Legitimate peripheral participation describes how newcomers become experienced members, and eventually old timers, of a community of practice or a collaborative project, treating learning as a contextual, social phenomenon achieved through participation in a community's real practice rather than through formal instruction alone. The concept was developed by Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger and set out in their 1991 book Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation, published by Cambridge University Press, as the mechanism by which a newcomer's initially peripheral involvement in a group's real work gradually deepens into full participation.
Facts
Core ClaimNewcomers to a community of practice learn by taking on genuine, if limited, tasks at its edges, moving gradually from peripheral participation toward full membership as skill and identity develop. 2 Classification
Education Level FAQs
Did Etienne Wenger keep using the idea of legitimate peripheral participation?
Wenger moved away from the term in his later work on communities of practice but it is still widely used in situated learning.
Not in his later work. In his later writing on communities of practice, Wenger abandoned the concept of legitimate peripheral participation and introduced the idea of a duality instead. The term is still widely used in discussions of situated learning, which is why it remains a standard reference point for how newcomers move from low-risk tasks at the edge of a community toward fuller membership.
Connections
In Approach
Source Wikipedia: Legitimate Peripheral Participation
Sources
1. Legitimate peripheral participation (Wikipedia)
describes how newcomers become experienced members and eventually old timers of a community of practiceView the Source 2. Wikipedia: Legitimate Peripheral Participation
Wikimedia FoundationWikipedia Legitimate peripheral participation, lead paragraph, sentence 1
Legitimate peripheral participation (LPP) describes how newcomers become experienced members and eventually old timers of a community of practice or collaborative project.
Wikipedia Legitimate peripheral participation, References list, Lave and Wenger 1991 entry
Lave, Jean; Wenger, Etienne (1991). Situated learning: legitimate peripheral participation. Learning in doing. Cambridge [England]; New York: Cambridge University Press.
In Approach: Constructivism, Lead paragraph, in-approach
Legitimate peripheral participation (LPP) describes how newcomers become experienced members and eventually old timers of a community of practice or collaborative project.
In Group: Apprenticeship, Scaffolding and Situated Learning Theories, Lead
Legitimate peripheral participation (LPP) describes how newcomers become experienced members and eventually old timers of a community of practice or collaborative project.
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