Our minds are pattern seekers.

Because the world is infinitely full of potentially meaningful patterns and sub-patterns in any

domain, something must guide the learner in selecting patterns and sub-patterns to focus on. This

something resides in the cultural models of the learner’s sociocultural groups and the practices and

settings in which they are rooted. Because the mind is a pattern recognizer and there are infinite

ways to pattern features of the world… the mind is social (really, cultural) in the sense that

sociocultural practices and settings guide the patterns in terms of which the learner thinks, acts,

talks, values, and interacts.