EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

Chapter 15 page 379

Figure 15.12: Cognitive Prompts for Evaluating Sources of Historical Documents

Document:
Who:
Position:
How know:
Author motives:
When:
Type:
Docs mentioned:
Main point:
Comments:

These prompts were written on cards in a study by Britt and Aglinskas (2002). Students completed cards
for each historical document they read.

Cognitive prompts can presented not just as lists of questions but in the form of graphs or charts
that students fill out. We discussed this form of scaffolding in Chapter 14.

As you think about designing cognitive prompts for your classes, keep in mind that cognitive prompts
should be general enough that the same set of prompts can be used across different tasks. For example, the
prompts used by White and Frederiksen (White & Frederiksen, 1998) to guide students’ experimentation
could be used with any of the experiments that the students conducted over many weeks.

Problem 15.10. Evaluating Teaching: Cognitive Prompts in a history class

A seventh grade teacher has assigned groups of three students to be the “editorial

board” for a local newspaper in the year 1832. Their job is to evaluate what they’ve

learned about Andrew Jackson’s first term and decide whether to support or oppose

Jackson’s reelection bid. The teacher wants students to learn how to write persuasive

essays of this sort, so she gives them cards with these cognitive prompts.

1. Decide whether you think that Andrew Jackson
   should be reelected.


2. Support your ideas with evidence from Jackson’s first
   term (such as his positions on patronage, the Bank of
   the U.S., and infrastructure)


3. Think about what arguments on the other side would
   be, and think about how to argue against those
   arguments.

Evaluate this cognitive prompt card. Should it be changed? If so, how?