A COGNITIVE APPROACH TO THE STUDENTS’
DEVELOPMENT AT HIGHER SCHOOL
Anna Tatarinceva
Transport and Telecommunication Institute
Lomonosova str. 1, Riga, LV-1019, Latvia
Ph. (+371) 26897017. E-mail: [email protected]
Keywords: learning, intelligence, cognitive, development, achievements, ability
The problem how to raise students’ motivation to learn and increase their
achievements in the process of contemporary tertiary education is essential. There are
no standard students. Each student is a unique and unrepeatable human being who
deserves the chance to be treated and evaluated as such; therefore instructions and
testing must be individualized and varied. Teaching students how to learn, think, how
to use their own intelligences in many ways successfully is the main goal of higher
education. Educators should use a cognitive approach to understand the essence of an
individual's development through learning. An assessment should be used to enhance
students' understanding and expanding the ability to transfer their learning to solve
other learning problems. Students' academic achievements should be measured by
using current research-based practices taken into account students' individual needs,
goals, differences, cognitive, psychological and physiological factors. Learning helps
somebody to understand of self and the world to be transformed, expanded, deepened
and improved. Successful teaching prepares students for their efficient living; thus it
focuses on “teaching for transfer” of learning beyond their higher school.
The cognitive approach to learning takes into account that students enrich their
development through their learning preferences as a whole, they learn through the
active involvement by using cognitive practices that address the social, emotional,
physical, aesthetic, and intellectual needs of students. Each student should recognize
his/her own perceptual strengths, determine the most appropriate way of own
independent learning and the interrelation among the most suitable approach to
learning and his/her achievements at higher school as well.
The awareness of varied human intelligences is a key factor in the development
of the better curriculum and the choice of instructional strategies as well. The members
of the academic staff assess each student's value by focusing on his/her strengths and
trying to help them succeed in learning.
The intelligences of students should be investigated, developed, and enhanced, a
lecturer matches the tasks for students according to their preferred types of
intelligence, and gives them the possibility to perceive new and difficult information
through the most appropriate way for them.
The assessment of students’ intellectual development and their cognitive level is
important, it should be based on the brain-based research shown that human
intelligence is not fixed and static but it is constantly developed.
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Meneghetti, A. (2011). A Project ”A Man”. Italy, Rome: Psicologica Editrice.
Pederson, J. (2008). Responsible Learning. NY: H&Symon.
Sternberg, R. (2010). Thinking Styles. UK: Cambridge University Press.
Witting, C. (2007). The Brain. NY: Doubleday.
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