Facilitate “authentic” activity.  Provide a context that reflects the way knowledge is used and developed in real-life.  Provide Insight through multiple perspectives and changing roles for community members.  Support collaborative construction of knowledge.  Provide support and mentoring.  Promote reflection to build abstractions.  Promote articulation to render competencies explicit. 
Situated learning (Greeno, 1989; Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989) proposes that inquiries into learning and cognition must take account of social interaction and physical activity.  A unifying concept emerging from related research is "communities of practice” --  the idea that learning is constituted through the sharing of purposeful, patterned activity (Lave & Wenger, 1991).  This idea stresses "practice" and "community" equally.
Situated Learning Theory
Communities of Practice
Social Practice
Meanings
Understandings & Beliefs
Values
Activity
Authentic
   Learning                         Knowledge
Social Framework
Communities of Practice
Communities of Practice
Knowledge is situated, thus, in part, a product of the activity, context, and culture in which it is developed and used (Brown et al., 1989).
Culture
The nature of knowledge is socially embedded (Lave & Wenger, 1991).
   Social Framework II
Socially created networks across cultures
Concepts
Re-created by Dr. Gordon Vessels 2005
Brown. J.S., Collins, A.. & Duguid, P. (1989). Situated cognition and the culture of learning. Educational Researcher, 18, p. 32-42. Lave, J. & Wenger, E. (1991) Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.