ABSTRACT
The cognitive literature focuses on the cognition, or individual reasoning, needed to learn for transfer. The socio-cultural literature focuses on the social interactions that are important for learning skills and practices in such a way that they can be performed in new and different contexts. Learning by Design (LBD) s activity structures and sequencing provide both affordances and scaffolding for reasoning. Students learn within the context of design challenges that require iterative trial and refinement for achievement. Students spontaneously make reference to previous experiences over the course of several months of engaging in LBD activities, especially with respect to carrying out skills and practices. The public venue allows students to get help from their peers at explaining their results. It also provides students with a variety of examples that are then discussed with lessons that might be learned from the full set extracted.
