Abstract
Cognitive counseling is a type of practical research that links cognitive studies with education for the purpose of counseling and tutoring school children about learning. In cognitive counseling, learners are urged to give verbal descriptions of concepts, diagrams, and procedures and to use this method as a learning strategy. The present paper describes some cases of junior high school students' usual learning behavior, in order to show that such a strategy is rarely employed by these students. It is argued that verbal description is effective for making learners' states of comprehension clear, and for improving their communication skills. The theoretical background of this approach lies in theories of concept acquisition and propositional representation in cognitive psychology. Several examples from mathematics and physics tutoring are described in detail. Finally, we discuss how to promote learners' verbal description not only in classes but in examinations, and we review critically some counterarguments.
