Commentary: Expanding conceptualizations for the study of learning: Implications for theory and research

Abstract

The articles in this special issue provide examples of how conceptions of studying learning need to expand to incorporate new environments and concerns in education. As technology advances the tools available to learners and instructors in synchronous and asynchronous learning environments, theory must meet the new challenges of conceptualizing these spaces and pedagogical approaches that allow for new ways of organizing learning opportunities and supporting learners. The depiction of chronotope, the ecological perspective, and social practice theory convey the need to consider new conceptualizations. Considerations of agency and emotion expand the bounds of learning in ways that are important for the educational futures that we can imagine. These exciting advances have created a need for thinking about learning in a way that reframes existing conceptualizations of how to appropriately analyze learning activities.