Societal changes in late modernity influenced what persons should learn and also influenced how education should change to support these new learning requirements. Particularly, the increasing instrumentalization of our society requires more autonomous and reflective learners. On the one hand this article describes three specific examples of such late modern learning that supports autonomy of subjects, i.e. performative, communicative and creative learning. On the other hand the article argues that these new forms of learning are not necessarily bound to just instrumentalization. Paradoxically, communicative and creative learning also open new roads for autonomous subjects to reflect on underlying normative questions: instrumentalization for what ultimate causes? (Contains 1 table.)