According to Bill Gates, it is “a special time in education” (The Economist, 2016). The entire world of learning and education is shaking. New insights appear almost daily. Experimental new approaches and insights are emerging rapidly and maturing at breath-taking speed.

The idea emerged to try and capture the most important developments in one volume. It soon became clear that the field of learning and education is not moving because of one or a few powerful trends. Rather, new insights and approaches come from such different worlds as educational science, information technology (IT), neurology and many others; the entire field is being put upside down.

It was obvious that a book discussing the most important drivers and backgrounds could not be written by one person; it would require collaboration between authors of quite different disciplines. And so, we invited scholars of different disciplines, from different parts of the world, established academics as well as promising new talents and writers in the twilight zone of their careers, such as, alas, one editor, to contribute.

We composed the book for students, academics, teachers, course developers, staff of overseeing (governmental) bodies and anyone interested in the fascinating subject of learning. We hope readers may gain valuable insight and inspiration from this volume.

Although the chapters follow a model—outlined in Chapter 1—they can be studied individually or in arbitrary order.

We would like to thank our authors for their enthusiastic cooperation; working with them was a delight. We also wish to thank Anthem Publishers to make this volume possible and offering invaluable assistance on the way.