Academic Technology is a university-wide resource that provides guidance and professional advice on using instructional technology in support of teaching and The Nature of Situated Learning research initiatives. Through on-site consultations, AT’s three By Paula Vincini groups—Curricular Technol0gies, n 1929 in The Aims of Education and Other Essays, noted British mathematician, logician Faculty Development and and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead protested against the way students were taught Support, and Research and I“inert” knowledge that proved useless to them when they needed to transfer it to real life problem solving. Situated learning theory provides an antidote to this type of education. Scientific Computing—work The theory behind situated learning or situated cognition arises from the fields of psychology, with the schools and faculty anthropology, sociology, and cognitive science. The seminal paper “Situated Cognition and the on how to integrate technology Culture of Learning” (www.ilt.columbia.edu/ilt/papers/JohnBrown.html) by John Seely Brown, Allan Collins, and Paul Duguid brought situated cognition to the forefront as an emerging instruction to further their educational model. In this paper, the authors criticize public schooling for separating the “knowing and doing” and research objectives. and for treating knowledge “as an integral, self-sufficient substance, theoretically independent of the situations in which it is learned and used.” Editorial Team Other theorists (Jean Lave, Etienne Wenger, Lev Vygotsky, John Dewey, and J. G. Greeno) associated with situated learning theory argue that knowledge must be taught in context and not in the abstract. Pauline Stieff Learners must use tools as practitioners use them and become “cognitive apprentices” in that Grants Specialist, AT discipline’s community and its culture. Paula Vincini The social interaction that occurs in communities of practice between experts and novices is crucial Instructional Design to the theory of situated cognition or learning. In Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Specialist, AT Participation, Lave and Wenger emphasize that novices begin learning by observing members of the Rebecca Sholes community and then slowly move from the periphery of the community to fully participating members. Faculty Development What does this mean for the design of instruction? Coordinator, AT t Learning is driven and best presented through realistic and complex problems that allow Joyita Ghosh learners to learn to think and practice like experts in the field. Volunteer, AT t Content is learned through activities that help solve the problems and not from “packages” Genevieve Haas of information organized by instructors. Freelance Writer t The instructor’s role moves from providing and structuring the information and knowledge Daniel Cogan-Drew through lectures and presentations to modeling, coaching, and scaffolding learners as they Technology Coordinator, use information and create knowledge to solve contextual real-life problems. Education Department t Situated learning environments must support active engagement, discussion, evaluation and Heather Townsend reflective thinking. Activities and assignments are often collaborative and group-based. Freelance Designer Instructional technologies can assist faculty with implementing situated learning and supporting David Kahle cognitive apprenticeships. Examples include simulations, online interactive case studies, and Director, AT Web-based learning environments. Paula Vincini is an instructional designer with over 20 years of teaching and training experience in post-secondary education. E-Government: A Course URLs for Situated Learning in Situated Learning The following resources provide extensive coverage of the history of situated learning and how it supports the development of an effective By Rebecca Sholes learning environment. In situated learning, students learn content through immersion in the activities of their discipline of study. During the fall of 2002, political science and engineering students in the new A Tutorial on Situated Learning undergraduate course, “E-Government,” examined the content This tutorial provides a historical and design of municipal government websites and thereby studied perspective of situated learning the strengths and weaknesses of online government resources. including the work of Vygotsky http://cogprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/ Co-taught by Political Science Professor Kent Portney and Dewey, Ryle, and Lave, along archive/00000323/00/139.htm Professor Anselm Blumer of the Electrical Engineering and with discussions about facets of Computer Science Department, this course used muni- Transfer Research and implications cipal websites as the vehicle for getting students to of situated learning for organiza- think more directly about the situational factors tional learning. municipal officials face. Portney explains, “given Interview all the considerations at work in municipal Situated Cognition and government, the students will decide how the Learning power of the web can best be brought to bear on From the book MITECS: The MIT making government work better.” http://cognet.mit.edu/MITECS/ Encyclopedia of the Cognitive Entry/seifert Students met twice per week for lecture and Sciences that represents the discussion with Portney and once per week for a methodological and theoretical computer lab with Blumer. In the lecture classes, diversity of cognitive sciences. students examined the existing academic literature and research on e-government issues and how well the basic principles and practices of web site design work Situated Cognition and for the municipal web site genre. Blumer taught students to Problem-Based Learning: prepare a detailed design document and to program a website. Implications for Learning and Students were divided into integrated teams that included both Instruction with Technology political science and engineering students, ensuring each group The author reviews the connection www.aace.org/dl/files/JILR/ had both technical and content expertise for the project. Each between situated cognition and JILR134393.pdf team had to choose a web site from a U.S. city with a population problem-based learning and of more than 70,000, analyze it, and, finally, build their own discusses their implications to improved version of the site. By working on different cities, Portney learning and instruction with explains, the students were able to compare and contrast forms of technology. government and to see the variations. “This ability to compare and contrast information is the heart of the social sciences.” Towards a New Tradition of This is the first Political Science Online Instruction: Using course to offer students an Situated Learning Theory to explicitly practical experience. Develop Web-based Units Experiential learning usually The article highlights various www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/ means involving students in design guidelines, based on coffs00/papers/jan_herrington.pdf research. However, as Portney situated learning theory, as a points out, the interdisciplinary framework for an instructional nature of the course was differ- approach to course units on ent. By coupling technology the web. with political science content, the course reached students from two very different disci- What Service-Learning Can plines, enabling them to work Learn from Situated Learning on a common problem, to learn from each other and to draw Larry Wolfson and John Willinsky upon their different areas of expertise. Non-technical students discuss why the theory and had the opportunity to learn web authoring tools while experi- practice of situated learning www.educ.ubc.ca/faculty/ctg/ encing a unique public service learning context. Also, technical forms an appropriate model research/service.htm students who might not otherwise be interested in public affairs for focusing attention on the or becoming civically engaged learned about public service. learning claims of service-learning, and for guiding research into Rebecca Sholes is the Faculty Development Coordinator in Academic its effectiveness. Technology and a graduate of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Instructional Strategies Compiled by Paula Vincini Article Review These instructional strategies are adapted from Critical Characteristics of Situated Learning (www.ascilite.org.au/ conferences/melbourne95/smtu/papers/herrington.pdf). “Smart People or Smart case that, in a real-world Situated Learning will: Contexts? Cognition, Ability, context, knowledge is more t Provide an authentic context with authentic activities that and Talent Development in an usefully understood as “knowing reflects the way knowledge in your discipline will be used Age of Situated Approaches to about” something. Ecological in real-life. Knowing and Learning” psychology holds that perception t depends on the environment, or Provide access to expert performances and the modeling of by Sasha Barab, appearing in the “ecosystem,” rather than processes, as well as promoting the articulation of tacit Educational Psychologist, 2002 knowledge to be made explicit. the individual. Given this, Traditionally—and universally, cognition is “situated,” or t Provide multiple roles and perspectives. according to Sasha Barab, a viewed in terms of the “rela- t Support collaboration in the construction of knowledge. leading researcher in situated tionship between the learners t Build in reflection opportunities to enable abstractions from learning—cognition