Situated Learning

This book argues that thinking is bounded by neither the brain nor the skin of an organism. Cognitive systems function through integration of neural and bodily functions with the functions of representational vehicles. The integrationist position offers a fresh contribution to the emerging embodied and embedded approach to the study of mind.

Both science and technology education have a commitment to teaching process; investigations or scientific method in science, design in technology, and problem solving in both areas. The separate debates in science and technology education reveal different curricular emphases in processes and content, reflecting different goals, and pedagogic and educational research traditions. This paper explores these differences and argues that each curriculum area can learn from the other. Despite the interest in processes, problem solving remains neglected in each area, particularly with respect to empirical accounts of student problem-solving activities and the supporting pedagogy. This paper draws on the situated learning and social constructivist literature to provide insights into problem solving in technology education. The research reported here, gives accounts of the problem-solving strategies of English secondary school students. These strategies represent their responses to technology activities and the learning environment created by teachers.

Creative choice is an individual act. As in other fields such as filmmaking, dance creation is based on a cognItive dualism that considers the choreographer as the creative decision-maker, while the dancer is objectified. The dancer’s body is an instrument for exploration of the choreographer’s imagery. We claim that the products of creativity are minute but crucial modifications of transitory stages of a dance rehearsal. On the one hand, attention is given to a dance company as a distributed cognitive system. The choreographer communicates in diverse modalities, which carry specific information, physical as well as symbolic. Through the analysis of an audiovisual and cognitive ethnography with ELAN software we find differences in decision-making patterns across multimodal instructions. On the other hand, we apply Social Network Analysis and UCINET software as a methodological innovation in order to formalize data from observed rehearsal settings. In all, the choice of modalities in the chorographical instruction shapes movement production, which is based on dyads, triads and other forms of creative interaction.

Recent research into the acquisition of spoken langu age has stressed the importance of learning through embodie d linguistic interaction with caregivers rather than through passive observation. However the necessity of inter action makes experimental work into the simulation of infa nt speech acquisition difficult because of the technical comp lexity of building real-time embodied systems. In this paper we present KLAIR: a software toolkit for building simulations o f spoken language acquisition through interactions with a vi rtual infant. The main part of KLAIR is a sensori-motor server tha t supplies a client machine learning application with a virtual infant on screen that can see, hear and speak. By en capsulating the real-time complexities of audio and video proce ssing within a server that will run on a modern PC, we hop e that KLAIR will encourage and facilitate more experimental research into spoken language acquisition through interaction. Index Terms : speech acquisition,...

In this indirect augmented reality system we have reconstructed about 1 km of the Via Appia Antica with three time periods represented: 320 CE, 71 BCE, and 49 BCE. This situated simulation explores the notion of narrative movement and travel across space and time in a cultural heritage context. The transitions between the temporal phases are triggered by the users active repositioning on location. Included in the system is also a quiz consisting of verbal and image–based alternatives to a variety of questions related to the information provided in the virtual environments. We describe the main elements of the simulation, its technical solution and production, as well as the feedback from real users testing on location. We close with a reflection on the multimodal quiz and how it relates to memory and learning.

The design of learning materials using interactive multimedia (IMM) provides scope for many different forms of instructional settings. Much of the learning potential of IMM materials is derived from the interactivity that is supported and the resulting levels of cognitive engagement of the learners. There are, however, many instructional design strategies that can be used for developing IMM materials, some of which are clearly less effective than others in providing the forms of learning environment required for effective teaching and ...

Radicalisation, extremism and terrorism take places as responses to a broader societal context of macro social and political moves, both nationally and internationally. Engaging in an extremist group makes an individual changes, because he or she creates an identity relevant to the world of the particular group he or she is involved in. This causes some to need support after they disengage in order to deradicalise and develop new social skills and identities. The complex process that follows their disengagement into the development of an alternative identity is the subject of this thesis.
Several studies focus on the conditions under which individuals involved in terrorism disengage, providing insight into exit programmes and the need for them, as well as discuss the different approaches used in a rehabilitation effort of (former) terrorists or extremists. This study moves a step further as the thesis adds insight into individuals’ disengagement and deradicalisation processes, by investigating the ways in which participation and social interaction embedded in the Swedish exit programme cause individuals to alter their identity. It thus provides a detailed analysis of the demanding psychological process, which former extremists go through, supported by the exit programme after they have left an extremist group. The study is anthropological and based on fieldwork carried out at EXIT, a Swedish organisation providing support to individuals seeking to leave the extremist right. EXIT uses former right-wing extremists as mentors, who, based on therapeutic dialogue and activities, support their mentees - right-wing extremists wanting to leave the extremist right - in developing alternative world views, ways of self-understanding and identities.

The paper draws upon empirical material from a two year qualitative research project. The paper briefly outlines the key research questions, research design and data collection strategies. The following sections draw on observational, interview and journal data from ...

This article traces the uncomfortable relationship that Writing Studies has had with the concept of learning transfer. It reviews attitudes to learning transfer in writing theory influenced by rhetorical genre studies, activity theory and situated learning, It then reviews learning transfer theory itself, a field seldom referred to explicitly in Writing Studies. It concludes with a synthesis in which transfer theory is brought to bear on Writing Studies, suggesting directions for the development of research and pedagogical practices related to business and technical communication.

El diálogo reflexivo bajo una óptica situada Las teorías actuales del aprendizaje abogan por romper la polarización entre lo individual y lo social, entre el constructivismo cognitivo más clásico y el socioconstructivismo radical, apostando por una perspectiva transaccional. En este sentido, los procesos de construcción (conjunta) y negociación de significados, junto con los procesos de atribución de sentido personal, adquieren un papel destacado para entender cómo tiene lugar el aprendizaje en el aula universitaria. A la vez, desde la teoría de la cognición situada, se apuesta por no desligarlos de la situación y la propia actividad en la cual suceden. Desde esta óptica, es evidente la necesidad de entender el aula como el propio foco de indagación e intervención (Coll et al., 2001) y la importancia de promover investigaciones centradas en comprender cómo operan los procesos mentales que se despliegan durante las interacciones entre profesorado y estudiantado en el aula, desde una aproximación empírica y en tiempo real. Bajo este objetivo, Medina, Cruz y Jarauta (2016) encontraron que los docentes universitarios expertos eran capaces de focalizar su atención de manera flotante en las ideas de los estudiantes y en sus propios marcos categoriales (dimensión dialógico-reflexiva) sin interrumpir el flujo de la clase, con lo que podían acoplar de forma dinámica su discurso al momento de aprendizaje del estudiante. Además, identificaron el uso del diálogo reflexivo como una estrategia dialógico-reflexiva que usan algunos docentes expertos para explicitar su razonamiento disciplinar, poniendo el foco en el procedimiento y justificación de sus acciones. En esta comunicación, se analiza el uso del diálogo reflexivo desde la perspectiva de la cognición situada (Clancey, 1997); entendiéndolo como una estrategia que permite al docente explicitar su propio razonamiento disciplinar, de forma sintonizada con el momento de aprendizaje del estudiante, facilitando así una apropiación gradual por parte de los estudiantes de unos criterios metacognitivos situados.

Alignment between the real and the virtual has been a defining quality of mixed and augmented reality. With the emergence of Indirect Augmented Reality the problem of alignment is no longer primarily concerned with the relationship between a live video feed and a 3D graphics layer at the level of the screen, but with the relationship between the visual information on the display and the real world perspective outside the display of the device. Experiments show that users easily connect the perspective into the 3D virtual environment on the full screen with their parallel perspective in the real world. It also turns out that although congruence and alignment between the two perspectives is fundamental to the user experience, in certain contexts it may be transcended. This paper describes and discusses applications of Indirect Augmented Reality where we explore how the discrepancy between the virtual and the real perspectives in a variety of ways can be used to improve the user experience. We call these features views. The views will be exemplified with several Indirect Augmented Reality applications: reconstructions of Augustus' Forum and the Republican Forum in Rome and a preconstruction of the planned National Museum in Oslo. The applications have been tested with users on location, and their feedback and evaluation is included in the discussion. Finally, we relate the experiential value of the views to some epistemological and pedagogical perspectives.

Creativity, a primary academic objective, is crucial in higher education, as economic, informational, societal and environmental advancements rely on people’s ability to innovate. Creativity is widely investigated in its individualistic form, yet there is a notable dearth in work that studies its collective dimension, from a learning perspective.
This study focuses on validating the psychometric properties of an existing instrument (ASCC), by measuring creative collaboration in blended learning settings. Two hundred and thirty six under and post-graduate students self-evaluated their creative collaboration experiences, using the ASCC instrument. The findings of exploratory factor analysis denote a three-factor (21-item) structure, measuring ‘Synergistic Social Collaboration’, ‘Distributed Creativity’, and ‘Time Regulation and Achievement’, with good internal consistency.
An instrument with valid psychometric properties for the assessment of creative collaboration is much-needed in the growing research and practitioners’ community. This is critical in the fields of Design, HCI and Engineering, that rely extensively on the creative collaboration (online and offline) of teams to develop innovative products that are suitable for real-world purposes.

Dans les perspectives du constructivisme et de l’action située, une compétence se définit comme un pouvoir adaptatif à une famille de situations. Ce pouvoir adaptatif correspond à la réflexion en cours d’action et à la réflexion sur l’action. La réflexion en cours d’action renvoie à une conscience agissante qui opère en situation. La réflexion sur l’action renvoie à une conscience réflexive qui met à distance la situation d’action : elle opère hors situation. Le pouvoir adaptatif de la compétence est différencié en quatre pouvoirs : construire la situation, se positionner en situation, transformer la situation et prendre un recul réflexif. Les trois premiers pouvoirs relèvent de la réflexion en cours d’action et le quatrième de la réflexion sur l’action.

Resumen
¿Por qué privilegiar una entrada por las situaciones de vida tanto en la redacción de los programas de estudio como en la pedagogía? ¿Será para transmitir mejor los saberes disciplinares, contextualizándolos en las situaciones de vida ordinaria de los alumnos, lo que les permite dar sentido a lo que aprenden; o será para hacer de la experiencia de vida de los alumnos el punto de inicio de las situaciones de enseñanza/aprendizaje? En este texto, se presentan los argumentos en favor de la segunda hipótesis. La experiencia en acción —la experiencia que yo realizo en contraste con la que yo sufro— es el motor del desarrollo de una persona y de todas sus dimensiones. Todo aquello que se ha aprendido se conserva en y por esta experiencia. Todo aquello que tiene que aprender depende de esta experiencia. Toda nueva posibilidad de acción, todo nuevo recurso (cognitivo, conativo, corporal u otro) viene a intensificar la experiencia y le otorga un poder ampliado de hacer malabares con las situaciones y los contextos (acción ingeniosa). Esta experiencia también se amplía por la contribución de los recursos externos (materiales o sociales). Para una persona, ningún contexto, ningún saber, ninguna tarea, ningún problema, ningún aprendizaje… en fin, ninguna situación puede tomar sentido fuera de su experiencia en acción. En educación, un enfoque que se dice situado no puede más que basarse en la experiencia en acción de la persona.
Résumé
Pourquoi privilégier une entrée par les situations de vie, dans la rédaction des programmes d’études aussi bien que dans la pédagogie? Pour mieux transmettre des savoirs disciplinaires en les contextualisant dans les situations de la vie courante des apprenants, ce qui permet à ces derniers de donner du sens à ce qu’ils apprennent? Ou pour faire de l’expérience de la vie des apprenants le point de départ des situations d’enseignement/ apprentissage? Dans ce premier chapitre, nous présentons des arguments en faveur de la seconde hypothèse. L’expérience en action – l’expérience que je fais par contraste avec celle que je subis – est le moteur du développement d’une personne et de toutes ses dimensions. Tout ce qui est appris se conserve dans et par cette expérience. Tout ce qui est à apprendre dépend de cette expérience. Toute nouvelle possibilité d’action, toute nouvelle ressource (cognitive, conative, corporelle ou autre) vient épaissir l’expérience et octroie à l’apprenant un pouvoir élargi de jongler avec des situations et des contextes. Cette expérience s’élargit aussi par la contribution des ressources extérieures (matérielles ou sociales). Pour une personne, aucune situation, aucun contexte, aucun savoir, aucune tâche, aucun problème, aucun apprentissage… ne peut prendre sens en dehors de son expérience en action. En éducation, une approche dite située ne peut que se fonder sur l’expérience en action de la personne.

Teaching based on situated learning theory employs techniques that enable learners to experience a concept within the circumstance in which it would most likely be useful, and is presumed to facilitate transfer of knowledge from the instructional situation to its application to environments outside the classroom. The purpose of this experimental study is to investigate the efficacy of a situated learning environment for facilitating transfer during tasks requiring the evaluation of information in an online information literacy course. Eighty-five university students enrolled in a distance education library research course were randomly assigned to a situated learning condition or a control/traditional instruction group. Students assigned to the experimental group demonstrated transfer more often. A logistic regression analysis revealed that the grouping variable was a significant predictor of transfer. These results reveal that teaching models based on the principles of situated learning have the potential to facilitate transfer to real world contexts. The implications of this study may inform curricular decisions by providing evidence-based instructional design for instructors wishing to employ situated learning in order to teach for transfer, thus improving distance education courses in general, and library instruction in particular. INTRODUCTION Situated cognition (SC), a theory that proposes that learning is inseparable from authentic activity, and cognitive apprenticeship (CA), a teaching strategy in which an " expert " (the teacher) models a skill while appropriately diminishing and then releasing support for a learner, are concerned with the idea that knowledge is, in part, a product of the environment in which it is learned. While situated learning models have rarely been examined in the distance education and library research literature, situated learning, and its related concept of CA have often been argued to be facilitative of transfer of knowledge, despite inconsistent results from empirical studies (discussed further below). Transfer of skills and concepts learned in school to outside contexts, such as the work place, is the primary concern of educators, parents and employers alike. Usable knowledge is more valuable than knowledge that is memorized, tested and then discarded. The term situated learning refers to learning that takes place in the same context in which it is applied (Lave & Wenger, 1991). Learning a concept abstractedly, separate from an authentic context, makes it difficult for the learner to know when to apply the knowledge to real-world situations (Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989). Brown et al. posit that conceptual knowledge evolves and changes meaning through interaction with its different uses in various situations and activities. Therefore, understanding the situated nature of cognition and applying the principles of cognitive apprenticeship have the potential to produce transferable knowledge. These principles include expert modeling, authentic activities, and facilitating the generalization of these activities so that they may be used in other situations. An authentic activity focuses on the process rather than the product of learning. They generally reflect situations that might be encountered in real life, include open-ended scenarios or questions, and are student-directed. Many theoretical articles have examined the various ways in which situated learning lays the groundwork for transferable knowledge. Qualitative studies have described the learning processes at work in situated learning environments, while the few quantitative studies that have measured the efficacy of these environments have rarely demonstrated transfer to have occurred, even if situated learning has proved to increase post-test scores. Additionally, given the move toward distance learning in library instruction and higher education by extension, it seems imperative to investigate the efficacy of teaching strategies that can be employed online. Thus, the following study, which included 85 participants who were mostly female and mostly Education majors, examines the effects of a situated learning approach to teaching information evaluation in a distance education library research course conducted in spring and fall of 2013.

As viewed through the theoretical frameworks of Lave and Wenger’s situated learning, leisure theory, and quality-of-life theory, the purpose of this study was to examine the characteristics, attitudes and perceptions of adult community band musicians (N = 275) in nine randomly selected ensembles in order to glean insights into how music education might facilitate (a) more meaningful connections between school and community, and (b) greater lifespan engagement with participatory music making. The “typical” survey respondent was over 45, physically healthy, white, nonsmoker, nondrinker, churchgoer, well-educated, upper-middle class, married with children, active in the community, studied piano and sung in a choir at some point, learned their instrument in school, enjoyed classical music, and chose to play in the band for both musical and social reasons. Significant differences between those who learned to play their instrument in school and those who did not were minimal. Implications for music educators concerned about the “car- ryover” of school music to music making later in life are discussed.

During the latter decades of the twentieth century there was a steady rise in the number of event-specific festivals that were designed to broaden the participation of Australian audiences in new forms of community-based entertainment. 

This investigation explains how the processual phases of Paulo Freire’s conscientização process were applied as guiding principles within the context of an event-specific theatre-making project that involved multiple cohorts of undergraduate participants over an eight-year period.  The thesis is grounded in the empirical experience of their cultural praxis as theatre-makers who collaborated to devise and present street theatre, parades, and cabarets for performance amongst V8 motor sport enthusiasts.

Recent literature concerning critical performance autoethnography is reviewed.  Ethnohistoric primary source documentation is used to develop a multi-case study that examines how certain categories of embedded theory - conscientização, the carnivalesque aesthetic, popular theatre theory, and permaculture design principles – contributed to the evolvement of a new approach for guiding the work of devising original entertainments for event-specific popular audiences. 

This investigation demonstrates how Baz Kershaw’s theoretical/conceptual categories concerning ‘the dialectical processes of community-based performance’ and ‘the radical in performance’ can be used as analytic tools for critically evaluating instances of ‘performance beyond theatre’.  This line of inquiry results in the articulation of new propositions for the processual conduct of devising event-specific entertainments.

Five conclusions concerning practice as research into performance are drawn from this study.  (1) When grounded in ethnohistoric primary source documentation, critical performance autoethnography offers theatre practitioners a new epistemic stance for using their own theatre practice as the basis for conducting theoretical/conceptual research into live performance.  (2) The conscientização process, as characterised by Paulo Freire, provides a pertinent guide for the conduct of dramaturgical research that is designed to generate original entertainments for event-specific popular audiences.  (3) When applied as informing principles for production processes that are designed for these purposes, the conscientização process displays conceptual symmetries with the characteristic phases of theatre production.  (4) Kershaw’s propositions concerning ‘the dialectical processes of community-based performance’ and ‘the radical in performance’ represent cogent new principles that can be used for guiding pre-production dramaturgical research as well as providing analytic categories for interrogating performative outcomes.  (5) When attention is paid to Kershaw’s ‘points of process’ concerning the ‘radical in performance’, those processes will promote the conscientização of theatre-makers as they labour to devise original entertainments for performance amongst event specific popular audiences.

Keywords: conscientização; conscientisation; devised performance; the ‘radical in performance’; event-specific theatre; popular theatre; the carnivalesque; permaculture design principles; ecologies of performance; qualitative research; theoretical/conceptual research; critical performance autoethnography; embedded multi-case study.

Language: English
Document Type: Research Thesis (PhD)

The mysticism associated with " invisible " Brazilian JiuJitsu and Yoda-like professors that permeates academies and dojos throughout the world is part of the attraction of training within the gentle art. However, breaking away from the artistic side for a moment, the science that drives effective teaching and learning principles is grounded in empirically published learning and motivational principles that when utilized properly can increase learning outcomes and practitioner efficiency. This article will examine the concept of mastery learning, with particular attention focused on mastery versus performance orientations. Additionally, the concept of cognitive load theory will be discussed as it relates to information processing and human cognitive architecture. Finally, the development of rubrics is suggested as a means to measure instructional objectives and performance outcomes.

La compétence est définie comme un pouvoir adaptatif développé par la personne en situation durant toute son existence. Les liens entre compétence et situation ne sont pas suffisamment explicités dans la littérature. La notion de compétence est donc revisitée dans le cadre de diverses perspectives situées : action située, cognition située, cognition distribuée, intelligence distribuée, intelligence collective et énaction. Chacune de ces perspectives permet de reconnaître des caractéristiques de la compétence : elle peut être individuelle ou collective; elle est aussi distribuée, en ce sens qu’elle n’est pas exclusivement cognitive mais relève aussi des éléments de la situation; elle est enfin énactée.

Cet article présente l’étude d’une activité de visite muséale guidée en donnant la priorité à l’articulation des points de vues des jeunes visiteurs et du médiateur culturel. Ces travaux s’inscrivent dans un projet de recherche porté par l’équipe C3U (Université Paris 8) en collaboration avec diverses institutions culturelles. Ils visent le développement de connaissances sur les situations muséales ainsi que la mise en accessibilité de l’art destination du jeune public (projet ErgoJ’Plus). Les résultats permettent d’éclairer d’une part, les objectifs et les dimensions de l’activité que le médiateur doit arbitrer (gestion du groupe, gestion du parcours, gestion du discours et sollicitation du jeune public) ainsi que les activités privilégiées par le jeune public durant la visite. D’autre part, nous remarquons que l’étude des interactions entre ces deux acteurs met en lumière deux logiques intrinsèques à l’oeuvre : elles témoignent d’attentes et d’enjeux amplement différents qui divergent à certains temps et qui convergent à d’autres moments de la visite.