Situated Cognition and Cognitive Apprenticeship Learning

Abstract

This chapter presents approaches to situated cognition and cognitive apprenticeship learning. It pertains to “learning science”, as it is a theory that explains the way learning happens in the context of learners working together with a specialist, master or coach, in an environment. Empirical and theoretical developments in learning sciences have led to the emergence of the situated cognition, which assumes that cognition is fundamentally a social activity, and is distributed across members of a learning community, and that knowledge is situated in social, cultural, and physical contexts in which it is produced and used (Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989; Lave & Wenger, 1991). Cognitive apprenticeship learning reflects situated learning theory (Collins, Brown, & Holum, 1991; Rogoff, 1990). The notion of apprenticeship has been influential in teaching and learning throughout the history. Nonetheless, in education, there has been a move from traditional apprenticeship to cognitive apprenticeship. A focus on cognitive skills and process rather than only physical skills development, the use of skills in varied contexts rather than only the context of their use, and the use of structured rather than entirely naturalistic opportunities for skill development differentiate cognitive apprenticeship from traditional apprenticeship. In this chapter, we report four dimensions of cognitive apprenticeship for designing a learning environment: content, method, sequencing, and sociology (Collins, Brown, & Holum, 1991). This chapter also presents a framework of cognitive apprenticeship learning that includes six processes teachers would use to promote student learning: modeling, coaching, scaffolding, articulation, reflection, and exploration (Collins, Brown, & Holum, 1991). In this chapter, we framed design thinking methodology from a cognitive apprenticeship perspective with these four dimensions and six processes of cognitive apprenticeship learning (Brown, 2009; Cross, 2011). We believe that pedagogical practices of cognitive apprenticeship and strategies like design thinking (Cross, 2011) would help teachers to make key aspects of thinking visible to students (Cakmakci, 2012; Collins, Brown, & Holum, 1991).