Uploaded August 2022 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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Miner, Annette, & Covey von Pingel, Teddi. (2022). Response: Extending the Situated Learning Continuum: Interpreter Education and Beyond. In Laurie Swabey & Rachel E. Herring (Eds.), SIGNED LANGUAGE INTERPRETING PEDAGOGY: INSIGHTS AND INNOVATIONS FROM THE CONFERENCE OF INTERPRETER TRAINERS (pp. 369-382). Gallaudet University Press.

https://gupress.gallaudet.edu/Books/S/Signed-Language-Interpreting-Pedagogy

****This video may not be repurposed or incorporated into other works in any way without the express written consent of the signer and the chapter authors.****

My name is Dr. Annette Miner.

My name is Dr. von Pingel.

In the original paper, Miner provided a rationale for incorporating situated learning experiences into interpreter education and presented a situated learning continuum of activities that can be used to scaffold student learning toward increasingly more authentic learning. My research in 2019 extends the continuum to make it applicable not only for interpreting students but also for interpreting practitioners who wish to engage in situated learning activities after graduation.

My 2019 dissertation study examined the first impressions that occurred between Deaf consumers and ASL-English interpreters prior to a healthcare appointment. I worked with a group of 10 interpreting practitioners in a 10-week intervention as a small community of practice, which also included feedback from Deaf consumers they worked with during the intervention. The work with this group of professional interpreters followed Stringer’s Action Research Helix which supports learning that happens in a look-think-act cycle. While my research focused on healthcare interpreting as a context, the cycle can be applied to a variety of contexts.

The researcher and interpreters met together to discuss (Think) the problem and brainstorm strategies that were implemented in a period following each research meeting (Act). The researcher collected data from the Deaf consumers and the results were shared with the participants (Look). The cycle began again when the interpreters re-strategized and implemented solutions in the next period while additional data were collected from Deaf consumers.

The findings of the study demonstrated a situated learning approach that occurred in a community of practice of working interpreters and provided an opportunity to extend Miner’s (2016) learning continuum to the post-graduation experience.

The study just described by Dr. von Pingel extends my research into situated learning and extends the situated learning continuum.

The goal of my situated learning continuum is that interpreting students will learn from real-world experiences. However, it is true that when students are in an interpreting program, the final contexts depicted in Miner’s continuum are not technically real-world contexts, as the students are not yet employed as professional interpreters. Dr. von Pingel’s research modifies the continuum to include one additional location on the continuum, which extends it to the real-world practice of interpreting.

We offer a model for the use of situated learning in the trajectory from interpreter education to professional interpreting practice, which includes a post-graduation apprenticeship, interpreter certification, and finally, real work experiences which include continued professional development.

In the trajectory, situated learning can be applied in two places in particular, in an apprenticeship and post-certification, in continuing professional development during real-world interpreting work.

This approach can benefit all members of the interpreting community of practice. Combining the two research projects discussed here is aimed at providing ideas for utilizing the situated interpreting continuum with interpreters from the time they begin an interpreting program through the time they begin their real-world work as professional interpreters.