Cognitive apprenticeship

1. Cognitive
Apprenticeship

2. The apprenticeship perspective implies that knowledge needs to be
applied (Cope, 2005). The traditional apprenticeship approach has a focus on the
process of carrying out target skills that are observable, external and physical. The
cognitive apprenticeship however, is less observable; the process is more internal
and cognitive (Cope, 2005, p. 45).
The specific social context, in which learning takes place, is central in the
cognitive apprenticeship perspective. “The apprentice is ‘embedded in a
subculture’, as constituted by the community of participants of target skills (Collins
et al., 1989, as cited in Cope, 2005, p. 45).

3. Modeling, approximating (coaching/scaffolding), fading, self-directed
learning, and generalizing are the five phases in the cognitive apprenticeship
model for adults (Pratt & Associates, 1998, p. 99). Both the teacher and the
learner have specific roles during each phase. The learner in the cognitive
apprenticeship perspective is an observer, a practitioner, and reflects on the
learning (Dennen, n.d.). The teacher’s role is to be a model, a coach, and a
mentor that provides assistance only when needed to the student (Pratt &
Associates, 1998).
Applying apprenticeship methods to largely cognitive skills requires the
externalization of processes that are usually carried out internally. Therefore it
requires extended techniques to encourage the development of self-correction
and –monitoring skills. Fostering metacognitive skills can be achieved by reflection
on differences between novice and expert performance. It sensitizes students to
the details of expert performance as the basis for adjustment in their own
performance. Another technique to develop self-correction and –monitoring is to
generate an insight required to address complex tasks. The learner has to be able
to alternate and use different schemas to solve a problem (Collins et al., 1987, p.
4).

4. Mastery in practice
• Seldom possible to meet all competing objectives
simultaneously
• Situations of practice are not straightforward
• Complicated (address different goals at once, conflicting
elements)
• Simple solutions = rare
• First time solutions = often
Characteristics of situations of practice
(Pratt & Associates, 1998)

5. • Knowledgeable in their area of expertise, able to apply skills in difficult
practice settings
• Have well-organized, readily accessible schemas which facilitate the
acquisition of new information
• Have well-developed repertoires of strategies for acquiring new information,
integrating and organizing their schemas, and applying their knowledge in
and skills in a variety of contexts.
• Have a mastery orientation to their areas of expertise, motivated to learn as
part of the process of developing their identities in their communities of
practice, not motivated to simply reach some external goal/reward
• Display a tacit “knowing in practice”. Able to access actions, recognitions,
and judgments spontaneously during their performance. Often unaware that
they have learned to do these things, simply find themselves doing these
things. Usually unable to describe the knowing which their actions reveal
(may not be able to articulate how they know what they know).
Characteristics of master practitioners
(Pratt & Associates, 1998)

6. Novices
= working to develop identities as skilled and knowledgeable practitioners,
learning within situations, characterized by complexity, uncertainty,
instability, uniqueness, and value conflict.
(Pratt & Associates, 1998)

7. Instructional Strategies
Enkelberg suggests the following methods to achieve cognitive apprenticeship
goals:
• Modeling: meaning the demonstration of the temporal process of thinking.
• Explanation: explaining why activities take place as they do.
• Coaching: meaning the monitoring of students’ activities and assisting and
supporting them where necessary.
• Scaffolding: meaning support of students so that they can cope with the task
situation. The strategy also entails the gradual withdrawal of the teacher from
the process.
• Reflection: the student assesses and analyses his performance.
• Articulation: the results of reflection are put into verbal form.
• Explorations: the students are encouraged to form hypotheses, to test them,
and to find new ideas and viewpoints
(as cited in Dennen, n.d., p. 814)

8. Image retrieved from http://jolt.merlot.org/vol8no1/brannagan_0312.htm

9. Nurturing Teaching
Perspective

10. Nurturing Teaching Perspective
(= Facilitating Self-efficacy)
• Educator is caring and motivated
• Enriched learning environment through sensitivity toward, and empathy with
learners’ subjective experience of content and context
• Aligns with Knowles’ Andragogy
• Learning from the intellectual and emotional state of the learner
• Self-efficacy and self-esteem as the ultimate criteria
• Increasing competence by increasing confidence
• Spiritual learning: fostering a positive learning experience through the feeling
of connectedness with the instructor and peers. . Learning is more than
acquiring knowledge
Characteristics
(Pratt & Associates, 1998)

11. Nurturing Instructional Strategies:
• Share and celebrate differences in beliefs, traditions, and social behaviors
• Reducing the power between the instructor and students: instructor is facilitator
• Allow students to bring study-materials, share stories, experiences, thoughts,
ideas
• Maintain a strict level of sensitivity to language concerns
• Encouragement
• Non-graded tests and self-evaluation to measure progress
(Lynch, 2012)

12. Social Reform
Teaching Perspective

13. Social Reform Teaching Perspective
(= Teaching for Change)
• Object of teaching = collective
• Awaken students to values and ideologies within discipline
• Challenge status quo
• Encourage students to consider position and construction in discourses and
practice
• Encourage critical stances
• Empowering to take social action to improve their own lives and the lives of
others
Characteristics
(Pratt, 2014)

14. Social Reform Instructional Strategies:
• Analyze and deconstruct common practices
• Class discussion with a focus on knowledge being created “by whom and for
what purpose” rather than “how”
• Interrogation of discourse “what is said, what is not said, included/excluded,
represented/omitted”
• Learning how to take critical stances, defending a position, knowing pros and
cons of that position
(Pratt, 2014)

15. Teaching Perspectives
in Practice
Using a mixture of different teaching perspectives for a holistic
learning experience.

16. Practice
Example
Apprenticeship
Teaching
Nurturing
Teaching
Social Reform
Teaching
ESL
class for
English
language
learners
(ELL) at
college
level
- The instructor models
pronunciation and
proper use of grammar
- Match newcomers
with proficient English
speakers from the
same native language
background (if possible)
- Integrate role-play,
improvisation and other
techniques to simulate
real-life situations
- Invite a successful
ELL to share their story
- Allow students to use
dictionaries at first,
second move to
definitions and
synonyms in English
- Inviting students
to share their
culture
- Students co-
decide on the
topics discussed in
class
- Help translate
English into native
language
- Assessment is an
ongoing process
and self-evaluation
is valued
- The instructor
encourages students to
analyze texts. Example:
Fairytales are often
metaphors for moral
issues, not just a source
for vocabulary.
- Debate about current
issues
- Opinion piece on bias
in the news
- Encourage critical
thinking through class
discussions

17. References
• Collins, A., BBN Laboratories, Brown, J.S., Newman, S.E., Xerox Palo Alto Research Center. (1987,
Jan). Cognitive apprenticeship: Teaching the craft of reading, writing, and mathematics (Technical
Report 403). Center for the Study of Reading University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Retrieved
from http://ocw.metu.edu.tr/pluginfile.php/9107/mod_resource/content/1/Collins%20report.pdf
• Cope, N. (2005, Dec). Apprenticeship reinvented: Cognition, discourse and implications for academic
literacy. NCELTR, Macquire University. Retrieved from
http://www.ameprc.mq.edu.au/docs/prospect_journal/volume_20_no_3/20_3_4_Cope.pdf
• Dennen, V.P. (n.d.). Cognitive apprenticeship in educational practice: Research on scaffolding,
modeling, mentoring, and coaching as instructional strategies. Florida State University. Retrieved
from the aect.org website http://www.aect.org/edtech/ed1/31.pdf
• Lynch, M. (2012, April 01). Building a nurturing and supportive environment for all students. Huffington
Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matthew-lynch-edd/nurturing-environment-
schools_b_1239664.html
• Pratt, D.D. & Associates. (1998). Five perspectives on teaching in adult and higher education.
Malabar, FL: Krieger Publishing Company
• Pratt, D.D. (2014). The five perspectives. Retrieved from http://www.teachingperspectives.com/tpi/