Situation as construct. A Critical Review of Objectivist Definitions of the Situation

Authors

  • Helmut Heid

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24452/sjer.23.3.4617

Abstract

The concept of «situation» plays an important role in the research on teaching-and-learning. In a specific way, it draws the attention to the fact that human learning always takes place under concrete environmental conditions, and that the quality of the result of human learning depends – among other things – on the quality of the learning environment concerned.
The high probability of this statement favours to neglect the issue to what extent the learning environment concerned, in the theory of teaching-and-learning, is not only an independent variable but also, and above all, a dependent variable (depending on learning itself). What is meant by “situation” is not a physical fact but the result of an interpretation of facts, that is a theoretical construct. That is true too for the (quality) characteristics of the situation as postulated by teaching-and-learning theory; these are in particular the authenticity and the complexity of desirable learning environments. The article aims at contributing to the clarification of the concept «situated learning».

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Published

2001-12-01

How to Cite

Heid, H. (2001) “Situation as construct. A Critical Review of Objectivist Definitions of the Situation”, Swiss Journal of Educational Research, 23(3), pp. 513–528. doi:10.24452/sjer.23.3.4617.