Learners, Learning and Educational Activity : Connecting Individual and Social Aspects

Learners, Learning and Educational Activity offers a new and creative approach to the psychology of learning. The central idea in the book is that learning in schools and other educational settings is best understood by paying attention to both individual learners and the educational contexts in which learning takes place.

Providing an accessible introduction to new ideas and recent developments in cognitive and socio-cultural perspectives on learning, the book reviews advances in selected topics that are especially relevant for teachers and other educators. These include:

• learners’ conceptions of the nature of learning
• the development of advanced levels of learning and thinking
• the role of motivation and self-regulation in learning
• how learning and thinking relate to social and cultural contexts
• the ways in which these contexts influence interactions between teachers and learners.

By illustrating connections between individual and social aspects of learning in educational settings in and out of school, the book encourages teachers, parents and other educators to think about learners and learning in new ways.

Judith Ireson is currently Reader in Psychology and Education at the Institute of Education, University of London, where she directs funded research, supervises research students and teaches Graduate Diploma and Masters courses in Psychology of Education. She has a longstanding interest in relationships between social contexts and individual learning and development and has explored these in diverse settings such as ability grouping in schools, individual tutoring in and out of school and with children who experience difficulties in learning. She has an international reputation for her research on ability grouping in schools, which attracted funding from ESRC, DfES and the Nuffield Foundation. She has published widely including chapters in books, articles in academic journals, numerous end of award reports to research councils and charities including a research report for circulation to school managers in all secondary schools (DfEE, 1999), articles in practitioner journals, a training pack for use in primary schools (Institute of Education, 1989) and a study guide for students taking psychology of education courses at a distance (University of London, 1993,1999).