Exploring the Implications of Cognitive and Sociocultural Theories of Learning to Teaching and Schooling

Abstract

In their everyday choices, teachers and educators deal with profound questions about the efficacy of diverse teaching methodologies and the purposes of education. The learning sciences should shed light on these matters, helping practitioners to make better decisions sustained by evidence and sound theories. However, drawing implications from the learning sciences to teaching and schooling is not an easy task: diverse theories and perspectives understand learning differently and can make suggestions in opposite directions. To find a coherent framework that might be helpful to guide the decisions and reflections of teachers and educators, I review the main ideas and findings of cognitive and sociocultural theories of learning; I propose a synthesis of how people learn based on both perspectives and suggest three general implications for teaching: focusing in relevant activities, being aware of the different mediators of participation, and scaffolding participation and re-mediation. Next, I argue that a good education must help us—as individuals and communities—to live a "good life", for which we need to be able to participate in, imagine, read, and transform the world. Finally, I argue that the main role of schools is to be a community of learning.