Situated Learning and Educational Technologies: Theory and Practice

Abstract

This chapter defines situated learning in educational theory and examines the relevance of related key concepts to health professions education. Central features of authenticity and the social dimensionof the learning context are outlined and connected to notions of cognitive apprenticeship and scaffolding. These are, in turn, explored in terms of their relationship to impact on approaches to learning by reference to work on deep and surface approaches. It is argued that, in health professions education, situated learning is evidenced in two specific contexts—problem-based learning and clinical learning. These contexts then provide a focus in this collection for investigating the role of educational technologies in enhancing student learning. In problem-based learning, the level of authenticity may be simulated in online environments or gained through real problem scenarios and clinical cases enhanced by technologies. Such authentic environments can serve as a prompt to stimulate face-to-face and online discussions. In clinical settings centring on patient diagnosis and treatment, situated learning can also be enhanced by the purposeful integration of educational technologies to support learners’ transition to the clinical care of their patients. In researching the relationship between situated learning and technology-enhanced education in the medical and health professions, the shared goal across this volume is to ascertain how technological affordances are productively harnessed to support and scaffold student learning in these complex, authentic, and social educational contexts.