Asee peer logo

Cargo Cults and Cognitive Apprenticeships: Two Frameworks for Adopting Unfamiliar Curricular Cultures

Download Paper |

Conference

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Columbus, Ohio

Publication Date

June 24, 2017

Start Date

June 24, 2017

End Date

June 28, 2017

Conference Session

Faculty Development

Tagged Division

Educational Research and Methods

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Page Count

11

DOI

10.18260/1-2--28014

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/28014

Download Count

426

Request a correction

Paper Authors

biography

Mel Chua Olin College of Engineering

visit author page

Mel is an engineering education researcher who works with postmodern qualitative methodologies, curricular cultures within and inspired by hacker/maker communities, and engineering faculty formation. She is also an electrical and computer engineer and auditory low-pass filter who occasionally draws research cartoon

visit author page

biography

Lynn Andrea Stein Olin College of Engineering

visit author page

Lynn Andrea Stein is Professor of Computer and Cognitive Science at Olin College of Engineering in Needham, Massachusetts. Stein's research spans the fields of artificial intelligence, programming languages, human-computer interaction, and engineering and computer science education.

visit author page

Download Paper |

Abstract

This theory paper suggests a contrasting pair of frames through which to view faculty attempts to adopt curricular cultures, as when introducing new pedagogies into courses. Attempts that use a cargo cult framing treat novel pedagogies as writ, copying practices without interrogating underlying meaning. In contrast, attempts that use a cognitive apprenticeship framing presume that expertise comes through scaffolded, reflective, and social performance leading toward contextually adaptable mastery. These contrasting frames, supported by case studies, provide a theoretical basis for improved curricular culture change.

Chua, M., & Stein, L. A. (2017, June), Cargo Cults and Cognitive Apprenticeships: Two Frameworks for Adopting Unfamiliar Curricular Cultures Paper presented at 2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Columbus, Ohio. 10.18260/1-2--28014

ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2017 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015