Cognitivists view learning as consequences of our active attendance to and reorganization of information into meaningful knowledge. They view mental or internal processes between stimuli and responses. As we perceive information through our senses, processing these thus leads to remembering, reasoning, problem-solving, and other complex knowledge…
Remembering… reasoning and explaining… and striving to solve what?
Those were the days… When we were growing up with my grandparents, as our parents were working weekdays in Manila… I wish I could remember more than living in a rented house near the university, a piece of land where some fruit trees grew: star apple (kaimito) with my siblings catching various-colored leaves falling in the wind, chico tree in front of the house, bananas, papayas, and two coconut palms also with stump made into small table and chairs around after they had to be cut. We had bananas where we slid after these fell after a storm, and got our clothes stained. There was another tree beside the house, where the shadows of leaves were seen from the bedroom window when lights were put off. But what tree that was evades me now. Birds of various kinds came over too, although I was too young to recognize them, and no one introduced us.
Mainly I also remember picnic days on the lawn when we spread a mat or blanket, and lay down on not too hot days. Why has our grandmother’s singing us to sleep really become part of my sugary memories in that house, which I’d later do a lot of with my own children: singing lullabies. How I paid attention when lola sang and told stories, and hope my children did too. As the house was elevated, my sister and also dug under the house for this insect called babuy-babuyan, whatever its scientific name is. We had hot champorado on stormy days, which really left a warm glow in my heart as I recall.
There was fresh milk delivered at our doorstep. When we had leftover stale milk, we had a problem, which we solved by making pastillas from the stale milk… We made papaya candies too. And played w/ leaves of plants (except the dieffenbachia– which we were warned was poisonous) using these as money when playing store, and played with other small items to sell like bubot na buko (as chicos in size), softdrink caps, popsickle sticks… now what else I cannot recall. I quarreled with my ate too, or maybe she quarreled with me for she was older and must know better what she was doing=)!
I was about 7 when we moved to our new house, even when it was not yet finished being constructed. We hadn’t all walls and doors yet, but grills in front of the house. Now we solved that with whatever materials could cover the grills when it rained so we do not get wet inside. We had no architect, and my parents, with my older siblings I heard, planned and discussed about what kind of house we’d have. When they decided on having a basement… such fun we had going to the dug-out area after the workers have left in the afternoon! My brothers carved out road-like diggings sa gilid, where we drove and raced small model cars around the big “balon.” It was also in this house I learned to teach myself to play piano, with attention full on a piano book many years, for lack of a more knowledgeable other (MKO) at home to teach.
As my parents had to work in Metro Manila for many years, they stayed at a duplex. For some reasons, I can still remember our first telephone number from that house. I can remember neighbors who we did not really know, which I saw from the upper storey window when we looked down at the bungalow in front, or the two-storey apartment from the rear windows.
I remember the morning sun in our kitchen, when we had pan de sal and butter or Star margarine and jams for breakfast, before I rushed to school for two years studying there. In summer our parents left for work and we were left at home to play school or bahay-bahayan… and eating my father’s roasted peanuts hidden in their cabinet. I esp remembered my snacks at school, when it was not bawal to have junk food like Chiz curls, and a chocolate drink sometimes… Then the bauhinia trees with their striking purplish flowers at my parents’ place of work when we waited after class before coming home from work.
“Concepts help make sense of the world by allowing them to categorize experiences in the environment” (Jauchon, Module 8). How come I remember the other trees, but not that specific one at our previous house? I recall the red, green, brown leaves that fell from the kaimito tree, but not what else were around? And the bauhinia trees were very memorable as we waited in the parking lot for my parents’ time off from work?
The concept of memory and remembering are part of learning, from the time we were small, being carried in our mother’s arms. For a long time, I only knew there’s short- and long-term memory, but not understood how they functioned. Now I am understanding more. Our brain’s memory capacity is said to vary wildly from 1 to 1000 terabytes (Humanmemory.net), and I'm so glad to have these working to retrieve some of these precious recollections=).
Some say it might be nice to have the memory of a computer, but I say this is enough, what God has endowed. I may not be as fast or efficient in processing information, but do we have to be? Which reminds me of the ‘80s movie Short Circuit, one of the most loved movies the family saw again and again. The experimental military robot, Number 5, gobbles up info as a very hungry learner with a sizable memory storage, shouting “Input, input!” What the transformed friendly robot lacks is the neuron or brain cell, the “electrically excitable cell that processes and transmits information by electro-chemical signaling.”
When I had my family, I first started to think Oh, how old am I… as I mused about nursing the children and singing lullabies. They may have long forgotten these, but I know I’ll never forget those days when I stopped working before our second son was born. There were days I wish they’d never grow, which of course they did and our youngest now is taller than me!
Keeping the thought that learning is very personal and to make the journal reflective of learning events, this has been more of reminiscences with a sprinkling of concepts. I see information processing esp. in remembering things from childhood; social cognitive learning as it is influenced by interactions of person, behavior, and the environment; and constructivism mostly in collaboration with my elders and siblings.
Here is our treat for this journal entry. It’s a song (first popularized by Basil Valdez) Hindi kita malilimutan, about the Lord not forgetting His people, and a mother her suckling child based on Isaiah 49.15-16.
References:
Jauchon, M. Module 5- Cognitive Theories of Learning.
Neurons and Synapses. Retrieved from http://www.human-memory.net/brain_neurons.html
Remembering… reasoning and explaining… and striving to solve what?
Those were the days… When we were growing up with my grandparents, as our parents were working weekdays in Manila… I wish I could remember more than living in a rented house near the university, a piece of land where some fruit trees grew: star apple (kaimito) with my siblings catching various-colored leaves falling in the wind, chico tree in front of the house, bananas, papayas, and two coconut palms also with stump made into small table and chairs around after they had to be cut. We had bananas where we slid after these fell after a storm, and got our clothes stained. There was another tree beside the house, where the shadows of leaves were seen from the bedroom window when lights were put off. But what tree that was evades me now. Birds of various kinds came over too, although I was too young to recognize them, and no one introduced us.
Mainly I also remember picnic days on the lawn when we spread a mat or blanket, and lay down on not too hot days. Why has our grandmother’s singing us to sleep really become part of my sugary memories in that house, which I’d later do a lot of with my own children: singing lullabies. How I paid attention when lola sang and told stories, and hope my children did too. As the house was elevated, my sister and also dug under the house for this insect called babuy-babuyan, whatever its scientific name is. We had hot champorado on stormy days, which really left a warm glow in my heart as I recall.
There was fresh milk delivered at our doorstep. When we had leftover stale milk, we had a problem, which we solved by making pastillas from the stale milk… We made papaya candies too. And played w/ leaves of plants (except the dieffenbachia– which we were warned was poisonous) using these as money when playing store, and played with other small items to sell like bubot na buko (as chicos in size), softdrink caps, popsickle sticks… now what else I cannot recall. I quarreled with my ate too, or maybe she quarreled with me for she was older and must know better what she was doing=)!
I was about 7 when we moved to our new house, even when it was not yet finished being constructed. We hadn’t all walls and doors yet, but grills in front of the house. Now we solved that with whatever materials could cover the grills when it rained so we do not get wet inside. We had no architect, and my parents, with my older siblings I heard, planned and discussed about what kind of house we’d have. When they decided on having a basement… such fun we had going to the dug-out area after the workers have left in the afternoon! My brothers carved out road-like diggings sa gilid, where we drove and raced small model cars around the big “balon.” It was also in this house I learned to teach myself to play piano, with attention full on a piano book many years, for lack of a more knowledgeable other (MKO) at home to teach.
As my parents had to work in Metro Manila for many years, they stayed at a duplex. For some reasons, I can still remember our first telephone number from that house. I can remember neighbors who we did not really know, which I saw from the upper storey window when we looked down at the bungalow in front, or the two-storey apartment from the rear windows.
I remember the morning sun in our kitchen, when we had pan de sal and butter or Star margarine and jams for breakfast, before I rushed to school for two years studying there. In summer our parents left for work and we were left at home to play school or bahay-bahayan… and eating my father’s roasted peanuts hidden in their cabinet. I esp remembered my snacks at school, when it was not bawal to have junk food like Chiz curls, and a chocolate drink sometimes… Then the bauhinia trees with their striking purplish flowers at my parents’ place of work when we waited after class before coming home from work.
“Concepts help make sense of the world by allowing them to categorize experiences in the environment” (Jauchon, Module 8). How come I remember the other trees, but not that specific one at our previous house? I recall the red, green, brown leaves that fell from the kaimito tree, but not what else were around? And the bauhinia trees were very memorable as we waited in the parking lot for my parents’ time off from work?
The concept of memory and remembering are part of learning, from the time we were small, being carried in our mother’s arms. For a long time, I only knew there’s short- and long-term memory, but not understood how they functioned. Now I am understanding more. Our brain’s memory capacity is said to vary wildly from 1 to 1000 terabytes (Humanmemory.net), and I'm so glad to have these working to retrieve some of these precious recollections=).
Some say it might be nice to have the memory of a computer, but I say this is enough, what God has endowed. I may not be as fast or efficient in processing information, but do we have to be? Which reminds me of the ‘80s movie Short Circuit, one of the most loved movies the family saw again and again. The experimental military robot, Number 5, gobbles up info as a very hungry learner with a sizable memory storage, shouting “Input, input!” What the transformed friendly robot lacks is the neuron or brain cell, the “electrically excitable cell that processes and transmits information by electro-chemical signaling.”
When I had my family, I first started to think Oh, how old am I… as I mused about nursing the children and singing lullabies. They may have long forgotten these, but I know I’ll never forget those days when I stopped working before our second son was born. There were days I wish they’d never grow, which of course they did and our youngest now is taller than me!
Keeping the thought that learning is very personal and to make the journal reflective of learning events, this has been more of reminiscences with a sprinkling of concepts. I see information processing esp. in remembering things from childhood; social cognitive learning as it is influenced by interactions of person, behavior, and the environment; and constructivism mostly in collaboration with my elders and siblings.
Here is our treat for this journal entry. It’s a song (first popularized by Basil Valdez) Hindi kita malilimutan, about the Lord not forgetting His people, and a mother her suckling child based on Isaiah 49.15-16.
References:
Jauchon, M. Module 5- Cognitive Theories of Learning.
Neurons and Synapses. Retrieved from http://www.human-memory.net/brain_neurons.html
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