UCSC Foundation Professor of Psychology
Department of Psychology, University of California Santa Cruz

I received my Ph.D. in 1977 from Harvard, and I’m currently UC Santa Cruz Foundation Professor of Psychology. I am a Fellow of the American Psychological Society, the American Anthropological Association, and the American Psychological Association. I’ve been a Fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, a Kellogg Fellow, a Spencer Fellow, and an Osher Fellow of the Exploratorium. I have served as Editor of Human Development and of the Newsletter of the Society for Research in Child Development, Study Section member for the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and a committee member on the Science of Learning for the U.S. National Academy of Science. My book Apprenticeship in Thinking received the Scribner Award from the American Educational Research Association.

1) Theoretical work on the structure of informal learning
To aid in discussions of informal learning, I have distinguished the structure of ‘intent participation’ in shared endeavors and ‘assembly-line preparation’ based on transmission of information from experts, outside the context of productive activity. Intent participation involves keen observation of ongoing community events with the anticipation of growing participation in the activity at hand. (1)

My colleagues and I have described a number of facets distinguishing these two processes. Intent participation involves a collaborative, horizontal structure varying in roles, with fluid responsibilities, whereas assembly-line preparation employs a hierarchical structure with fixed roles. In intent participation, experienced people facilitate learners’ roles and often participate alongside them; in assembly-line preparation, experienced people are managers, dividing the task often without participating. The learners’ roles correspond — taking initiative to learn and contribute versus receiving information. Along with these interrelated facets of the two processes are differences in motivation and purposes, in sources of learning (e.g., observant participation or lessons out of the context of productive, purposeful participation), in forms of communication, and in forms of assessment (to aid or test learning).

I think that CILS could make a tremendous contribution to the field by articulating the relations and features of several other forms of informal learning, such as Socratic questioning, inquiry learning, or constructivist learning. I have also written more generally on the collaborative nature of cognition and learning. (2)

2) Research on participation structures of learning settings in communities where schooling has not been prevalent
My research group focuses on the organization of teaching-and-learning in indigenous communities of Central and North America where structures of participation seem to emphasize intent participation. In particular, keen attention and observation of ongoing events and collaborative group learning structures are important. CILS research could benefit from using existing structures of informal learning that have worked well for millenia as a model.

Our research suggests that experience in school as well as integration in or segregation from community life play important roles in the forms of learning common in children’s communities. With increasing participation in Western schooling, the participation structures of both Mayan and US Mexican-heritage participants increasingly resemble those of middle-class US European-heritage participants. Research on the role of schooling in communities with little experience in this institution can illuminate the structure of informal learning as well as school practices, and suggest possibilities and challenges of using informal learning approaches within schools. (3,4,5,6,7,8,9)

3) Research on informal learning in an innovative elementary school
Although schools are often seen as antithetical to informal learning, my colleagues and I have documented an innovative elementary school that prioritizes learning through intent participation. This is a public school committed to collaborative relations between adults and children, as well as between children, and to organizing the curriculum around the interests of the children, teachers, and parent volunteers. Several publications that examine the informal learning philosophy of this school could be helpful to CILS discussions of how informal learning can occur in schools. (10,11,12)

The importance of considering practitioners’ informal learning theories is apparent in our studies of the educational philosophies-in-action of parent volunteers in this community of learners school. Compared with newcomers, parent volunteers with several years of participation in the school’s practices were more likely to engage collaboratively with the children, with shared participation and interests. Newcomer parent volunteers’ philosophies-in-action often showed either an adult-run approach, transmitting information in closely controlled guidance, or a children-run approach, fostering children’s creative discovery without sharing in the inquiries and ideas. Children from this school worked with peers in a more collaborative manner than children from a school organized in a more traditional structure. (13,14)

1) Theoretical work on the structure of informal learning

(1) Rogoff, B., Paradise, R., Mejía Arauz, R., Correa-Chávez, M., & Angelillo, C. (2003). Firsthand learning by intent participation. Annual Review of Psychology, 54. Available online.

(2) Rogoff, B. (1998). Cognition as a collaborative process. In D. Kuhn & R.S. Siegler (Eds.), Cognition, perception and language [Vol. 2, Handbook of Child Psychology (5th ed.), W. Damon (Ed.)] pp. 679-744. NY: Wiley.

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(3) Rogoff, B. (2003). The cultural nature of human development. New York: Oxford University Press.

(4) Rogoff, B., Mistry, J.J., Göncü, A., & Mosier, C. (1993). Guided participation in cultural activity by toddlers and caregivers. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 58 (7, Serial No. 236).

(5) Chavajay, P., & Rogoff, B. (1999). Cultural variation in management of attention by children and their caregivers. Developmental Psychology, 35, 1079-1090.

(6) Chavajay, P., & Rogoff, B. (2002). Schooling and traditional collaborative social organization of problem solving by Mayan mothers and children. Developmental Psychology, 38, 55-66.

(7) Morelli, G., Rogoff, B., & Angelillo, C. (in press). Cultural variation in young children’s access to work or involvement in specialized child-focused activities. International Journal of Behavioral Development.

(8) Mejía-Arauz, R., Rogoff, B., & Paradise, R. (submitted). Cultural variation in children’s observation during a demonstration.

(9) Correa-Chávez, M., Rogoff, B., & Mejía-Arauz, R. (submitted). Cultural aspects of children’s management of attention.

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(10) Rogoff, B., Goodman Turkanis, C., & Bartlett, L. (2001). Learning together: Children and adults in a school community. New York: Oxford University Press.

(11) Rogoff, B., Matusov, E., & White, C. (1996). Models of teaching and learning: Participation in a community of learners. In D. Olson & N.Torrance (Eds.), Handbook of education and human development: New models of learning, teaching, and schooling. London: Basil Blackwell.

(12) Rogoff, B. (1994). Developing understanding of the idea of communities of learners. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 1, 209-229.

(13) Matusov, E., & Rogoff, B. (2003). Newcomers and oldtimers: Educational philosophies-in-action of parent volunteers in a community of learners school. Anthropology & Education Quarterly.

(14) Matusov, E.L., Bell, N., & Rogoff, B. (2002). Schooling as cultural process: Working together and guidance by children from schools differing in collaborative practices. In R.V. Kail & H.W. Reese (Eds.), Advances in Child Development and Behavior (vol. 29). Academic Press.