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Is Cognitive Education Included in Our Curriculum?

– By Mrs. Lalitha Ramanujan

What should students learn, and how should they learn it? Where do we stand as teachers? Are we solely focused on the content that students should learn?

Teaching students how to learn any content can shift our perspective. The curriculum is based on the subject’s objectives, but unfortunately, the chapters sometimes overshadow these objectives. Lessons are often taught sequentially, and the learning goals can get lost. Students tend to learn content rather than understand it deeply. Let’s consider whether we’re truly educating or just completing the text.

When cognitive education is integrated with the mainstream curriculum, it creates pathways to encourage critical thinking and demonstrates how to use metacognitive strategies.

Perception, emotion, and social factors are essential for achieving academic success in a comprehensive way. Early childhood should have plenty of opportunities to develop the cognitive skills we need for long-term academic success. This can be achieved by helping them understand basic concepts like color, size, shape, function, weight, and quantity. Encouraging interactive dialogue at home and in the classroom will show students how to gather information, process it effectively, and communicate clearly.

The adult, whether a parent or teacher, needs to be familiar with the components of cognitive functions. The goal is to help students think about what they need to know about a specific content area. The typical teaching method is to explain or simply give the child the information in a straightforward way. If we want to make students independent learners, we should ask questions that encourage them to think about the content. Asking “how” and “why” questions opens up an interactive learning environment and creates a space for discussion. Such an interaction will help the adult understand how the student makes sense of the content. This will reveal the student’s effort, motivation, or challenges, guiding the adult to help bridge the gaps and guide the student on how to learn and become independent.

Thinking about thinking to use different metacognitive operations should be the goal for our students if we want a well-grounded, future-ready, and lifelong learner.