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CASE STUDY: LEARNING AND COGNITION ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS
OVERVIEW
This assignment provides an opportunity to examine how human memory is fallible by analyzing
a case study where students don’t remember everything they learn or misremember what they
have learned. Cognition and learning are tightly-connected constructs. In Module 1: Week 1, you
reflected on the mindsets and habits you employ as a student, and this assignment asks you to
apply this self-knowledge to support Ms. Kontos and her students’ learning. Practice applying
your knowledge of brain-based learning and memory, as well as how your personal self-
regulated learning strategies support your ability to recognize and accurately assess teaching and
learning activities in the future.
INSTRUCTIONS
Review the case study below and answer the two questions that follow. For Question 1, respond
to each part in its own paragraph (i.e., Question 1 will consist of two paragraphs – one for Part A
and one for Part B). For Question 2, compose a response to the prompt in a single paragraph.
• The three paragraphs you submit for this assignment should total 250-350 words.
• Include a title page and a references section. An abstract is not required.
• Include at least one citation per paragraph to support your responses. Acceptable sources
include the textbook and scholarly articles published within the last five years.
• Use current APA formatting throughout the assignment.
Note: Your assignment will be checked for originality via the Turnitin plagiarism tool.
Case Study
Ms. Kontos is teaching a unit on human vision to her fifth-grade class. First, she shows her
students a diagram of the various parts of the human eye, such as the lens, cornea, pupil, retina,
and optic nerve. She then explains that people can see objects because light from the sun or
another light source bounces off those objects and into their eyes. To illustrate this idea, she
shows them Picture A.
Picture A
EDUC 776
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“Do you all understand how our eyes work?” she asks. Her students nod that they do.
The next day, Ms. Kontos gives her students Picture B.
Picture B
She asks students to draw one or more arrows on the picture to show how light enables the child
to see the tree. More than half of the students draw arrows like the one shown in Picture C.
Picture C
Obviously, most of Ms. Kontos’s students have not learned what she thought she had taught them
about human vision.
Question 1
A. Explain why many students believe the opposite of what Ms. Kontos has taught them. Base
your response on contemporary principles and theories of learning and cognition.
B. Describe two different ways in which you might improve on this lesson to help students gain
a more accurate understanding of human vision. Base your strategies on contemporary
principles and theories of learning and cognition.
Question 2
Many elementary school children think of human vision like Ms. Kontos’s fifth graders do, that
is, as a process that originates in the eye and goes outward toward objects that are seen. When
students revise their thinking to be more consistent with commonly accepted scientific
explanations, they are said to be undergoing conceptual change. Explain how this process differs
from acquiring procedural knowledge, revising their worldview, or acquiring a new script.
