Situated Meaning and Learning

After reading chapter four in Gee I have really started to think a bit deeper about the concept of situated meaning and learning. I must admit it is difficult to understand some of the concepts and ideas Gee discusses in his book, but after you read over them a few times and figure out the important terminology it makes the chapters much easier to comprehend. This chapter was especially interesting to me because I believe in what Gee states. I find it interesting when Gee claims that learning should be when "people actually know what they are doing in a domain and can do more than mindlessly repeat words and other symbols that they cannot situate inside any real practice" (pg. 84). For me this sentence really explained what he means by situated learning, that students often learn words and symbols out of context and therefore have know idea what they mean in a real situation, nor how to use them in such situations. I really like Gee's statement about students learning; Gee writes, "students would have only general and/or verbal meanings, not embodied ones that they can customize to and for different situations of actual practice" (pg 86). I think this point made by Gee is very important and valid. Today students may learn a lot of "general" knowledge, but can not apply it to various situations, therefore making the knowledge almost useless. I find his connections between video games and learning to also be interesting because I can see what he is trying to get across. Video games encourage situated learning, and our school classrooms usually do not. Making our classroom curriculum incorporate situated learning would greatly enhance student learning and desire and motivation towards education. Another part of this chapter which I found very intriguing is when Gee discusses how he often gives lectures about video games to teachers and he gives them the manual and asks them how much they understand and the teachers are irritated because "they have no experience in which to situate the words and phrases of the texts" (pg. 102). Gee then states this is how students often feel in a classroom setting, which I completely agree with. Overall, I think this chapter on situated learning makes a lot of sense when it comes to trying to understand why students are so disconnected with their learning and why the actual concepts seem so confusing. Taking some pointers from Gee's video games analysis may actually do some good for us future teachers, because I definitely feel students have a tough time with learning information that is taken so far out of context that when placed in a situation that uses the information a student has no idea how to use their knowledge. I relate Gee's "situated learning" to the idea of hands on learning, which I have learned about in past psychology classes. Becoming engaged in your learning makes is more appealing and meaningful, therefore you gain much more out of the experience rather than just memorization skills for a test or something. Understanding this new concept of situated learning is truly a useful notion.