The Learning Sciences as a Setting for Learning

Abstract

This symposium offers a reflexive examination of the Learning Sciences. We draw upon a variety of empirical data to explore the way the Learning Sciences is a distributed phenomenon, built on assemblages of artifacts, in which cognition is distributed and constructed, and identities are constituted. Our analysis has three steps. First, we explore the learning sciences community as a space in which discourse circulates, concepts are put forward, and specific kinds of objects have become recognized. Central among these objects, of course, is 'learning.' Second, we look in detail at examples of the interactions in which learning scientists do their work. Third, we consider how a learning scientist is formed as a particular kind of person through participation in formative practices of the community.