Situated cognition provides:
 -meaning learning
 -transfer of knowledge to real life situations

Purpose of the article:
-to examine the theoretical aspects of situated cognition
-to derive implications for the design of situated learning environments

Formal education Vs  Situated Cognition and learning environments:

Formal education: skills and education differ from real life situation
                              emphasis on decontextualized contexts and learning outcomes
 

Implications for the design of situated learning environments:

Four aspects are addressed: the role of the content
                                             the role of the context
                                             the role of facilitation
                                             the role  of assessment
 

Framework	Principles
The role of context	Everyday cognition:   people reason intuitively based upon experiences within specific contexts; use a variety of methodes to solve problems  Authenticity: coherent, meaningful and purposeful activities that represent the ordinary practises Transfer: situated learning environments are more likely to transfer to real-life problem solving
The role of content	Knowledge as tool: students acquire knowledge as well as a sense of when and how to use it Content diversity and transfer: concepts need to be represented via various conent; necessity to apply knowledge in various setting to discriminate similarities and differences among settings Cognitive apprenticeships: to provide the opportunities for the learners to internalize learning and develop self-monitoring and self-correcting skills. Anchored instruction: to create authentic, problem-rich environments that encourage exploration and diversity of perspectives
The role of facilitation                               The role of assessment	Facilitation methods: situated learning environments attempt to help students to improve their cognitive abilities,                                  self monitoring and self-correcting skills; encourage active learning and provide opportunities to                                  internalize information; facilitation is less directive, more continuous, and highly interactive                                         Modelling                                         Scaffolding                                         Coaching, guiding, and advising                                         Collaborating                                         Fading                                        Using cognitive tools and resources                                        Modelling                                         Scaffolding                                         Coaching, guiding, and advising                                         Collaborating                                         Fading                                        Using cognitive tools and resources   Problems and issues: in order to be useful in promoting higher thinking skills, testing needs                                 to shift from domain referenced evaluation to  assessments;                                 emphasis need to be on the ability to diagnose manage cognitive growth rather then achievement

 

Situated cognition has several implications for learning system design as well as teaching and learning process:
 

•  emphasis high order thinking skills
•  provides complex ill-defined and authentic tasks
•  attempts to cultivate awareness (needed skills in the metacognitive monitoring of process toward a solution and the reasoning experts experience in real world problem solving)
• induces inferential reasoning, monitoring and regulation of problem solving and utilization of metacognition skills
• focus on growth primarily in student cognition
• has a primary goal: to allow students (and teachers) to experience the effects of new knowledge on their perception and understanding of the environment

• it support learning (from the demand side rather than the supply side
• the designer moves from the organization of content and sequence to the creation of environment that induce, then facilitate, understanding
• requires different roles for teachers : from a knowledge transmitter to a coach or facilitator of students' understanding
• requires a fundamental change in test traditions: focus on the individual's cognitive progress and transfer of knowledge (testing the cognitive progress)