Situated Learning

Situated learning is a theory created by Etienne Wagner. This theory focuses on three things: knowledge in a social construct, the competent and the peripheral legitimate participants, and that learning happens in a community of practice.

Learning as a community is seen as how the learning in the community is beneficial to the individual otherwise he/she will leave the group. This creates a feeling of belonging and identity within the group for the members of the community.

In the community, there is often overlap between a common goal, mutual engagement, and shared repertoire. This can incorporate the use of artifacts, or objects that have specific meaning to specific groups.

An example of a group could be a classroom with the students and the teachers. The common goal could be for the students to learn a specific topic. the teacher shares this goal to get the students to learn this material. Artifacts that may be important are posters or other classroom objects. The teacher is the master while the students are the peripheral legitimate participants in that they learn from the teacher and slowly become masters on the topics as well. The community of practice is the school itself.