ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author discusses the implications of the theory of expansive learning for the understanding of directionality in learning and development. He fundamentally builds his theoretical work on the so-called cultural-historical or activity-theoretical approach to learning and mental development, which was first launched in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s by Lev Vygotsky. However, in his dissertation on "expansive learning" in 1987, he combined this approach with the system theoretical work of British Gregory Bateson on double-bind situations and learning levels and thereby introduced the notion of conflicts which were absent in Vygotsky's framework. Cultural-historical activity theory was initiated by Lev Vygotsky in the 1920s and early 1930s. Standard theories of learning are focused on processes where a subject acquires some identifiable knowledge or skills in such a way that a corresponding, relatively lasting change in the behavior of the subject may be observed.
