Schema Theory as the Key of

Cognitivism

Martha Gabriela Castillo Garduño

Instructor Verónica Díaz

Teacher´s Diploma
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November, 2008
It is known that there exist some learning theories which allowed teachers
to take advantage of some skills, attitudes, contexts, situations and
circumstances as well as personalities and background knowledge that
the student has already acquired or developed. Nevertheless, education
system could be better if teachers could understand the process through
knowledge is acquired, called Cognitivism.

The most important aspect about Cognitivism is Schema Theory because

it justifies the value of background knowledge, since the theory, is the
explanation of how knowledge, in this case language, is stored; linking
knew knowledge with previous one.

In order to understand why Schema Theory is essential in Cognitivism, a

brief introduction must be given.

Cognitivism

The central issues that interest cognitive psychologists include the

internal mechanism of human thought and the processes of knowing.
Cognitive psychologists have tried to find out the answers to mental
structures, such as what is stored? and how it is stored? and to mental
processes concerning how the integration and retrieval of information is
operated? The theoretical assumptions in cognitive psychology lend
instructional systems a hand in the design of efficient processing
strategies for the learners to acquire knowledge, e.g. devices to reduce
the workload of the short-term memory, rehearsal strategies to maintain
information, and the use of metaphors and analogies to relate meaning of
the new information to prior knowledge.

The internal representation of the learners can echo the external reality,
which asserts a position of objectivism that the mind can stand separate
and independent from the body. As a consequence, knowledge can be
transferred from the outside of the mind into the inside of the mind.
Wilson and Meyers (2000) illustrate such a position pretty well by
indicating its impact on instructional design that "Instructional designers
could now think of learning in terms of taking experts' cognitive structures
and mapping that knowledge into the heads of learners. The degree of
similarity in cognitive structure between expert and novice was a good
measure of whether learning objectives were being met." However, the
internal representation of learners can also be regarded as a subjective
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construction of integrating incoming information and the existing

knowledge structures, which entails a position of constructivism that
knowledge cannot exist independently from the learner.

Piaget (1985) suggested that learning process is iterative, in which new

information is shaped to fit with the learner's existing knowledge, and
existing knowledge is itself modified to accommodate the new
information. The major concepts in this cognitive process include:

• Assimilation: it occurs when a child perceives new objects or events

in terms of existing schemes or operations. Children and adults
tend to apply any mental structure that is available to assimilate a
new event, and they will actively seek to use a newly acquired
structure. This is a process of fitting new information into existing
cognitive structures

• Accommodation: it has occurred when existing schemes or

operations must be modified to account for a new experience. This
is a process of modifying existing cognitive structures based upon
new information.

• Equilibration: it is the master developmental process,

encompassing both assimilation and accommodation. Anomalies of
experience create a state of disequilibrium which can be only
resolved when a more adaptive, more sophisticated mode of
thought is adopted.

Schema Theory

Simply put, Schema Theory states that all knowledge is organized into
units. Within these units of knowledge, or schemata, is stored information.
A Schema, then, is a generalized description or a conceptual system for
understanding knowledge-how knowledge is represented and how it is
used.

All human beings possess categorical rules that they use to interpret the
world. New information is processed according to how it fits into these
rules, called schema. A schema is an organization of information, a
network of information. Linguists, cognitive psychologists, and
psycholinguists have used the concept of schema (plural: schemata) to
understand the interaction of key factors affecting the comprehension
process. This schema can be used not only to interpret but also to predict
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situation occurring in our environment. Each individual’s schema is unique

and depended on that individual’s experiences and cognitive processes.

Schemata are also like scripts of plays (Schank & Abelson, 1977). In other
words, schemata are chunks of knowledge stored in the human mind by
patterns, structures, and scaffolds (West et al., 1991). Based on
Rumelhart's definition (1981), schemata serve the function of
"scaffolding." Knowledge is perceived, encoded, stored, and retrieved
according to the chunk of information stored in the memory. Schemata
facilitate information processing. Schema can be "instantiated" by specific
examples of concepts or events. For example, one's schema for
"teaching" can be instantiated by viewing a scenario on the interaction
between a teacher and students. As soon as schemata are instantiated,
one can associate or recall more similar scenarios (Bruning et al, 1995).
Schema theory is appropriate for language instruction due to its powerful
explanation of memory and recall.

Schema is important not just in interpreting information, but also in

decoding how that information is presented. Schemata can be reflected in
text structures. (Driscoll, 1997; Halliday & Hassan, 1989). Readers use
their schematic representations of text (narrative, compare/contrast,
cause/effect, etc) to help them interpret the information in the text.
Schema reflecting how information is presented can also be culturally
determined. Robert Kaplan (1966) stated that the structure of formal
argumentative essays is culturally determined and that therefore second
language writers and readers must be aware not only have sufficient
command of their second language but also of the textual structures in
their second language.

According to this theory, schemata represent knowledge about concepts:

objects and the relationships they have with other objects, situations,
events, sequences of events, actions, and sequences of actions. A simple
example is to think of your schema for dog.

Within that schema you most likely have knowledge about dogs in general
(bark, four legs, teeth, hair, tails) and probably information about specific
dogs, (long hair, large, Lassie). You may also think of dogs within the
greater context of animals and other living things; that is, dogs breathe,
need food, and reproduce. Your knowledge of dogs might also include the
fact that they are mammals and consequently are warm-blooded and bear
their young as opposed to laying eggs. Depending upon your personal
experience, the knowledge of a dog as a pet (domesticated and loyal) or
as an animal to fear (likely to bite or attack) may be a part of your
schema. And so it goes with the development of a schema. Each new
experience incorporates more information into one's schema.

The way that learners acquire knowledge under schema theory is quite
similar to Piaget’s model of the process of development. In essence, there
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are three different reactions that allow learners to have new information:
acceptation, tuning, and restructuring. In acceptation, learners take the
new input and assimilate it into their existing schema without making any
changes to the overall schema. Tuning is when learners realize that their
existing schema is inadequate for the new knowledge and modify their
existing schema accordingly. Restructuring is the process of creating a
new schema addressing the inconsistencies between the old schema and
the newly acquired information. Unlike Piaget, however, schema theorists
do not see each schema as representative of a discrete stage of
development, and the processes of acceptation, tuning, and restructuring
occur over multiple domains in a continuous time frame. In addition to
schema, learners are also thought to have mental models, which are
dynamic models for problem solving based on a learner’s existing schema
and perceptions of task demand and task performance.

Within the context of schema theory, concepts represent a compromise

between efficiency and informativeness and operate within three
categories: lower-level categories, which are rich in detail (more
informative) but demonstrate lower efficiency (more time to process);
higher-level categories, which are less informative but demonstrate higher
efficiency; and basic-level categories which strike an optimum balance
between the two variables. Schemata are generally classified as higher-
level categories. These quick and automatically activating mechanisms
provide “abstract representations of complex events” (Williams, 1994).

Since one of the elements of schema theory is making predictions based

on what learners already know, making the link between the old
information and the new information has generated a great deal of
research interest. Two areas of research in this direction are advance
organizer and schema activation.

In other words, while we may be able to recognize the horse as a horse

simply by seeing its head, we don’t need to consciously remember the
physical details of every horse we’ve ever seen -- we only need to have a
stored concept of what a horse looks like. And this is not to say that
concepts are limited to concrete objects. They can also include activities,
scenes, and experiences. This cognitive ordering of memories and their
effect on decoding information provide the basic foundation for schema
theory. The theory’s title -- a term used tentatively in psychology as far
back as 1787 -- is meant to symbolize a dynamic framework of processing
channels, “and being a framework it can be clothed and shaped according
to the requirements of the subject’s cognitions and needs” (Paul, 1967).

Over the years, numerous studies on schemata continued to strengthen

Bartlett’s (1932) findings regarding the presence of abstraction,
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rationalization, and influential salience in interpretation. Other effects and

functions were also discovered and labeled (Williams, 1994). These
included “prediction” which refers to the process by which schemata help
people foresee the outcome and details of future events; a “hierarchy” of
types of events or objects, sorted by level of complexity (such as a party
schema vs. a Christmas party schema vs. a company Christmas party
schema); and the “tuning” (reinforcement), “restructuring,” and
“replacement” of existing schemata.

Schema theory was being used for various topics such as visualization,
rhetorical content, and socialization; and the origins of people’s schemata
were being attributed to many different sources including mediated
information, as well as information acquired through interpersonal
contact.

Several instructional strategies logically follow from schema theory. The

most important implication of schema theory is the role of prior
knowledge in processing. In order for learners to be able to effectively
process information, their existing schemas related to the new content
need to be activated.

Multiple schema-building experiences from multiple perspectives are also

needed to help learners develop functional problem-solving schemas that
they can successfully use to solve unfamiliar problems (or more
accurately familiar problems in unfamiliar context). For that reason,
"instructors and instructional designers should assume that problem-
solving ability is cumulative not only over time but over numerous
experiences." (Price and Driscoll, 1997) Sandra Marshall (1993:156) notes
that the value of schema “lies primarily in problem solving. When the
individual accesses the schema, it provides a template against which to
evaluate a current problem and points to an appropriate response.”

Another important implication of schema theory is the recognition of role

that culture and experience play in creating an individual’s knowledge, in
other words “background knowledge”. Facilitators of learning language
must pay attention to the cultural references in the material we present to
our students and avoid confusing activities or tasks. For example,
students who have not grown up in a city, may be at a disadvantage when
they are asked to read and answer questions about buildings, planes, jobs
and places in a city (such as: secretary, mall, department store etc.) on a
standardized assessment or activity to understand new vocabulary,
because they do not have previous knowledge.
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Schema can be understood as maps or templates for activity, that is why,

advance organizers employ the structure of some materials that the
learners are already familiar with as the framework of the new materials.
In other words, advance organizers are designed to offer "ideational
scaffolding for the stable incorporation and retention of the more detailed
and differentiated material that follows" (Ausubel, 1968, p. 148). Advance
organizers are relevant introductory materials that are introduced in
advance of the core texts. Recent studies have also shown that providing
short and concrete examples for upcoming events are more useful to
readers than abstract, general, and vague learner organizers (Corkill et
al., 1988). Schema activation refers to the design of activities for the
purposes of activating learner's knowledge in similar fields prior to
learning new subject matters (Bruning et al., 1995). They are often in the
forms of short questions. In a way, schema activation serves similar
purposes of advanced organizers by linking new information with old
information that the learners already know. However, schema activation
relies more on the learners to generate information from their previous
knowledge base. Schema activation works better if the schema activating
activities are relevant to the to-be-learned information. A study on the
reading comprehension of a group of fifth graders showed that the group
with relevant schema activation remembered the reading texts better
than the groups with non-relevant schema activation (Peeck et al., 1982).

As a conclusion, schema theory is the most important element in

Cognitivism learning theory, since it is the series of connections between
real world and previous knowledge.
As facilitators of learning a language, we have to be aware of theories and
strategies as well as techniques, but what matters more is putting them in
practice.

Bibliography

Ruiz, Carlos. “Running head: SCHEMA THEORY”. The Origins, Evolution,

and Contemporary Applications of Schema Theory. Middle Tennessee
State University
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Alayne, Sharon Widmayer. “Schema Theory: An Introduction”. George

Mason University

Lehman, Peter. 1996. “Will that be on the exam?” Schema theory and
Testing in Sociology*. Department of Sociology. University of Southern
Maine

Marshall, James. “Evolutionary Computing” .schemata theory.

Deb, Roy. “Grounding Language in the World: Schema Theory Meets

Semiotics”. Cognitive Machines Group the Media Laboratory.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

C. Candace Chou, “Schema Theory-based Instructional Design of

Asynchronous Web-based Language Courses”. Interdisciplinary PhD
Program in Communication and Information Sciences- University of Hawaii