Culture and Learning (Perspectives in Education)

Traditional notions of learning do not account for the cultural heterogeneity of learning practices. Looking at the history of the learning sciences, it can be said that ideas on learning and education have long been based on the optimal design of learning environments and on identifying key features of these designs that lead to effective or long-lasting learning. Implicitly this vision is “acultural” as the assumption is that these features [Page 569]are universal and can be transferred from one educational setting to the other. At the same time, there is currently more awareness of the need for knowledge of and visions on learning that are not based on designed learning settings. This is partly related to the fact that access to key information and the ...