The Learning Scenario

To illustrate the various learning theories in practice, I chose one of my favorite hobbies, cold-process soapmaking. Making soap has been a craft for almost 3,000 years now, ever since the ancients discovered that dripping animal fat into the ashes of a fire would yield a soaplike substance that could be used to clean plant and animal fibers. It's a fun and useful craft, but virtually impossible to figure out on one's own without some form of education, whether it be in-person training, reading the steps in a book (which is the way I learned to make the stuff), or watching asynchronous demos and videos. I hope you enjoy my breakdown of how we can use social learning theory to get started making a great bar of soap!

There are many opportunities for social learning in a physical-production scenario such as an art or craft lesson. In the small vignette depicted in the learning scenario, we see some glimpses of the opportunities the participants have to learn from each other and me. Getting the workspace ready is just one aspect of making soap. A subsequent learning scenario might be the actual mixing of ingredients, with the participants modeling correct technique for each other, observing other participants giving kudos to each other when their soap comes out good, and observing the impact of different ingredient choices such as colorant and fragrance and trying those choices out themselves (imitation). In such a scenario, an additional reward might be the sharing of successful results: each participant and I share our output in the form of a soap swap. Arts and crafts are also great opportunities for apprentice learning, and in fact are a time-honored way of conveying knowledge to others. Guilds, craft co-ops, and even shared atelier space in a physical building are great communities of practice in this regard.