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Heather A Ochmane-Learning Ecologies MOOC’s Updates
Situated Cognition
Situated cognition is a theory which emphasizes that people’s knowledge is constructed within and linked to the activity, context, and culture in which it was learned.
Learning is social and not isolated, as people learn while interacting with each other through shared activities and through language, as they discuss, share knowledge, and problem-solve during these tasks.
For example, while language learners can study a dictionary to increase their vocabulary, this often solitary work only teaches basic parts of learning a language; when language learners talk with someone who is a native speaker of the language, they will learn important aspects of how these words are used in the native speaker’s home culture and how the words are used in everyday social interactions.
Cognitive apprenticeship is an important aspect of situated cognition.During this social interaction between a novice learner and an expert, important skills, interactions, and experiences are shared. The novice learns from the expert as an apprentice, and the expert often passes down methods and traditions which the apprentice can learn only from the expert and which are authentic learning. This is a form of socio-cultural learning. The expert is a practitioner of the skill and tradition, meaning that they use and practice them regularly in the everyday life. The expert scaffolds the novice’s learning.
This theory has helped researchers understand more widely about how people learn because it has focused on what people learn in their everyday lives, which are authentic contexts for a variety of skills. In addition, it helps educators understand how to capitalize on knowledge and skills that their students may already possess in order to help them learn new content and skills.
Aydede, M., & Robbins, P. (Eds.). (2009). The Cambridge handbook of situated cognition. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Brown, J. S., Collins, A., & Duguid, P. (1989). Situated cognition and the culture of learning. Educational researcher, 18(1), 32-42.
Thank you for sharing this update on situated cognition. I've been trying to figure out the term to describe the phenomenon of very contextual learning that requires a certain kind of culture. The coding bootcamp I attended in-person (pre-Covid) had a very good understanding of how to build a respectful and empowering learning environment. It resulted in very productive team collaboration. However, most software companies aren't as enthusiastic about building a culture that prioritizes a shared learning experience (because it requires more human resources and a mature understanding of how to nurture developers as people and not solely just employees) and likely see less effective collaboration as a result.
This is such an interesting topic. We dived into it to great lengths in my MA in translation studies and linguistics. It is incredible how no form of information and learning can be split entirely from someone's culture, the societal background and even status. Things that I may take for granted, as I grew up with that concept or I learnt that concept through experience, will not resonate with others where that experience was never shared in their life.