Situated cognition is a wide range of theories of learning that focus on the inherent importance of social and cultural contexts in the process of learning. In these theories there is the idea that learning is something that happens beyond the processes of the brain and that the body that is living in a certain time and place affect the way people learn. From this theory comes a teaching approach that emphasizes the importance of teaching concepts in a way that can be applied to real world context. Knowledge can't be taught like it's isolated from a certain reality, that causes students to memorize lessons but not learn from them. Instead there is a need for these teachings to have meaning within their reality.

One example where we can clearly see the importance of situated learning is in language learning. You can certainly try to learn a language from going to classes, reading books, and completing vocabulary work sheets. With enough effort and persitance, you will probably learn enought. But we can't ignore the fact that having an immersive experience in a culture that speaks that language accelerated and improves the learning experience. This way the person who is learning will improve their speech, learn words and concepts that are important to that culture, and ultimately will have meaningful social interactions wtih the language that will stick to them much more than any worksheet.

In the image below we can see the general framework for situated cognition. We can see it involves the importance of the context of the community, along with activities that through particpation create authentic knowledge along with artifacts that reinforce the lessons.

The importance of community and social contexts in situated cognition relate to the the concepts of collaborative intelligence and social learning that have been discussed in the videos in which information comes from different sources as a form of social inheritance. Situated learning is inherentlly social but it goes beyond collaboratie intelligence. It recognizes that learning is a lifelong and lifewide endeavor in which people are constantly being affected by the circumstances they live in. 

This automatically means you can't teach the same way in different places. Activities and artifacts that might work in a certain country might not be as relevant in another. Even within the same country students might live different circumstances and therefore might have different priorities.

I have an example that comes from personal experience. I taught world history at a high school level, we had a whole unit on industrialization, capitalism, and worker's rights. For the most part students seemed to have an understanding that these were important, but couldn't see why they should care about them today. This was at a private, Catholic, all girls school with students from the high upper class of the country. As a way to get them to connect via something that they care about, we watched the documentary The True Cost that discusses all the aspects of fast fashion. They might not have cared about industrialization, but they cared about clothes, the environment, and the fact that there were women accross the world being exploited in order for them to get a $12 dollar shirts. Since they are active consumers of fast fashion, it made them connect to the material in a more personal way and allowed them to question certain things about their everyday lives.

This is not something I could have applied as easily if I was teaching in a rural area where fast fashion is not as prevalent. There the students might think the documentary was interesting but ultimately they wouldn't be as invested since it's unlikely they would shop at fast fashion store. Instead there would have to be a lesson plan that relates to their circumstances. 

In this sense situated cognition eliminates the idea that we should teach everyone the same way since they don't experience the same things. Instead of doing the same everywhere and hope it works, it makes the teacher consider their students' individual circumstances and their needs.

Sources: 

Overmann, Karenleigh A. & Malafouris, Lambros. (2018). Situated cognition. 10.1002/9781118924396.

P. Cobb, in International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2001

Romaniuk, S. N. (2018, April 30). Situated Cognition And Meaningful Learning In College Classrooms. Retrieved from https://elearningindustry.com/situated-cognition-meaningful-learning-college-classrooms

Barkhurst, B., Brush, J., Szeto, H., & Wong, C. (n.d.). Social Approaches to Learning. Retrieved April 11, 2020, from https://blogs.ubc.ca/socialapproaches/situated-cognition-part-2/