International Journal of Technology and Design Education 7: 161-180, 1997. 1997

Activity-based practice
As one examines educational practice, there seems to be an assumed separation between knowing and doing in education (Brown et al., 1989). Knowing is valued over doing. Mental activity is valued over physical activity. This separation, however, has been challenged in recent years. As emphasized in McCormick’s chapter, the activities through which learning occurs are inseparable from cognition. “People who use tools . . . build an increasingly rich implicit understanding of the world in which they use the tools and of the tools themselves. The understanding, both of the world and of the tool, continually changes as a result of their interac­tion. Learning and acting are interestingly indistinct, learning being a

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continuous, life-long process resulting from acting in situations” (Brown et al., 1989, p. 33). In order for peer-based learning to be successful, some form of activity must become the focus of the community of learners. This activity should be oriented toward the design or construction of a project or product and involve the integration of knowledge and skills.
Activity-based practice can be provided in many forms. Discovery learning, thematic instruction, and project-based learning are common tech­niques for engaging students in motivational activities that involve considerable amounts of creativity, decision making, and problem solving. Arthur Anderson and Company uses six instructional approaches to engage their trainees in active learning: (1) structured-on-the-job training, (b) apprenticeships, (3) goal-based scenarios, (4) action learning, (5) problem-based, and (6) project-based tasks (Montgomery, 1994). Each of these instructional approaches emphasizes the importance of learning from experience: experience that is highly goal driven and activity-based. Since these activities usually take a considerable amount of time to complete, they provide for sustained thinking about specific problems over long periods of time.
Learning through activity-based practice is closely connected with learning as a social activity. Experiential learning provides extensive oppor­tunities for apprenticeship-type activity. For example, action learning is the term used in executive training to describe activity-based practice and involves giving teams of learners (i.e., peer-based learning) real business problems to solve. “Action learning is representative of emerging models of workplace learning, which recognize that knowledge isn’t something we pour from one vessel (a teacher) into another (a student). Instead, . . . our natural drive to learn thrives when we can direct our own learning, share knowledge, and emulate experts - and make mistakes” (Sorohan, 1993, p. 48).
Through the years, apprenticeship has been a common activity-based form of learning technical skills. Traditional apprenticeship typically involves an expert who models the desired performance for novices, coaches them through a task, and gives them more autonomy as their skills develop. In a traditional craft guild, for example, the master models how to do a task while explaining what is being done and the reason behind it. By observing the master perform, the apprentice learns the correct actions and procedures and then attempts to copy them on a similar task. The master then coaches the apprentice through the task by providing hints and cor­rective feedback as needed. As the apprentice becomes more skilled, the master gives the apprentice more control over the task by “fading” into the background.
While traditional apprenticeship emphasizes physical ability, Collins et al. (1989) advocate using cognitive apprenticeship as a model for devel­oping intellectual skills. Modeling of correct performance, coaching students through difficult tasks, providing scaffolds as needed, and providing less

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assistance as their competency increases are major components of this model. Cognitive apprenticeship also includes the selection and sequencing of learning experiences based on an individual’s performance.