School Learning Enriched by Doing: An Apprenticing Model

As an educator (Allison Balabuch) and an archaeologist (Ann Stahl), we consider how models drawn from archaeology, anthropology, and Indigenous principles of learning can help inform a shift from a “head” model of education to embodied learning through a Know-Do-Understand model. Learning in apprenticeship models has been an integral part of human history across the globe. Apprenticeship models echo Indigenous principles of learning, such as connections to place, relationality, and holistic, experiential learning. We also make a case for how learning through archaeology’s diverse and interdisciplinary subject matter can provide teachers with knowledge and skills to enrich formal classroom settings. By re-examining school pedagogy to consider models that include all of the learner—mind, body, and community—and through ongoing collaborations between archaeologists and educators, we can develop a more culturally inclusive and responsive model of education.