Complete thesis - Murdoch University

More recent research into student learning of the discourse of a discipline draws on themetaphor of apprenticeship, described as some gradually mentored pathway to membership(Candlin, 1998). Through a variety of alternative processes, the student acquires the ‘uncommonsense’ways of meaning relevant to the discipline. However, learners in a formal educationenvironment are more likely to have no direct connection with, or impact on, a communityof practice, only indirect connections through access to reports on or from the communityor the ability to use community resources, artefacts, or tools. These ‘activity groups’ can bedistinguished from a community of practice in that they are a temporary coming together ofa group of learners around a shared task intentionally designed to support learning (Baraband Duffy, 1999)). They are formed to take advantage of the learning potential afforded bycollaborative interactions.Nevertheless, learners can be enculturated in the discipline through both being socialisedto the oral and written ‘forms of talk’ (Berkenkotter and Huckin, 1995) in the community,and gaining conceptual knowledge. Although Berkenkotter’s model focusses on writing inthe discipline, the student’s concept of audience, their positioning of ‘texts’ in relation toothers in the discipline and learning to secure a useful uptake (ie transfer) are relevant here.Students are seen to absorb the disciplinary practices rather than learn them through explicitteaching. However, Berkenkotter and Huckin (1995) note that discourse based on classroombasedcurriculum and activities can share only some of the features and conventions of thediscipline (they refer to disciplinary genres and genre knowledge). It is worth noting thatwhere students have prior work-related experience or the nature of the learning experiencemodels ‘work’, students do perceive themselves as apprentice professionals (Gollin, 1998).A more realistic approach may be to view the learner’s entry into a discourse community asone of acculturation (learning an additional culture) Gollin (1998).3.3.2 Learning as authenticSituated perspectives on learning have been advocated in the psychology literature by suchresearchers as Bartlett (1932); Dewey (1910) and Lewin (1952). Elmholdt (2001) categorisesthe emerging body of work into lines of research that include the following: apprenticeship,situated cognition and cognitive apprenticeship.The primary characteristic of situativity is that individual cognition is placed within the contextof social interactions and culturally constructed tools and meanings – a tight coupling ofindividual and environment. Meaning construction is tied to specific contexts and purposes,based on shared knowledge within discourse communities. Learning then is seen as par-139