One problem for Situated learning is that for many types of learning, I think Cognitivism is right: effective learning does in fact require that attention be paid to the realities of working memory, long-term memory, depth of processing, and fluency. Unfortunately, the standard ways to achieve that (e.g. Retrieval practice, Deliberate practice) are usually decontextualized and hence non-authentic or “illegitimate”.
But I notice that I have some pursuits where this tension doesn’t exist, or isn’t so stark. I cook every day. I’m always interested in learning about new techniques and ingredients. Last year I wanted to practice working with more unfamiliar whole grains, so I simply decided that I’d use an unusual grain for at least one dinner each week. My nightly cooking practice provides a natural vessel for practice—note the two senses of practice, mirroring The Reflective Practitioner - Donald Schön’s observation. Critically, it’s an authentic vessel for practice. When I cook with unusual grains one night a week, I’m legitimately engaging in cooking as a situated activity; I’m not preparing for some later “real” cooking activity in a decontextualized way.
The same is true for my piano practice. I usually play for an hour a day. If I want to learn about blues forms, I’ll play twenty minutes of new blues tunes each night. If I want to work on something technical, like arpeggios, I don’t do decontextualized warm-up drills: I play music which includes those figures. Throughout all of this, I’m doing music. I’m immersing myself in the sounds and into expression—I’m not just preparing myself for some later time when I’ll do music “for real”. My hour of piano practice (“practice” in the sense of authentic participation in a discipline—my music practice) really does legitimately double as practice (“practice” in the sense of deliberate improvement—practice as in drilling scales). Probably it’s somewhat less efficient, but I’m happy with my progress. (n.b. this contradicts Typical work and performance environments don’t constitute deliberate practice, as discussed in Deliberate practice doesn’t have to be unenjoyable)
Is it possible to construct a vessel like this for other pursuits? Why does it seem difficult to do so? One key issue I notice is that most authentic creative projects have a much larger grain size. Dinner is different every night, and I’m happy to switch what I’m doing completely each night. What I’m playing at the piano can change naturally every few minutes. But if I’m trying to understand reinforcement learning, one situated way to do that might be to participate in a Kaggle competition. That’s probably a several-week project, at least. This seems pretty typical for authentic applications of conceptual knowledge. The challenge, then, is to find a way to participate legitimately in the discipline, but with small grain size.
Q. Why do I think it’s hard to replicate my naturally authentic practice vessels (piano, cooking) in other learning pursuits?
A. The natural grain size in piano/cooking is very small, so I can legitimately switch tasks regularly. That’s usually not true in authentic applications of conceptual knowledge (e.g. entering a Kaggle competition)
Two objections seem worth noting:
Related: How can I reconcile my views on inquiry learning and memory systems?