Objective:

The aim is to present some reflections on the theories of learning, as well as to problematize its possible pedagogical implications in the contexts of health and nursing care.

Methods:

Theoretical study, based on a narrative review of the scientific literature.

Results: The notions of learning and development are presented from diferente approaches, such as those related to cognitivism, information processing, and those with a historical-cultural basis, which are the basis for many of the knowledge in the field of health education. Limits, similarities, counterpoints, and scopes of the se approaches are presented and discussed.

Conclusions:

It concludes with the need for a practice of health education that is historicized and that dialogues with the reference community, its previous knowledge and ethnoteories, in order to promote actions that consider and embody a more integral and humanized notion of health care.