Culminating projects, performances, and exhibits serve both learning and assessment functions. Classroom based on situated cognition look different from traditional classrooms. Students rarely compete with each other for grades. Collaboration in heterogeneous groups is the norm, although individual work is appropriate at times. These classrooms may also be noisy at times.
Ability grouping is no longer necessary.
In fact, it tends to deter the rich learning that is a goal of situated cognition. This design searches for opportunities for students to learn out of school or to bring actual problems into the classroom, such as simulating a space station or building a rocket, so that teachers need access to flexible scheduling and periods of sustained learning.