Resetting the Stage: Introducing a Special Section About Learning Sequences and Developmental Theory

I have taken on the task of editing special sections on Learning Sequences and Development for Mind, Brain, and Educationwith the intention of displaying thewide variety and continuing relevance of current developmental research and theory.Hopefully, over the comingyears, these special sections canserveasanoutlet for researcherswithdiversebackgrounds, usingdifferent typesofmethodsandofferingmodelsof variable scope and complexity. In general, I am looking to cast the net broadly and bring as many developmental approaches as I can to the table, in the interest of disseminating knowledge about development and stimulating dialogue within the discipline and between the discipline and educators. There is notand never has been—just one way of framing researchandtheoryabouthumandevelopment.Contemporary approaches run the gamut: from neural network modeling (Mareschal et al., 2007; Spitzer, 1999) and dynamic systems theory (Fischer & Bidell, 2006; van der Maas & Molenaar, 1992; Van Geert, 1994) to broad clinically useful models of the life course (Kegan, 1994) and from overarching metatheoretical accounts of development as a bio-psychosocial process (Overton, 2007; Wilber, 1999) to empirically grounded explanatory frameworks with wide applicability (Fischer&Bidell, 2006). Some researchers take the generation of usable knowledge as amajor focus (Dawson&Stein, 2008), while others keep classic philosophical issues firmly in view (Smith&Voneche, 2006). Of course, a full characterization of the field as it stands is beyond the scope of this introduction, which aims only to frame the general goals of future special sections and highlight the articles featured in this issue.