Learning Sciences Research and Pasteur’s Quadrant

Abstract

Learning scientists often use Donald Stokes’s influential characterization of the relation between basic and applied research in his book Pasteur’s Quadrant to suggest that most of the work in the learning sciences lies, or should lie, at the intersection of both types of research, that is, in the cell that is epitomized by Pasteur’s work (use-inspired basic research) rather than the cells epitomized by either Bohr (pure basic) or Edison (pure applied). This essay makes three points: (a) Stokes had a broader view that also considered the temporal flow between and among the different cells in his famous diagram; (b) Stokes argued against the relative valuation of either type of research (basic or applied); and (c) the learning sciences currently contain exemplars of all four of the cells in Stokes’s famous 2 × 2 matrix, and this diversity has enriched the field, and can continue to do so, as long as work in Pasteur’s quadrant is not viewed as the only worthwhile type of learning sciences research.

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