The popular image, derived from Piaget, of the child as a solitary thinker struggling to construct a personal understanding of the mathematical and logical properties of the physical world has given way in recent years to a view of children's learning and thinking as embedded in social relationships. This shift is here reflected in a set of readings which show the child being initiated into shared cultural understandings through close relationships with parents and teachers, as well as siblings and peers.

The final reader in the Child Development in Social Context series shows how the study of child development is inevitably bound up in more ephemeral cultural ideas about the nature and needs of children and in the educational practices that rise from these ideas. Some readings point to the dangers which can arise from the meeting of science and cultural values, using for illustration studies of the role of psychological theory in reinforcing social attitudes to child care inside and outside the family. Other readings look at children's initiation into that relatively recent cultural...

Using the examples of attachment theory and language development, part one of this book elaborates a cultural approach to early development. Part two considers children's emerging capacities for empathy, perspective taking and social understanding, exploring how young children negotiate, talk about and play out relationship themes. The way children learn through relationships is examined in Part three - which covers topics such as scaffolding learning, and how children learn to collaborate with each other. Part four returns to the issue of cultural variation, asking how far textbook accounts...

This reader explores the nature of interactions between children and their teachers in the classroom. It emphasises the importance of such relationships for children's learning and for educational practice.
Part 1 looks at different cultural conceptions of the teacher-learner relationship, and how this relates to schooling, cognitive development and the aquisition of knowledge.
Part 2 takes a closer look at the role of language and dialogue in interactions between adults and children in classrooms.
Part 3 describes research by...

This reader explores the nature of interactions between children and their teachers. Part one looks at different cultural conceptions of the teacher-learner relationship, and how this relates to schooling, cognitive development and the aquisition of knowledge. Part two takes a closer look at the role of language and dialogue in interactions between adults and children in classrooms. Part three provides an overview of current research on collaborative learning. Part four looks at the potential impact of new technology on children's learning and cognition and its role in creating global...

This reader contains source material for an up-to-date study of child development as it applies to major issues in child care and education. The emphasis is on studying early childhood in cultural contexts - in families and in preschool settings.
Part 1 elaborates a socio-cultural approach to early development, taking emotional attachment, communication and language and daycare as examples.
Part 2 considers how children's emerging capacities for empathy, inter-subjectivity and social understanding enable them to negotiate, talk about and play out...