mechanisms the teacher talked about the reasons for her
actions and shared her personal tips for improving the
quality of the results. As she demonstrated the use of
tools such as craft knives and guillotine, she explained the
techniques she had found best to keep the paper steady
and keep her fingers safe from the blades. In Phase 2 the
children continued to develop their tacit knowledge of
heuristic strategies as needed. Children were observed
developing techniques for specific purposes, often sharing
them with classmates. For example, a child used a digital
camera to produce a printed enlargement of her drawing
and taught the technique to another child.
3. Control strategies are “general approaches for directing
one’s solution process” (Collins, 2006 p. 49). These
require pupils to set goals, plan ahead, and monitor the
progress being made or difficulties encountered. This
might include reference to other aspects of the cognitive
apprenticeship framework to find solutions (ibid).
The use of control strategies by children was not evident
in Phase 1. This phase provided few opportunities for
children to make planning decisions. However in Phase 2
the children were introduced to a simple design process
of plan-design-model-evaluate-make. They used the
process to produce a pop-up card and their success with
this encouraged them to apply the process to a 6-page
pop-up book. In their journals the children wrote down
their intentions for problem-solving:
I am planning what I can do with my pop-up book and
also I have a few mistakes with the pop-ups. My goal is
to practise until I get it right.
4. Learning strategies involve “knowledge about how to
learn new concepts, facts and procedures” (Collins, 2006
p. 49). This approach encourages pupils to think about
their learning needs and difficulties.
The focus on learning strategies was stronger in Phase 1.
The teacher provided a variety of different approaches to
learning, such as technological vocabulary-building, printed
instructions, and practical activities. Different children
reported different preferences for learning strategies. For
example, when asked about their preferences for learning
from text instructions or pictures, children gave varied
responses:
– The pictures – the words kind of confused me.
– Probably the words.
– All of it was really useful.
Method
This dimension of the CA framework contains six teaching