The purpose of this chapter is to make explicit how faculty members at one institution adopted the cognitive apprenticeship model as a way to support doctoral students' development from student to scholar. The efforts in doing so focus heavily on dissertation thinking and writing because the dissertation is such a significant, culminating element in any doctoral student's experience. Writing a dissertation is something one only does once, and the process is typically designed to be an individual test of the ability to make connections between theory and practice, conduct research, and communicate about research in a scholarly manner. The isolation of dissertation writing often results in doctoral students' remaining ABD (all but dissertation). Most professors who have mentored a doctoral student through the dissertation process can attest that success in completing coursework does not necessarily lead to success in completing a dissertation. Because dissertation writing is markedly different from other kinds of academic and professional writing, many doctoral students need explicit support such as cognitive apprenticeship to guide their journey through the dissertation writing process.
The purpose of this chapter is to make explicit how faculty members at one institution adopted the cognitive apprenticeship model as a way to support doctoral students' development from student to scholar. The efforts in doing so focus heavily on dissertation thinking and writing because the dissertation is such a significant, culminating element in any doctoral student's experience. Writing a dissertation is something one only does once, and the process is typically designed to be an individual test of the ability to make connections between theory and practice, conduct research, and communicate about research in a scholarly manner. The isolation of dissertation writing often results in doctoral students' remaining ABD (all but dissertation). Most professors who have mentored a doctoral student through the dissertation process can attest that success in completing coursework does not necessarily lead to success in completing a dissertation. Because dissertation writing is markedly different from other kinds of academic and professional writing, many doctoral students need explicit support such as cognitive apprenticeship to guide their journey through the dissertation writing process.
The cognitive apprenticeship model (Collins, 2006; Collins, Brown, & Holum, 1991; Collins, Brown, & Newman, 1989) is one way to support doctoral student development, from student to scholar, in the dissertation writing process. The results of this apprenticeship are cognitive maturity (self-authorship, Baxter Magolda, 2004). Both cognitive apprenticeship and cognitive maturity are essential for writing the dissertation because it is a unique and high-stakes writing genre. Instructors and mentors must provide progressive levels of autonomous practice at the skills required to be a scholarly researcher and writer. This practice and support occurs in numerous forms during doctoral study. Thus, when students venture into the independent dissertation writing phase of the doctoral program, the level of skill transfer is much higher and the demand for support is lower but more specialized. This chapter specifically attends to scholarship and mentoring.
This work uses the framework of distributed cognition for understanding the way that educators perceive cognition in classroom application. The focus is on the elements of technological tools and peers as extensions of students' cognitive capacity. A qualitative study was conducted with teachers at a combined middle and secondary school in an urban area. Data from interviews in this exploratory case study revealed that teachers had minimal awareness of distributed cognition especially in terms of developing and assessing student learning outcomes. Teachers particularly struggled with ways to label, quantify and apply this construct. One unexpected finding was the concern about a lack of student expertise in utilizing tools. Suggestions call for systemic changes in curriculum, instruction and assessment. A focus on instructional technology as a mediator for critical thinking and problem solving is advocated. Additional reform measures include a renewed look at educators' epistemology through transformative professional learning.
This work uses the framework of distributed cognition for understanding the way that educators perceive cognition in classroom application. The focus is on the elements of technological tools and peers as extensions of students' cognitive capacity. A qualitative study was conducted with teachers at a combined middle and secondary school in an urban area. Data from interviews in this exploratory case study revealed that teachers had minimal awareness of distributed cognition especially in terms of developing and assessing student learning outcomes. Teachers particularly struggled with ways to label, quantify and apply this construct. One unexpected finding was the concern about a lack of student expertise in utilizing tools. Suggestions call for systemic changes in curriculum, instruction and assessment. A focus on instructional technology as a mediator for critical thinking and problem solving is advocated. Additional reform measures include a renewed look at educators' epistemology through transformative professional learning.
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