Planning a Unit of Learning

Submit a written essay explaining and justifying the substance and cognitive strategies you employed in this week’s Discussion titled “Plan and Present a Unit of Learning.”

Your paper should be 1200-1500 words in length and cite and integrate at least two scholarly sources in addition to any cited from the course Required Resources.

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

1. Articulate the theories that support and explain learning and cognition along with their evolution.
2. Analyze the role of neuroscience in understanding how we learn.
3. Apply the concept of cognitive structures to instructional and curricular design and delivery.
4. Evaluate the role of connectivism in learning and cognition.
5. Analyze the relationship of learning and cognition to the teaching of critical thinking skills.
6. Design teaching and learning approaches that incorporate theories of learning and cognition.
7. Cultivate practices to negotiate and make use of course materials and features, student support systems and resources, and other components of the higher education system toward facilitating success as a graduate student.

The lizard brain does not reason: it reacts… It loses the ability to correctly interpret subtle clues from the environment; it reverts to familiar, tried-and-true behaviors; it loses some of its abilities to index, store, and access information; it becomes more automatic and limited in its responses; it loses some of its ability to perceive relationships and patterns; it becomes less able to use higher order thinking skills; it loses some long-term memory capacity; and it tends to overreact to stimuli. (p. 20)

In this forum, you will apply strategies to walk students through material at a reasonable pace so that they have the opportunity and ability to transfer information from the working memory to the long-term memory. Without such strategies guiding the experience, the principle of cognitive load quickly becomes an issue. Cognitive load is exactly the type of threat that could result in lizard brain.

Last week, you observed and commented on instruction and the role of cognitive structures. Now, you will apply the cognitive apprenticeship model to draft a lesson plan that instructs your peers on the following topics:

• the concepts of cognitive structures and learning style
• the relationship between cognitive structures and learning style
• instructional approaches and learning styles

Your initial post to this forum should:

• be a PowerPoint presentation.
• be five to seven slides in length.
• include notes that provide instruction in the topics identified in the bulleted list above.

For assistance and tips on how to develop strong PowerPoint presentations, review the Writing Center’s tutorial, How to Make a PowerPoint Presentation.

To guide your work on this presentation, consider the resources you reviewed for this week and experiences that have inspired your curiosity and learning. Since everyone will be teaching the same topic, leverage creative opportunities to engage your peers. Rather than providing terminology and definitions, develop an activity that requires your peers to do something in their response to your post.

As seen in this course, think about using a resource to prime your peers to learn about the topic. From cat videos to instructional lessons, the internet can help you find fun and ingenious resources. Two great examples are Ted Talks and Ted Ed Lessons.

Reference

Degen, R.J. (2014). Brain-based learning: The neurological findings about the human brain that every teacher should know to be effective. Amity Global Business Review, 9, 15-23.

Post your discussion by Day 3 of the week. Before beginning, carefully review this guide, “Writing a Good Discussion Board Post” by the Writing Center.

https://au.waypointoutcomes.com/assessment/22386/p…