ABSTRACT
I have argued throughout this book that people learn best when their learning is part of a highly motivated engagement with social practices which they value. A wide body of research, applied to schools and workplaces, has pointed to the importance of “communities of practice” in this process (Lave 1996; Lave and Wenger 1991; Rogoff 1990; Wenger 1998). In this research, learning is looked at in terms of apprenticeship. Learners “apprentice” themselves to a group of people who share a certain set of practices (e.g. learning to cook in a family, learning to play video games with a guild, learning to assemble circuit boards in a workplace, learning to splice genes in a biology lab), pick up these practices through joint action with more advanced peers, and advance their abilities to engage and work with others in carrying out such practices.
