Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation / Edition 1

by Jean Lave, Etienne Wenger

Overview

In this important theoretical treatise, Jean Lave, anthropologist, and Etienne Wenger, computer scientist, push forward the notion of situated learning—that learning is fundamentally a social process and not solely in the learner's head. The authors maintain that learning viewed as situated activity has as its central defining characteristic a process they call legitimate peripheral participation. Learners participate in communities of practitioners, moving toward full participation in the sociocultural practices of a community. Legitimate peripheral participation provides a way to speak about crucial relations between newcomers and oldtimers and about their activities, identities, artifacts, knowledge and practice. The communities discussed in the book are midwives, tailors, quartermasters, butchers, and recovering alcoholics, however, the process by which participants in those communities learn can be generalized to other social groups.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521423748
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	09/27/1991
Series:	Learning in Doing: Social, Cognitive and Computational Perspectives
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	138
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.47(d)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements; 1. Legitimate peripheral participation; 2. Practice, person, social world; 3. Midwives, tailors, quartermasters, butchers, non-drinking alcoholics; 4. Legitimate peripheral participation in communities of practice; 5. Conclusion; References; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"...is undoubtedly worth reading. Lave and Wenger present an interesting and strong position on issues which are of basic interest to practice theory in a broader sense, and not just issues on learning and apprenticeship." Carsten Osterlund, Nyhedsbrev

From the Publisher