Abstract
Humans are proposed to have evolved to learn through observation, imitation and practice or mimesis. In this article, the contribution of imitation, as an important but poorly understood aspect of mimetic learning, is advocated to create affordances for dyadic learning. However, learning through imitation is often perceived with negative connotations perhaps framed by viewpoints individuals have derived from experiences of rote learning and repetitive work. Yet, learning through imitation plays a key role in the learning of skills, including many of the non-verbal communicative and tacit aspects of trades work. This article explores the ways trade apprentices learn, with emphasis on the contribution of imitation. Recommendations to improve the reciprocal relationships between mentor and apprentice, initiated and developed through learning by ‘imitation’, are discussed and considered.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Chan, S. (2013). Learning a trade: becoming a trades person through apprenticeship. Ako Aotearoa Southern Hub. https://akoaotearoa.ac.nz/ako-hub/ako-aotearoa-southern-hub/resources/pages/learning-trade-becoming-trades-person-through-apprenticeship
Chan, S. (2014). Crafting an occupational identity: learning the precepts of craftsmanship through apprenticeship. Vocations and Learning: Studies in Vocational and Professional Education, 7(3), 313–330. doi:10.1007/s12186-014-9117-9.
Chan, S. (2015a). The contribution of observation to apprentices’ learning. Journal of Vocational Education & Training, 67(4), 442–459. doi:10.1080/13636820.2015.1062999.
Chan, S. (2015b). Apprentices’ learning of occupationally informed practical judgment. Vocations and Learning: Studies in Vocational and Professional Education, 8(3), 335–351 http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12186-015-9134-3.
Chan, S., & Leijten, F. (2012). Using feedback strategies to improve peer-learning in welding. International Journal of Training Research, 10(1), 23–29.
Billett, S. (2001). Learning in the workplace: strategies for effective practice. Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin.
Billett, S. (2014). Mimetic learning. Dordrecht: Springer.
Billett, S., & Choy, S. (2013). Learning through work: emerging perspectives and new challenges. Journal of Workplace Learning, 25(4), 264–276.
Brinkman, S., & Tanggaard, L. (2010). Toward an epistemology of the hand. Studies in the Philosophy of Education, 29, 243–257.
Byrne, R. W., & Russon, A. E. (1998). Learning by imitation: a hierarchical approach. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 21, 667–721.
Downey, G. (2007). Seeing with a ‘sideways glance’: visuomotor ‘knowing’ and the plasticity of perception. In M. Harris (Ed.), Ways of knowing: new approaches in the anthropology of experience and learning (pp. 222–241). New York: Berghahn Books.
Downey, G. (2010). ‘Practice without theory’: a neuroanthropological perspective on embodied learning. In T. H. J. Marchand (Ed.), Making knowledge: explorations of the indissoluble relation between mind, body and environment (pp. 21–38). Malden: Wiley-Blackwell.
Ericsson, K. A., Krampe, R. T., & Tesch-Romer, C. (1993). The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance. Psychological Review, 100(3), 363–406.
Fridland, E. (2013). Imitation, skill learning and conceptual thought: an embodied, developmental approach. In L. Swan (Ed.), Origins of mind (pp. 203–224). Netherlands: Springer.
Fridland, E., & Moore, R. (2014). Imitation reconsidered. Philosophical Psychology. doi:10.1080/09515089.2014.942896.
Gherardi, S. (2010). Community of practice or practices of a community? In S. J. Armstrong & C. V. Fukami (Eds.), The SAGE handbook on management, learning, education and development (pp. 514–530). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Hattie, J. (2009). Visible learning: a synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. London: Routledge.
Hattie, J., & Timperley, H. (2007). The power of feedback. Review of Educational Research, 77(1), 81–112.
Hodges, D. A. (2010). Can neuroscience help us do a better job of teaching music? General Music Today, 23(2), 3–12.
Hogan, D. M., & Tudge, J. R. H. (1999). Implications of Vygotsky’s theory for peer learning. In A. O’Donnell & A. King (Eds.), Cognitive Perspectives for peer learning. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Hurley, S., & Chater, N. (2005). Importance of imitation. In S. Hurley & N. Chater (Eds.), Perspectives on imitation: from neuroscience to social science, vol. 1: mechanisms of imitation and imitation in animals. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Jackson, P. L., Meltzoff, A. N., & Decety, J. (2006). Neural circuits involved in imitation and perspective-taking. NeuroImage, 31(1), 429–439.
Knowles, M. S. (1984). The adult learner: A neglected species. Houston: Gulf Pub. Co., Book Division.
Lave, J. (2011). Apprenticeship in critical ethnographical practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Leach, L., & Zepke, N. (2010). Making it into the pipeline: transitions from school to tertiary education. Journal of Adult Learning, 38(1), 5–22.
Lucas, B., Spencer, E., & Claxton, G. (2012). How to teach vocational education: a theory of vocational pedagogy. London: City and Guilds Centre for Skill Development.
Magill, R. A. (2006). Motor learning and control: Concepts and applications (8th ed.). New York: McGraw Hill.
Marchand, T. H. J. (2007). Crafting knowledge: The role of ‘parsing and production’ in the communication of skill-based knowledge among masons. In M. Harris (Ed.), Ways of knowing: new approaches in the anthropology of experience and learning (pp. 181–202). New York: Berghahn Books.
Marchand, T. H. J. (2010). Embodied cognition and communication: studies with British fine woodworkers. In T. H. J. Marchand (Ed.), Making knowledge: explorations of the indissoluble relation between mind, body and environment. Wiley-Blackwell: Malden.
Nielsen, K. (2006). Learning to do things with things: apprenticeship learning in bakery as economy and social practice. In A. Costall & O. Dreier (Eds.), Doing things with things (pp. 209–224). Aldeshot: Ashgate Publishing.
Reid, J., & Mitchell, D. M. (2015). Inhabiting a teaching body: portraits of teaching. In B. Green & N. Hopwood (Eds.), The body in professional practice, learning and education (pp. 89–104). Heidelberg, New York, Dordrecht, London: Springer.
Rogoff, B. (1995). Observing sociocultural activity on three planes: participatory appropriation, guided participation and apprenticeship. In J. V. Wertsch, P. Del Rio, & A. Alverez (Eds.), Sociocultural studies of mind (pp. 139–164). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Sheets-Johnston, M. (2000). Kinetic tactile-kinesthetic bodies: Ontogenetical foundations of apprenticeship learning. Human Studies, 23, 343–370.
Singleton, J. (1989). Japanese folkcraft pottery apprenticeship: cultural patterns of an educational institution. In M. W. Coy (Ed.), Apprenticeship: From theory to method and back again (pp. 13–30). Albany: State University of New York Press.
Sterelny, K. (2012). The evolved apprentice: how evolution made humans unique. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
Tanggaard, L. (2007). Learning at trade vocational school and learning at work: boundary crossing in apprentices’ everyday life. Journal of Education and Work, 20(5), 453–466.
Taussig, M. (1993). Mimesis and alterity: a particular history of the senses. New York: Routledge, Chapman and Hall Inc..
Tsuji, A. (2010). Experience in the very moment of writing: reconsidering Walter Benjamin’s theory of mimesis. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 44(1), 125–136.
Tudge, J. R. H. (1992). Processes and consequences of peer collaboration: a Vygostskian analysis. Child Development, 63(6), 1364–1379.
Vygotsky, L. (1998). Mind in society: the development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Whiten, A., McGuigan, N., Marshall-Pescini, S., & Hopper, L. M. (2009). Emulation, imitation, over-imitation and the scope of culture for child and chimpanzee. Philosophical Transactions: The Royal Society, 364, 2417–2428.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Chan, S. The Reciprocity of ‘Imitative Learning’ through Apprenticeship. Vocations and Learning 10, 325–342 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12186-017-9175-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12186-017-9175-x