Cognitivism: Learning a Dance Routine Using Cognitive Processes

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 Learning involves processes in the short term memory, long term memory, and associations through modeling and repetition. Like Behaviorism, cognitivism involves operant and classical condition and reinforcement, but the key difference is the cognitive processes involved in the behavior change .Jerome Bruner, a psychologist, theorized that intellectual ability had an influence on learning and that structuring facts and techniques would aid learning transfer.

 

Some of those  cognitive processes include:

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·        Practicing/rehearsing

·        Learning in a context can be easier to remember

·        Sequence/Serial Positioning- items are remembered in specific order

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Albert Bandura, the founder of  social cognitivist theory also contributes to this theory by offering  that behavior is learned from the cognitive processes of  observation –  children learn from models offering examples of behavior to imitate or to avoid ( McLeod, 2016). 

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As a cheerleader learning a routine, there were cognitive processes involved in learning our routines for the upcoming game. We rehearsed daily because the repetition helped us remember and recall our dance routines. Routines were taught in eight- count phrases so that we could process the steps in our short term memory.  We observed our teachers and sometimes other teammates so that we could mimic  what we thought were the best styles and delivery. We would repeat the steps until we could recall it from our long term memory in time with the music, then we would learn successive phrases until we could recall the routine at the end of the week.

 Learning the routines outdoors offered learning context so that we could remember how to place our feet to prevent injury, and how far to move toward the bleachers.

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References

Mcleod, Saul (2016) Bandura Social Learning Theory Retrieved November 16 from  https://www.simplypsychology.org/bandura.html

 

Mergel, Brenda  (1998) Instructional  Design and Learning Theory Retrieved November 16 from http://etad.usask.ca/802papers/mergel/brenda.htm