Anchored Instruction and Situated Cognition Revisited

Abstract

In 1990 an article by our Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt (CTGV) entitled "Anchored Instruction and Its Relationship to Situated Cognition" appeared in the Educational Researcher. In it we discussed two programs that we were developing and testing that involved anchoring or situating instruction in the context of information-rich videodisc environments that encouraged students and teachers to pose and solve complex, realistic problems. One of the programs, The Young Sherlock Program, focused on literacy and social studies, including history. The other program, The Jasper Woodbury Problem Solving Series, focused on mathematical problem solving with links to science, history, social studies, and literature. We noted that both programs were being used and tested in classrooms-generally with students in the fifth and sixth grades.