Skills and Learning Outcomes Related to Cognitive Learning

What are the essential skills and/or learning outcomes you want your students to know and be able to do that relate to cognitive learning? 

I would want my students to be able to make multiple connections. Because of these connections, content becomes more meaningful to the students which helps them encode and retrieve information. 

I want my students to make connections between the things they learn in school and their own experiences. For example, my family grows a small garden every year. I remember being very young and helping my dad plant the seeds and take care of the garden. I was actually very shocked to learn that we eat things that grow completely underground when I helped my dad pull the carrots from the ground. This experience was very helpful when it came time for me to learn in school what plants need to live and grow. Because I helped cover the seeds with dirt and water the plants when it didn't rain enough, I knew that these were things the plants needed.

I also want my students to connect what they learn to the real world. An example of this would be connecting math to spending money. Money is something even our younger students understand, and it can be helpful in many areas of math, e.g., addition, subtraction, decimals, etc. 

I think it's also important for students to make emotional connections to topics covered in class. This is important in subject areas like social studies where students learn about the good and bad of our history and current events. Having an emotional connection will make what they learn more meaningful and may even inspire them to take action.

Here's a presentation from the University of Wisconsin - Madison that goes into the science behind social, emotional, and academic learning. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9fVvsR-CqM