INFORMATION-PROCESSING THEORY

-Describes development as if it worked like a computer. According to this view, a sensory register receives sensory information and holds it for a brief time- only seconds. If any of that information processed, it is transferred to short-term memory (STM). It then maybe further processed into a form where it can be stored indefinitely in long- term memory (LTM). The most important part of this model concerns STM and LTM, both of which alter or process information in important ways.

An Example of Information Processing: Studying for a Test

To see how the information-processing viewpoint helps to explain a more every day example of problem solving, imagine how high school students might study for a midterm test in, say, history.

How are high school student are likely differ from elementary school children in preparing for the test?

Applying expert skills-

first, adolescents have probably had more time to become experts in taking multiple-choice tests. Younger children, in contrast, cannot afford to do this: for them, the format of the test itself might be part of the problem they are trying to solve.

Selective Allocation of Attention-

second, adolescents have probably read enough textbooks to know that authors of such books usually organize material around headings, topic sentences, key terms, and summary paragraphs.

Use of domain-specific Knowledge

Older students have usually taken more courses in history and in subjects related to history, so they know more than younger children do. Older students use their richer prior knowledge to help remember the new material that they have to learn.

Informational-Processing Features of Adolescents Thought

Information-processing theory tends not to emphasize qualitative changes or transformations between major stages or period of life. Instead, it treats each major stage as a continuation or extension of processes begun earlier in childhood.

Improved Capacity to Process Information

Typically an adolescent can deal with, or process, more information than a child can. A first-grader may remember three or four random digits( 3 9 5 1), but a teenager can usually remember six or seven.

TWO SOURCES OF DIFFERENCES

Structural capacity—a person’s basic “mental power” or cognitive ability. Differences in structural capacity are like the differences in physical strength between adolescents and children.

Functional capacity—the ability to make efficient use of existing mental abilities. Differences in functional capacity are more like the improvements in physical performance that come to a gymnast who is already perfectly conditioned; at a certain point in her training.

When it comes to cognitive development, it is usually hard to discriminate between the relative influences of structural and functional capacity—between how much of an adolescents improved thinking comes from more greater efficiency in using existing talents

ENCOURAGING CRITICAL THINKING

Critical thinking is reflection or thought about complex issues, often for the purpose of choosing actions related to the issues. In spite of the term critical, it does not refer to thinking that is negative or full of complaints but to thinking that is thoughtful, that yields new insights, and that gives a basis for intelligent choice. Critical thinking is a broad, practical skill; it can help in figuring out why an unfamiliar appliance has broken down, in composing a term paper, in resolving a personal conflict with a friend, or in deciding what kind of career to pursue.

Various ways to classify the Elements of Critical Thinking

1. Basic operations of reasoning- to think critically, a person has to be able to classify, generalize, deduce conclusions, and perform other logical steps mentally.

2. Domain-specific knowledge-to deal with a problem, a person has to know something about its topic or content.

3. Meta-cognitive knowledge-effective critical thinking requires a person to monitor when she really understands an idea, to know when she needs new information, and to predict how easily she can gather and learn that information.

4. Values, beliefs, and dispositions- thinking critically means valuing fairness and objectivity.

GENERAL PRINCIPLES THAT ENHANCE THE QUALITY OF PROGRAMS THAT TEACH CRITICAL THINKING

1. Teaching thinking is best done directly and explicitly. Critical thinking does not develop on its own by unconscious osmosis, so to speak.

2. Good programs for teaching thinking offer lots of practice at solving actual solving problems. Just telling about the elements of critical thinking does not turn students into skillful thinkers.

3. All successful programs try to create an environment explicitly conducive to critical thinking.

EXPERTISE IN SPECIFIC DOMAINS OF KNOWLEDGE

By adolescence, many individuals have become comparative experts in specific domains of knowledge or skill. Much of such expertise may depend not on generalized development of cognitive structures, as the Piagetians would claim, but on the long, slow acquisition of large amounts of specific knowledge. Experts also know more about problem solving in their particular field of expertise. Expertise may often make creative problem solving unnecessary. Instead of using valuable energy in thinking through a solution, the expert can simply remember what to do. This fact as much as any other makes his performance seem fast and effortless. This advantage is confined to specific domains or types of problems, an experts performance contradicts Piaget’s assertion that powerful, abstract thought develops across many domains at once.

EVALUATION OF THE INFORMATION-PROCESSING VIEWPOINT

By focusing on the detailed features of problem solving, the information processing viewpoints provides a valuable complement to the boarder approach of cognitive developmental theory.

Reported By;

MADEL SERNAL SABIDALAS

Beed- Eced 2-A