Levels of Cognition in Teaching Adult Vocational Education Programs in Central Ohio.The purpose of the study was to explore and describe the cognitive levels of adult vocational education vocational education, training designed to advance individuals' general proficiency, especially in relation to their present or future occupations. The term does not normally include training for the professions. programs in Central Ohio. Data were collected by use of an interview schedule from vocational institutions that were cluster sampled. Findings from the study indicated that the instructors taught and evaluated adult vocational education programs in discrete or combinations of levels of the cognitive classification system taxonomy taxonomy: see classification. taxonomy In biology, the classification of organisms into a hierarchy of groupings, from the general to the particular, that reflect evolutionary and usually morphological relationships: kingdom, phylum, class, order, developed. The findings showed that the adult vocational instructors in Central Ohio had diverse professional and demographic characteristics which in various ways related to teaching and instruction at the vocational institutions. Correlations revealed a positive relationship between workshops and seminars the instructors had attended, and a moderate association between instructors' status and inservice training. "The world of work is continually changing and it is the task of vocational education to equip e·quip tr.v. e·quipped, e·quip·ping, e·quips 1. a. To supply with necessities such as tools or provisions. b. students to function effectively within the world.... Teachers must actively encourage originality o·rig·i·nal·i·ty n. pl. o·rig·i·nal·i·ties 1. The quality of being original. 2. The capacity to act or think independently. 3. Something original. Noun 1. , initiative and thinking ability so that students will be able to cope with changes in their chosen occupation and in the total complex world in which they will live" (Allen, 1974). The term cognition cognition Act or process of knowing. Cognition includes every mental process that may be described as an experience of knowing (including perceiving, recognizing, conceiving, and reasoning), as distinguished from an experience of feeling or of willing. (Dejnozka & Kapel, 1991) is often defined by the branch of psychology from which it stems. Many cognitive psychologists restrict the definition of cognition to the higher mental processes such as knowledge, intelligence, thinking, acquisition of new meaning, generating plans, strategies, reasoning and problem solving problem solving Process involved in finding a solution to a problem. Many animals routinely solve problems of locomotion, food finding, and shelter through trial and error. . Many behaviourists, on the other hand, would restrict the term to conditioning, rote rote 1 n. 1. A memorizing process using routine or repetition, often without full attention or comprehension: learn by rote. 2. Mechanical routine. verbal learning, and other procedures or processes consistent with their approach to learning. Still other schools of thought have their specific and varied definition which generally implies the gaining of knowledge. Winne (1985) described cognition to include the processes of perception, thinking, reasoning, understanding problem solving and remembering. Page et al. (1980) and Thomas (1992) referred to cognition as an umbrella term A term used to cover a broad category of functions rather than one specific item. In many cases, a term is so catchy that it tends to be used for technologies that are a stretch from the original concept. See middleware and virtualization. for the process of perception, discovery, recognition, imagining, judging, memorizing, learning and thinking by which the individual obtains knowledge and conceptual understanding or explanation. According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Blishen (1969), cognition includes dimensions common to all types of knowing such as feelings, relationships, ideas, and the processes of imagining, judging, remembering, understanding, problem solving, and reasoning. Flavel (1977) posited that humans are cognitive beings and carry out a variety of mental operations to achieve a number of mental products. These operations, according to him, can be said to be cognitive. A classification system developed by Bloom and his associates in 1956 indicated that the cognitive domain cognitive domain, n area of study that deals with the processes and measurable results of study, as well as the practical ability to apply intelligence. consists of categories built upon a hierarchy from simple to complex, ranging from knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Newcomb and Treftz (1987) consolidated Bloom's taxonomy to include the four categories of remembering, processing, creating and evaluating. The concept of cognition has implications for learning and teaching. To a large extent, Sefert (1991) explained, students learn by acquiring and organizing knowledge. This process sometimes produces immediate or obvious changes in their behaviour, but more often merely sets the stage for such changes by making them more flexible in their choice of responses and courses of action. Such a view of learning assumes that human beings are more than just their actions: that they also think, remember, perceive, and become motivated. Teachers can facilitate cognitive development among learners by using the instructional interventions and strategies recommended by Johnson and Thomas (1992): (1) helping students organize their knowledge, (2) building on what students already know; (3) facilitating information processing information processing: see data processing. information processing Acquisition, recording, organization, retrieval, display, and dissemination of information. Today the term usually refers to computer-based operations. and deep thinking through elaboration, and (4) making the thinking process explicit. Teachers' behaviours will promote higher order thinking skills The concept of higher order thinking skills became a major educational agenda item with the 1956 publication of Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives. The simplest thinking skills are learning facts and recall, while higher order skills include critical thinking, among students by using strategies such as (1) requiring justification for ideas and probing for reasoning strategies, (2) confronting students with alternatives and thought provoking pro·vok·ing adj. Troubling the nerves or peace of mind, as by repeated vexations: a provoking delay at the airport. pro·vok questions, (3) asking open ended questions, (4) requiring students to be accountable for class discussion, (5) serving as a master of apprentices rather than a teacher of students, and using Socratic discussion techniques. These strategies, as noted by Thomas (1992), help learners to move from basic skills and pure facts to linking new information with prior knowledge, from relying on a single authority to recognizing multiple sources of knowledge, and to moving from novice-like to expert-like problem solving abilities. Purpose and Objectives The purpose of the study was to explore and describe the cognitive levels used in adult vocational education programs in Central Ohio. Objectives of the study were formulated as questions and the answers to these questions were sought in conducting the study: 1. Do the adult vocational education instructions use each of the cognitive levels of the educational systems taxonomy developed by Newcomb and Treftz (1987) in isolation or in combination with others when: (1) they teach, (2) they ask questions as they teach, and (3) they evaluate educational programs of instruction? 2. What are the demographic characteristics of the instructors? 3. Are there any relationships among the instructors' demographic characteristics? Methods and Procedures The target population of the study was the vocational education instructors teaching adult vocational programs Noun 1. vocational program - a program of vocational education educational program - a program for providing education in Central Ohio. Due to the difficulty in getting a complete frame of adult vocational education instructors, 56% of whom were part-time instructors, it became necessary for the researcher to do cluster sampling Cluster sampling is a sampling technique used when "natural" groupings are evident in a statistical population. It is often used in marketing research. In this technique, the total population is divided into these groups (or clusters) and a sample of the groups is selected. of vocational education institutions rather than sampling the instructors. Data were collected from 32 out of 33 instructors who were teaching at the five vocational institutions that comprised the cluster sample. One of the instructors, for unknown reasons, declined to participate in the study. Instrumentation The data collecting instrument was an interview schedule which was prepared by the researcher. The instrument was examined for content validity content validity, n the degree to which an experiment or measurement actually reflects the variable it has been designed to measure. by five experts in the field and pilot tested for reliability. The pilot test yielded an internal consistency In statistics and research, internal consistency is a measure based on the correlations between different items on the same test (or the same subscale on a larger test). It measures whether several items that propose to measure the same general construct produce similar scores. reliability coefficient coefficient /co·ef·fi·cient/ (ko?ah-fish´int) 1. an expression of the change or effect produced by variation in certain factors, or of the ratio between two different quantities. 2. of .90. Finally, the instrument was field tested to establish clarity and suitability. Appropriate adjustments were made in the instrument based on the field test result, which made it possible to produce the final instrument appropriate for use in collecting the data. Data Collection Data were collected by face-to-face interview. The researcher contacted each of the coordinators or supervisors of the adult vocational institutions that comprised the sample. The purpose of the letters and the phone calls were to explain the reasons for the study and to make arrangements for scheduling an interview with each instructor. Interviews took place prior to each class. The interview was audio-taped by the use of a portable tape recorder tape recorder, device for recording information on strips of plastic tape (usually polyester) that are coated with fine particles of a magnetic substance, usually an oxide of iron, cobalt, or chromium. The coating is normally held on the tape with a special binder. . In some situations where the instructors preferred not to be audio-taped, their responses were hand written in a note-pad. Data Analysis Data were analysed with a qualitative data analysis approach (Frankel and Wallen, 1990). The use of this approach was facilitated by employing the following steps, (1) the researcher first transcribed the audio-taped and written data, which were later checked by an experienced transcriber for possible mistakes, and (2) the data were then coded into ordinal (mathematics) ordinal - An isomorphism class of well-ordered sets. categories: 1. Remembering (R) 8. P + C 2. Processing (P) 9. P + E 3. Creating (C) 10. R + P + C 4. Evaluation (E) 11. R + P + E 5. R + P 12. R + C + C 6. R + C 13. P + E + C 7. R + E 14. R + P + C + E Findings The data in Table 1 describe the demographic and professional characteristics of the adult vocational instructors. The majority (59%) of the instructors were female, 45% were in the age group of 41 - 50 years, more than one-half (56%) had a BA or BS, 58% had 1 - 4 years teaching experience, 44% had academic preparation in the use of educational objectives, had attended inservice training programs (90%), workshops (71%) and seminars (64%) and 56% were part-time teachers.
Table 1
Demographic and Professional Characteristics of Instructors
Characteristic f %
A. Gender
Male 13 41.0
Female 19 59.0
32 100.0
B. Age
21-30 2 7.0
31-40 10 32.0
41-50 14 45.0
51-62 5 16.9
(one missing case) 31 100.0
C. Educational Level
High School Diploma 4 13.0
B.S. or B.A. 18 56.0
M.S. or M.A. 5 16.0
Phd or Ed.D. 1 3.1
Other 4 13.0
32 100.0
D. Years Experience Teaching Adults
1-4 18 58.0
5-9 8 26.0
10-15 4 13.0
16-22 1 3.0
(one missing case) 31 100.0
E. Instructors' Academic Preparation In
Education Objectives Classification
Systems Taxonomy
No 10 31.0
Yes 14 44.0
I Don't Know 8 25.0
32 100.0
F. Professional Training Programs
Attended by Instructors
(1) Inservice Training
Attended 28 90.0
Not Attended 3 10.0
(one missing case) 31 100.0
(2) Workshop
Attended 22 71.0
Not Attended 9 29.0
(one missing case 31 100.0
reported)
(3) Seminar
Attended 20 36.0
Not Attended 11 64.0
(one missing case 31 100.0
reported)
(4) Others
Attended 4 13.0
Not Attended 22 87.0
(one missing case 31 100.0
reported)
G. Status
Part-time Instructor 18 56.0
Full-time Instructor 14 44.0
32 100.0
With regard to the correlations among the instructors' demographic and professional characteristics presented in Table 2, the data show that there was a positive relationship between seminars and workshops the instructors had attended (r = .70). Moderate associations were observed to exist between the status and the inservice training programs the instructors had attended (r = .41), the level of the instructors' education and their ages (r = .38), and the use of educational objectives, and the level education of the instructors (r = .39). All other associations among the other characteristics were either low (r = .29) or negligible  This article or section is written like a personal reflection or and may require .Please [ improve this article] by rewriting this article or section in an . (Davis, 1971).
Table 2
Correlations Among Characteristics
Years
Characteristics Gendera Age Degree Teaching
Gender 1.00 .08 .08 .07
Age 1.00 .38 .02
Degree 1.00 .01
Years
Teaching 1.00
Educational
Objectives
Training
Workshop
Seminar
Other
Status
Educational
Characteristics Objective Training Workshop
Gender .26 .06 .04
Age .07 .06 .13
Degree .39 .15 .08
Years
Teaching .23 .25 .30
Educational
Objectives 1.00 .12 .24
Training 1.00 .26
Workshop 1.00
Seminar
Other
Status
Characteristics Seminar Other Status
Gender .06 .29 .13
Age .02 .11 .18
Degree .14 .05 .01
Years
Teaching .03 .01 .26
Educational
Objectives .31 -.12 -.02
Training .20 .11 -.29
Workshop .70 -.01 .41
Seminar 1.00 .03 .22
Other 1.00 .17
Status 1.00
Number of cases = 29 Coding: Males = 1: Females = 2 The findings in Table 3 present how frequently the instructors reported they taught, asked questions as they taught and evaluated programs at higher cognitive levels. The main reasons reported for teaching at higher levels of cognition, or at combination of higher levels of cognition, were to enable the adult learners Adult learner is a term used to describe any person socially accepted as an adult who is in a learning process, whether it is formal education, informal learning, or corporate-sponsored learning. to be creative and to remember (22%), to be creative (38%), and to remember, process, be creative and evaluate (22%).
Table 3
Cognitive Levels of Instruction, Questioning and Evaluation
Cognitive Levels Use for Use for
Instruction Questioning
f % f %
1. TO REMEMBER (R) 3 9.0 4 13.0
2. TO PROCESS (P) 1 3.0 1 3.0
3. TO CREATE 12 38.0 10 31.0
4. TO EVALUATE 0 0.0 0. 0.0
5. TO R + P 0 0.0 0 0.0
6. TO R + C 7 22.0 7 22.0
7. TO R + E 0 0.0 0 0.0
8. TO P + C 0 0.0 1 3.0
9. TO P + E 0 0.0 1 3.0
10. TO C + E 2 6.0 0 0.0
11. TO R + P + C 0 0.0 0 0.0
12. TO R + P + E 0 0.0 0 0.0
13. TO R + P + E 0 0.0 0 0.0
14. TO R + P + E 0 0.0 0 0.0
15. TO R + P + C + E 7 22.0 8 25.0
16. TO R + P + C + E 0 0.0 0 0.0
TOTAL 32 100 32 100
Cognitive Levels Use for
Evaluating
F %
1. TO REMEMBER (R) 1 3.0
2. TO PROCESS (P) 1 3.0
3. TO CREATE 13 41.0
4. TO EVALUATE 0 0.0
5. TO R + P 0 0.0
6. TO R + C 11 34.0
7. TO R + E 0 0.0
8. TO P + C 0 0.0
9. TO P + E 0 0.0
10. TO C + E 0 0.0
11. TO R + P + C 0 0.0
12. TO R + P + E 0 0.0
13. TO R + P + E 0 0.0
14. TO R + P + E 0 0.0
15. TO R + P + C + E 5 16.00
16. TO R + P + C + E 0 0.0
TOTAL 32 100
As regards to asking questions at higher levels of cognition, the instructors gave the following reasons: (1) to find out whether the adult learners were creative in given responses (31%) and (2) whether the learners could remember and be creative in their answers (22%). The reasons the instructors gave for evaluating the programs at higher levels of cognition were to determine whether the learners can remember and be creative (34%), and whether the learners can be creative at the end of the program of instruction (41%). Discussion The outcomes of the study have indicated that adult vocational education instructors in Central Ohio have diverse professional and demographic characteristics which in various ways might relate to teaching and learning in the vocational institutions. The study also revealed reasons instructors reported they taught and evaluated adult vocational education programs at higher cognitive levels or combinations of cognitive levels of the educational classification systems taxonomy. Studies by Pace (1991) revealed that learners, teachers, the school, the classroom and the community are nested in a hierarchy of systems. One level can modify the other from bottom up or from top down. In the nature of things, however, whether it is in the centralized cen·tral·ize v. cen·tral·ized, cen·tral·iz·ing, cen·tral·iz·es v.tr. 1. To draw into or toward a center; consolidate. 2. educational system, as it is in most European or Third World countries, or in a decentralized de·cen·tral·ize v. de·cen·tral·ized, de·cen·tral·iz·ing, de·cen·tral·iz·es v.tr. 1. To distribute the administrative functions or powers of (a central authority) among several local authorities. system as it is in the United States of America UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. The name of this country. The United States, now thirty-one in number, are Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, ; the individual classroom teacher has been observed to be powerful and often relatively free in determining what occurs in the classroom. The researchers believes that the level of the teacher's competence is an important determinant determinant, a polynomial expression that is inherent in the entries of a square matrix. The size n of the square matrix, as determined from the number of entries in any row or column, is called the order of the determinant. of the success or failure of any attempt to implement a program to teach and evaluate learners at higher levels of cognition. If vocational education for adults is to move beyond just distributing facts, psychomotor psychomotor /psy·cho·mo·tor/ (si?ko-mo´ter) pertaining to motor effects of cerebral or psychic activity. psy·cho·mo·tor adj. 1. skills, or distributing basic information, and develop higher level cognitive abilities as was suggested as optimal by several authors (Allen, 1974; Sefert, 1991; Newcomb & Trefz, 1987); then greater attention must be given to developing teachers competent in cognition (thinking), metacognition Metacognition refers to thinking about cognition (memory, perception, calculation, association, etc.) itself or to think/reason about one's own thinking. Types of knowledge (thinking about thinking) and epistemic ep·i·ste·mic adj. Of, relating to, or involving knowledge; cognitive. [From Greek epist  m cognition (thinking about
one's system of thinking and organizing knowledge) in the teacher
preparation and inservice education programs. Indeed, this is a
dimension of moving into "teaching" and "beyond merely
telling" in the educational environment. Even lesson planning
should be designed with an awareness of the levels of thinking that will
be used by the instructor as well as the levels of thinking that should
result in the learner because of exposure to the teaching. Developmental
psychologists have previously noted that one's capacity to develop
thinking abilities does not retrogress ret·ro·gress intr.v. ret·ro·gressed, ret·ro·gress·ing, ret·ro·gress·es 1. To return to an earlier, inferior, or less complex condition. 2. To go or move backward. with progression from adolescence adolescence, time of life from onset of puberty to full adulthood. The exact period of adolescence, which varies from person to person, falls approximately between the ages 12 and 20 and encompasses both physiological and psychological changes. to adulthood. Adult learners must also change their ways of thinking and knowing to advance in today's workplace just as the profession is challenging the development of secondary or post secondary students. Due to increasing demands on students in the work place (SCANS Report, 1991) for thinking skills (creative thinking, decision making, problem solving, visualizing visualizing, v 1., holding an image in one's mind. 2., forming an image of a goal or destination in one's mind before undertaking it, so as to facilitate success. , knowing how to learn, and reasoning), for personal qualities (responsibility, self-esteem, sociability, self-management and integrity), and for basic skills (reading, writing, arithmetic, mathematics, listening and speaking); the following recommendations are offered: (1) Policy research is needed to examine the goals and system-wide characteristics of vocational education and its relationships to other employment-related education and training systems for the purpose of assuming continued relevance and effectiveness of the vocational education enterprise in a changing societal so·ci·e·tal adj. Of or relating to the structure, organization, or functioning of society. so·ci  e·tal·ly adv.Adj. context. (2) Research is also needed to validate a system that would enable teacher educators to prepare vocational education teachers competent to teach at higher levels of cognition. References Allen David (1974). Instruction: In Malvin L. Barlow bar·low n. An inexpensive, one- or two-bladed pocketknife. [After Barlow, the family name of its makers, two brothers in Sheffield, England.] (ed.), The Philosophy for Quality Vocational Education Programs, American Vocational Association, Washington, DC. Bloom, B.S. et al (1956). Taxonomy of Educational Objectives The Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, often called Bloom's Taxonomy, is a classification of the different objectives and skills that educators set for students (learning objectives). : The classification of educational goals Handbook 1 Cognitive domain. New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of : David McKay. Davis, J.A. (1971). Elementary Survey Analysis. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Dejnozka, E.L., & Kapel, D.E. (1991). American Educators' encyclopaedia encyclopaedia Reference work that contains information on all branches of knowledge or that treats a particular branch of knowledge comprehensively. It is self-contained and explains subjects in greater detail than a dictionary. . New York: Greenwood Greenwood. 1 City (1990 pop. 26,265), Johnson co., central Ind.; settled 1822, inc. as a city 1960. A residential suburb of Indianapolis, Greenwood is in a retail shopping area. Manufactures include motor vehicle parts and metal products. Press. Flavel, J.H.F. (1977). Cognitive Development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Fraenkel, J.R. & Wallen, N.E. (1989). How to design and evaluate research in education. New York: McGraw-Hill. Johnson, S., and Thomas, R.G. (1992). Technology education and the cognitive revolution The "cognitive revolution" is the name for an intellectual movement in the 1950s that began what are known collectively as the cognitive sciences. It began in the modern context of greater interdisciplinary communication and research. . Technology Teacher, 51(4), 1992. Newcomb, L.H. & Treftz, M.K. (1987). Toward teaching at higher levels of cognition. NACTA NACTA The National Association of Commissioned Travel Agents Journal, 31(2). Pace, S.F. (1991). Government Processes for including thinking skills in the Curriculum. In R.F. Mulcahy, R.H. Page, T.G. et al. (1980) International Dictionary of Education. Cambridge, MA: The MIT MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press. Sefert, Kelvin kelvin, abbr. K, official name in the International System of Units (SI) for the degree of temperature as measured on the Kelvin temperature scale. A unit of measurement of temperature. L. (1991), Educational Psychology. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Houghton Mifflin Company is a leading educational publisher in the United States. The company's headquarters is located in Boston's Back Bay. It publishes textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, reference works, and fiction and non-fiction for both young readers Company. Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills -- SCANS Report (1991). What work requires of schools. Washington, DC: United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. Department of Labor. Thomas, R.G. (1992). Cognitive Theory-based teaching and learning in vocational education. Columbus, OH: Center on Education and Training for Employment, The Ohio State University Ohio State University, main campus at Columbus; land-grant and state supported; coeducational; chartered 1870, opened 1873 as Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College, renamed 1878. There are also campuses at Lima, Mansfield, Marion, and Newark. . Winne, P.H. (1985). Cognitive Style Cognitive style is a term used in cognitive psychology to describe the way individuals think, perceive and remember information, or their preferred approach to using such information to solve problems. . In H. Tosten & N.T. Postlethwaite (eds.), International encyclopedia encyclopedia, compendium of knowledge, either general (attempting to cover all fields) or specialized (aiming to be comprehensive in a particular field). Encyclopedias and Other Reference Books of education. Oxford: Pergamon. Dr. P.J. Squire, Department of Agricultural Education Agricultural education is instruction about crop production, livestock management, soil and water conservation, and various other aspects of agriculture. Agricultural education includes instruction in food education, such as nutrition. , Extension and Economics, Botswana College of Agriculture. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Dr. Squire, Department of Agricultural Education, Extension and Economics, Botswana College of Agriculture, Private Bag 0027, Gaborone. E-mail: PSquire@temo.BCA BCA Business Case Analysis BCA Building Code of Australia BCA Boeing Commercial Airplanes BCA Board of Contract Appeals BCA Boston Center for the Arts BCA Billiard Congress of America BCA Bureau of Criminal Apprehension BCA Breast Cancer Action .BW. |
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