The gap between learning something in the classroom and applying it in the real-world may well be a byproduct of the Navy training system. Current methods of schoolhouse instruction decontextualize learning by treating it as independent from the situation in which it will be used. Instruction has become classroom tasks, not authentic activities. Proponents of situated cognition argue that knowledge remains inert and unused if taught in contexts that separate knowing from doing (Driscoll 2000; Whitehead, 1932). Investigations of traditional learning are challenging the separation of what is learned from how it is used (Brown, Collins, & Duguid 1989b) and are instead proposing that instruction situated in the context in which it will be used produces more usable and transferable knowledge.

This paper presents a proposal on how to incorporate situated cognition instructional strategies into the E2C maintenance training community. It discusses incorporating authentic context that reflects the way knowledge will be used in real life; inserting authentic activities into the training environment to provide multiple opportunities for practice; providing access to expert performance and the modeling of processes; furnishing the opportunity to experience multiple roles and perspectives; facilitating collaborative construction of knowledge; inserting opportunities for reflection, enabling abstractions to be formed; articulation activities to enable tacit knowledge to be made explicit; furnishing strategies for the instructor to provide coaching, scaffolding, and fading of support at critical times; and, integrating assessment within learning tasks.