ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to understand social context-based variability in classroom learning through the psychological tools approach to education. It elaborates practical applications of the approach for children from non-middle class and other disadvantaged backgrounds. The discursive monopoly of cognitivism and behaviourism continues to shape classroom practices in mainstream school systems. It cannot meaningfully explain the achievement gaps among students at school-type cognitive tasks while viewing poor learning as individual deficiencies. The chapter argues that the psychological tool lens therefore is a step forward to conceptualise a new psychology of education based on a sociogenetic commitment towards a more integrated social science.
