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Situated Cognition

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Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning

Synonyms

Anchored instruction; Cognitive approach; Communities of practice; Situated learning

Definition

Humans are socially curious beings and learn mostly through social interaction with others. This social interaction involves context, culture, activity, discourse, people, and so on. Situated cognition is the study of human learning that takes place when someone is doing something in both the real and virtual world, and therefore learning occurs in a situated activity that has social, cultural, and physical contexts.

Theoretical Background

Situated cognition is a theoretical approach to human learning that supports the idea that learning takes place when an individual is doing something. Situated cognition has been positioned as an alternative to information processing theory. Situated cognition theory promises to complete the symbolic-computation approach to cognition, as information processing theory neglects conscious reasoning and thought (Wilson and Myers 2000). Researchers...

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References

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Correspondence to Murat Ataizi .

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© 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

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Ataizi, M. (2012). Situated Cognition. In: Seel, N.M. (eds) Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1428-6_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1428-6_16

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

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