ABSTRACT
This chapter presents three learning conceptualizations that have guided research on athlete learning in elite sport. It discusses three metaphors to present these conceptualizations: learning as acquisition, learning as participation, and learning as storying. Acquisition represents the historically dominant metaphor that scientists have used to understand learning. The acquisition metaphor suggests that learning is a cognitive-neural process. The brain represents the location of learning, with the central nervous system being the mode that transports information to the brain. The acquisition metaphor of learning creates a cognitive view of learning. A key theory that emerged from the view of learning as knowing-doing is the ‘social theory of learning’ or ‘situated learning theory’. In sport science, a number of researchers have drawn on the participation metaphor to understand elite athletes' learning. In terms of the process of learning, narrative learning theory assumes that individuals learn as they make meaning of the stories they hear and as they story and re-story their lives.
