The use of online discussion has a long history in distance education and higher education generally, and has recently been proposed as a means of supporting beginning teachers as they face the challenge of being new to the profession. Often using text-based asynchronous programs, online discussion is advocated to enable teachers to interact with…

In this paper, the authors first discuss the main rationales of situated cognition and its connections with innovation in teacher education. The challenges that might occur in applying situated cognition in teacher education programs, including insufficient opportunities for cognition apprenticeship, limited social interactions, and constraints in…