Another student was sick, a third one had to go to the dentist. ![]() This morning, I learned that one of the girls had to see her social worker for a status meeting. Today, we were supposed to go to the forest – it had been on the plan for weeks. “ In the group that I teach we have eight youngsters. ![]() Often, when working with a group of young people who are challenged in different ways, pedagogy practitioners are faced with the reality that there are so many obstacles for getting an activity off the ground. The issue of how to create an inclusive community where differently abled people can thrive and participate in a socially safe space and get involved with authentic activities is a real one. In order to create social circumstances in which teaching, and learning can take place, using elements from Lave and Wenger’s theories are useful, indeed. The task then, for practitioners of pedagogy and social education, is to enhance existing communities of practice, or in some cases to construct them. Because they have been challenged in the arena of social interaction, their ability to make use of social learning needs to be restored. Often, people with these kinds of challenges face additional obstacles to their learning processes because they feel excluded and lonely, have experienced failure more often than success, and have no reason to have faith in the “system”. This could be people on the spectrum (autism spectrum disorder), people with mental health issues, or people who for different other reasons have had a hard time adjusting and fitting in. ![]() The ideas around social learning, communities of practice and diversified demands to the participants of such a community, including LPP, are very useful when we think about how we can create positive learning environments for people of all kinds, including children and young people with special needs – who have often been marginalised by mainstream educational institutions. Social learning in specialised pedagogical settings The idea that learning takes place in social contexts, and that togetherness truly matters for teaching and learning, bring valuable insights for practitioners of pedagogy, especially when working with groups in general and how to create inclusive communities where differently abled people are welcomed, in particular. They are about knowing, but also about being together, living meaningfully, developing a satisfying identity, and altogether being human.” However, according to Wenger, “ communities of practice should not be reduced to purely instrumental purposes. Lave and Wenger coined the concept “communities of practice” as the place where learning happens. ![]() Since we are social beings, the social context in which find ourselves matters a lot when we talk about teaching and learning. The research done by Lave & Wenger showed that learning also depends on where it takes place, and together with whom. Many of us have been led to believe that learning “has a beginning and an end that it is best separated from the rest of our activities and that it is the result of teaching”. Lave & Wenger’s theories challenge the traditional idea that learning is something that individuals do, that it is something that takes place inside our heads, preferably in a classroom with a teacher in front. Challenging the traditional concepts of teaching and learning
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