Scaffold instruction at the workplace from a situated perspective

This article proposes the need to address scaffold instructions from a situated learning perspective. Based on an empirical study of how apprentice bakers learn their trade, it is claimed that studies of learning at the workplace yield important insights into our understanding of scaffold instructions. Seen from the perspective of the apprentices, scaffold instruction represents access to more responsibility in practice, it supports their identities as future bakers and they learn bodily know-how. When scaffold instruction failed, it was often in relation to situations where the apprentices were placed in marginal positions in the community of practice or in relation to a central workplace situation.