ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses some important insights into the nature of learning and recognise the implications of these for teaching. It describes the basic elements of an apprenticeship approach to teaching, justify such anapproach in terms of its foundation in research and theory, and suggests examples of the implementation of this approach. The chapter outlines four major insights that can be derived from a study of learning: Learning is a process of interaction between what is known and what is to be learned, Learning is a social process, Learning is a situated process, and Learning is a metacognitive process. The learner assumes sole responsibility for the activity. Ideas about learning have moved away from J. Piaget’s ‘lone scientist’ view of learners as acting upon their environments, observing the results and then modifying or fine-tuning their schemas concerning these environments. In mathematics learning, J. Taylor and B. D. Cox have researched the effects of such apprenticeship approaches.