Situated Learning and Communities of Practice

Brown, Collins, & Duguid (1989) discussed the theory of situation in learning as one of the cognitive apprentice:

“Cognitive apprenticeship supports learning in a domain by enabling students to acquire, develop and use cognitive tools in authentic domain activity. Learning, both outside and inside school, advances through collaborative social interaction and the social construction of knowledge.”(Brown, et al, 1989)

Lave and Wenger first proposed this model of learning as cognitive practice, and expanded situated learning to take place within in a community of practice in 1991, which framed the process of learning within a social context. Lave and Wenger's theory of situated learning applies to learning that occurs within a social process of knowledge reconstruction within a specific context. Individuals learn by socialization, visualization, and imitation.

“Learning viewed as situation activity has as its central defining characteristic a process that we call legitimate peripheral participation. By this we mean to draw attention to the point that learners inevitably participate in communities of practitioners and that the mastery of knowledge and skill requires newcomers to move toward full participation in the sociocultural practices” (pp 29).

“…emphasize the significance of shifting the analytic focus from the individual as learner to learning as participation in the social world, and from the concept of cognitive process to the more-encompassing view of social practices” (pp 43)

“…a theory of social practice emphasizes the relational interdependence of agent and world, activity, meaning, cognition, learning, and knowing It emphasizes the inherently socially negotiated character of meaning and the interested party, concerned character of the thought and action of person-in-activity” (pp 50-51)

“Thus we have begun to analyze the changing forms of participation and identity of person who engage in sustained participation in a community of practice: from entrance as a newcomer, through becoming an old-timer with respect to new newcomers, to a point when those newcomers themselves become old-times. Rather than a teacher/learner dyad, this points to a richly diverse field of essential actors and, with it, other forms of relationships of participation” (pp 56).

Lave and Wenger seem to see conflicts in the introduction of new practices in the community and the replacement of masters by apprentices over time. However, this seems an important practice when knowledge is changing, new knowledge is being discovered, and understanding of that knowledge is evolving.

Lave and Wenger argue that informal learning is defined as learning that takes place through 'observation and imitation'. Instead, they refute the notion of informal learning and define learning as taking place through participation.:

"To begin with, newcomers' legitimate peripherality provides them with more than an 'observational' lookout post: It crucially involves participation as a way of learning - of both absorbing and being absorbed in - the 'culture of practice' (p. 95)."(Lave and Wenger, 1998)

The apprentice spends a long time in the period of what Lave and Wenger refer to as 'legitimate peripheral participation'. The examples of apprenticeship provided by L&W intertwine learning and the work practices in the community. Their details of apprenticeship include five studies of participation including Yucatan Mayan midwives, Vai and Gola tailors, naval quartermasters, butchers, and non-drinking alcoholics.

In the apprenticeship period, the apprentice begins to understand the general workings of the community of practice. This understanding may include specifics of what members of the community do, how they talk about what they do, how outsiders interact with the community, what learners do, and what learners need to do to become full practicing members of the community. (L&W, p. 95)

Learners can only become full members of the community if they have access to the 'old timers' in the community, as well as information about community activity and resources. (L&W pp. 100-101) Full membership also includes understanding the 'technology of practice', understanding community artifacts (p. 102)

In the concluding chapter of their book on situated learning, Lave and Wenger state:

"The person has been correspondingly transformed into a practitioner, a newcomer becoming an old-timer, whose changing knowledge, sill, and discourse are part of a developing identity - in short, a member of a community of practice. This idea of identity/membership is strongly tied to a conception of motivation. If the person is both member of a community and agent of activity, the concept of the person closely links meaning and action in the world (p. 122)."

· "Situated learning activity has been transformed into legitimate peripheral participation in communities of practice (p. 122)."

· "Knowing is inherent in the growth and transformation of identities and it is located in relations among practitioners, their practice, the artifacts of that practice, and the social organization and political economy of communities of practice (p. 122)."

· "In addition to forms of membership and construction of identities, these terms and questions include the location and organization of mastery in communities; problems of power, access, and transparency; developmental cycles of communities of practice; change as part of what it means to be a community of practice; and its basis in the contradiction between continuity and displacement (p. 123)."


In brief, situated learning theory as described by Lave and Wenger describes learning as unintentional and situated within authentic activity and culture through social interaction and collaboration.

Key words: Legitimate Peripheral Participation (LPP), Cognitive Apprenticeship, situated learning, community of practice (COP), apprenticeship

Bibliography
Brown, J.S., Collins, A. & Duguid, S. (1989). Situated cognition and the culture of learning. Educational Researcher, 18(1), 32-42.
Lave, J. (1988). Cognition in Practice: Mind, mathematics, and culture in everyday life. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1990). Situated Learning: Legitimate Periperal Participation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Lave, J. and Wenger, E., Situated Learning-Legitimate Peripheral Participation, Cambridge University Press, 1991. (paper)
Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1998). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. New York: Cambridge University Press.(book)