Portable Learner

Activities, tasks, functions, and understandings do not exist in isolation; they are part of broader systems of relations in which they have meaning. These systems of relations arise out of and are reproduced and developed within social communities, which are in part systems of relations among persons. Learning thus implies becoming a different person with respect to the possibilities enabled by these systems of relations” (Lave & Wenger, 1991, p. 53).

That is, learning takes place in a setting functionally identical to where learning will be applied. Implications? Perceptions — not memory, not how information is processed — is the key aspect of the learning process. Context — not any internal information processing variable — is the prime influence on how those perceptions are made.

When we recognize that all learning involves socially organized activity, the question is not whether to give instruction in a ‘complex, social environment’ but what kinds of complex, social activities to arrange, fro which aspects of participation, and in what sequence to use them (Green 1997, p. 10).

What does it mean if learning is primarily a cultural phenomenon? It means cognition moves into the social and political sphere where knowledge and power, and the perspectives of critical, feminist and postmodern thinkers are relevant.

See also: Learning from experience, cf. Reflective practice, in which experience is also a catalyst for learning but most often is seen as separate from the learning process itself.

Reading:

• Anderson, J. R., Reder, L. M., & Simon, H. A. (1996). Situated learning and education. Educational Researcher, 25, 5-11. Can knowledge, especially practical knowledge, really transfer across situations?

• Barab, S. A. & S., Roth, W.-M. (2006). Intentionally-Bound Systems and Curricular-Based Ecosystems: An Ecological Perspective on Knowing. Educational Researcher, 35(5), 3-13. Text.

• Barsalou, L.W. (2010). Grounded cognition: Past, present, and future. Topics in Cognitive Science, 2, 716-724. Text.

• Barsalou, L.W. (2008). Grounded cognition. Annual Review of Psychology, 59, 617-645. Text.

• Bredo, E. (1994). Reconstructing educational psychology: Situated cognition and Deweyian pragmatism. Educational Psychologist, 29(1), 23-35. Similar paper.

• Brown, J.S., Collins, A, & Duguid, P. (1989). Situated cognition and the culture of learning, Educational Researcher, 18, 32-42. Text.

• Choi, J. & Hannafin, M. (1995) Situated cognition and learning environments: Roles, structures, and implications for design, Educational Technology Research and Design, 43(2), 53-69.

• Clancey, W. J. (1994) Situated cognition: How representations are created and given meaning. In: R. Lewis and P. Mendelsohn, (eds) Lessons from Learning. Text.

• Clancey, William J. (1997). Situated cognition: On human knowledge and computer representation. Blurb.

• Clark, Andy. (1997). Being there: Putting brain, body, and world together again.

• Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt

  • (1990). Anchored instruction and its relationship to situated cognition. Educational Researcher, 19 (6), 2-10.
  • (1993). Anchored instruction and situated cognition revisited. Educational Technology, 33, 52-70.
  • (1994). From visual word problems to learning communities: Changing conceptions of cognitive research. In K. McGilly (Ed.) Classroom lessons: Integrating cognitive theory and classroom practice.
• Cognitive Science (1993) 17(1)

• Collins, A., Brown, J. S., & Newman, S. E. (1989). Cognitive apprenticeship: Teaching the crafts of reading, writing, and mathematics. In L. B. Resnick (Ed.) Knowing, learning, and instruction: Essays in honor of Robert Glaser.

• Dent, C. (1990). An ecological approach to language development: An alternative functionalism. Developmental Psychobiology, 23(7) 670-703.

• Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and Education. Supports, but does not mention situated cognition.

• di Sessa, A. A. (1988). What will it mean to be “educated” in 2020? In R. S. Nickerson & P. P. Zodhiates (Eds.), Technology in education: Looking toward 2020.

• Engle, R. A. (2006). Framing interactions to foster generative learning: A situative explanation of transfer in a community of learners classroom. Journal of the Learning Sciences 15(4) 451-500. Text.

• Gibson, E. J., & Pick, A. D. (2000). An ecological approach to perceptual learning and development. Blurb.

• Greeno, J. G.

  • (1989). A perspective on thinking. American Psychologist, 44, 134-141.
  • (1994). Gibson’s affordances. Psychological Review, 101(2), 236-342.
  • (1997). On claims that answer the wrong question. Educational Research, 26(1), 5-17. See also rejoinders in same issue.
  • 1998). The situativity of knowing, learning, and research. American Psychologist, 53(1), 5-26.
  • (2006) Authoritative, accountable positioning and connected, general knowing: Progressive themes in understanding transfer. Journal of the Learning Sciences 15(4) 539-550.

• Hutchins, E. (1995). Cognition in the Wild, blurb.

• Kirshner, D. & Whitson, J. A. (1997) Situated Cognition: Social, semiotic, and psychological perspectives.

• Lave, J. (1988). Cognition in Practice. Blurb.

• Lave, J. & Wenger (1990). Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Practice. Blurb. Especially chapter 3.

• Markman, A. B. & Brendl, C. M. (2005). Constraining theories of embodied cognition. Psychological Science, 16(1) 6-10.

• Neidenthal, P. M. (2007). Embodying emotion. Science, 316, 1002-1005. Text.

• Robbins, P. & Aydede, M. (eds.) (2008). The Cambridge Handbook of Situated Cognition. Blurb.

• Wilson, M. (2002). Six views of embodied cognition. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 9(4), 625-636.

• Young, M. F. (1993). Instructional design for situated learning. Educational Technology Research and Development, 41(1), 33-58.

• Young, M. F. , Kulikowich, J. M., & Barab, S. A. (1997). The unit of analysis for situated assessment. Instructional Science, 25(2), 133-150.

• Young, M., & McNeese, M.(1995). A situated cognition approach to problem solving. In P. Hancock, J. Flach, J. Caid, & K. Vicente (Eds.) Local applications of the ecological approach to human machine Systems.

Acknowledgement: Picture: Double Brass Tequila! by Chris JL. Flickr. Reproduced under a Creative Commons Licence (Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic).

15 Dec 2004