achieved through insisting on the mastering subject matter and teach students to
understand rather than memorize.
The other aspect of ensuring effective learning is taking time to practice. It is usually
suggested that repetition is the father of learning. The more practice taken in performing a
task, the more perfect one becomes. For instance, there is research that shows that the ability
of high school students to reads and write is directly proportional to the number of hours that
they spend reading and writing. Another aspect is taking note of the developmental and
individual differences. Understanding the unique needs of every child would help
individualize learning and promote effective learning. Creating motivated learners is also an
important factor in ensuring that student learning becomes successful. One of the ways to
achieve this is recognise student achievements and help students to believe in themselves.
Extensive research has revealed that motivated learners are more likely to excel in academics
compared to those who are not motivated. It is important to note that the factors do not work
in isolation but work together to help get the best out of children learning experiences.

Part C
Constructivism in the Classroom
Introduction
Constructivism refers to an approach to learnings that holds that people construct their
own knowledge from their interactions with the environment and prior knowledge. According
to this theory of learning, construction of meaning by the learner is informed through the
knowledge and events that they have interacted with previously. It is worth noting that this is
a relatively new form of learning and instruction. This theory has gained great popularity
because many consider it superior to most of the other learning theories. There are several
principles of constructivism. These will be discussed next.
One of the principles of constructivism is that knowledge is constructed. This
principle means that knowledge is not innate or passive by is constructed by a learner. As
seen in the previous paragraph, the constructivism is founded on the belief/ idea that learners
always use previously learnt knowledge as the foundation for establishing new knowledge.
The second peinciple of constructivism is that learning is an active process. This simply
refers to the notion that learning cannot be passively absorbed. The passive model of teaching
treats the learner as an empty vessel. The empty vessel is then filled with knowledge from the
instructor or books. On the other hand, constructivism states that learners can only make
meaning from what they have learnt or interacted with previously and learning occurs in the
process. The argument put forth by the proposers of the theory is that whereas knowledge
may be passively received, understanding cannot. Understanding can only be achieved when
a learner makes a connection between prior knowledge and new knowledge through a
learning process (Kratochwil, 2017).
The third principle of constructivism is that all knowledge is socially constructed.
Learning is something that people do together. It is not something that can be defined as an
abstract concept. It is through our interaction with one another at various capacities that we
learn. It has long been known that the community in which one is born plays a significant role
in influencing the process of ‘making meaning.’ Researchers in the field or learning
psychology have found out that the environment in which a child grows up in will influence
what they think about and even how they think. Therefore, all learning occurs through the
social sharing of constituted knowledge. The knowledge shared socially is also socially
constituted (Smith, 2017). The fourth principle of constructivism states that all knowledge is

personal. This theory stipulates that every person has unique points of view that are guided by
existing knowledge and values. The following example will help illustrate this phenomenon.
An instructor may teach a group of students a certain concept. However, learning may be
different for every child due to the differences in the subjective analysis of the content that
was taught.
The fifth principle of constructivism states that learning exists in the mind. The theory
suggest that whatever exists in the human mind is what constitutes the knowledge that that
person has. Therefore, what is in a person’s mind constitutes knowledge whether or not it
matches any real-world reality. Learners will always continually create their own mental
perceptions of the real world from the perception that they have of that world. As these
learners perceive new experience, they will continually update their mental perceptions of the
reality (Henson, 2015).
There are three main types of constructivism. These are cognitive, social and radical.
Cognitive constructivism argues that knowledge is something that person gains when their
existing cognitive structures actively constructs knowledge. Therefore, this cognitive
constructivism concludes that learning is relative to the level of cognitive development.
Cognitive teaching methods helps students to add new information to the existing one
through a framework that will help the learners accommodate that information (Amineh and
Asl, 2015).
Social constructivism stipulates that learning is a process that is collaborative. In
addition, this perspective states that knowledge develops from interactions between people
and society. The notion of radial constructivism stipulates that knowledge is constructed
rather than perceived through the senses. In addition, radical constructivism states that
although individuals create knowledge, such knowledge does not tell us anything about
reality.
Application of Constructivism in the Classroom
When the learning theory of constructivism is uses in the classroom it simply means
that students are facilitated to make their own creative conclusions. The teacher is the one
who is supposed to facilitate the students. The best way to make sure that this theory is well
implemented is to create a curriculum that allows each student to solve problems while the

teacher monitors and guides them. Instead of the teacher providing all the instructions, the
students should be allowed to figure out ways of solving problems on their own. As such, in
such a learning environment, the teacher mainly assumes the role of monitoring and guiding
the students. It is important that the teacher be flexible and help each student arrive at the
correct answer while encouraging critical and creative thinking.
There are several ways that constructivism can be applied in the classroom and
several examples will be provided here and in the following paragraphs. Instead of having the
student rely on the work of others as the truth, it would be more helpful to expose the
students to primary data and the ability to interact with other students so that they can achieve
better learning through the pooling together of ideas. It is important to note that the classroom
environment should be welcoming to people from different backgrounds. In fact, the
environment should be such that different backgrounds have the chance coming together,
observe, analyse and arrive at conclusions on different ideas and concepts (Amineh and Asl,
2015).
It is worth noting that hands-on activities are very important when it comes to
application of constructivism in the classroom. Critical and creative thinking is at the core of
constructivism in the classroom and must therefore be encouraged. It is important for learners
to have notebooks where they record what they do daily. With such records, it will be simple
to monitor the progress in as far as constructive learning is concerned. In addition, note
keeping will help a student better understand how their own experiences and challenges relate
to those of fellow learners. Through such comparisons, a student will learn that every person
comes from different backgrounds and has different ideas. The student will have this
understanding while acknowledging that neither of the student is wrong (Henson, 2015).
Another strategy of applying constructivism in the classroom is having the student
work together in groups. While they work together in groups, it is important for the teacher to
encourage them to answer each other’s questions. Choosing one member of the class to teach
the others is also a great way of ensuring that constructivism is applied in the classroom.
There is also the strategy of organising the students in groups and assigning them the role of
researching controversial topics. After such research is carried out, the students should then
present their findings to the rest of the class. This technique has been found to be very
effective in enhancing constructive learning (Amineh and Asl, 2015).
.

The overall setting of the classroom should be such that it encourages constructivism
(Bada and Olusegun, 2015). There are a few concepts that can be used to ensure this. The
first is ensuring that the intellectual identity of each person is discovered and maintained.
There are two main ways in which this will help in ensuring that constructivism is applied in
the classroom. One of these ways is through forcing the students to support their own theories
and therefore assume responsibility for their words. The second way is through encouraging
the students to respect the opinions of others. Respecting the opinions of others means that no
one person treats their ideas as being superior to those of others.
The second aspect of ensuring that constructivism is successfully applied to the
classroom is through asking the students questions that are open-ended in nature. When an
open-ended question is asked, it gives the student an opportunity to critically think and
present the best answer to that question. The best answer will be different for different
students and will be guided by the experiences that they have coupled together with the
process of personal inquiry. Extensive evidence reveals that there are numerous advantages
that are gained through asking of open-ended questions (Bada and Olusegun, 2015). These
kind of questions and critical thinking have been found to stimulate the student to think
further than just present a simple concept. Such questions prompt the student to answer the
question comprehensively ensuring that they succinctly provide the reasons for their answer.
Through justification of their organized thoughts, the students are encouraged to use form
their own meanings which contribute to constructivism.
Allowing constant communication between the students and their instructors is a great
way of ensuring that constructivism is applied in the classroom. It is important to understand
that although this communication should be formal, it should be friendly. Therefore, the
students should not be scared of their teachers and neither should they shy away from
approaching their teachers or even enquiring something from them. There exists research to
show that this kind of engagement creates an environment of comfort where the ideas of
every student can be listened to without being judged or discriminated. Due to this, student
will feel free to exchange ideas and to enquire anything that might appear challenging to
them.
The following are some more examples of application of constructivism in the
classroom. The teacher could encourage the students to be participating in debates. In
debates, there is usually a topic and two teams. One team supports the topic and the other