Learning in Virtual Worlds: A Situated Perspective - Teaching through Multi-User Virtual Environments - page 123

cepts, two fundamental influences of the present
situated learning paradigm will be reviewed;
constructivism and Vygotsky's theory. The aim
is to structure a theoretical frame of reference to
better understand some of the fundamental tenets
of the situated learning paradigm. In this way, the
instructional strategies for the development of a
learning MUVE, proposed later, will be more
clearly grounded in theory.

through experience.” (Barab & Duffy, 2000, p.
25). Although this categorization of three types
of constructivism is, no doubt, debatable, I find
it valuable in structuring the background section
of this manuscript.
The situated learning paradigm has profound
roots in socio-constructivism and flourished under
the sociocultural approach. Accordingly, this paper
will first review some of the basic ideas of Vy-
gotsky regarding the social aspects of knowledge,
and thereafter some more sociocultural concepts,
like communities of practice and apprenticeship,
will be analyzed.

Three Types of Constructivism

Although numerous perspectives of constructiv-
ism do exist; in general, research categorizes
them into individual and social constructivism.
Individual constructivism, referred to also as
cognitive constructivism (Woo & Reeves, 2007),
was influenced by the studies of Jean Piaget and
strives to understand the cognitive process of
individuals when building knowledge. While
social constructivism linked to the works of the
Russian psychologist Vygotsky, focuses on the
social construction of knowledge (Sharma et al,
2005), McGregor (2007) identifies a third theory
of learning closely related to constructivism,
which she considers to be more sociocultural
and emerged from extending the ideas of the
mentioned Russian researcher. This sociocultural
view basically considers learning as increasing
participation in cultural practices. The situated
learning paradigm and theme of this chapter is
considered to be related to both the social and the
more sociocultural perspectives, although it has
been more developed under the latter. In an effort
to structure this rather complex area of research,
this paper will group the sociocultural perspec-
tive as a third type of constructivism because, as
Driscoll (2000) states, some situated cognition
works have been classified as constructivist.
Besides, while there are differences between the
constructivist and the situated fields of study,
they do share many similar conceptualizations as
will become clear in this background section; for
instance, both propose that “knowledge is situated

Vygotsky's Theory

To understand the situated learning paradigm it is
essential to review one of its main influences, the
scientific work done by the Russian psychologist
Lev S. Vygotsky and his colleagues during the
first quarter of the 20th century. For Vygotsky,
our higher psychological abilities originate in our
social processes (Wertsch, 1985); thus, for him,
learning was first social and then individual. He
believed that it is very important “To consider
social and human factors as they mediate the
development of human intellectual capabilities.”
(Driscoll, 2000, p. 242).
Vygotsky did not envision humans as mere
receptors of data, but as permanent builders,
through social interaction, of both their social
milieu and its inner representations. This is why,
in accordance with the socialist ideas of his time,
Vygotsky thought that it was better to use social
activity as the basic unit of analysis to understand
the development of human mental abilities. Hence,
most of the research based on the Vygotskian
assumptions about cognition uses the dynamic
relationship between the group and its context as
its unity of analysis. This is also why instructional
designers, working with this perspective, mainly
focus on creating learning situations within rich
contexts where participants can engage in col-
laborative activities.