Learning is a lifelong process and we are the result of our own learning. But how exactly do we learn to be a person through living? In this book, Peter Jarvis draws together all the aspects of becoming a person into the framework of learning. Considering the ongoing, "nature versus nurture" debate over how we become people, Jarvis’s study of nurture - what learning is primarily about – builds on a detailed recognition of our genetic inheritance and evolutionary reality. It demonstrates the ways in which we become social human beings: internalising, accommodating and rejecting the culture to which we are exposed (both primarily and through electronic mediation) while growing and developing as human beings and people.

As learning theory moves away from traditional, single-discipline approaches it is possible to place the person at the centre of all thinking about learning, by emphasising a multi-disciplinary approach. This wide-ranging study draws on established research from a number of disciplines into the complexities that make us who we are. It will appeal to a wide variety of audiences: those involved in all fields of education, the study of learning and development, human resource development, psychology, theology and the caring professions.