Apprenticeship is finding new respect from cognitive scientists.

The apprenticeship model of learning is ubiquitous across cultures. Western schooling, with its de-emphasis on apprenticeship learning, is an exception. In recent years, however, there has been renewed interest in it by many researchers and practitioners in cognitive science and education (Antonacci and Colasacco, 1994; Collins, Brown, and Newman, 1989; Gardner, 1991; Lave, 1990; Resnick, 1989; Rogoff, 1990; Vanderbilt, 1990).

One major focus of the apprenticeship research comes from the teaching of thinking skills. Researchers have found that apprenticeship models are ideal for teaching children how to use strategies for thinking critically, for gathering information, for organizing, and for monitoring, and they have spearheaded the recent interest in "cognitive apprenticeships" (Resnick, 1989).

It is not only in developing thinking skills that children need to know how. Much of what children know comes from learning how -- learning how to make letters, how to play the piano, how to dance, how to take turns in conversation, how to search for things, how to draw with perspective, how to find the main point. In these things, children need to learn like apprentices -- with clear modeling, plenty of practice, gradually released support, and opportunities for demonstration.