xiv Preface how to make decisions, understand how to approach a problem, or otherwise live sensibly. Teachers are never shocked to be asked to pro- vide personal or professional advice to a student having a problem— any problem. If one takes one’s job seriously, teaching means being available to help. But this important advisory job is confused by lesson plans, and class hours, and lectures, none of which matter very much. Why do I say that these things don’t matter very much? This is the essence of what this book is about—the move from content-based in- struction to cognitive-based learning, assisted by good teaching. This means we will have to define this “new” kind of learning (it’s not re- ally new, of course, just new to schools) and the “new” kind of teach- ing that is a natural consequence of using this new learning method. Most teachers understand and appreciate that delivering the re- quired material is not their real job, at least it is not the reason they signed on in the first place. The employers of teachers, on the other hand—administrators, governments, department heads, and so on— expect certain material to be covered. Exciting students is not on their worry list. This is a big problem for teachers and for students, and one that we will address here. But my more serious concern is our conception of learning, not teaching. Teaching follows one’s conception of learning so getting learning right is of prime importance. When I said earlier that outsid- ers to the learning profession wouldn’t get the real point, I was being ironic. There is no learning profession. Why not? In 1989, I moved from Yale to Northwestern to establish a new institute, funded by Andersen Consulting, devoted to issues of chang- ing training and education by the use of new technologies. I needed a name for the institute and came up with The Institute for the Learning Sciences. I made up the term learning sciences. There was no such field in academia. Most people thought I meant