The Family Tree,
I have the honor of presenting cognitive apprenticeships, which according
to Culatta, “constructivist approaches to human learning have led to the
development of a theory of cognitive apprenticeship” (2013). In this theory people
construct their own understanding and knowledge of the world through
experiences and reflecting on those experiences (Constructivism as a Paradigm
for Teaching and Learning, 2004). It is
also known as active learning. The learner needs to have hands on encounters
with the concepts/problems trying to learn/solve.
Cognitive
Apprenticeship Principles,
The theory of cognitive
apprenticeship attempts to bring tacit processes out in the open. It assumes
that people learn from one another though observation, imitation and modeling
(Cognitive Apprenticeship | Learning Theories, 2015). In layman’s terms it is
following around a master tradesman trying to acquire all of his knowledge and
wisdom by observing him at work. The ultimate goal is to imitate and perform
the same skills and techniques through hands on practice. However, this theory
holds 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. So to take it a step further, cognitive apprenticeship means listening
to the master explain exactly what they are doing and thinking as they model
the skills, the apprentice can then identify relevant behaviors and develop a
conceptual model of the processes involved (Culatta, 2013). According to Albert
Bandura, this theory is only successful if the learner is attentive, able to
and retain the information presented, motivated to learn, and able to accurately
reproduce the desired skill (Culatta, 2013). This style can be broken down into
three stages of skill acquisition; the cognitive stage, the associative stage
and the autonomous stage. In the cognitive stage learners develop declarative
understanding of the skill, in the associative stage learners make mistakes and
misinterpretations and eliminate them while strengthening the crucial elements
of that skills. Then is the autonomous stage is where the skills are honed and
perfected (Culatta, 2013). After looking at the cognitive theory in depth I
have found that it is a pretty effective way to learn and is very beneficial
for many young kids who like hands on activities.
Cognitive
Apprenticeship in Action,
Fitting this into a classroom
setting could prove difficult for most teachers who are not teaching a physical
science or physics type of classroom. However, it can be done with a little
creativity. Since I am a math teacher and geometry is what my last classroom
setting was I will create an example for this subject. I will first give a
smart board presentation on how to find the slope of any given line-using rise
over run. Then I will break my students up into groups of three to four and
give them a hand full of Popsicle sticks, in which I will ask them to construct
a structure of their choice that has at least one triangular shape in it. Then I will demonstrate on the board a few
examples walking them through each step while verbalizing my thought process along
the way. After they will have to calculate the slope(s) of their structures
using a ruler and the method that they just learned. I will be walking around
the class to monitor learning and facilitate those who need extra
reinforcement.
References:
Cognitive Apprenticeship
| Learning Theories. (2015, January 3). Knowledge Base and
Webliography. Retrieved February 16, 2015, from http://www.learning-theories.com/cognitive-apprenticeship-collins-et-al.html.
Constructivism as
a Paradigm for Teaching and Learning. (2004, May 3). Concept to
Classroom. Retrieved February 16, 2015, from
Culatta, R.
(2013, June 9). Cognitive Apprenticeship. Retrieved February 16, 2015, from
No comments:
Post a Comment