Unit name | Cognition and Learning |
---|---|
Unit code | EDUCM5401 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | M/7 |
Teaching block(s) |
Academic Year (weeks 1 - 52) |
Unit director | Dr. Tim Jay |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
None |
Co-requisites |
None |
School/department | School of Education |
Faculty | Faculty of Social Sciences and Law |
This unit presents students with fundamental principles and knowledge in the domain of cognitive psychology including: attention; comprehension; conceptual knowledge; learning; skill acquisition and expertise; memory: encoding and retrieval processes, working memory, autobiographical memory, episodic and semantic memory, implicit and explicit memory, memory improvement; thinking and reasoning, problem solving and decision making; language: structure, comprehension, production, reading; information processing and connectionist models of cognition. Students will learn about research methods appropriate to the study of cognition and cognitive development. They will also study key issues in the development of cognition, such as the development of language, number and drawing, cognitive change in the school years, and the role of cognition in educational attainment.
Aims:
Students will demonstrate that they:
Each session will combine a number of teaching methods including tutor dissemination of key ideas, discussion between students, reviewing relevant literature, plus activities designed to foster skills relevant to cognitive psychology, such as carrying out a research practical.
The needs of a wide range of students, including those with disabilities, international students and those from ethnic minority backgrounds have been considered. It is not anticipated that the teaching and assessment methods used will cause disadvantage to any person taking the unit. The Graduate School of Education is happy to address individual support requests as necessary.
A research report of 4000 words. Students will write up the research practical carried out during the unit. This assignment will give students the opportunity to follow the basic format of the experimental psychological journal paper and will include: an abstract, introduction, method, results and discussion section. Students will carry out relevant statistical analyses with tutor support, and interpret the outcomes of these analyses. They will be expected to develop a relevant and parsimonious background literature for the study and to combine this literature with their data in order to produce a considered interpretation of the findings. In negotiation with tutors, students will be expected to analyse relevant texts and synthesise concepts from cognitive psychology, make links/connections and recognise associations/relationships between these concepts, and draw upon current understanding of cognitive psychology. They will be expected to develop balanced arguments that reflect a multidisciplinary awareness and an ability to contextualise concepts, and draw appropriately upon a wide range of psychological evidence. They will develop research skills appropriate to the area.
Baddeley, A.D. (1996). Human memory: Theory and practice. London: Erlbaum. ISBN: 0-86377-431-8.
Eysenck, M.W. & Keane, M.T. (2000). Cognitive psychology: A student's handbook (4th Edition). Hove: Erlbaum. ISBN: 0-86377-374-5.
Garnham, A. & Oakhill, J. (1994). Thinking and reasoning. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. ISBN: 0-631-17002-2.
Goswami, U. (Ed.) (2002). Blackwell handbook of childhood cognitive development. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN: 0-631-21841-6.
Meadows, S. (2005). Child as thinker: Development and acquisition of cognition in childhood. London: Routledge. ISBN: 0-415-01143-4.
Oates, J. & Grayson, A. (2004). Cognitive and language development in children. The Open University. ISBN: 1-4051-1045-7.