The theory
American psychologist Leon Festinger was interested in the conflict that we experience when our beliefs or values do not coincide with other values and beliefs. We naturally like consistency but if this consistency is challenged by external influences, we experience discomfort, and tend to attempt to rationalise this through reasoning. Festinger called this phenomenon cognitive dissonance. In effect, says Festinger, we seek to reduce our dissonance through attempting to rationalise our thoughts and beliefs and those with which they conflict. This may emerge as modified behaviour to reduce the dissonance, or alternatively an entrenchment of our previous beliefs and a rejection of those inconsistent with our own beliefs. Cognitive dissonance is essentially a theory of motivation through conflict resolution.
Here is one of Festinger's examples of cognitive dissonance in real life: "The person who continues to smoke, knowing that it is bad for his health, may also feel (a) he enjoys smoking so much it is worth it; (b) the chances of his health suffering are not as serious as some would make out; (c) he can't always avoid every possible dangerous contingency and still live; and (d) perhaps even if he stopped smoking he would put on weight which is equally bad for his health. So, continuing to smoke is, after all, consistent with his ideas about smoking." (Festinger, 1957, p 2)
How it can be applied in education
A lot of learning is based upon making decisions and solving problems. Indeed, problem based learning is thought to be one of the most effective situated learning methods. Some problems we encounter in education have conflicting outcomes. As Kendra Cherry argues: "Cognitive dissonance plays a role in many value judgements, decisions and evaluations. Becoming aware of how conflicting beliefs impact the decision-making process is a great way to improve your ability to make faster and more accurate choices." Teachers should be aware that often, such conflicting outcomes can lead to confusion. However, if managed appropriately, this can be a positive motivator for students to learn more. Ill-structured problems, where the problem is only partially defined and where students need to 'fill in the gaps' discover that such problems can have several possible solutions. Each solution is valid, and deeper learning occurs through discussion between students on which solution is the best.
I have previously stated that I sometimes send my students out confused. This is a deliberate pedagogical method to spur them on to learn more - to attempt to reduce their cognitive dissonance by wider study of their course material and deeper critical reflection on their learning.
Often in learning, our expectations are not realised by the reality of a situation. This results in disappointment, which can be described as a form of cognitive dissonance. How we cope with this disappointment defines who we become. Teachers should be aware that not all disappointment is negative, and that some experiences where reality does not meet expectation could be exactly the motivation students need to try harder. As ever however, such classroom tactics should be premised on a good knowledge of one's students.
Even in behaviour management, cognitive dissonance can provide some useful guidance. Where behaviour is concerned, personal learning through reasoning is stronger than the threat of punishment. Hans and Michael Eysenck (1981) wrote that teaching children that stone-throwing is anti-social can be more effective if they are challenged to think about their actions, rather than being threatened with punishment. They comment that it is better for a child to reduce his cognitive dissonance by reasoning that he should stop throwing stones because he realises it is wrong, than to think 'I was forced to stop throwing stones but I still want to do it'. If he reasons for himself, he is more likely to think 'I don't really want to throw stones anyway.'
Here are a few more ideas on how cognitive dissonance could be applied in education.
References
Eysenck, H. and Eysenck, M. (1981) Mindwatching. London: Book Club Associates.
Festinger, L. (1957) A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. Los Angeles: Stanford University Press.
Previous posts in this series:
Anderson ACT-R Cognitive Architecture
Argyris Double Loop Learning
Bandura Social Learning Theory
Bruner Scaffolding Theory
Craik and Lockhart Levels of Processing
Csíkszentmihályi Flow Theory
Dewey Experiential Learning
Engeström Activity Theory
Ebbinghaus Learning and Forgetting Curves
Festinger Social Comparison Theory
Photo by Brenna Lyn on Flickr
Conflict resolution Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar