[2] In 1988, Lave published her first book, Cognition in Practice: Mind, Mathematics and Culture in Everyday Life.

In it, she explores how arithmetic is used outside of school contexts, with implications for sociological understanding of the relationship between cognition, practice, culture, and society.

[3] For instance, she shows that grocery shoppers in Orange County, California who could successfully do the mathematics needed for comparison shopping were less able to do the same mathematics when they were presented with the same problems in a formal test.

[3] In 1991, Lave pioneered the theories of situated learning and communities of practice with the publication of her seminal text, Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation (in collaboration with her student Étienne Wenger).

"[1] Furthermore, Lave's studies of apprenticeship in this and subsequent works are recognized as a significant critique of educational psychology.