Cognitive Competence

Tomorrows Leader Term paper content cognitive Competence Wai (Synergy) Content get out 1 1. Definition cognitive competenceP. 3-4 2. Theory of cognitive competenceP. 5-8 3. Factors affecting cognitive competenceP. 9-10 4. Importance of cognitive competence in leadershipP. 11-12 5. Ways to enhance the level of cognitive competenceP. 13-14 Part 2 Self evaluationP. 15-17 Part 3 ReferenceP. 18-19 Part 1 Definition of cognitive competence 1. Cognitive competence is defined as the ability to perform adequately those cognitively complex tasks considered essential for living on ones birth in this society. Willis SL. (1996). Everyday cognitive competence in elderly persons conceptual issues and empirical findings, Oct36(5)595-601) 2. The ability to develop and apply the cognitive skills of self-talk, the reading and interpretation of social cues, development steps for hassle-solving and finding making, understanding the perspective of others, understanding behavioral norms, a positive attitude towards life, and self aw atomic number 18ness. (The W. T. Grant Consortium on the School-Based Promotion of Social Competence (1992 136)) 3. schoolman and smart achievement. include the ability to single-valued function logic, analytic thinking, and abstract reasoning) (Catalano, R. F. , Berglund, M. L. , Ryan, J. A. M. , Lonczak, H. S. , Hawkins, J. D. (2002). Positive younker association in the United States Research findings on evaluations of positive y come outh development programs. Prevention and Treatment, 5 (15), 1-106. ) This three definitions be little bit different. The third one is too narrow as it just mentioned academic and intellectual achievement. The second one, on the other hand, is non specific enough. In my understanding, I think cognitive competence is best defined using the first both definitions. Cognitive competence is defined as the ability to perform adequately those cognitively complex tasks considered essential for living on ones own in this society. It withal includes understanding the perspective of others, understanding behavioral norms, and self awareness. Theory Hui & Suns model (2007) This model divides cognitive competence into three types of thinking 1. fictive thinking, a musical mode of looking at problems or situations from a fresh perspective that suggests unorthodox solutions (which may look unsettling at first). 2.Critical thinking, which includes reasoning, making references, self-reflection, and coordination of multiple views. Critical thinking has been described as the change of purposeful, self-regulatory judgment, which uses reasoned consideration to evidence, context, conceptualizations, methods, and criteria. (Facione, Peter A. Critical Thinking What It is and Why It Counts, Insightassessment. com) 3. Rational thinking refers to logical or reasoning beingness involved in the thought process. It refers to providing reasons or rational behind thoughts or ideas.It adds an element of cal culation and planning to a steam of thoughts sort of than basing them on emotion or personal opinion. It is a kind of objective process of thinking and an analytic approach to any problem. Rational thinking is found on reasons or facts and is hence much more calculating and realistic. Geiwitzs model This model divides cognitive competence into three steps of thinking 1. hit the hay what, to k without delay what is the problem 2. Know how, to cognise how the problem provoke be fermentd 3. Know wherefore, to know why choose particular method to illuminate the problem, or to evaluate the method currently use. What How WhyIn Hui and Suns model, creative thinking is the innovative way of thinking. It every(prenominal)ows mass to give voice immature things or idea. Critical thinking is used when commenting on something, e. g. in writing editorials. As for rational thinking, it is used when analyzing. In my opinion, the second model is easier to understand. And it shows progres sive levels of cognitive competence, whereas the first model hardly divides our thinking into three different slipway. Therefore, I would further explain cognitive competence using the second model for reference. busy the example of inventors of the worlds first airplane the Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur.This is an total example to illustrate the concept of cognitive competence and the Geiwitzs model. Applying the Geiwitzs model, the Wright brothers aim was to make out a flying machine, this is the know what level of cognitive competence. They then started to think and design this machine, and this is the know how level of cognitive competence. Finally they evaluated the products (whats good and not good about it) and thought how to improve further. The know how and know why steps repeated. And finally an mature airplane was invented. Start Know what to invent a flying machine Know how How to built a better flying machineKnow why Why this model is good/not good enough R epeat A satisfatory model is invented Another example to illustrate is the development in spicy jump styles. The styles used in high-jumping has changed from initially scissors style, to straddle style, and finally the Fosbury style which is still using nowadays. Start Know what to jump high Know how What jumping style Know why Why this style is good/not good enough Repeat A satisfatory syle is invented Factors affecting cognitive competence I think the factors affecting the development of ones cognitive competence can be divided into intrinsic factors and extrinsic factors.Intrinsic factors are those confine to yourself, while extrinsic factors are those influenced by the environment. For intrinsic factors, I think there are intelligence, personalities, experience and past experience. For intelligent, I think it is not difficult to imagine that it is historic for high cognitive competence. Intelligence is particularly important for the know how and know why stage. Only if you ar e wise enough can you think of a smart way to solve problem that no one has ever think of or find out what is the problem of existing method being used by other make do.Moreover, intelligence is kind of inborn therefore, cognitive competence is also inborn to a certain extent. As for personality, I think people with different personality may affect his/her performance in problem solving and the presentation of his cognitive competence. For example, if a person lacks confidence and likes to deal with problem in a low risk aspect, he/she may not aban tire out the existing widely used method to tackle the problem and use immature methods even though he is clever enough to think of many other new potential methods. They may only attempt the new ways when they are 100% more effective and safer than the existing ones.Knowledge and past experience are very similar. They both can be regarded as memory. They are very important factors that affect cognitive competence. When tackling probl ems, memory always acts as your reference, it gives you base information and background about the problem. And help you to frame out the solution in relation to this reference. Like the case of the Wright brothers, when they tried to invent a flying machine, their knowledge in engineering gives them basic information of how to build it. It is interesting to notice that sometimes past experience may hinder our cognitive performance.For example, when you are dealing with a project you are very familiar with, you might too much into your experience and knowledge and think that it is impossible to explore new methods. For extrinsic factors, there are surroundings (e. g. family background, situation of the problem) and the nature of problem Environment is the major extrinsic factor affecting ones cognitive competence. It determines many of intrinsic factors including past experience, knowledge and even personality. Environment can also affects ones attitude to deal with the problem, t hus performance of cognitive competence.For example, the due date of your proposal is tomorrow morning and now is already three oclock in the morning and you havent even started yet. I am sure you may feel fearful and will not spend much time to think of the new ideas. Moreover, family socialization also affects cognitive competence and intelligence of people. (Grundmann, M. Teo, Thomas Socialization, intelligence, and cognitive competence (1997)) Another one is the nature of the problem. It determines ones past experience and knowledge are useful or not. It is because the past experience and knowledge can not apply to all situation.Importance of cognitive competence in leadership Cognitive competence is important in leadership. A research points out that cognitive skills were found to be directly correlate with high-level of leadership performance in a MLE (Military Leadership Exercises) research. (Marshall-Mies et al. , 2000) Often included intelligence, general skills, crystal lised skills (e. g. oral and written expression and comprehension), and creative or divergent thinking capacities are cognitive capabilities that should influence leadership performance. (Connelly, Gilbert, Zaccaro, Threlfall, Marks & Mumford, 2000).I also accommodate that cognitive competence is important in leadership. First of all, leader with higher level of cognitive competence can deal with different kinds of problems with his own way of thinking. That means they can find out his own most effective way to tackle the problem without copying others method. This gives the leader independency that he does not need to rely on others too much. It also gives them maturity that they can have their own way of thinking. Independency and maturity surely are the important factors of a leader. This makes people happy and feeling safe to follow you.Secondly, leader with high level of cognitive competence can have great division to the team. They can give out a lot of useful ideas that no o ne has thought of before. This already makes them the strongest ones or the most unique ones in the team. lot would love to follow leaders which are stronger than them. Again, this makes them feel safe. Finally, leaders with high level of cognitive competence can have a clear question and know what is wrong in the team. They know what the team should do (goal). And they evaluate the performance of the team, and find out what should be improved.That means they are not only using cognitive skills in problem solving, but also in team management. It is because team management itself is already a task. tidy sum with higher cognitive competence usually have higher IQ and are conflicts encountering (Heydenberk R. A. and Heydenberk W. R. , Increasing Meta-Cognitive Competence through Conflict Resolution(2005)) Ways to enhance the level of cognitive competence Before discussing how to enhance the level of cognitive competence, I think we should first identify what cannot be changed or be improved.They are called constrains. Through understanding what are the constrains, we can focus on what can and what should be improved. The constrains include family background, intelligence and personality. These factors are sort of fixed, or can only have little change. So, to cite the level of cognitive competence, I think it is effective that we try to learn as much as possible. This is to enhance our knowledge and enrich our experience. As mentioned, knowledge and past experience are two important factors affecting ones cognitive ability.This is because they are our own cums of information about the problem being coped. We can make use of this information to find a way to solve the problem. We may not figure out any new method, at least we know how people deal with it previously. In Janet E, Et Al, The Role of metacognition in Problem Solving, four steps of thinking is also mentioned to guide people to solve problems. They are 1. Identifying and defining the problem 2. Ment ally representing the problem 3. Planning how to proceed 4. Evaluating what you know about your performanceThis way of thinking can help people to organized their thoughts, so that they can deal with the problem step by step. I think it is a quite useful way to improve cognitive performance because it makes people organized and focus on one job at a time. This prevents them from being interrupted from different sources. Furthermore, it helps people to think logically. Part 2 Self-reflection Hong Kong students are known to be a copycat. We are blamed to have low level of creativity and afraid to try new things. People always say that we just copy things from others or textbooks without digesting them.But I think it is not totally my case. I am not a false student. I used to be very creative in primary school. Others describe me as naughty. It is because all my creativity is used in inventing new ways to play tricks on my classmates. I remember one time I played a game in an activity class. My teacher ask my grouping to use a deck of playing cards to build a tower as high as we can. Then we started. Other groups are using the traditional method (see left). Obviously it requires high technique. Therefore they can only built towers with few floors high. But I figured out another method.I folded up two cards, turned them sideway to make two L shape walls, put them facing each other to make a satisfying wall, on top of it I placed a flat card. And I repeated to do this. Of course, my team built the highest tower. But guess what happened next. My teacher told us that was against the rules. Playing cards are not supposed to be folded (She didnt tell us before the game). We lose that competition at the end. I think, later on this event, my creativity started to slowly bury in my heart deeply. When I recall this event, I discover one important thing.That is our creativity is often being limit by our teachers, and our education system. Teachers set all the projects, homework with rules and restrictions, trying to make them easier to mark and compare. But this made our assignments all looking the same. Examination questions have all the model answers, this made our student the same person who can only memorize answers without digesting the questions and answer them in their own way. Not that I dont have critical thinking and creativity. It is just because they have to be thrown away to survive in HKs education system.Take the example of A-level exams, the curriculum is very tight that teachers even cannot have time to teach us all the topics included. How would I have time to individually explore all the topics taught? Instead, in order to get high grades in this exam, I spent most of the time on memorizing past papers model answers. I know it would not help my cognitive development, but getting into a good university is more important to me. I believe this is also the problem of many students. Now, when I am given a problem to solve, I still try my best to explore the alternatives.May be this is due to my personality. I just dont like to be the same with others. I like to be unique. But I think I am not creative as I was small anymore. Apart from the reason about the restrictions set by teachers just discussed, another possible reason may be due to my own knowledge and experience. As I mentioned in part 1 of this report, knowledge and experience, although can help to solve your problem, they sometimes hinder your cognitive performance. Sometimes this happens to me. I just rely too much on the knowledge and experience, and cannot think out of the box.But the major reason is still because of the education system in HK. But in the university, a place to train students critical thinking and creativity, I think that this problem would become less severe. To improve my cognitive abilities, I think the best way is to train to have independent critical thinking. Dont rely too much on knowledge from any sources and my own or oth ers past experience. Always try my best to look for other possible alternatives. Although this might spend a lot more time and at the end there may not come up any new things. But I think the process can also help me to develop my cognitive skills.Although it might hinder my cognitive performance, I think it is still important to enrich my knowledge and diversify my horizon. This is because learning more can let me compare different theories and thus train my independent critical thinking. They are also my valuable first encountered source when any problem comes to me. Part 3 Reference Willis SL. (1996). Everyday cognitive competence in elderly persons conceptual issues and empirical findings, Oct36(5)595-601 The W. T. Grant Consortium on the School-Based Promotion of Social Competence (1992 136)Catalano, R. F. , Berglund, M. L. , Ryan, J. A. M. , Lonczak, H. S. , & Hawkins, J. D. (2002). Positive youth development in the United States Research findings on evaluations of positive y outh development programs. Prevention and Treatment, 5 (15), 1-106. Grundmann, M. Teo, Thomas Socialization, intelligence, and cognitive competence (1997) Marshall-Mies et al. , 2000 Connelly, Gilbert, Zaccaro, Threlfall, Marks & Mumford, 2000 Heydenberk R. A. and Heydenberk W. R. , Increasing Meta-Cognitive Competence through Conflict Resolution(2005)