In Situated Learning, Lave and Wenger rejected the traditional understanding of learning, or cognition, as something that happens inside an individual brain.

They argued, instead, that learning is ‘situated’ because it is largely a product of the environment in which it occurs and takes place most effectively through participation with experts and peers in a ‘community of practice.’ They used this insight to develop a theoretical basis for the concept of apprenticeship, using examples of five very different communities of practice.

Though not the first to challenge cognitive learning theory their alternate model of learning through social practice has been broadly influential.