Situated Cognition
This is an excerpted from a wiki I created a couple of semesters ago:
“Situated Cognition takes its name from the idea that learning takes place as learners interact with one another and the world around them. That is, learning is a product of the activity or situation in which learning is developed and applied. Jean Lave who is one of the pioneers of this theory and coined the phrase “situated cognition” described this process as, the “nexus of relations between the mind at work and the world in which it works” (Lave, 1988, p.1). From a situated cognition point of view it’s impossible to separate what’s being learned from the learner, and the context in which learning takes place.
Maybe the simplest summation of Situated Cognition is “learning in doing” or “in the moment” rather than when we are removed from the moment or situation, like in a classroom where traditionally learning is designed to take place in our head” (Situated Cognition & Communities of Practice).
The challenge for a teacher is to create the kind of “real life” context where learning can be best effectuated which is often tough to do within the classroom.
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Submitted by Brian Allred on Wed, 07/08/2009 - 10:25pm
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Hi Brian,
I like your explaination on Situated Cognition. "Learning is doing" should be laid more importance. However, it is hard for teachers to apply Situated Cognition to daily teaching. Because of the limitations of time, energy and fund, there are so many activities which we could create but could not realize. For example, in Geography class, the best way to effectuate students learning is to show them the real geograghic phenomena, such as landform and the category of rocks, but it is not practical to take field trips very often. What I am trying to express is for we teachers, we should creat the most effective activity to effectuate learning base on existing conditions.