Cognitive apprenticeship is a

theory A theory is a systematic and rational form of abstract thinking about a phenomenon, or the conclusions derived from such thinking. It involves contemplative and logical reasoning, often supported by processes such as observation, experimentation, ...

that emphasizes the importance of the process in which a master of a skill teaches that skill to an

apprentice Apprenticeship is a system for training a potential new practitioners of a Tradesman, trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study. Apprenticeships may also enable practitioners to gain a license to practice in ...

. Constructivist approaches to human

learning Learning is the process of acquiring new understanding, knowledge, behaviors, skills, value (personal and cultural), values, Attitude (psychology), attitudes, and preferences. The ability to learn is possessed by humans, non-human animals, and ...

have led to the development of the theory of cognitive apprenticeship.Collins, A., Brown, J. S., & Newman, S. E. (1987). Cognitive apprenticeship: Teaching the craft of reading, writing and mathematics (Technical Report No. 403). BBN Laboratories, Cambridge, MA. Centre for the Study of Reading, University of Illinois. January, 1987.Brown, J. S., Collins, A., & Duguid, P. (1989). Situated cognition and the culture of learning. Educational Researcher, 18, 32-42. This theory accounts for the problem that masters of a skill often fail to take into account the implicit processes involved in carrying out complex skills when they are teaching novices. To combat these tendencies,

cognitive Cognition is the "mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses". It encompasses all aspects of intellectual functions and processes such as: perception, attention, thought, ...

apprenticeships "…are designed, among other things, to bring these tacit processes into the open, where students can observe, enact, and practice them with help from the teacher…". This model is supported by Jhon Brix Kistadio's (1997) theory of modeling, which posits that in order for modeling to be successful, the learner must be attentive, access and retain the information presented, be motivated to learn, and be able to accurately reproduce the desired skill.

Overview

Part of the effectiveness of the cognitive apprenticeship model comes from learning in context and is based on theories of

situated cognition Situated cognition is a theory that posits that knowing is inseparable from doing by arguing that all knowledge is situated in activity bound to social, cultural and physical contexts. Situativity theorists suggest a model of knowledge and learnin ...

. Cognitive scientists maintain that the context in which learning takes place is critical (e.g., Godden & Baddeley, 1975). Based on findings such as these, Collins, Duguid, and Brown (1989) argue that cognitive apprenticeships are less effective when skills and concepts are taught independently of their real-world context and situation. As they state, "Situations might be said to co-produce knowledge through activity. Learning and cognition, it is now possible to argue, are fundamentally situated". In cognitive apprenticeships, teachers model their skills in real-world situations. By modelling and coaching, masters in cognitive apprenticeships also support the three stages of skill acquisition described in the expertise literature: the cognitive stage, the associative stage, and the

autonomous In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy is the capacity to make an informed, uncoerced decision. Autonomous organizations or institutions are independent or self-governing. Autonomy can also be defi ...

stage.Anderson, J.R. (1983). The architecture of cognition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University PressFitts, P.M., & Posner, M.I. (1967). Human performance. Belmont, CA: Brooks Cole. In the cognitive stage, learners develop a declarative understanding of the skill. In the associative stage, mistakes and misinterpretations learned in the cognitive stage are detected and eliminated, while associations between the critical elements involved in the skill are strengthened. Finally, in the autonomous stage, the learner's skill becomes honed and perfected until it is executed at an expert level.Anderson, J.R. (2000). Cognitive psychology and its implications. New York, NY: Worth Publishers. Like traditional apprenticeships, in which the apprentice learns a trade such as

tailoring A tailor is a person who makes or alters clothing, particularly in men's clothing. The Oxford English Dictionary dates the term to the thirteenth century. History Although clothing construction goes back to prehistory, there is evidence of ...

woodworking Woodworking is the skill of making items from wood, and includes cabinetry, furniture making, wood carving, joinery, carpentry, and woodturning. History Along with stone, clay and animal parts, wood was one of the first materials worked b ...

by working under a master teacher, cognitive apprenticeships allow masters to model behaviors in a real-world context with cognitive modeling.Bandura, A. (1997). Social Learning Theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. After listening to the master explain exactly what they are doing and thinking as they model the skill, the apprentice identifies relevant behaviors and develops a conceptual model of the processes involved. The apprentice then attempts to imitate those behaviors as the master observes and coaches. Coaching provides assistance at the most critical level– the skill level just beyond what the learner/apprentice could accomplish by themself. Vygotsky (1978) referred to this as the

Zone of Proximal Development The zone of proximal development (ZPD) is a concept in educational psychology that represents the space between what a learner is capable of doing unsupported and what the learner cannot do even with support. It is the range where the learner is a ...

and believed that fostering development within this zone would lead to the most rapid development. The coaching process includes providing additional modeling as necessary, giving corrective feedback, and giving reminders, which all intend to bring the apprentice's performance closer to that of the master's. As the apprentice becomes more skilled through the repetition of this process, the feedback and instruction provided by the master "fades" until the apprentice is, ideally, performing the skill at a close approximation of the master level.Johnson, S.D. (1992). A framework for technology education curricula which emphasizes intellectual processes. Journal of Technology Education, 3; 1-11.

Teaching methods

Collins,

Brown Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing and painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors Orange (colour), orange and black. In the ...

, and Newman developed six teaching methods rooted in cognitive apprenticeship theory and claim these methods help students attain cognitive and metacognitive strategies for "using, managing, and discovering knowledge". The first three, modeling, coaching, scaffolding, are at the core of cognitive apprenticeship and help with cognitive and metacognitive development. The next two, articulation and reflection, are designed to help novices with awareness of problem-solving strategies and execution similar to that of an expert. The final step, exploration, intends to guide the novice towards independence and the ability to solve and identify problems within the domain on their own. The authors note, however, that this is not an exhaustive list of methods and that the successful execution of these methods is highly dependent on the domain.

Modeling

Modeling is when an expert, usually a teacher, within the cognitive domain or subject area demonstrates a task explicitly so that novices, usually a student, can experience and build a

conceptual model The term conceptual model refers to any model that is formed after a wikt:concept#Noun, conceptualization or generalization process. Conceptual models are often abstractions of things in the real world, whether physical or social. Semantics, Semant ...

of the task at hand. For example, a math teacher might write out explicit steps and work through a problem aloud, demonstrating their

heuristics A heuristic or heuristic technique (''problem solving'', '' mental shortcut'', ''rule of thumb'') is any approach to problem solving that employs a pragmatic method that is not fully optimized, perfected, or rationalized, but is nevertheless ...

and

procedural knowledge Procedural knowledge (also known as know-how, knowing-how, and sometimes referred to as practical knowledge, imperative knowledge, or performative knowledge) is the knowledge exercised in the performance of some task. Unlike descriptive knowledge ...

. Modeling includes demonstrating expert performances or processes in the world.

Coaching

Coaching involves observing a novice's task performance and offering feedback and hints to sculpt the novice's performance to that of an expert's. The expert oversees the novice's tasks and may structure the task accordingly to assist the novice's development.

Scaffolding

Instructional scaffolding Instructional scaffolding is the support given to a student by an instructor throughout the learning process. This support is specifically tailored to each student; this instructional approach allows students to experience student-centered learnin ...

is the act of applying strategies and methods to support the student's learning. These supports could be teaching manipulatives, activities, or group work. The teacher may have to execute parts of the task that the student is not yet able to do. This requires the teacher to have the skill to analyze and assess students' abilities in the moment.

Articulation

Articulation includes "any method of getting students to articulate their knowledge, reasoning, or problem-solving process in a domain" (p. 482). Three types of articulation are inquiry teaching, thinking aloud, and critical student role. Through inquiry teaching (Collins & Stevens, 1982), teachers ask students a series of questions that allow them to refine and restate their learned knowledge and form explicit conceptual models. Thinking aloud requires students to articulate their thoughts while solving problems. Students assuming a critical role monitor others in cooperative activities and draw conclusions based on the problem-solving activities. Articulation is described by McLellanMcLellan, H. (1994). Situated learning: Continuing the conversation. Educational Technology 34, 7- 8. as consisting of two aspects: separating component knowledge from skills to learn more effectively, and more commonly verbalizing or demonstrating knowledge and thinking processes in order to expose and clarify ideas.

Reflection

Reflection allows students to "compare their own problem-solving processes with those of an expert, another student, and ultimately, an internal cognitive model of expertise" (p. 483). A technique for reflection would be examining the past performances of both an expert and a novice, and highlighting similarities and differences. The goal of reflection is for students to look back and analyze their performances with desire to understand and improve the behavior of an expert.

Exploration

Exploration involves giving students room to problem solve on their own and teaching students exploration strategies. The former requires the teacher to slowly withdraw the use of supports and scaffolds not only in problem solving methods, but problem setting methods as well. The latter requires the teacher to show students how to explore, research, and develop hypotheses. Exploration allows the student to frame interesting problems within the domain for themselves and then take the initiative to solve these problems.

Success

* In a technologically rich learning environment * Online * For clinical skills

Citations

References

* Aziz Ghefaili. (2003). Cognitive Apprenticeship, Technology, and the Contextualization of Learning Environments. Journal of Educational Computing, Design& Online Learning, Vol. 4, Fall, 2003. A copy o
apan.org
* Anderson, J.R. (1983). The architecture of cognition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. * Anderson, J.R. (2000). Cognitive psychology and its implications. New York, NY: Worth Publishers. * Bandura, A. (1997). Social Learning Theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. * Brown, J. S., Collins, A., & Duguid, P. (1989). Situated cognition and the culture of learning. Educational Researcher, 18, 32-42. * Collins, A., Brown, J. S., & Newman, S. E. (1987). Cognitive apprenticeship: Teaching the craft of reading, writing and mathematics (Technical Report No. 403). BBN Laboratories, Cambridge, MA. Centre for the Study of Reading, University of Illinois. January, 1987. * Fitts, P.M., & Posner, M.I. (1967). Human performance. Belmont, CA: Brooks Cole. * Johnson, S.D. (1992). A framework for technology education curricula which emphasizes intellectual processes. Journal of Technology Education, 3; 1-11. * Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind and society: The development of higher mental processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

External links

Cognitive Apprenticeship, Technology, and the Contextualization of Learning Environments. Article by Ghefaili.

Situated Cognition and the Culture of Learning. Article by Brown, Collins, and Duguid.

Project thereNow. Federally funded cognitive apprenticeship research project. Education theory Apprenticeship