Situated Learning and Cognition

In 1989 Brown, Collins, and Duguid presented the model for situated cognition, or situated learning thought their article entitled: ‘situated cognition and the culture of learning’, drawing upon work done by Vygotsky, Leontiev, Dewey, and Jean Lave (Herrigton and Oliver, 1995, n.p). Brown, Duguid and Collins (1989; cited in Herrigton & Oliver, 1995, n.p) advocate that ‘meaningful learning will only take place if it is embedded in the social and physical context within which it will be used’. The model for situated learning opposes common classroom learning practices where knowledge is usually disassociated with the authentic context. The situational approach to learning posits that learning is inherently social in nature and is shaped by the nature of the interactions among learners, the tools they use within these interactions, the activity itself, and the social context in which the activity takes place (Hashmann, 2001). This definition is not as vague as it sounds when it is seen in conjunction with the concept of community of practice. The concept of a community of practice is closely related to the model of situated cognition and is used to describe a learning situation where the construction of knowledge is the result of a social procedure where ideas are shared and contextualised activities take place (Roschelle, 1995). From a situated view, people learn as they participate and become intimately involved with a community or culture of learning, interacting with the community, and learning to understand and participate in its history, assumptions, and cultural values and rules (Lave and Wenger, 1991; Fenwick, 2000). When students first enter a community of practice they act as observers; gradually they give up the observer’s role and they move from the periphery of the community to its centre developing their identity and acting as fully functioning members (Herrigton and Oliver, 1995). Rogoff (1993; 1995) exemplifies this fact by stating that ‘learning is situated in interactions among peripheral participants and full participants in a community of meaning’. According to Lave (1996, cited in Hansman (2001, p.46) ‘real-world contexts, where there are social relationships and tools, make the best learning environments’. These learning environments are seen to feature the following characteristics (Herrigton and Oliver, 1995; McLelan, 1991):

 Provision of authentic context that reflects real-life  Engagement in authentic activities  Participation in communities of experts; access to expert performances and the modelling of processes  Promotion of collaborative construction of knowledge  Promotion of reflection to enable abstractions to be formed  Coaching/scaffolding when needed or at critical points  Addressing multiple perspectives and roles  Assessment within the authentic task  Opportunities for articulation for enabling tacit knowledge to be made explicit

The characteristics of situated learning ‘can be examined within a framework of the roles and responsibilities of three mutually constitutive elements of the learning process: the learner, the implementation, and the interactive multimedia program’ (Herrington and Oliver, 1995, n.p) (Figure 36). Herrington and Oliver (1995) advocate that this framework with the three interrelated and overlapping elements can inform the instructional design of interactive multimedia and other tools (Herrington and Oliver, 1995, n.p)