ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we focus on Bernstein’s account of motor learning, because we believe that it is especially in this part of his theorizing that Bernstein was most radical and provocative, offering ideas that are still “ahead of their times” in many ways. The account of motor learning offered in On Dexterity and Its Development carries the seeds of a radical shift in how to think about the acquisition of skill. For Bernstein, functional actions are primary, and the control of movements and postures are secondary. Movements are not the building blocks of action; instead, the control of movements is one of the results of the development of action. Although we are convinced that this insight about the primacy of action is fundamental for any successful functional theory of action, it is still the case that the majority of textbooks and theorists in the field of motor control and development resist such a radical approach (Schmidt, 1982).
