Situated learning

(highly unstable, under construction)

Definition

Meaningful learning will only take place if it is embedded in the social and physical context within which it will be used. (Brown et al 1989) according to Oliver (2000).

Learning methods that are embedded in authentic situations are not merely useful; they are essential. (Brown et al 1989).

Situated learning applied to instructional design

Here is a longer quote from Brown et al. (1989, on-line version):

Figure 3 shows how, in the terms of cognitive apprenticeship, we can represent the progress of the students from embedded activity to general principles of the culture. In this sequence, apprenticeship and coaching in a domain begin by providing modeling in situ and scaffolding for students to get started in an authentic activity. As the students gain more self-confidence and control, they move into a more autonomous phase of collaborative learning, where they begin to participate consciously in the culture. The social network within the culture helps them develop its language and the belief systems and promotes the process of enculturation. Collaboration also leads to articulation of strategies, which can then be discussed and reflected on. This, in turn, fosters generalizing, grounded in the students' situated understanding. From here, students can use their fledgling conceptual knowledge in activity, seeing that activity in a new light, which in turn leads to the further development of the conceptual knowledge.

Figure 3: Students' Progress from Embedded Activity to Generality.

 	Apprenticeship 	Collaboration 	Reflection 	 
 WORLD/ACTIVITY 				GENERALITY
 	Coaching 	Multiple practice 	Articulation

Design Implications for learning environments

Herrington and Oliver (ref?) suggest that the learning environment should:

• Provide authentic context that reflect the way the knowledge will be used in real-life
• Provide authentic activities
• Provide access to expert performances and the modelling of processes
• Provide multiple roles and perspectives
• Support collaborative construction of knowledge
• Provide coaching and scaffolding at critical times
• Promote reflection to enable abstractions to be formed
• Promote articulation to enable tacit knowledge to be made explicit
• Provide for integrated assessment of learning within the tasks.

• Situated learning is also tied to the approach of Anchored instruction which "refers to instruction in which the material to be learned is presented in the context of an authentic event that serves to anchor or situate the material and, further, allows it to be examined from multiple perspectives. (Barab 2000:5)

Examples

• [Deconstructing the Classroom: Situated learning on the Great Barrier Reef.]
• [Integrating distributed learning in work situations: A case study] by Kristian Folkman

Asan, A. (2003) School experience course with multimedia in teacher education. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning 19 (1), 21-34. doi: 10.1046/j.0266-4909.2002.02602.x [Blackwell link]

References

Barab,S.A. K. E. Hay & T.M. Duffy (2000), Grounded Constructions and How Technology Can Help, CRLT Technical Report No. 12-00, The Center for Research on Learning and Technologyn, Indiana University.

Brown, J.S., Collins, A. and Duguid, P. (1989). Situated cognition and the culture of learning. Educational Researcher, 18(1), 32-41. http://www.sociallifeofinformation.com/Situated_Learning.htm

Lave, J. and E. Wenger (1991), Situated learning. Legitimate peripheral participation, Cambridge University Press.

Oliver, R. & J. Herrington (2000), Using Situated Learning as Design Strategy for Web-Based Learning, in B. Abbey, Instructional and Cognitive Impacts of Web-Based Education, 178-191.