Learning and mediation: Fitting reality into a table

Abstract

The background of this article is an interest in a sociocultural perspective on cognition, in particular problems that concern the appropriation and use of cultural tools (in a Vygotskyan sense). Drawing from data of an extensive study of the use and understanding of a particular type of tool, a postage table, it is argued that the difficulties of coordinating the table with an outside reality that people have cannot be understood in terms of failures to correctly apply particular forms of reasoning (such as proportional reasoning). Rather, the use of a tool presupposes sensitivity to contextual considerations applicable for specific situations or domains.