Situated Learning: What Ever Happened To Educational Psychology?

This paper attempts to explore the diminishing contributions of psychology in teacher preparation programs. Using situated learning as a basis for discussion, I have argued that a student may take a course in educational psychology and then subsequently discover that subsequent preparation may ignore those psychological caveats regarding the efficacy of proposed instructional methodology such as situated learning. These include cognition, group processes, and transfer of training. However, the presence of such concerns is not confined to situated learning specifically. It may be time for educators to reconsider psychological findings as necessary contributions to the efficacy of their proposals.