Eames, C., & Coll, R. (2006). Sociocultural views of learning: A useful way of looking at learning in cooperative education. Journal of Cooperative Education and Internships, 40(1), 1-12.
In this paper we argue for the usefulness of sociocultural views of learning for explaining the learning that students achieve on work placements. Sociocultural views of learning, which focus on the situatedness of learning through participation in a context, provide an opportunity to view the learning of the classroom and the workplace as within distinct communities of practice. We provide an overview of sociocultural views of learning, and illustrate their value to understanding learning in cooperative education placements with some qualitative data from a longitudinal study in which these views have been used to examine the learning of a cohort of cooperative education students in science and technology. Data from the students has indicated that their learning on placement can be viewed as socially and culturally-determined. Conclusions drawn from this study have implications for the potential for co-op practitioners to design better placement curricula and pedagogy, and enhance justification of their placement programme.