Running head: Cognitive Apprenticeships Can Teach Students New
1
Cognitive Apprenticeships Can Teach Students New Skills
Stephen Scott Educational
Psychology Social Learning
Strategies Capella University
Cognitive Apprenticeships Can Teach Students New Skills
There are many different approaches to teaching a child information. Teachers spend
countless hours coming up with innovative lesson plans to help students understand course
material. One theory on learning that has yielded positive results is social learning theory. This
theory shows that students learn best by learning from another person. One way of applying
social learning theory is by utilizing a cognitive apprenticeship to aid students in learning
challenging material. This paper will focus on how communities and 3D online models can aid
in cognitive apprenticeships in the classroom.
Social Learning Theory
, Social learning theory was originally thought of as being a new behavioral theory due to
including reinforcement and punishment (O’Donnell, Reeve, & Smith, 2012). This was then
expanded further by Albert Bandura. He added cognitive processing where a spectator helps
with procedures in attention, encoding, and retrieval of a model’s behavior and then applies
penalties to correct and incorrect actions, and these penalties aid the subject in learning how to
properly conduct themselves (O’Donnell, Reeve, & Smith, 2012). One of the biggest advantages
for social learning is it increases the chances of learning a skill. For example, a child wanting to
ride their first bike might be able to learn how over time. This would take much longer and there
is a higher chance the child might fall and hurt themselves. It could also lead to them becoming
discouraged and giving up on learning the new skill. By using social learning, they would learn
the skill much quicker and with better efficiency (O’Donnell, Reeve, & Smith, 2012).
Cognitive Apprenticeship
Apprenticeships have been a practice for hundreds of years. They were the primary way
that workers learned new skills, such as blacksmithing. Instead of going to school to learn a
10:26:12 GMT -05:00
1
Cognitive Apprenticeships Can Teach Students New Skills
Stephen Scott Educational
Psychology Social Learning
Strategies Capella University
Cognitive Apprenticeships Can Teach Students New Skills
There are many different approaches to teaching a child information. Teachers spend
countless hours coming up with innovative lesson plans to help students understand course
material. One theory on learning that has yielded positive results is social learning theory. This
theory shows that students learn best by learning from another person. One way of applying
social learning theory is by utilizing a cognitive apprenticeship to aid students in learning
challenging material. This paper will focus on how communities and 3D online models can aid
in cognitive apprenticeships in the classroom.
Social Learning Theory
, Social learning theory was originally thought of as being a new behavioral theory due to
including reinforcement and punishment (O’Donnell, Reeve, & Smith, 2012). This was then
expanded further by Albert Bandura. He added cognitive processing where a spectator helps
with procedures in attention, encoding, and retrieval of a model’s behavior and then applies
penalties to correct and incorrect actions, and these penalties aid the subject in learning how to
properly conduct themselves (O’Donnell, Reeve, & Smith, 2012). One of the biggest advantages
for social learning is it increases the chances of learning a skill. For example, a child wanting to
ride their first bike might be able to learn how over time. This would take much longer and there
is a higher chance the child might fall and hurt themselves. It could also lead to them becoming
discouraged and giving up on learning the new skill. By using social learning, they would learn
the skill much quicker and with better efficiency (O’Donnell, Reeve, & Smith, 2012).
Cognitive Apprenticeship
Apprenticeships have been a practice for hundreds of years. They were the primary way
that workers learned new skills, such as blacksmithing. Instead of going to school to learn a
10:26:12 GMT -05:00
