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19 - Game-Based Curricula, Personal Engagement, and the Modern Prometheus Design Project
- Edited by Constance Steinkuehler, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Kurt Squire, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Sasha Barab, Arizona State University
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- Book:
- Games, Learning, and Society
- Published online:
- 05 August 2012
- Print publication:
- 11 June 2012, pp 306-326
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Summary
Once understood in the context of the narratives that give it meaning, law becomes not merely a system of rules to be observed, but a world in which to live.
—Bruner, 1990, p. xWe have reached a challenging junction at which, on the one hand, teachers and schools face increased pressure to prepare students for standardized tests, whereas, on the other hand, they face a generation of students who regard the school curriculum as largely irrelevant to their own lives. It has become all too common to develop curricula and teach domain content distinct from the people, places, and situations through which the content has meaning. While it is expected that the information learned will somehow, later, be connected to those situations in which it is useful and meaningful, this is rarely what occurs. All too often the knowledge students “acquire” in schools remains inert (Whitehead, 1929), something demonstrated on a test in a school context where it can be traded for a grade but not applied to a situation in which it has intrinsic worth (Lave, 1991, 1997; Wenger, 1998).
The irony is that we then wonder why children appear unmotivated to learn after we have disconnected meaning from the learning situation, assuming that the learner somehow will attribute the same functional value to the information as the teacher does
[Barab & Roth, 2006, p. 3].Unless we begin to engage youth in rich situations that add meaning to disciplinary concepts – as part of the learning process – the content of schools will be perceived as a thing to be acquired and exchanged for a test score (having exchange value) and not as a useful tool that has direct functional value in the world or to the learner.
7 - Opportunities to Learn in Practice and Identity
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- By James G. Greeno, Margaret Jacks Professor of Education Emeritus, Stanford University, Melissa S. Gresalfi, Assistant Professor in the learning sciences, Indiana University
- Edited by Pamela A. Moss, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Diana C. Pullin, Boston College, Massachusetts, James Paul Gee, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Edward H. Haertel, Stanford University, California, Lauren Jones Young
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- Book:
- Assessment, Equity, and Opportunity to Learn
- Published online:
- 05 June 2012
- Print publication:
- 07 April 2008, pp 170-199
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Summary
Following Suchman, (1985), Lave, (1988), Lave and Wenger (1991), Hutchins, (1995a), Engeström, (1999), and others, we take a situative perspective in our research and, in this chapter, regarding opportunity to learn (OTL). Conducting analyses of learning with this perspective involves defining activity systems as the unit of analysis, which includes one or more persons interacting with each other and with material and informational resources that are present in the setting. The main emphasis of the situative perspective is on how learning by individuals and groups is accomplished through interaction between elements of an activity system. Of course there are changes in the participating individuals' mental structures, including schemata, but these are not the primary focus of our analyses. In this view, learning by an individual in a community is conceptualized as a trajectory of that person's participation in the community – a path with a past and present, shaping possibilities for future participation. Learning by a group or community is also conceptualized as a trajectory – a path that corresponds to change in the community's practices.
A SITUATIVE PERSPECTIVE ON LEARNING
Individuals Learning in a Community
Lave and Wenger (1991) outlined a situative framework on learning by considering the trajectories of individuals' participation as they become members of a community of practice. As individuals initially join a new activity, their involvement is limited to peripheral participation.