{"id":119,"date":"2015-04-06T05:25:45","date_gmt":"2015-04-06T09:25:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/openstudio.pub\/teachinginadigitalagev3m\/chapter\/3-5-apprenticeship-learning-by-doing-1\/"},"modified":"2025-05-10T07:01:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-10T11:01:09","slug":"3-5-apprenticeship-learning-by-doing-1","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/openstudio.pub\/teachinginadigitalagev3m\/chapter\/3-5-apprenticeship-learning-by-doing-1\/","title":{"raw":"3.6 Learning by doing: Apprenticeship","rendered":"3.6 Learning by doing: Apprenticeship"},"content":{"raw":" \n\n[caption id=\"attachment_28\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"744\"]\"Figure<\/a> Figure 3.6.1\u00a0BMW Group UK Apprentice Recruitment, 2013
Image: \u00a9 Motoring Insight, 2013[\/caption]\n

3.6.1 The importance\u00a0of apprenticeship as a teaching method<\/h2>\nApprenticeship is one of the most common and well established forms of experiential learning. Bloom and his colleagues designated psycho-motor skills as the third domain of learning<\/a> back in 1956.\u00a0Learning by doing is particularly common in teaching motor skills, such as learning to ride a bicycle or play a sport, but examples\u00a0can also be found in higher education, such as teaching practice, medical internships, and laboratory studies.\n\nApprenticeship is a particular way of enabling students to learn by doing. It is often associated with vocational training where a more experienced tradesman or journeyman models behaviour, the apprentice attempts to follow the the model, and the journeyman provides feedback. However,\u00a0apprenticeship is also the most common method used to train post-secondary education instructors in teaching\u00a0(at least implicitly), so there is a wide range of applications for an apprenticeship approach to teaching.\n\nBecause a form of apprenticeship is the implicit, default model also for university teaching, and in particular for pre-service training of university instructors, apprenticeship will be discussed separately from other forms of experiential learning, although it is really just one, very commonly used, version.\n

3.6.2 Key features of apprenticeship<\/h2>\n[caption id=\"attachment_28\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"450\"]\"Figure<\/a> Figure 3.6.2 An apprentice being supervised
Image: \u00a9 BBC, 2014[\/caption]\n

'It is useful to remember that apprenticeship is not an invisible phenomenon. It has key elements: a particular way of viewing learning, specific roles and strategies for teachers and learners, and clear stages of development, whether for traditional or cognitive apprenticeship. But mostly it's important to remember that in this perspective, one cannot learn from afar. Instead, one learns amid the engagement of participating in the authentic, dynamic and unique swirl of genuine practice.<\/em>'<\/p>\n

Pratt and Johnson, 1998<\/a><\/p>\nSch\u00f6n (1983<\/a>) argues that apprenticeship operates in 'situations of practice that...are frequently ill-defined and problematic, and characterized by vagueness, uncertainty and disorder<\/em>'. Learning in apprenticeship is not just about learning to do (active learning), but also requires an understanding of the contexts in which the learning will be applied. In addition\u00a0there is a social and\u00a0cultural element to the learning, understanding and embedding the accepted practices, customs and values of experts in the field. Pratt and Johnson (1998<\/a>) identify the characteristics of a master practitioner, whom they define as:\n

a person who has acquired a thorough knowledge of and\/or is especially skilled in a particular area of practice.<\/em>\u00a0Master practitioners:<\/em><\/p>\n\n

    \n \t
  1. possess great amounts of knowledge in their area of expertise, and are able to apply that knowledge in difficult practice settings;<\/em><\/li>\n \t
  2. have\u00a0well-organized, readily<\/em>\u00a0accessible\u00a0schemas (cognitive maps) which facilitate the acquisition of new information;<\/em><\/li>\n \t
  3. have well-developed repertoires of strategies for acquiring new knowledge, integrating and organizing their schemas, and applying their knowledge and skills in a variety of contexts....;<\/em><\/li>\n \t
  4. ...are motivated to learn as part of the process of developing their identities in their communities of practice. They are not motivated to learn simply to reach some external performance goal or reward;<\/em><\/li>\n \t
  5. frequently display tacit knowledge in the form of:<\/em>\n