We use frequently schemas in our lives. Almost all work, we use them such as taking car key from home, opening the car with it, putting it to the circuit and running the car. When we are going to workplace, we use same roads. During traffic jam, sometimes we must change our road and in this case if you have another road’s schema in your mind, you will easily reach to workplace by using this road. Nevertheless, if you don’t know how another road take you to the workplace, you will be confused and have difficulties in arriving it on time because you have no schema about this new road and you don’t know where to go.
Let me give another example. I was an introvert person at the beginning of the university years and I was afraid of talking with teachers. I remember that before I was entering to the room of Finlay Mcquade, I had denoted my schema about my questions. After I asked my first question, if he answered yes, then I would ask second one but if he answered no to first question, I would ask different question. If he answered me in a different way which I didn’t expect, I would not have said anything since I had constructed my schema before the interview and I had no schema about this interview previously.
So, what about learning without having schemas? I think it is hard to learn and hold knowledge in brain without schemas. In order to provide learning, we use behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism etc. and it seems to me that schema theory is not interested in how learning occurs. Its only aim is having schemas by making connections and it doesn’t deal with how we construct schemas.
Now, I believe that firstly learning occurs, then we try to make it meaningful by constructing schemas and hold them in our minds. Holding knowledge with schemas facilitates retention of knowledge. Instead of remembering many knowledge separately without schemas, remembering the schema related with the topic is much more easier (of course, some branches of schema can be forgetten because of not using them in long time but with the help of schemas, we remember more knowledge and easier).
If we connect some knowledge in a schema to each other meaningfully (not randomly connection of knowledge, otherwise it can cause misconceptions), then it is easy to remember and hold this schema in long-term memory. If we memorize the knowledge (schema) rather than connecting it to each other meaningfully, then we will have problems with remembering and making inferences. For example, if you memorize the statements “All swans are white” and “This is a swan”, then you will probably have difficulties in connecting these statements and making an inference. However, if you meaningfully construct them in your schema, then you will infer that “This swan is white.” Therefore, constructing schemas in a meaningful way is crucial in providing permanent learning.
Finally, I believe that first learning occurs by behaviorism, cognitivism and constructivism etc. and then we hold this learning in our minds as schemas. If we construct these schemas meaningfully, then learning is permanent but if we construct them randomly, then learning is temporary and strongly possible to be forgetten.
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