Being a geek, I brought Lave and Wenger’s 1991 classic, Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral practice as Spring Break “pleasure reading.”

The book is packed with profound, carefully worded thoughts. But one phrase in particular really hit me over the head…

“If participation in social practice is the fundamental form of learning…..” (p. 54). WOW, what a claim! Participation in social practice THE (my emphasis) fundamental form of learning.  The implications of that claim are astounding. If we are studying the learning of engineering students, then we cannot ignore that we are studying them learning to be engineering students.