The biofunctional theory of knowledge and ecologically informed educational research

In this commentary I compare Iran-Nejad's (2000) biofunctional theory of knowledge and self-regulation with the ecological psychology of James Gibson and his admirers. Gibson's work is currently being reappraised by some educational researchers within sociocultural and situativist theoretical frames in the hopes of establishing a more comprehensive theory of cognition and human behavior. I maintain that ecological psychology alone is not up to that task, but that Iran-Nejad's biofunctional theory may well fill the bill.