Perspectives on Learning, Thinking, and Activity

We continue the discussion of cognitive and situative perspectives by identifying several important points on which we judge the perspectives to be in agreement: (1) Individual and social perspectives on activity are both fundamentally important in education; (2) Learning can be general, and abstractions can be efficacious, but they sometimes aren’t; (3) Situative and cognitive approaches can cast light on different aspects of the educational process, and both should be pursued vigorously; (4) Educational innovations should be informed by the available scientific knowledge base and should be evaluated and analyzed with rigorous research methods.