Their findings suggest that learning based in situated environments transfers more frequently and provides usable knowledge to real world contexts.

Further, Catalano (2015) explored the efficacy of situated learning to facilitate the transfer of knowledge from an instructional situation to its application in environments outside the classroom. The findings of this study suggest that situated learning theory may provide an effective structure for preparing preservice teachers to integrate technology in ways that support reform‐based instruction. For example, Zheng (2010) compared situated and traditional learning and found a positive correlation between situated learning and the learner’s performance. In another study, Bell and colleagues (2013) investigated the effectiveness of a teacher preparation program aligned with SLT in improving preservice science teachers’ use of technology during their student teaching experiences. Previous ResearchĪ number of studies focus on the effects of situated learning and student knowledge acquisition. The culture of conventional schooling influences what is learned, and decontextualized instruction does not lead to effective learning. In the view of both theories, knowledge is situated as the product of the activity, context, and culture in which it is authentically developed and used. Their proposition goes deeper into the social nature of learning and argues that learning cannot be abstracted from the situations in which it is learned and merely be transferred or applied in school. In LPP, the learner moves from the periphery of the community to the center as he/she gains expertise and engages and participates actively in the sociocultural practices of the community (Lave & Wenger, 1991).Ī similar theory is situated cognition, proposed by John Seely Brown, Allan Collins and Paul Duguid (1989).

In this light, learning is unintentional this unintentional nature of learning is what the authors call Legitimate Peripheral Participation (LPP). In such a community, new learners reach the level of the expert as they have more opportunities to practice within the context of learning. Situated learning theory (SLT), first presented by Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger (1991), explains the process and development of learning when individuals have the opportunity to participate in a community of practice.

Definition of activity theory