This book examines one of the most fundamental issues in education – learning. Once understood as a highly individual process, learning is now recognised to be a strongly social event, infl uenced not only by mental processes, but also by the context in which it occurs. Much learning takes place in contexts outside the education system, in homes and families, for example, as well as in classrooms, schools and colleges. Insights from across these different contexts shed light on what learning is, and how opportunities for it can be maximized.