Thoughts on Collins

In the article, Collins begins by discussing how schools have transitioned into unattached learning, where concepts are taught as opposed to skills. With the exception of some vocational education courses at high schools and community colleges, Collins is correct. I have a standard course of study I have to teach in my Algebra 1 class. Although kids need to be able to set up equations and multiply binomials to set up optimization problems, we practice this with X's and Y's, whereas before public schooling, young adults learned to optimize materials by apprenticing an experienced craftsman. There were no X's and Y's, but they learned through practice how to build an object and minimize waste. Although seemingly different, the two methods teach the same type of reasoning.

Most people would agree that it is important to implement some type of real-world connection in the public school classroom, whether for science, math, social studies, english or any subject. The cognitive apprenticeship gives teachers a way to not only relate their material to life situations, but to also keep students involved. Particularly for a reading assignment, having students create their own deep questions forces them to improve their comprehension capability and focus on what is being said, verses simply skimming the article and answering basic recall questions.

I have several projects and activities that implement the apprenticeship or something similar in my classroom. For Algebra 1, on Tuesday we are doing an activity where students are given a sheet of paper and their goal is to build a box with the largest possible volume. I'm then going to ask them about the algebra involved and we are going to come up with equations we can use for optimization. We also have an activity in Geometry where we go outside and investigate symmetry in automotive symbols and logos. With this, students work in groups and what often takes places is a higher-level student takes a car logo and explains symmetry to a lower-level student using that logo.

One key difference between the reciprocal teaching method and what I use is that reciprocal teaching requires the teacher to precisely model the activity beforehand. For a high school classroom, I think it's more important to push the students to accurately follow the directions given and synthesize what is being asked. For what I'm doing, the role of coach is more appropriate to the goal of these activities.

References:

Collins, A., Brown, J. S., & Newman, S. E. (1990). Cognitive apprenticeship: Teaching the crafts of reading, writing, and mathematics. In L. B. Resnick (Ed.), Knowing, learning, and instruction: Essays in honor of Robert Glaser (pp. 453-494). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.