Situated learning was first proposed by Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger as a model of learning in a Community of practice. At its simplest, Situated Learning is learning that takes place in the same context in which it is applied. Lave and Wenger (1991)[1] argue that learning should not be viewed as simply the transmission of abstract and decontextualised knowledge from one individual to another, but a social process whereby knowledge is co-constructed; they suggest that such learning is situated in a specific context and embedded within a particular social and physical environment.
Lave and Wenger assert that situated learning "is not an educational form, much less a pedagogical strategy" ([1], p.40). However, since their writing, others have advocated different pedagogies that include situated activity:
- Workshops, kitchens, greenhouses and gardens used as classrooms
- Stand-up role playing in the real world setting, including most military training (much of which, though, takes a behaviorist approach)
- Field trips including archaeological digs and participant-observer studies in an alien culture
- On the job training including apprenticeship and Cooperative education
- Sports practice and music practice and art are situated learning by definition, as the exact actions in the real setting are those of practice - with the same equipment or instruments
Many of the original examples from Lave and Wenger[1] concerned adult learners, and situated learning still has a particular resonance for adult education. For example, Hansman[2] shows how adult learners discover, shape, and make explicit their own knowledge through situated learning within a community of practice.
See also
- Cognitive apprenticeship
- Communities of practice
- Educational technology
- Instructional design
- Situated cognition
- Transformative learning
References
- ^ a b c Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger (1991) Situated Learning. Legitimate peripheral participation, Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press
- ^ Chris Kimble and Paul Hildreth (2008). Communities of Practice: Creating Learning Environments for Educators. Information Age Publishing. ISBN 1593118635.
- Situated Learning in Adult Education. ERIC Digest.
- New Ways of Learning in the Workplace. ERIC Digest.
External links
- The Odyssey of Ph.D. Students Becoming a Community of Practice
- Probationary Constables and their journey through a community of practice
- Learning Inquiry: an academic journal centered on learning
- Leonard Low and Margaret O'Connell (2006) Learner-Centric Design of Digital Mobile Learning Brisbane: Queensland University of Technology
- Foulger, T.S. (2005). Innovating Professional Development Standards: A Shift to Utilize Communities of Practice. Essays in Education, 14. Retrieved Nov 11, 2007, from http://www.usca.edu/essays/vol14summer2005.html
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