Situated learning as a theoretical framework for sport education

Abstract

The article seeks to establish the usefulness of situated learning theory as a means of thinking differently about the alleged abstraction of school learning in a range of subjects including physical education, and the issue of transfer of learning. Following a discussion of Lave and Wenger’s notion of situated learning as legitimate peripheral participation in communities of practice, the article explores the potential of Siedentop’s sport education model as a means of providing young people with educative and authentic experiences of sport as legitimate peripheral participants. It is concluded that sport education may have the potential to provide educative and authentic experiences of sport, but that further detailed empirical investigation is required to establish the conditions in which this potential might be realized.