Foundations and Futures of Education

<p>This book studies learning as a social enterprise, contextually situated, organized and assessed. It gives a broad theoretic grounding for an understanding of learning which goes beyond a common reductionist approach. The book discusses four related approaches to learning which share a social perspective: social semiotics and multimodality; a design-theoretic approach to learning; a socio-cultural perspective; and a perspective of mimetic learning.</p><p>Contributing authors consider the theoretical question of how to understand educational systems, learning and social communication as historically situated practices. The chapters in this book analyze key working practices including: </p><ul> <p> </p> <li>analyzing what learning, remembering and cognitive work is like in a practice involving different kinds of expertise;</li> <p> </p> <li>problem-solving and engaging through collaboration;</li> <p> </p> <li>learning and teaching in different formal, semi- and non-formal environments;</li> <p> </p> <li>a design-theoretic approach to learning<b>;</b> </li> <p> </p> <li>social semiotic perspectives on learning; </li> <p> </p> <li>the mimetic and ritual<b> </b>dimension of learning;</li> <p> </p> <li>how social learning can be organized to support students;</li> <p> </p> <li>how learning has been conceptualized in psychology and neighbouring research areas.</li> </ul><p>This book will be of great interest to students and researchers interested in learning and meaning-making, multimodal representations and communication, designs for learning, education and teaching, and social achievement in different formal and non-formal contexts.</p>