Teacher Tools Related to Cognitive Strategies

List of tools

  • Orienting Strategies

    An orienting strategy directs a student’s learning to a task. The student's attention is drawn to a task through teacher input such as a cue, material that is highlighted, and/or student self-regulation.

  • Specific Attentional Aids

    A specific attentional aid directs a student’s learning to a task by connecting that information to something highly accessible, such as an object, language, or part of the body. Because the aid is accessible, the student can use specific attentional aids often and easily.

  • Specific Aids for Problem-Solving or Memorization

    A student enhances his/her problem solving or memorization using a specific problem-solving aid by connecting a concrete object or other cue to the task. Counters and other concrete objects used in mathematics are examples of specific aids.

  • Rehearsal Strategies

    A rehearsal strategy uses repeated practice of information to learn it. When a student is presented with specific information to be learned, such as a list, often he will attempt to memorize the information by repeating it over and over. The repeated practice increases the student's familiarity with the information.

  • Elaboration Strategies

    An elaboration strategy occurs when the student uses elements of what is to be learned and expands them. The student expands the target information by relating other information to it, for example, making an analogy.

  • Transformation Strategies

    When a learner begins with another person's information, and transforms that information into something else without losing the concept of the original, a transformational strategy is being used. Paraphrasing is an example of a transformational strategy.

  • Imagery Strategies

    Imagery strategies involve activating the memory by taking what is to be learned and creating meaningful visual, auditory, or kinesthetic images of the information.

  • Mnemonics Strategies

    A mnemonic strategy is one type of transformational strategy. The student converts difficult or unfamiliar information into more manageable information by connecting the information to be learned with key words or letters.

  • Organization Strategies

    An organizational strategy allows the learner to manipulate, integrate, and/or otherwise interact with the information so that it is more easily learned and remembered. There are various approaches to organizing information: prioritizing, clustering, and categorization. Memory is enhanced by the links created by connecting the information.