Situated Learning

AKA

Emplaced Learning

Focus

Individuals developing more expert skills

Principal Metaphors

  • Knowledge is … domain of expertise
  • Knowing is … social co-participation
  • Learner is … a newcomer
  • Learning is … apprenticing
  • Teaching is … mentoring

Originated

1990s

Synopsis

Originally focused on adults developing professional skills, Situated Learning is concerned with how newcomers become full participating members in established communities. Highlighting that knowing and doing are inseparable, the theory asserts that learning can be powerfully interpreted as a process of apprenticeship – that is, it should happen in context, it should involve personally meaningful and situationally legitimate tasks, it should involve community-appropriate tools and vocabulary, and it should occur under the mentorship of an expert. Prominent associated discourses include:
  • Apprenticeship – A system of on-the-job training, often occurring alongside some manner of formal study (ranging from recommended reading to required coursework). Apprenticeships are often associated with gaining licence to practice in a recognized and regulated field. Associated discourses include:
    • Apprenticeship Perspective (Educational Theory of Apprenticeship) – a translation of informal practices associated with  Apprenticeship (see above) into a formal, structured theory of education – one that eschews direct instruction and that emphasizes situated training, real tasks, and opportunities to specialize
  • Cooperative Education (Cooperative Training) (Herman Schneider, 1960s) – Significantly predating Situated Learning, Cooperative Education combines school-based and practical work experiences, typically with contexts known as “co-ops” that are designed to prepare learners to enter the job market.
  • Guided Participation (Barbara Rogoff, 1990s) – a broad category of acts and influences, both formal and informal, whereby members of a sociocultural group contribute to shaping the actions and thinking of children and other learners
  • Legitimate Peripheral Participation (Jean Lave and Eugene Wenger, 1990s) – a description of how novices, newcomers, apprentices, and initiates become part of a Community of Practice, initially taking on peripheral-but-necessary tasks and only gradually moving to more complex and consequential responsibilities
  • Maintenance Learning – activities designed to maintain the level of one’s skills and/or the currency of one’s conceptual knowledge – often as defined/required by one’s domain of engagement (e.g., profession, sport)
  • On-the-Job-Training – Asserted by some to be the most popular, widespread, and ancient approach to work apprenticeship, On-the-Job Training involves immediate and direct experiences on the worksite with the tools, materials, and tasks associated with a particular job.
  • Practice-Based Learning (Practice-Based Professional Learning) – a broad construct that is most often defined in terms of what it isn’t – namely, classroom-based and theory-based.
  • Role-Based Learning – a generic term that can be applied to the learning of skills specific to a task or job, usually undertaken in context
  • Sensory-Emplaced Learning (Vaike Fors, 2010s) – A version of Situated Learning that incorporates some principles of Embodiment Discourses, thereby attending simultaneously to the embodiment and the embeddedness of the learner.
  • Situational Awareness (Situation Awareness) (M.A. Biferno, 1980s) – colloquially, knowing what’s going on around oneself – or, more technically, conscious perception of the elements and events in one’s immediate environment, integrated sufficiently to enable informed and strategic decisions. Although preceding formal publication of Situated Learning by about a decade, Situational Awareness is sometimes mentioned as an element of, complement to, and/or aim of Situated Learning.
  • Situational Thinking – Although sometimes treated as a synonym for Situational Awareness, Situational Thinking is a more general notion. Whereas Situational Awareness applies to conscious decisions, Situational Thinking is more about the not-necessarily-conscious habits of thinking and Modes of Reasoning that are deeply embedded in experience and summoned by one’s immediate circumstances.
  • Work-Based Learning (Vocational Learning; Work-Centered Learning; Workplace Learning) (Murray Saunders, 1990s) – A model of learning that combines school-based and workplace-based experiences in the complementary development of academic/theoretical knowledge and technical/practical skills.

Commentary

As might be expected, the examples used to explicate Situated Learning are overwhelmingly drawn from professional and other adult contexts. The theory is thus most prominent in adult education, and efforts to extend its principles and recommendations to public school settings often feel strained and artificial. (Conversely, when applied to what happens in most public-school settings, Situated Learning highlights the decontextualized and impractical natures of most of what is taught.)

Authors and/or Prominent Influences

Jean Lave; Etienne Wenger

Status as a Theory of Learning

Considered as a theory of learning, Situated Learning might be characterized as a focused version of Situated Cognition, a perspective that provides modest elaborations of Socio-Cultural Theory, but it offers little new insight into the complex dynamics of knowing and learning at either individual or collective levels.

Status as a Theory of Teaching

The original authors of Situated Learning were adamant that it was not a theory of pedagogy, but it’s fair to say that the vast majority of subsequent writings have been focused much more on teaching than learning. To that end, the notion of “legitimate peripheral participation” (whereby beginners are assigned tasks that are necessary to the community, but that are low risk and relatively simple – gradually progressing toward more complex and essential duties) is perhaps the most commonly invoked pedagogical notion associated with the theory. Situated Learning is often invoked to support arguments for using tools and other technologies that are current and appropriate to school-based tasks, for formatting classroom tasks in terms of culturally relevant activity (e.g., Project-Based Learning), and for framing disciplines in terms of the work of practitioners rather than pre-established bodies of knowledge.

Status as a Scientific Theory

With regard to its minor conceptual contribution, Situated Learning satisfies our criteria of a scientific theory.

Subdiscourses:

  • Apprenticeship
  • Apprenticeship Perspective (Educational Theory of Apprenticeship)
  • Cooperative Education (Cooperative Training)
  • Guided Participation
  • Legitimate Peripheral Participation
  • Maintenance Learning
  • On-the-Job Training
  • Practice-Based Learning (Practice-Based Professional Learning)
  • Role-Based Learning
  • Sensory-Emplaced Learning
  • Situational Awareness (Situation Awareness)
  • Situational Thinking
  • Work-Based Learning (Vocational Learning; Work-Centered Learning; Workplace Learning)

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Please cite this article as:
Davis, B., & Francis, K. (2024). “Situated Learning” in Discourses on Learning in Education. https://learningdiscourses.com.


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