Introduction
MEANING OF THE THEORY(COGNITIVE APPRENTICESHIP)
Long time ago,people were learning via apprenticeship. This is a process through which a more experienced person assists a less experienced one, providing support and examples, so the less experienced person gains new knowledge and skills. Apprenticeship is the process through which a parent may teach a child how to tie her shoes and the process through which a person may learn to become a chef or a tailor. Often larger skills are broken into smaller ones, and supports are provided so that tasks that are given to the apprenticing learner are within the reach of the learner’s current ability level or zone of proximal development (ZPD) (Vygotsky, 1978). Also critical to apprenticeship is that tasks must be representative of authentic skills and not mostly classroom-type exercises.
Definition of the terms.
APPRENTICESHIP:
A process through which a more experienced person assists a less experienced one by
way of demonstration, support, and examples.
Cognitive apprenticeship Is defined as “learning through guided experience on cognitive and metacognitive, rather than physical, skills and processes” by Collins et al. (1989, p. 456)
Coginitive apprenticeship is an accurate description of how learning occurs, and is the instructional strategies that have been extracted from these observations of everyday life can be designed into more formal learning contexts with positive effect.
. expert demonstration (modeling) and guidance (coaching) in the initial phases of learning are essentiall. Learners are challenged with tasks slightly more difficult than they can accomplish on their own and must rely on assistance from and collaboration with others to achieve these tasks
Task
Instructional Strategies and Models Associated with Cognitive Apprenticeship
Although cognitive apprenticeships readily occur on their own, without intervention, certain instructional strategies are hallmarks of the theory and can be purposely implemented to support learning. Intentional teaching and learning through cognitive apprenticeship require making tacit processes visible to learners so they can observe and then practice them (Collins et al., 1989).
The basic model consists of the following strategies:
• Modeling—Demonstrating the thinking process
•Coaching—Assisting and supporting student cognitive activities as needed (includes scaffolding)
•Reflection—Self-analysis and assessment
•Articulation—Verbalizing the results of reflection
•Exploration—Formation and testing of one’s own hypotheses
these strategies refer to the teacher’s or expert’s actions; the learners in cognitive apprenticeships (CAs) are engaged in acts of observation, practice, and reflection.
Collins and colleagues’ (1989) model generally is considered the foundational one, but other slightly different versions have been proposed.
Gallimore and Tharp (1990) identified six forms of scaffolded assistance:
(1) instructing
(2) questioning
(3) modeling
(4) feeding back
(5) cognitive structuring
(6) contingency management.
Enkenberg (2001) added scaffolding and explanation as key strategies. LeGrand Brandt et al. (1993) presented a sequential model of modeling (both behavioral and cognitive), approximating, fading, self-directed learning, and generalizing. Liu (2005), who used a cognitive apprenticeship approach to support preservice education, offers instructional designers a three-phase Web-based CA model with a dynamic relationship between the initial modeling–observing phase and the second scaffolding–practice phase, which
then is followed by the guiding–generalizing phase. The similarities across these models are their reliance on instructional strategies that provide learner guidance and engage learners in different types of practice until the guidance is no longer needed.
Process
PROCESS
learning by cognitive apprenticeshipas opposed to traditional classroom-based methodsis the opportunity to see the subtle, tacit elementsof expert practice that may not otherwise be explicatedin a lecture or knowledge-dissemination format.
Although learning organizations and institutions have sought to implement elements of cognitive apprenticeships in formal learning situations, cognitive apprenticeships often naturally occur within a community of practice (CoP). A community of practice is a group of people either formally or informally bound who engage in and identify themselves with a common practice. Examples of a CoP might be educators within a given school district or members of a professional organization for clarinetists. What brings these people together as a CoP are three critical elements
Evaluation
Concepts Associated with Cognitive Apprenticeship
Four key concepts commonly discussed in the cognitive apprenticeship literature are (1)situatedness
(2) legitimate peripheral participation,
(3) guided participation, and
(4) membership in a community of practice.
Situatedness
Situated learning is active learning that takes place via one’s participation in an authentic task or setting (Lave and Wenger, 1991). Context, or situatedness, reflects the ways in which cultural, historical, and institutional factors influence the actions of our everyday lives
Legitimate Peripheral Participation
this label validates observation as a learning activity. It would be unreasonable to expect a newcomer to be a full participant in an activity. One must learn not only the whole tasks to be accomplished and their assessment criteria but also the smaller tasks that comprise them. An apprentice can gain initial experience through observing a holistic process from the periphery. Once the big picture is understood, participation can shift from peripheral to active, with the
learner completing smaller, component parts of the larger task while receiving iterations of feedback from someone who is more experienced. At this point, the learner is no longer a legitimate peripheral participant, but instead is inbound, beginning to identify more with insiders of the community’s practice.
Guided Participation
Guided participation is the social element of cognitive apprenticeship. Often the guidance is provided tacitly, as one naturally participates in everyday life (Rogoff,1990);
Conclusion
CONCLUSION ON COGNITIVE APPRENTICESHIP.
As can be seen in this review of theory and research on the cognitive apprenticeship model, the professional dialog spans diverse fields of study, learner groups, and settings. Empirical studies have confirmed much of what theories have suggested: (1) that the cognitive apprenticeship model is an accurate description of how learning occurs naturally as part of everyday life and social interactions, and (2) that the instructional strategies that have been extracted from these observations of everyday life can be designed into more formal learning contexts with positive effect. On the whole, however, the research is still fragmented, with bits and pieces situated in different subfields of educational research (e.g., teacher education, multimedia-based
education, adult education). Although many of the studies point back to Collins
et al. (1989) as a framework, few refer to each other. In part this may be due to the recency of this work and publication cycles.