Don’t believe the hype: Reality rules

This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts covered in the preceding chapters of this book. The book provides ways of organizing learning that look quite different from traditional schooling. It examines the range of contexts, of cultural communities, of disciplinary learning and policy contexts interrogated. One basic and well established tenet is the role of prior knowledge in learning. The argument for the robustness of the features derive from research findings across disciplines: Cognitive psychology, social psychology, cultural psychology, human development, the learning sciences, and the neurosciences. P. Dowling has argued that there are limitations to teaching mathematics rooted in applications to everyday problems when it comes to theoretical mathematical constructs and has argued that such everyday framing may, in fact, limit learning opportunities.