Education

This chapter focuses on education and learning theories, including ecological systems theory, situated learning theory, cultural historical activity theory, and transition theory. Most theories of education developed from a desire to improve teaching and learning. Thus, these frameworks can often offer concrete information on how learners best learn, as well as more abstract framing for learning and teaching more generally. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of education, this chapter contains frameworks that have developed from, and continue to be used, across disciplines. For example, ecological systems theory evolved from ideas in psychology, human development, and ecology. Situated learning theory and cultural historical activity theory developed out of social psychology. Transition theory came out of the field of counseling. What these theories and the other theories discussed in this chapter have in common is that they can all be applied to better understand learning processes and other issues in education.