Learning 105characteristic of the dominant Western industrialized countries and is thus
seen as the most important form of learning. However, at the beginning of
the twenty-first century, it became important for educational policy to
recognize and for research to address informal learning (Werquin, 2008,
2010). Including informal learning that is deeply situated in everyday,
socio-culturally specific practices into the notion of learning opens up an
important perspective on cultural and social differences in learning cultures
that are different from the default model of Western societies—but also
broadens the scope within these societies. In times of extensive migration
and global exchanges, it seems particularly appropriate to acknowledge the
depth and richness of learning outside institutional arrangements.
1.2. Learning Is Mediated
A further element to human learning is the usage of tools as provided
by a culture. Of course, the tool usage itself has to be learned before it can
be applied to the learning process: we learn how to write an essay on a
computer on the basis of literacy (knowing how to read and write), or to
construct a bed frame with a hammer and nails after having practiced the
hammer’s weight and handling. The most important tool for human
learning is language (Vygotsky, 1987; Mercer & Sams, 2006). Among
others, we use language to explain and understand concrete as well as
abstract objects of knowledge, to solve problems, and to memorize.
Communicating with others, having access to and learning to use different
tools and learning to use them for learning processes is crucial for learning.
This is to say that learning is a mediated process, which is mediated by
tools, in the first place by “semiotic tools” (i.e., tools made of signs such as
language, numbers, graphs, and charts).
The key elements to learning are hence certain others, time, mediating
tools, and a specific socio-cultural context. Following from this, we define
learning as