Book contents
- How We Think and LearnTheoretical Perspectives and Practical Implications
- How We Think and Learn
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- 1 The General Nature of Human Cognition and Learning: Probably Not Quite What You Think It Is
- 2 The Human Brain: The Hardware of Our Thinking and Learning
- 3 Cognition and Learning as Constructive Processes: Finding Order in Chaos
- 4 Key Components of the Human Memory System: An Overly Simplistic Yet Useful Model
- 5 In-Depth Cognitive Processing: Maximizing the “Long-Term” in Long-Term Memory
- 6 Remembering, Forgetting, and Misremembering: Why Long-Term Memory Isn’t Always Dependable
- 7 Metacognition: Thinking about Thinking
- 8 Conceptual Change: Revising Our Understandings When Revisions Are Called For
- 9 Bringing Other Factors into the Picture: How Emotions, Dispositions, and Attributions Affect Thinking and Learning
- 10 Self-Regulating Our Behavior: Turning Intentions into Actions
- Book part
- References
- Index
3 - Cognition and Learning as Constructive Processes: Finding Order in Chaos
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 March 2017
Book contents
- How We Think and LearnTheoretical Perspectives and Practical Implications
- How We Think and Learn
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- 1 The General Nature of Human Cognition and Learning: Probably Not Quite What You Think It Is
- 2 The Human Brain: The Hardware of Our Thinking and Learning
- 3 Cognition and Learning as Constructive Processes: Finding Order in Chaos
- 4 Key Components of the Human Memory System: An Overly Simplistic Yet Useful Model
- 5 In-Depth Cognitive Processing: Maximizing the “Long-Term” in Long-Term Memory
- 6 Remembering, Forgetting, and Misremembering: Why Long-Term Memory Isn’t Always Dependable
- 7 Metacognition: Thinking about Thinking
- 8 Conceptual Change: Revising Our Understandings When Revisions Are Called For
- 9 Bringing Other Factors into the Picture: How Emotions, Dispositions, and Attributions Affect Thinking and Learning
- 10 Self-Regulating Our Behavior: Turning Intentions into Actions
- Book part
- References
- Index
Summary
Chapter 3 focuses on the constructive, meaning-making nature of human cognition and learning. It explains how we construct meanings both on our own and in collaboration with other people, sometimes within a very short time period and at other times over the course of many months, years, or generations. The chapter also describes various ways in which we might organize what we learn, including concepts, schemas, scripts, personal theories (which may or may not be in line with scientific explanations), and worldviews. The chapter’s “Being Strategic” section recommends self-reflective evaluation of one’s own perspectives and worldviews, and it offers strategies for teaching new concepts and cognitive tools and for promoting respectful dialogues about complex and controversial topics.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- How We Think and LearnTheoretical Perspectives and Practical Implications, pp. 30 - 49Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2017