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Situated Learning

Definition

Situated learning is education that takes place in a setting functionally identical to that where the learning will be applied:

• Workshops, kitchens, greenhouses and gardens used as classrooms
• Stand-up role playing in the real world setting, including most military training
• 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

Often it is "just in time learning", but not always - music, sports and military training usually begin very early and continue for the whole career of the learner. And classrooms designed for situated learning are usually in use long before there is any "need" to learn the material at hand.

Lectures and conversations between participants may be involved but typically are not the only focus of attention, and are kept short. In contrast to traditional classroom or seminar teaching, situated learning assumes that ongoing processes in which one is personally and physically involved, e.g. the surrounding climate and ecosystem, the social network of others doing the same thing, alter capacity for affective learning.

A different model of situated learning is put forward by Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger (1991). They place the acquisition of Knowledge in the context of social relationships – in a Community of Practice. It is not so much that learners acquire structures or models to understand the world, but that they participate in frameworks that have a social structure.

(Wikipedia, 2006)

Notable Theorists & Theories Involving Situated Learning

• Lave, Jean 
• Wenger, E (See also: Community of Practice | Situated Cognition | Situated Learning)

Situated Learning Societies & Networks

Online Journals

• Situated Learning in Adult Education. ERIC Digest.
• New Ways of Learning in the Workplace. ERIC Digest.
• 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

See Also:

Instructional Design

Educational Technology

Transformative Learning

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