Situated Learning Framework Research Articles

Hybrid-mentoring Programs for Beginning Elementary Science Teachers

This study examines four induction models and teacher changes in science teaching practices, as a result of several mentoring programs. It explores three different computer-mediated mentoring programs, and a traditional offline induction programâ€qin terms of interactivity, inquiry-based teaching, and topics of knowledge. Fifteen elementary science teachersâ€qeleven new teachers and four experienced science teachers â€qwere assigned to and participated in, one of the four induction programs for five months: a Virtual Reality (VRG), a Wiki (WKG), a hand-held digital device (HDG), and a general group (GG). Data was collected by archiving written dialogues, snapshots and field notes of avatar interactions, monthly open-ended questionnaires, weekly journal reflections, science lesson plans, mentor/teacher field notes, student artifacts, and video-recording science teaching in classrooms. Using a case study through a time-order display strategy and utilizing situated learning framework, the findings indicate that the beginning teachers in each induction program had their own unique way of professionally interacting with their mentors. Except for the teachers in the GG, the new teachers were able to establish their own platforms for inquiry-based, student-centered teaching, improving not only their pedagogical content knowledge but also their confidence in teaching science. This study further discusses the importance of meaningful social engagements between mentors and mentees, as well as how these social engagements benefit new teachers becoming inquiry-based teachers and developing healthy communities of practice.

Bringing context and structure back into situated learning

Practice-based studies have progressed thinking in the knowledge, learning and innovation fields by emphasizing the continual negotiation of social structures and meaning through participation. Yet, only a few contributions discuss how participation and learning are affected by broader structures. This is an inconsistency in the understanding of ‘situated’ learning where learning through participation is restricted to the immediate community involved in a social activity. We aim to address this inconsistency by investigating the effects of the interplay between institutional and organizational structures on patterns of participation and, in turn, learning outcomes. We develop a framework of situated learning in multinational enterprises, and explore its value through a comparative case study of the introduction of new practices in four subsidiaries of two multinational enterprises in two contrasting national institutional systems.In contrast to older views, our case findings suggest that while the interplay between institutional context and organizational structure indeed matters, it does not determine collective participation and situated learning as actors can actively create solutions when structural conditions and institutioanl demands are less aligned.

Developing a community of thinking: assessment of environmental education

This paper discusses an oral assessment intervention in environmental education at two tertiary institutions in South Africa. A qualitative study grounded in a social constructivist framework, the inquiry locates learning and assessment of environmental education based on practical activities and first‐hand experience within the framework of situated learning, and explores processes of constructing and assessing knowledge within the learner's community of practice. The paper focuses on how communities of practice can be used as a possible learning approach in environmental education to address the diversity and challenges of classrooms, and on the efficacy of oral assessments structured to encourage thinking through dialog in such settings.

Developing a community of thinking in biological sciences

Globally, higher education institutions areconstantly challenged to respond to changes in the political, social, economic,environment and other sectors in terms of their teaching practices. But, aretertiary institutions responding adequately and appropriately to thesechallenges in terms of Biological Sciences, their applications and their effecton the environment? The purpose of thispaper is to discuss an instruction and assessment strategy in Biology toenhance eco-education. This paper is based on a study that recognises the significance andimpact of education and (by implication) assessment in Biological Sciences onthe environment. This paper therefore reports on an oral assessmentintervention in Biology at two tertiary institutions in South Africa based on “practical activities and first hand experience”emphasized by The 1975Belgrade and Tbilisi international agreements(UNESCO-UNEP 1976, 1978). Grounded in asocial-constructivist framework, this qualitative study located learning andassessment in Biology within the framework of situated learning which focusedon the construction and assessment of knowledge within the learner’s communityof practice.

Teaching Replays, Teaching Rehearsals, and Re-Visions of Practice: Learning from Colleagues in a Mathematics Teacher Community

Background/ContextResearch shows that teachers’ understandings of students, subject, and teaching influence their classroom practice. Additionally, teachers’ colleagues have a role in shaping individuals’ approaches to teaching and their responses to reform.Focus of StudyTo understand how interactions with colleagues support teachers’ informal learning, I examined teachers’ collegial conversations in a highly collaborative teacher community.SettingThis research took place within a collaborative, improvement-oriented urban high school mathematics department that showed evidence of increasing access to and rigor in its curriculum.ParticipantsSix high school mathematics teachers and the researcher as a participant observer worked together in a group focusing on detracking ninth-grade algebra classes.Research DesignThis 2-year ethnographic study went inside the teacher community, with the researcher teaching alongside the teachers to gain access to their interactions and workings.Data Collection and AnalysisApproximately 100 hours of teachers’ collaborative conversations were observed and recorded through audio- and videotape and field notes. Using a situated learning framework and sociolinguistic analyses, I examined teacher-to-teacher talk that constituted episodes of pedagogical reasoning (EPRs) to understand how collegial conversations provide resources for teacher learning.FindingsAcross EPRs, two forms of discourse were important sites for representing, and sometimes learning about, teaching practice, which I call teaching replays and teaching rehearsals. Extended replays or rehearsals supported a re-visioning routine, interactions in which teachers elaborated, reconsidered, or revised their understanding of complex teaching situations while providing particular, emotionally involving accounts of the classroom. The examination of these interactions further specifies conditions that support teachers’ collegial learning.ConclusionsTheoretically, this article illustrates a process of learning as recontextualiza-tion, as the teachers work between general teaching principles and specific occurrences in their classrooms. Practically, by highlighting the work that teachers do to make sense of innovative practices, this analysis provides a description of how collegial conversations can support teachers’ informal learning, supporting the development of professional communities.

Doctoral supervision: facilitating access to a community of research practice?

Supervision lies at the heart of PhD pedagogy, but the focus has been on improving efficiency and completion rates of the PhD process rather than theorising about the nature of the postgraduate supervision process. The study explores the usefulness of situated learning as a theoretical framework for thinking about PhD pedagogy. In the process, Petersen's conception of supervision as boundary work is investigated: the study considers the extent to which the construct of the supervisor as facilitator of the negotiation of the boundaries around the research community of practice gives helpful insights. Six PhD supervisors from an engineering department at a research intensive South African university were interviewed, using a semi-structured interview guide. Thirteen of their PhD students completed an open-ended questionnaire. The transcribed interviews and the questionnaires were analysed to identify categories relating to the elements of the situated learning framework. Conference participation and paper publication are explored as legitimate peripheral activities in which PhD students participate in order to gain access to the community. An important result uncovered in the study is the high premium placed on the PhD student's ability to work independently. This insistence on autonomy set up tension with the different elements of the situated learning framework. The study also hinted at issues of power possibly linked to the matter of ‘competent autonomy’ prized in doctoral students. This possibly presents the greatest constraint for the use of situated learning as a theoretical framework, and some suggestions are made for mitigating this limitation.

Becoming eco‐responsible, active citizens through participation in the eco ambassadors project – a reflective analysis

This article offers a reflective analysis of the Eco Ambassadors Project as an example of the some of the ways in which learning about environmental issues and active citizenship can be encouraged and enabled through collaboration and negotiated participation. Some policy background to the project is given, followed by a critical consideration of the theoretical framework of situated learning; participation in a community of practice is then presented in relation to the project, alongside theories of citizenship. Three activities undertaken during the project are highlighted and these are critically examined in relation to the theories under consideration. The paper argues that the theoretical framework of learning by participation can usefully augment and help better explain how learners develop their identities as citizens, and that through participation people can become active members of communities that are environmentally and politically aware.

On Its Way to K–12 Classrooms, Web 2.0 Goes to Graduate School

ABSTRACT As corporate and higher education settings increasingly use Web 2.0 tools, the time has come to think about preparing K–12 in-service teachers to find ways in which these tools might support classroom teaching and learning goals. This article describes a graduate course designed and taught in spring 2007. Using a modeling and situated learning framework, the article discusses Web 2.0 tools, K–12 education, and the course design. It also presents a summary of course participants’ survey responses concerning their perceptions of their learning experience. Survey responses demonstrated that teacher-learners appreciated and endorsed the design of the course and felt their learning experiences scaffolded their ability to use Web 2.0 tools in their classroom and school context. The article concludes with several design recommendations and examples of classroom applications.

A Child's Development of Interactional Competence in a Swedish L2 Classroom

This study explores a child's emergent second language (L2) interactional competence during her first year in a Swedish immersion classroom. Within the theoretical framework of situated learning, it focuses on how she acquires expertise in a specific classroom practice: multiparty classroom talk. The data cover three periods (the early, middle, and late phases) of her first school year. The methods adopted combine a microanalytic approach with ethnographic fieldwork analyses of L2 socialization within a classroom community. The analyses revealed systematic changes in the novice's interactional engagements. An interplay of language skills and turn‐taking skills influenced her participation in multiparty talk during the three periods, casting her as (a) a silent child, (b) a noisy and loud child, and (c) a skillful student. These changes indicate that learning cannot be seen as the unilinear development of a single learner identity. It is argued that a detailed longitudinal analysis may provide important insights into the relationship between participation and L2 learning. Instead of unilinear development of a single learner identity, we may find different participation patterns linked to distinct language learning affordances over time.

“It’s Hard Answering Your Calling”: Teacher Teams in a Restructuring Urban Middle School

Considered a successful university-operated, urban middle school serving an overwhelmingly African American student body, “Charter” Middle School was dechartered suddenly, then merged a year later with students from a neighborhood school to become “Choice” Middle School, a school of choice in the urban district. Using a situated learning framework and an ethnographic methodology, this paper examines teacher teams in the school—one aspect of the schooling model the urban district promised to continue—before and after restructuring. Charter was almost a textbook case of a professional learning community before restructuring, but after restructuring leadership lacked a deep understanding of the interconnected nature of the model of schooling and of teacher teams’ function therein. Over time, teacher teams lost their place in and importance to the school’s operation. In particular, the school lost teacher empowerment, focus on all students, and communication within the building and between school and families. Restructuring destabilized reform and diminished the likelihood that teachers could meet the needs of students. Implications for teacher teams in middle grades education during times of administrative change and school restructuring are discussed.

Content-Focused Technology Inquiry Groups: Cases of Teacher Learning and Technology Integration

Guided by a situated learning framework, this research examines the nature of teachers' technology learning when participating in a content-focused technology inquiry group, the ways teachers integrate what they learn into content-specific student learning activities, and how situated features of the learning context influence teacher learning. Longitudinal case studies of participating middle-school teachers reveal individual learning and technology integration accomplishments that were also inextricably linked to the group. The distributed nature of technology learning and integration evidenced in the cases raised the issue of whether teachers need to learn to operate the technology in order to integrate technology for student learning and the issue of sustainability when there is high reliance on participants outside the school organization during learning. The peer-supported learning also raised the wider societal issue about the role of teachers and highlighted the modest existence of professional learning communities in educational institutions. We recommend establishing technology inquiry groups within K-12 school settings and in teacher education courses.

Problems and Barriers in Children's Learning When They Transit From Kindergarten to Kindergarten Class in School

SUMMARYStarting school can take the character of a culture shock, thus a series of so-called transition activities has been carried out in order to bridge kindergarten and school. However, a case study on four children's transition from kindergarten to school expressed a paradox. Though these children had been involved in transition activities and also appropriated a foundation of basic competencies they were not able to make use of these in the school environment. This may be understood in a theoretical framework of situated learning and calls for a new educational practice, both in kindergarten and in school.

An instructional design framework for authentic learning environments

The instructional technology community is in the midst of a philosophical shift from a behaviorist to a constructivist framework, a move that may begin to address the growing rift between formal school learning and real-life learning. One theory of learning that has the capacity to promote authentic learning is that of situated learning. The purpose of this three-part study was first, to identify critical characteristics of a situated learning environment from the extensive literature base on the subject; second, to operationalize the critical characteristics of a situated learning environment by designing a multimedia program that incorporated the identified characteristics; and third, to investigate students' perceptions of their experiences using a multimedia package based on a situated learning framework. The learning environment, for preservice teachers, comprised a multimedia program on assessment in mathematics together with recommended implementation conditions for the classroom. Eight students were observed and interviewed to explore their perceptions of the situated learning environment. Findings suggest that the use of the situated learning framework provided effective instructional design guidelines for the design of an environment for the acquisition of advanced knowledge.

Multimedia and student activity: An interpretive study using VideoSearch

<span>The allocation of time to different student activities in formal university settings, has been a subject of interest to researchers in recent years. As part of an interpretive study into how students use interactive multimedia, small groups of students were videotaped using an interactive multimedia program based upon a framework of situated learning. The purpose of the study was to determine whether students spent the major part of their time attending to the program-as some studies suggest this is common in tertiary education settings-or whether they actively participated in the learning process.</span><p>The data was analysed using <em>VideoSearch</em>, a software program which facilitates analysis of qualitative data by coding excerpts of videotaped material into user-defined categories. The program enables coding from a digitised video source by selecting a segment of the video and attaching a category to it. The findings of the study suggest that an interactive multimedia program based on a situated learning model is conducive to promoting important student activities such as articulation and reflection.</p>

Situated Learning as a Model for the Design of an Interactive Multimedia Program on Medication Administration for Nurses

SUMMARY According to Collins (1988), the perspective taken by advocates of the situated learning model, as a basis for instruction, is that knowledge and skills should be acquired in contexts that reflect the ways in which that knowledge will be useful in a real life situation. This case study examines the use of a situated learning framework for the design of an interactive multimedia program on medication administration for nursing students. The key aspects of this framework which could be incorporated into the multimedia design were: (1) authentic contexts that reflect the way knowledge is used in real life; (2) authentic activities which learners would engage in during their career roles; (3) access to expert performance and modelling of the processes involved; and (4) opportunities for students to reflect on their learning. The outcomes of the project are briefly discussed.