When reading about cognitive apprenticeship, defining it over the wiki with our small groups and then discussing our work and presenting the topic to others in the class, the most fruitful learning took place when we were in our groups discussing the learning design and how the learning design fits into the How People Learn framework. When discussing our ideas in person, after working together to put these ideas on the wiki, we were able to provide examples of our ideas and talk about the learning design more in depth. We talked about which parts of the learning design we thought were importnant and useful. It was helpful to hear the perspectives of others in my group and learn from them as well. I was able to look at the learning design in ways I hadn’t though of before. I thought the combination of working on the wiki and then coming into class for a debrief session was a useful way to learn and retain the information more, rather than just reading the article.
Our presentation could have been better. When reflecting back on our presentation, we noticed that we were presenting to each other, rather than the class. By presenting the information orally, another way of recollecting what we had read, we gained more of an understanding of the topic. Our presentation operated as if we were just continuing with our small group discussion, instead of teaching the class and including them on learning about cognitive apprentice. Maybe we did this because we were still grappling with comprehending the learning design. After the presentation we had a better understanding of cognitive apprenticeship because we were still bouncing ideas off of each other and had to address questions from other students in the class. A second try at the presentation would make it a lot better and more productive. We would definitely veer off the path of the traditional lecture-like presentation that we gave the first time around with our group as the bestower of knowledge. If given a second chance to present we would do something more interactive to teach cognitive apprenticeship to the rest of the class. It be interesting to model the presentation in the structure of the learning design and have the students learn the topic through cognitive apprenticeship.
Discussing the teaching examples we thought of when commenting about the learning design on the wiki was useful as well. I enjoyed listening to my peers' teaching ideas. It helps me expound upon my teaching ideas and come up with new ones. Another way our group really learned was discussing how we could actually implement cognitive apprenticeship in our own classrooms and create lessons that align with this particular learning design. When putting what we read about in the context of our own teaching, we made real-world connections with the topic. These connections provided a lasting impression and helped us know the learning design even better.
