Learning Revision Skills through Cognitive Apprenticeship: A didactic Experience in a Collaborative Context

Abstract

Although writing takes on fundamental role in people’s lives and education, cognitivism and socio-cultural constructivism studies have shown that teach-ing practices do not often stimulate and do not adequately support pupils in developing a mature approach to written composition. Specifically, one of the typical problems of apprentice writers, is represented by the revision process, traditionally understood as rereading and correction of spelling er-rors and embellishment of the text at the end of writing. However, according to scholars of the psychology of written composition, it is possible to help apprentices develop a mature approach to revision and complex revision skills through specific educational programs and teaching methodologies. Therefore, present paper aims to propose the use of cognitive apprenticeship in a collaborative context and the use of procedural facilitations as an effective methodological choice to stimulate the acquisition of a mature ap-proach to writing and, in particular, to the revision process in elementary school pupils.