Situated Learning

Situated learning is an understanding of learning that suggests:

• Learning is an integral and inseparable aspect of practice. Learning is not and cannot be decontextualized from practice.
• A community of practice is any group of colleagues, professionals, associates, friends or family members. All such communities have formal and informal practices that make up the norms, expectations, skills, and knowledge that are valued in that particular community. Each school is a community of practice, often embedded in or incorporating multiple other communities of practice.
• Learning is the process of moving from being a “new comer” to being an experienced practitioner in these communities of practice.
• Despite the intentions of any given professional development program, professionals learn what is valued and practiced within their immediate circle of colleagues.
• Internships are a process by which a newcomer is guided, formally and informally, in the practices, skills, and expectations within a teacher/leadership community of practice.

Situated Learning at UVEI:

With this conception of learning in mind, the internship/clincial experiences that are part of all UVIE programs are intended to immerse candidates in authentic practice, guided by an experienced practitioners, while still assessing the candidate’s competency in the complex practices of leading, teaching and learning as they grow. Part of the faculty’s task is to be as judicious as possible in determining when to intervene in and influence this situated learning experiences, allowing as much as possible for the learning in practice to unfold through experience. Furthermore, the internship is the centerpiece of the UVEI approach to developing “pedagogical content knowledge.” Research on subject-specific professional development programs, sometimes in conjunction with innovative curricula, shows the power of immersion in practice as a means of deepening teachers’ understanding, improving teaching practice, and promoting student learning. This approach transforms basic subject knowledge into the practical knowledge required for teaching, or what Shulman (1986) termed pedagogical content knowledge (Little, 2006). The internship is not designed to develop simple subject matter knowledge per se (as discussed above, UVEI relies on prior or supplemental preparation for this purpose).

The starting assumption of the UVEI program is that pedagogical content knowledge (as well as many other forms of knowledge) comes primarily from situated learning in a community of practice. Seminars are not designed to be the primary place where knowledge and practice is conveyed, instead they are intended to provide opportunities for interns to deepen, focus, and reflect on their learning in practice.

Inquiry cycles, practicums, and performance assessments address particular aspects of pedagogical content knowledge, directing interns to demonstrate some particular skills and strategies. The breadth of content knowledge is demonstrated through prior study as described above. However, the full complexity of how subject matter, the teacher, and students interact to create learning (the instructional triangle) is learned emergently through experience with a mentor and under the guidance of a coach.

As discussed in the discussions of progress monitoring and assessment, this knowledge and set of skills in evaluated specifically by a range of performance assessments, and holistically, including the perspective of the mentor, through the progress monitoring process for Standard 4: Content Knowledge. (That process includes four “triad” meetings to discuss progress in all competencies. The triad meetings include the coach, the mentor, and the intern.)

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