Lave and Wenger Chapter 4
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Contents |
[edit] Structuring Resources for Learning in Practice
The assumption of the Master-apprentice relationship is that the apprentice learns directly from the master, or more specifically, from the master’s teaching. However, this is not reflective of Lave and Wenger’s legitimate peripheral participation or characteristic of apprenticeship learning. Although intentional relations with a specific master occur, the learning occurs through the community of other apprentices, journeymen and other masters. This is possible because of the decentering view of the relationship which places ‘mastery’ in the organization of the community and not just the master. The learning is not in direct teaching but in engaging in practice, the activities of the master and other apprentices become the curriculum. “The effectiveness of the circulation of information among peers suggests….that engagement in practice, rather than being its object, may well be a condition for the effectiveness of learning” (p. 93).
[edit] The Place of Knowledge
Participation and Learning Curricula
It is important to differentiate between traditional understanding that apprentices learn through observation and imitation of the master and Lave and Wenger’s, “participation as a way of learning – of both absorbing and being absorbed in - the “culture of practice” (p. 95). As the apprentice participates their understanding and skills develop from the peripheral tasks to the central tasks, which is different from traditional pedagogical scaffolding as well as sequence of work production. This difference is described as a learning curriculum and teaching curriculum with the former being situated opportunities with exemplars and the later being mediated through an instructor’s participation.
Community of Practice
The learning curriculum is characteristic of community, and participation in the situated activities characteristic of a community of practice. “A community of practice is a set of relations among persons, activity, and world, over time and in relation with other tangential and overlapping communities of practice. […] an intrinsic condition for the existence of knowledge”(p. 98). There is also a difference between a defined community of practice and actual community of practice in process of reproduction.
[edit] Transparency and Sequestration
Full membership in a community of practice is dependent on access; access to peers, masters, resources, information, activities, and opportunities for participation. Practice employs both artifacts and technology which goes beyond merely learning to use the tools to a way of connecting with the historical and cultural activities of practice. Transparency is not a feature of the artifact but refers to being able to understand the inner working of an artifact and the ways in which use of the artifact becomes part of the learning process. Related to transparency are invisibility where the artifact easily integrates into the learning and visibility meaning extending access. In the cases of apprenticeship Lave and Wenger talk about learning and participating activities first peripheral then core and legitimate. Peripheral to core activities is different than removed from core activities (butchers). The removal of members from activities sequesters them from the community and opportunity for participation. Since they are not participating in the activities they know of them only in the abstract creating what Lave and Wenger call a folk epistemology of dichotomy. Therefore communities of practice have the task of not lonely learning by doing but also by learning across or through levels of abstraction.
[edit] Discourse and Practice
In this section Lave and Wenger expand on their notion of situated learning in the context of discourses that support practice. As they observe, the purpose of discourse within practice (especially for newcomers) is "not simply to learn 'from' talk as a substitute for legitimate peripheral participation; but to learn 'to' talk as a key to legitimate peripheral participation" (p. 109). In other words, participating within a given cultural practice depends upon mastering the kinds of discourses that shape and organize that practice. They note that one key form of discourse supporting practice is the use of stories as situated knowledge resources.
[edit] Motivation and Identity: The Effects of Participation
Lave and Wenger reiterate their point that legitimate peripheral participation is an initial form of 'community' apprenticeship. As they suggest, for apprentices, interaction and acceptancere are necessary for making learning 'legitimate'. Beyond skills improvement (task knowledge) adepts gain membership and identity. In turn, learning alongside praticing experts provides a trajectory for future practice. While in contemporary school settings, "didactic caretakers" attempt to motivate learning through pedagogical instruction and testing regimes; in apprenticeship, motivation and formal testing become unnecessary. As apprentices become increasingly adept they advance in functional responsibility. Motivation then emerges with a desire to co-participate and co-produce as a member of the practice community. Highly critical of schools built around testing, Lave and Wenger argue that "test taking then becomes a new parasitic practice, the goal of which is to increase the exchange value of learning independently of its use value" (p.112).
[edit] Contradictions and Change: Continuity and Displacement
According to Lave and Wenger, most analyses of schooling assume that teachers and students share the same goals and motivation. They argue that this is not satisfactory, because it ignores the conflicting viewpoints associated with teaching and learning, that it ignores the larger social context of the participants, and that it makes analysis of the dynamic interactions between learning and community transformation very difficult (if the new-timers and old-timers shared exactly the same motivation and goals, why would the community of practice ever change)?
They again stress their view that all learning involves an identity formation process. I'm still not convinced that this is the most important factor when a learner is seeking only a cursory familiarity with a body of knowledge.
[edit] Questions
-In order for a daughter to take over midwife responsibilities she must have given birth herself. Does this question of self-legitimacy concern you in attempting to temporarily join communities for the purpose of research?
-Some programs have cohorts as well as academic and research advisors, in what ways do you think this does or does not constitute a community of practice?
