Peanuts

Cognitive apprenticeship is defined as "a method of teaching aimed primarily at teaching the processes that experts use to handle complex tasks." (Conway) The three methods in cognitive apprenticeship are modeling, coaching, and scaffolding. "Modeling occurs when a teacher describes her or his cognitive processing in the course of carrying out a task." (Mayer, 440) "Coaching occurs when a teacher offers hints, comments, and critiques to a student who is carrying out a task." (Mayer, 440) "Scaffolding is needed when a student is working on a task but is not yet able to successfully manage each part without some kind of support." (Mayer, 440) Cognitive apprenticeship works off of the theory of the Zone of Proximal Development, a work of Vygotsky, a social psychologist, who believes "that learning occurs in a social context and that learning occurs within a child's zone of proximal development." (Mayer, 432)The ZPD refers to the zone of development that is located in between what a student can successfully do on her or his own and what this same student can do in the future. "With the guidance of an adult, the student may be able to move on to the next stage of learning. Through interaction, the model allows the student to be successful at a skill or task that may be too complex for them to handle alone and expands his/her cognitive abilities." (Cog. App.) The role of the teacher is to simplify tasks so that the student can manage them. This scaffolding is usually necessary only initially, and then it begins to fade as the child begins to learn a skill. The cognitive apprenticeship places learning in the control of the student and improves his or her development of cognitive skills such as goal setting, strategic planning, monitoring, evaluating, and revising. The student is an active learner rather than a passive learner.

Technology can play an enormous role in cognitive apprenticeship. Computer networks, the internet, and distance learning are all powerful means of communication that can open up amazing new possibilities for students to interact with experts of all kinds. One such program is the Electronic Emissary, created and directed by Dr. Judi Harris in 1993, at the University of Texas, Austin. "The Emissary is a web-based telementoring service and resource center that helps kindergarten through grade 12 teachers and students with internet access locate mentors who are experts in various disciplines, for purposes of setting up curriculum-based electronic exchanges among the teachers, their students, and the mentors. In this way, the interaction that occurs among teachers and students face-t-face in the classroom is supplemented and extended by electronic mail, web forum, chat, and teleconferencing exchanges that occur among teachers, students, and volunteer mentors. These project-based online conversations typically range in length from 6 weeks to a full academic