Interest, Learning and Development

Over the last few decades, theory and research on learning and development has shifted from discrete and largely passive models of individual functioning to models that include the individual’s goals and intentions, knowledge about the self and environment, ability to develop and change optimal strategies of action, etc. Whether this represents a paradigmatic revolution, in the sense of Kuhn (1967), or is a metatheoretical consideration (Valsiner, this volume), there is no doubt that modem thinking about learning and development has been heavily based on, and to some extent restricted by, cognitive psychology.