The link between development and learning is explicit in Mezirow's theory of transformational learning. Indeed, numerous studies have documented that growth and development are outcomes of transformational learning. What has not been questioned, and what is argued in this Forum article, is that it appears one must already be at a mature level of…

Cartesian mind-body dualism, while often explicitly denied, has left a legacy of conceptions that remain highly influential in education. I argue that trends in both analytic and continental philosophy of language point towards a post-Cartesian settlement in which the distinction between "signs" and "signals" is collapsed, and which thus construes…

With the substantial growth of an aging population, professionals in gerontology need to know how to work with groups of older people. Group work has become a popular means of helping the elderly, for example, to cope with losses (support groups) and to engage in social activities with peers (groups in day centers) as well as to support caregivers…

Creativity is viewed in different ways in different disciplines: in education it is called "innovation", in business it is "entrepreneurship", in mathematics it is often equated with "problem solving", and in music it is "performance" or "composition". A creative product in different domains is measured against the norms of that domain, with its…

Over the past decade, design experimentation has become an increasingly accepted mode of research appropriate for the theoretical and empirical study of learning amidst complex educational interventions as they are enacted in everyday settings. There is still a significant lack of clarity surrounding methodological and epistemological features of…

This paper seeks to explain learning by examining five theories of learning--conceptual analysis, behavioural, constructivist, computational and connectionist. The first two are found wanting and rejected. Piaget's constructivist theory offers a general explanatory framework (assimilation and accommodation) but fails to provide an adequate account…

In this theoretical article, we distinguish two stages of learning a new mathematical concept--participatory and anticipatory. We use a recently developed mechanism for explaining mathematical conceptual learning--reflection on activity-effect relationship--as well as von Glasersfeld's tripartite model of a scheme, to explain qualitative…

Lifelong education or learning theory is presented by its apologists as a universal normative ethic. That ethic may be understood as an aretaic ethic, embracing a number of ethical values or informed commitments and a teleology of optimising universal human flourishing through learning. In an effort to examine possible barriers to the universality…

Based on contemporary theories of learning, this article takes a critical view of the concept of learning objects. Learning objects decompose content into granular pieces of information that can be stored, retrieved, and reused in instruction. Current conceptualizations of learning objects support traditional, objectivist forms of instruction.…

Does music education need a new philosophy that is scientifically grounded on common agreements with educational and musical standards? If such standards are commonly accepted, why do people reflect philosophically about music teaching and learning? At first glance, these questions sound very abstract and theoretical because people love music, and…

In the context of learning theories the problem of the passage from the psychological dimension governed by images to the "scientific" dimension dominated by concepts needs to be reformulated. The starting point of the question should be recognition that at a "deep" level, between the two dimensions, there is a bridge, the design of which can be…

This article traces the connection between William James's writings in "The Varieties of Religious Experience" and Jean Piaget's work on moral development through Piaget's early work on religious experience. James characterises religious experience as unlocking deep personal power that can sustain a "strenuous mood". These ideas impacted the early…

How do people learn causal structure? In 2 studies, the authors investigated the interplay between temporal-order, intervention, and covariational cues. In Study 1, temporal order overrode covariation information, leading to spurious causal inferences when the temporal cues were misleading. In Study 2, both temporal order and intervention…

Since the late 1970s, there has been widespread research interest in the strategies that learners use in learning and using second languages. This interest has generated a parallel research effort in language learner strategy instruction. The body of work to date suggests a possible relationship between strategy use and second language learning…

This article examines and critiques recent work that seeks to establish an effective context and environment for talk in the classroom using ground rules. The article argues that in their haste to facilitate ways to enrich the talk opportunities in the classroom, some academics have often failed to take account of a number of key cultural,…