Abstract

Situated cognition, with its central focus on the interactions between people and the historically and culturally constituted contexts in which they are embedded, has emerged as a new school of thought in cognitive science in recent years. Transfer, being an elusive problem, has perplexed psychologists, philosophers and educators alike for almost a century. An aspiration is rising that the new and promising tool can tackle the old andenigmatic problem. Given that situationists are a group of researchers of diverse fields, no consensus can be reached on the definition of situated cognition per se. This review sets itself to explore the main arguments of five representative views put forward by Jean Lave (cognitive anthropology), Barbara Rogoff (cognitive anthropology), James Greeno (ecological psychology), Lauren Resnick (sociocognitive approach), and William Clancey (neuropsychology). Each of them conceives situated cognition and transfer differently according to his/her own theoretical assumptions. Therefore, a spectrum of situated view of transfer can be identified. Indeed, the diversifications hinge crucially on the interpretations of specific theoretical constructs including representation, knowledge, learning, and culture. Apart from the recommendation consensually made by the five researchers concerned that cognitive apprenticeship is an effective teaching strategy, the specific implications of each perspective to schooling, instructional design as well as future research are also addressed. At this present stage, it seems unreasonable to claim which supposition can best explain the problem of transfer. Nevertheless, further refinement of theories and more systematic empirical research are called forth