Situated learning

• Perhaps most canonically represented by Situated Learning - Lave and Wenger
• Expressed more moderately in The Reflective Practitioner - Donald Schön
• Allied educational philosophies / methods: Constructivism (esp. radical constructivism), Anchored instruction, Cognitive apprenticeship
• Criticism
  • John Anderson / Reder / Herb Simon anti-situationist/Constructivism flame war:
  • Anderson, J. R., Reder, L. M., & Simon, H. A. (1995). Applications and Misapplications of Cognitive Psychology to Mathematics Education
  • Anderson, J. R., Reder, L. M., & Simon, H. A. (1996). Situated Learning and Education. Educational Researcher, 25(4), 5–11
  • Greeno, J. G. (1997). On Claims That Answer the Wrong Questions. Educational Researcher, 26(1), 5–17
  • Anderson, J. R., Reder, L. M., & Simon, H. A. (1997). Situative Versus Cognitive Perspectives: Form Versus Substance. Educational Researcher, 26(1), 18–21
  • Anderson, J. R., Reder, L. M., Simon, H. A., Ericsson, K. A., & Glaser, R. (1998). Radical Constructivism and Cognitive Psychology. Brookings Papers on Education Policy, 1, 227–278
  • Kirschner, P. A., Sweller, J., & Clark, R. E. (2006). Why Minimal Guidance During Instruction Does Not Work: An Analysis of the Failure of Constructivist, Discovery, Problem-Based, Experiential, and Inquiry-Based Teaching. Educational Psychologist, 41(2), 75–86
• Observations
  • Some activities (piano, cooking) offer a situated venue for targeted practice activities
  • Enabling environments focus on doing what’s enabled