contingency

Categories: Site glossary

in learning: learning depends upon appropriate conditions

contingency is an event of situation that may happen and have consequences; the term is also sometimes applied to a resource (e.g., budget) put aside to cope with unforeseen events

contingency is an important concept in evolution (e.g. as discussed by S. J. Gould) – the particular species that have evolved to be extant today are the outcome of natural selection acting in the context of myriad chance events

"…new learning is contingent on features of the learner, the learning context and the teaching." (Taber, 2011, p.39)

"Human learning is contingent upon the cognitive resources that are available to any particular individual to interpret (make sense of) information" (Taber, 2011, p.45)

Author: Keith

Former school and college science teacher, teacher educator, research supervisor, and research methods lecturer. Emeritus Professor of Science Education at the University of Cambridge.