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What Is There to Be Learned and How? Learning Through the Lens of the Self

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Educating Adolescents Around the Globe

Part of the book series: Cultural Psychology of Education ((CPED,volume 11))

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Abstract

In this chapter, I describe sociocultural underpinnings of learning. Learning, I argue, is central to the development of the self and guided by socioculturally shared ideas about what it means to be a good person. Students are confronted with fundamental questions, such as ‘How can I manage to become an independent agent in my own life, while, at the same time, be an interdependent part of stable, social relationships?’ I review the consequences of an independent versus an interdependent construal of the self for learning beliefs structured along four questions: (1) What are subjectively important goals of learning; (2) What processes does learning involve; (3) What affective responses are triggered by learning, and (4) What are the characteristics of the ideal learner and teacher? I will then use this framework to discuss some of the contributions collected in this volume.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jacobs University, Bremen, Germany

    Ulrich Kühnen

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  1. Ulrich Kühnen
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Correspondence to Ulrich Kühnen .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Sigmund Freud University, Berlin, Germany

    Meike Watzlawik

  2. Sigmund Freud University, Berlin, Germany

    Alina Burkholder

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Kühnen, U. (2020). What Is There to Be Learned and How? Learning Through the Lens of the Self. In: Watzlawik, M., Burkholder, A. (eds) Educating Adolescents Around the Globe. Cultural Psychology of Education, vol 11. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37900-1_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37900-1_15

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-37899-8

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