Cognition and Advising

As professional academic advisers in Purdue University's School of Science, we took the opportunity to attend a National Science Foundation short course on cognition and teaching in May 1998, taught by Dr. Ruth Day. As a result of this experience, we have come to value “meta-cognition” (awareness of one's own thinking process) in helping students improve their academic performance. Blending our creative and logical thinking styles led to a presentation of “Cognition and Advising” at the 1999 national conference of the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA). We both continue to learn about cognitive psychology and see this as an opportunity for putting theory into practice in academic advising. This article is based on our NACADA presentation.

Over the years, we have noticed that students' grades improve as their semesters of experience increase. This could be because material becomes more specific, students become more mature, students move towards interest areas, and/or students become better learners. If improved academic performance is a function of learning to become better learners, what can we as academic advisers do to assist students in this transition?

Figure 1
The average grades on a 4.0 scale of Purdue University students who began their college experience in the fall of 1995 as a function of their semester classification

The following demonstrations are useful in starting to “think about how we think” (meta-cognition). They illustrate some components of the cognitive process. As teachers and students become aware of their own cognitive processes, they can teach and learn in ways that promote efficient learning. Try these activities yourself; they are fun and thought provoking.

1. A space for learning and all learning in its space

Read the following paragraph* quickly for meaning.

With hocked gems financing him, our hero bravely defied all scornful laughter that tried to prevent his scheme. “Your eyes deceive,” he had said. “An egg, not a table correctly typifies this unexplored planet.” Now three sturdy sisters sought proof. Forging along, sometimes through calm vastness, yet more often very turbulent peaks and valleys, days became weeks as many doubters spread fearful rumors about the edge. At last from nowhere welcome winged creatures appeared, signifying momentous success.

*Taken from Ornstein (1991), p. 187.




What does the paragraph mean? It may seem incomprehensible until you make one connection: Christopher Columbus. One of the requirements for learning is to have prior knowledge to which the information can relate, a pre-existing structure that will accommodate the new information. As soon as you find the pre-existing structure, it all makes sense. Having a structure or space ready for new information can be a helpful learning tool.

2. Old McDonald had a “hund”
   
   Learning by rote memorization is an uphill battle for many people. This next learning technique can make memorization easy and fun. It is well suited to learning foreign language vocabulary, but it is not as useful with highly theoretical information.
   
   Let's say that for my German class I have a vocabulary list consisting of words having to do with pets. The German word for dog is “hund.” Instead of saying, “hund–dog, hund–dog, hund–dog,” I could say, “My family had a hund. Our hund was named Trixie. I remember the way our hund chased cars. Our hund would run up the street.” Tying the new vocabulary to existing memory structures this way improves the retrieval of the newly stored words.
3. Alternate Forms of Representation

When asked to represent a simple idea in any way that comes to mind, people choose different forms. For example, we gave our audience at the NACADA conference presentation the task of representing the sentence, “Everyone was happy except Agatha,” in any way they chose. People tended to represent this information in a number of different, but predictable, ways: linguistic, pictorial, and mixed linguistic and pictorial. The mental processing of information into one of these three preferred formats aids in understanding the information.

Note taking, outlining, charting, and concept mapping are some examples of ways people use representation to facilitate learning. Many students, for example, rely on a rote linguistic note-taking method (e.g., writing lecture notes almost word-for-word). They may find that representing the lecture material in a new format (pictorial, for example) is an effective way of understanding and committing the information to memory.

The authors operate on the assumption that academic advising is teaching. The one-on-one format of advising (teaching) allows relationship building in an environment that fosters depth, honesty, and trust. It allows the use of education's best teaching practices, such as demonstrating both the need for learning and the value of selecting courses at the appropriate academic level. It opens the door to dealing with issues such as academic self-esteem and critical thinking. This environment is perfect for initiating “cognitive conversations,” which provide yet another opportunity to introduce and explain learning strategies.

Our second assumption or hypothesis is that student awareness of cognition promotes improved academic performance. To test this hypothesis, a study could be set up to compare the academic performance of two groups of students: those who have been taught learning techniques based on meta-cognition and those who have not had this training.

The challenge for academic advisers, then, is to incorporate a heightened awareness of cognition into academic advising. To accomplish this task, it would be helpful for advisers to become familiar with cognitive terms and concepts such as “short-term learning”; “long-term learning,” or “retained learning”; “learning” in relationship to interest; “cognition”; “meta-cognition”; “forgetting”; and “questioning.” Good resources for this information include The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language and the following Web sites: Funderstanding, Learning How To Learn, Britannica Online, and Engines for Education.

Meta-Cognition in Individual Advising Sessions

One way to use meta-cognition in advising sessions is to lead by example. The strategy of alternate forms of representation, for example, can be expanded from listening to reading, conversation, and writing. It is an opportunity for one to step out of his/her traditional mode of learning and try something new. Another example of leading by example is “modeling,” whereby an adviser not only defines or uses a method but also explains to students the learning strategies involved, such as finding the main idea, searching for patterns, predicting, clarifying, and summarizing.

Helping students engage in meta-cognition can be nicely accomplished on a one-on-one basis. The goals of this activity would be to help students strengthen and enrich their views of learning, nudge them on to a higher developmental level, and encourage risk taking through exploring and trying new learning methods. Perfect opportunities to seize the moment arise when a student needs help. Other aspects to consider are to teach and explain one's own thinking processes to students and/or to reflect the students' demonstrated processes back to them.

Both informal and formal group settings provide opportunities for planned enrichment in cognitive areas. For example, in large-group orientation sessions at Purdue, traditionally, an overview of the career development process had been presented verbally. In a changed format, the same material was presented but with a request for students to represent this material, using paper and pencil, in any way they chose. Both the pictorial and linguistic representations were fantastic. The students, by processing this material in their own ways, seemed to pick up and understand the explanations more readily. Using handouts such as puzzles and games is another way to introduce new learning strategies. This method often promotes interaction among the participants.

Promoting cognitive conversations in group settings is useful. One way to accomplish this is to add a component about learning strategies to orientation activities or academic course work. If the group consists of students with a range of experience and mixed class levels, a great variety of strategies can be shared. Stories often emerge about how someone figured out a way to learn material, was helped by or helped someone else learn, or made a positive academic turn around.

Sponsoring social events that focus on interest areas, utilizing speakers who can talk about learning, and mentoring in groups are other possibilities. Cognitive demonstrations can be introduced in the same manner as puzzles and games. Time to talk and time to listen are essential ingredients. Once a week, for example, the School of Science Scholar Group at Purdue has a designated area reserved in a dining hall where, along with lively socialization, cognitive conversations occur.

Our experiments with cognitive discussions have convinced us that academic advising is a useful environment for promoting meta-cognition. It is assumed that heightened meta-cognition improves learning potential within and outside of the classroom and moves towards a larger goal of helping students be in control of their own learning.

Published in The Mentor on April 5, 2000, by Penn State's Division of Undergraduate Studies
Available online at dus.psu.edu/mentor
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