Weekly Reflection

Due: October 11, 2005

"Situated Cognition"

Many school districts across the United States are currently "banging their heads against the wall" trying figure out how to create strategies that benefit students. This problem can be solved partially with an understanding of situated cognition. Situated learning is a general theory of how knowledge acquired. The goal is student learning. One way to assess student learning is through assessment. However, when the assessment becomes more important than learning we know something has gone seriously wrong with our educational system.

So, how do students learn? We know that students learn best when the content is meaningful to them (not the teacher). The teacher should be available to provide scaffolding as necessary. We also know that students remember information when they are able connect prior knowledge to new ideas (schema theory). Why then do educators continue to treat students as "blank slates"? Why aren't more content areas being integrated?