Different concepts of learning – be it in teacher’s or pupil’s minds – are predominantly generated by and transmitted via language. Metaphors, though unconsciously used in many educational settings, play a decisive role in these contexts due to their reflexive impact? The present article displays basic principles of a theory of learning including learning instructions which may evoke certain learning efforts with the students. These efforts bear positive or negative effects on learning based on the respective metaphorical framing. Thus, metaphors originating from different domains such as computer-metaphors, metaphors for the mental lexicon, metaphors for neuronal conjunctions or the brick or pattern metaphors definitely have an impact on concepts and contexts of learning. The article investigates different theories in detail and shows their constituting metaphors. (Krista Segermann)