A lot has been written about learning. What happens internally to enable learning, remembering and forgetting? What pedagogy bets supports learning? Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger look at how real participation creates learning in Situated Learning:Legitimate Peripheral Participation. The authors invite a change in focus, to look at learning outside of what happens in the brain and the individual. Lave and Wenger seek to define learning from what is happening externally, socially in the community. It is the legitimate peripheral participation of the individual that creates learning in that situation. It involves much more than the learner, ie. the community, environment, and the ever changing social rules that govern that situation.
Here are a few of my thoughts on the book so far:
Quote: Learners inevitably participate in communities of practitioners and that the mastery of knowledge and skill requires newcomers to move toward full participation in the sociocultural practices of a community. (Lave and Wenger, p29)
I love the concept of learning as participation. This takes learning beyond rote memorization, or the cramming session that is forgotten after the test. Learning is greater than the identified “truths” required in the curriculum. Learning as participation requires the knowledge gained to change the learner. The progressing from “new-comer” to “old-timer” requires social practice. The resultant learning then involves the knowledge, skills and social and community awareness that changes as the participant becomes involved. The learner no longer knows something but has the skills needed to manipulate the environment.
Questions: How do I encourage and facilitate legitimate peripheral participation?
What does technology have to do with this?
How big is this community? my classroom? my school? global?
Connection: In the teacher credentialing program at CSUSM we have studied classroom management and pedagogy to support all learners. If I prepare for learning from the perspective of legitimate peripheral participation, then I create an environment that allows for students to become scientists, not just to learn science. Classroom management becomes inviting legitimate participation. The school becomes a community of practice. (Lave and Wenger, p41)
Epiphany: There is not negative participation. “The ambiguity inherent in peripheral participation must then be connected to issues of legitimacy, of the social organization of and control over resources, if it is to gain its full analytical potential.” (Lave and Wenger, p37) Learning is a function of participation, so there are only degrees of involvement. My goal becomes creating a community with a “richness of interconnections” (Lave and Wenger, p39) that will allow for a community of practice.
Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Here are a few of my thoughts on the book so far:
Quote: Learners inevitably participate in communities of practitioners and that the mastery of knowledge and skill requires newcomers to move toward full participation in the sociocultural practices of a community. (Lave and Wenger, p29)
I love the concept of learning as participation. This takes learning beyond rote memorization, or the cramming session that is forgotten after the test. Learning is greater than the identified “truths” required in the curriculum. Learning as participation requires the knowledge gained to change the learner. The progressing from “new-comer” to “old-timer” requires social practice. The resultant learning then involves the knowledge, skills and social and community awareness that changes as the participant becomes involved. The learner no longer knows something but has the skills needed to manipulate the environment.
Questions: How do I encourage and facilitate legitimate peripheral participation?
What does technology have to do with this?
How big is this community? my classroom? my school? global?
Connection: In the teacher credentialing program at CSUSM we have studied classroom management and pedagogy to support all learners. If I prepare for learning from the perspective of legitimate peripheral participation, then I create an environment that allows for students to become scientists, not just to learn science. Classroom management becomes inviting legitimate participation. The school becomes a community of practice. (Lave and Wenger, p41)
Epiphany: There is not negative participation. “The ambiguity inherent in peripheral participation must then be connected to issues of legitimacy, of the social organization of and control over resources, if it is to gain its full analytical potential.” (Lave and Wenger, p37) Learning is a function of participation, so there are only degrees of involvement. My goal becomes creating a community with a “richness of interconnections” (Lave and Wenger, p39) that will allow for a community of practice.
Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.