Learning about learning

The field of children's learning was thriving when the Merrill-Palmer Quarterly was launched; the field later went into eclipse and now is in the midst of a resurgence. This commentary examines reasons for these trends, and describes the emerging field of children's learning. In particular, the new field is seen as differing from the old in its emphases on variability, choice, and change as central aspects of children's functioning and in its reliance on high-density sampling of learning, of the type provided by microgenetic methods. Examples of learning in content areas ranging from motor development to problem solving to attention, and with age groups ranging from infants to adults, are used to illustrate the insights that this new field is yielding.