Applying Cognitive Learning

Theories to Engage and Motivate

Students in STEM Classrooms

Stephen Tonks
Educational Psychology
May 15, 2013
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 Cognitive Science & STEM Ed
1. Learning is constructive, not receptive
2. Motivation and beliefs are integral to
cognition
3. Social interaction is fundamental to cognitive
development
4. Knowledge, strategies, and expertise are
contextual

*Bruning, Schraw, Norby, and Ronning (2004)

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 1. Learning is Constructive
• Constructivism: People combine existing
knowledge with new information to build new
knowledge
• Learning = constructing meaning
• Students need to make their own discoveries
and thus construct their own knowledge
• Duckworth (2006) on Piaget: Create a classroom
where students can discover

*Piaget & others 4

What do you see?

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 Constructivism in the Classroom
• Any amount of “active” helps
• Background knowledge is HUGE
• A range of experiences and many
experiences help students learn
• Experiences become background
knowledge
• Expending effort & deep processing aids
memory
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 3. Social Interaction is Fundamental

• Cognitive skills evolve from social interactions with

parents, teachers, etc.
• Culture uses “tools for thought”
– Speech, writing, mathematical & scientific concepts
• Relatedness as a psychological need
• In classrooms: Groupwork, scaffolding, peer tutoring,
reciprocal teaching, CUT SOME OF THESE?

*Vygotsky; Deci & Ryan

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 4. Cognitions are Contextual

• Cognitive growth occurs in a sociocultural context

that influences the form it takes
• Transfer of advanced skills is difficult
• EXPAND?
– Knowledge, strategies, expertise

*Vygotsky

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 2. Motivation & Beliefs are Integral

• Many modern motivation theories

• Self-efficacy (Bandura, etc.)
• Mindset Theory (Dweck)
• Achievement Goals (Pintrich, etc.)
• Self-Determination Theory
– Three Psychological Needs

*Deci & Ryan

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 Self-Determination Theory
Three Psychological Needs

• Autonomy • Innate
• Relatedness • Fulfillment = Good
• Competence • Deprivation = Bad

• A-B-C (for easy recall)

• Environment can change motivation

*Deci & Ryan

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 Perceived Autonomy

• Students need to feel that they have some

control over their own learning

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 Mark Twain on Autonomy
…Work consists of whatever a body is OBLIGED to do,
and that Play consists of whatever a body is not
obliged to do. And this would help him to understand
why constructing artificial flowers or performing on a
tread-mill is work, while rolling ten-pins or climbing
Mont Blanc is only amusement. There are wealthy
gentlemen in England who drive four-horse passenger-
coaches twenty or thirty miles on a daily line, in the
summer, because the privilege costs them considerable
money; but if they were offered wages for the service,
that would turn it into work and then they would resign.
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 Autonomy Support

• Giving students SOME control over their own

learning
• Opposite of controlling behavior

• How to • How not to

– Provide choices – Give orders
– Encourage – Use bribes
– Give rationales – Make threats

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 Why Support Autonomy?

• Conceptual understanding
• Retention of content
• Achievement
• Intrinsic motivation
• Positive affect

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 Now, Apply It!

• Take one concept that you teach, and

apply an idea from today

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