Cognitive apprenticeship

This article probably should be merged with situated learning - DSchneider

Definition

Cognitive apprenticeship is the pedagogic strategy at the core of situated learning. Similarly to craft apprenticeship, "Cognitive apprenticeship supports learning in a domain by enabling students to acquire, develop, and use cognitive tools in authentic domain activity." (Brown, Collins and Duguid, 1989) Furthermore, "Cognitive apprenticeship methods try to enculturate students into authentic practices through activity and social interaction" (Brown et al.). Thus, it is important not only to solve problems in a learning environment that uses real-world contexts and immerses the learner in the culture of a particular practice, but also to allow learners to witness the practitioners of that culture solving problems and carrying out tasks.

Cognitive apprenticeship in instruction

According to Konrad (2005), Jean Lave (Lave 1991) argues that learning should be considered in our own (personal) sociocultural, historically grounded world. Such a view invites a rethinking of the notion of learning, treating it as an emerging property of whole persons legitimate peripheral participation in communities of practice. (Lave 1991:63)

Learning activities using the cognitive apprenticeship method should include the following key characteristics:

• Introductory tasks should be based in familiar activities to allow students to use their implicit or tacit knowledge (knowledge that cannot be articulated or defined but which is used to simplify and solve problems intuitively) upon which they can build during the activities to follow.
• The breakdown (decomposition)of the problem allowing for a variety of heuristic approaches that can be applied to the task.
• Introduction of precise rules (algorithms) that are used by practitioners to solve such a problem only after learners have been 'enculturated' making the algorithm meaningful. (Brown et al, 1989)

Kienia Green-Brooks, retrieved 16:26, 11 August 2007 (MEST)), in some slides, quotes Driscoll (2005) and Convey (1997):

Cognitive Apprenticeships should allow students to actively practice what they have learned in a mock "real-life" environment (Driscoll, 2005, 174-175). This practice can be broken down to five components (Convey, 1997):

• Modeling: involves an expert's carrying out a task so that student can observe and build a conceptual model of the processes that are required to accomplish the task. For example, a teacher might model the reading process by reading aloud in one voice, while verbalizing her thought processes (summarize what she just read, what she thinks might happen next) in another voice.
• Coaching: consists of observing students while they carry out a task and offering hints, feedback, modeling, reminders, etc.
• Articulation: includes any method of getting students to articulate their knowledge, reasoning, or problem-solving processes.
• Reflection: enables students to compare their own problem-solving processes with those of an expert or another student.
• Exploration: involves pushing students into a mode of problem solving on their own. Forcing them to do exploration is critical, if they are to learn how to frame questions or problems that are interesting and that they can solve (Collins, Brown, Newman, 1989, 481-482).

Cognitive apprenticeship and collaborative learning

With cognitive apprenticeship, the immersion into the culture of a practice can only be enhanced by social interaction with other learners and practitioners. The interactions of a learning group are key to learning. Brown et al. outline the key features of a learning group:

• Collective problem solving
• Displaying multiple roles
• Confronting ineffective strategies and misconceptions
• Providing collaborative work skills

References

• Brown, J.S., Collins, A. and Duguid, P. (1989). Situated cognition and the culture of learning. Educational Researcher, 18(1), 32-41. http://www.exploratorium.edu/IFI/resources/museumeducation/situated.html

• Conway, Judith (1997). Educational Technology's Effect on Models of Instruction, HTML, retrieved 16:26, 11 August 2007 (MEST).
• Driscoll, Marcy P. (2004). Psychology of learning for instruction (3rd edition). Allyn & Bacon ISBN 0205375197

• Herrington, J., Oliver, R. (1995)? Critical Characteristics of Situated Learning: Implications for the Instruction Design of Multimedia, paper presented at Australian Society for Computers in Learning In Tertiary Education Conference 1995, Melbourne, Australia, pdf

• Konrad, John (2005), PDF, retrieved 14:43, 7 September 2006 (MEST).

• Lave J, 'Situating Learning in Communities of Practice,' (1996) in Resnick L et al ., Perspectives on Socially Shared Cognition, American Psychological Association, Washington DC, 63 - 82. ISBN 1557983763