Socio-Cognition: Social Interactions in Learning

By definition, social cognition is known as the ability of the individuals to construct meaning and knowledge from the available social influences. Social influences affect individuals in different ways, making learning and the construction of meaning a continuous process. The construct divides into various sub-constructs that include comprehension, problem solving, memory development and retention, life-long learning and domains and domain learning. Others include affective outcomes of emotions and effects of demographic differences including gender, socio-economics, religions and race among others.

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Comprehension

Based on the findings of by the National Reading Panel, comprehension is one of the top five major components of ensuring that there is essential learning. There are several individuals who are able to identify the means that the good readers utilize to have a better understanding of that which they read. Comprehension is known for its involvement with: the building of meanings reading of the print forms in the traditional text. These are in the form of book and magazines, just to mention a few. It also involves leading to that which others persons read and finally, viewing of texts from the thousands of available media. The literacies of this age, the 21st century, have great dependence on comprehension. Its something that is very crucial for the sake of reading in the world today. It acts like a carrier where we are able to: acquiring the meanings from someone else words, being able to learn something new or to have a confirmation of that which we are thinking, having an understanding of the viewpoints of other and to help us relax.

According to the article by Mar (2011), social cognition as it relates to comprehension as a construct gives a definition of one of the most powerful tools for having an understanding of the others mental state. The authors observe that repeated narrations to individuals, especially children lead to improved comprehension. The frequent interaction with an experience leads to the development of cognitive skills responsible for the creation of specific perceptions. The authors reached this observation after studying the effects of repeated story narrations to their participants by studying the general role related to the direction of attention. Comprehension forms a congruent part of the theory of the mind, and it enables the application of knowledge in real-life applications and language process, according to the authors.

The ability to comprehend sarcasm stems from socio-cognition and the ability to learn. According to Shamay-Tsoory et al. (2005), the right hemisphere of the brain is responsible for comprehending sarcasm, emotions related to it and their expressions and modalities. To correctly comprehend information for its proper use, it is critical for a listener to attentively pay attention to a speaker, follow explanations, interpret motor movements and observe their attitude as pertains to specific information. One of the factors that inhibit the ability to comprehend sarcasm relates to the limitedness of the focal lesion. However, the inability of the focal lesion to perform at the optimum is a mental disorder that calls for specialized treatment to correct the situation.

Problem Solving

Problems have become the center of that which individuals are handling at the workplace on every single day. Problem solving is given the definition of the process of trying to find a solution around the details of a problem so as to settle on a solution. It may involve mathematical or systematic operations and in most cases it can be used in gauging the critical thinking of an individual. Problem solving has also taken the center stage as one of the skills that is greatly required in ensuring that the situations of an individual at the workplace and at the organizations are handled to the later. It has become a skill that is essentially required in the day to day operations of the organizations across the globe today. It doesnt only apply when an organization is trying to finds a solution to the problems for the clients or the internal problems for the organization. Within any given organization or group, the problems that are faced on a daily basis can always have a variety of range, they can come as either being complex or simple, large or ones which are small, or even ones which are considered to be difficult.

In studying problem-solving in organizations, Gasson (2006) observed that social cognition has a role to play in problem-solving approaches in organizations and the ability of individuals to comprehend an issue. Socio-cognition and social interactions in learning provide four basic strategies to solving problems cognitively. For instance, the article observes that among the four problem-solving options include emergent design, using systematic approaches, bounded rationality problem-solving approach and using the rational approach. The authors tie socio-cognition with problem-solving through skill acquisition, learning and the use of socially shared activities developed through cognitive approaches.

Socio-cognition as it relates to problem-solving uses the negotiator interlocution to pre-assume approaches to dealing with life problems. In a mathematics class where students interacted collaboratively without a pre-assigned role, Powell (2006) realized that interacting between students and sharing of ideas enabled the growth of the socio-cognition of the students, leading to the development of more appropriate problem-solving approaches. However, the relationship between socio-cognition and learning, as the author identified it, stems from the reasoning that goes beyond the individual interlocutor out of discursive interactions, collective reasoning and collaborative understanding.

Memory Development/Retention

The last few years have witnessed questions being put across concerning the ability of the children to retain or to remember that which they have either read or watched on the news. This has subsequently led to the urge for proper cognitive development among the children. When it comes to characterizing the memory of the children there are two themes that always used. They include the mnemonic competence of the children and the differences related to age in the various aspects of the performances of the children's memories. The themes have been considered to give a representation of a concentration of the evidence curtailing from the research done on the paradigms that lies somewhere between elicited intimidation to conditioning.

In socio learning, memory retention and development, especially in children depends on the used technique. One of the techniques that have proved successful in developing and retaining memory in children is elaborative interrogation. In using this strategy, an assessor requests learners to explain an explicitly stated fact with the aim to check the level at which they relate it with what they have learned or understood in their classwork. The concept uses self-explanation, and the cognitive ability of children to express themselves prompting them to develop and retain knowledge. Besides, the explanations give the children a chance to practice the sharpness of their knowledge, sharpening their cognitive ability in the process.

Lifelong Learning

Life-long learning is an influential aspect of life that assists individuals to gain knowledge and apply their meta-cognitive skills. However, the authors of this peer-reviewed article observe that life-long learning needs to combine both meta-cognition and cognitive skills to establish an individual. Although distinctive in nature, their contribution to life-long learning the autonomous phases of the process and improves skills, elementary secondary performance and the standards of excellence of the skills. Skills related to life-long learning include self-knowledge, self-regulation, and other complex and abstract concepts related to knowledge processing. An individual with a diminished ability to life-long learning lacks abilities in self-discrimination and judgment.

Domains and Domain Learning

One of the major figures that have been used in the past to give a representation of domain and domain learning is the Blooms Taxonomy. It was created in the year 1956 under the watchful eyes of Dr. Benjamin Bloom, an educational psychologist. The main aim behind its creation was to facilitate the promotion of higher thinking forms in the educational sector. This was with relation to analyzing and evaluation of the processes, the concepts, the principles and the procedures other than just going through the rote learning which advocated for remembering of the facts. The design is put to use when designing learning, educational and training processes.

There are three major domains of learning, these include, cognitive, psychomotor and affective domains. They implies metal skills or knowledge, manual or the physical skills and the growth in the feelings or the emotional areas respectively. In most cases, the domains are taken to be the categories of learning. The three categories given above can then be included as being knowledge, skills and attitudes. In most cases, the taxonomy concerning learning is taken to be the goals that learning is aimed to achieve. It implies that after a learner has been taken.

Cognitive domain entails the knowledge and the subsequent development of ones intellectual skills. It entails the ability of an individual to recall or to recognize some facts in specific, the procedural patterns and the concepts that are fundamental in developing the intellectual abilities and one's skills. In this area, we have six main categories that are recognized, they range from the ones that are considered to be simple to the ones which are taken to be the most complex. The categories include: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation.

The Blooms Taxonomy underwent some reform which led to the development of the blooms final matrix. This contained the three knowledge levels: factual, procedural and conceptual. Factual are the students' basic elements that they must have knowledge of so as to be regarded as being discipline and possessing the power to find a solution to problems. The next one is conceptual which talks of the interrelationships that exist between the elements that are basis and those which have a higher structure that enables their well-functioning. Finally, there is procedural knowledge. It entails the ways of doing something, the methods pertaining to enquiry and the criteria behind using of the skills, the algorithms, the methods and the techniques.

In the revise version by Krathohl and Anderson, the pair makes a combination of the above three knowledge of understanding the Blooms Taxonomy. This leads to the addition of the metacognition. This implies the general knowledge that one has for cognition from the general perspective. It also talks about the knowledge that one has concerning their own cognition.

The Blooms Taxonomy underwent some reform which led to the development of the blooms final matrix. This contained the three knowledge levels: factual, procedural and conceptual. Factual are the students basic elements that they must have knowledge of so as to be regarded as being discipline and possessing the power to find a solution to problems. The next one is conceptual which talks of the interrelationships that exist between the elements that are basis and those which have a higher structure that enables their well-functioning. Finally, there is procedural knowledge. It entails the ways of doing something, the methods pertaining to enquiry and the criteria behind using of the skills, the algorithms, the methods and the techniques.

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