Credit Cards: HPCDSB

Cognitive Credit Cards

What are they?

The Cognitive Credit Card is a metacognitive tool for developing schema to enhance student memory.

Cognitive Credit Cards (ccc) were first developed by Alan Edmunds, a researcher at the University of Western Ontario, as a result of his frustration of always having to remind students of strategies that they could and should use while doing their school work. The following is an excerpt from his article, published in the March/April, 1999 edition of Teaching Exceptional Children, Vol. 31, No. 4.

Students with learning disabilities display a multitude of learning problems in developing, acquiring and using cognitive learning strategies and the memory strategies which facilitate learning strategy use and development. They also experience problems in using meta-cognitive strategies to carry out and monitor their learning. Evidence suggests that if these students are taught appropriate strategy development and use, their learning improves. The Cognitive Credit Card, a student mediated learning strategy acquisition devise,was designed to elicit student thinking about their thinking as they learn or problem-solve. The outcomes of using the CCC over several years, reported by students, teachers and parents appear to indicate that the CC has promise in helping students overcome their cognitive and meta-cognitive learning strategy problems. ..

Further research into the efficacy of the CCC is continuing.

Ideally, a credit card should be developed with the student, keeping in mind their learning style. Most of the CCC contained in this web-site have been developed with a student based on the lesson taught by the classroom teacher and their particular needs and learning style. Since these cards have been developed for specific students, they may not necessarily work for your student. They can be used as is or they may need to be adapted to fit the needs of your student in order for them to be able to understand and follow the steps to complete the algorithm or task.

If you wish to print the card, set your Page Scaling at "None." The size of the card will be 4" x 6", which will fit perfectly into a small photo album. I find this a great way to keep the cards in some semblance of order and protect them.