This paper examines the pedagogic learning of a group of new lecturers at an international research intensive university who were participants on a formal teaching development programme. The lens of situated learning theory is utilised to gain new insights into the learning arising from the development programme but also to reveal certain limitations to pedagogic learning in academic workplaces. Initially, it is shown that academic practice can be construed as socially situated and distributed in specific contexts and that learning thus requires participation in communities of practice. While examining the functioning of teaching development cohort groups as communities of practice, further components of situated learning theory are utilised to more fully understand new lecturers' social learning than has hitherto been the case. The lecturers' experiences of learning as social meaning-making and as legitimate peripheral participation are therefore examined. Furthermore, experiences of learning as a process of identity transformation are investigated. Conclusions are drawn which demonstrate the interplay of social and individual learning in the process of becoming an academic teacher.