ABSTRACT
The psychologist Roger Saljo has remarked that, when he began his research on learning, he was struck by the fact that the strongest predictor of students’ success was whether or not they read many books. This apparently commonplace observation may be striking only to professional cognitive psychologists, for it confronts them with a sobering idea. It suggests that the theoretical structures of their psychology may not be up to analysing what really makes a difference when it comes to successful learning. Accordingly, Saljo himself sidestepped the information-processing metaphors of cognitive psychology and concentrated instead on researching students’ private conceptions of knowledge and what it was to engage in learning. This work became an early landmark in the now substantial literature on ‘learning styles’ (Marton and Saljo 1976).
