Dialogic Inquiry: Towards a Socio-cultural Practice and Theory of Education (Learning in Doing: Social, Cognitive and Computational Perspectives) (Volume 0) - Softcover

Wells, Gordon

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0521637252 ISBN 13: 9780521637251

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1999

Synopsis

For more than a quarter century, the polemics surrounding educational reform have centered on two points of view: those that favor a "progressive" child-centered form of education, and those that would prefer a return to a more structured, teacher-directed curriculum that emphasizes basic knowledge and skills. Vygotsky's social constructivist theory offers an alternative solution, placing stress on coconstruction of knowledge by more and less mature participants engaging in joint activity. This theory offers semiotic mediation as the primary means of obtaining knowledge, whereby the less mature participants can seek solutions to everyday problems by using resources existing in society. In addition to using illustrative examples from classroom studies, this book provides a comparative analysis of the theories and complementary developments in works by Vygotsky and the linguist M.A.K. Halliday. This unique volume will be of tremendous benefit to researchers in the fields of education, sociolinguistics, and psychology.

About this title

Book Description

For more than a quarter of a century, the polemics surrounding educational reform have centered on two points of view: those who favor a "progressive" child- centered form of education, and those those would prefer a return to a more structred, teacher-directed curriculum, which emphasizs basic knowledge and skills. This volume on Vygotskypresents the alternative solutions that he explored to reach a compromise. In addition to using illustrative examples from classroom studies, a comparative analysis of the theories and complementary developments in works by Vygotsky and the linguist M.A. K. Halliday are provided.

Review

"An important contribution. . . . Dialogic Inquiry is a challenging book to read, both because it raises serious questions about many of the assumptions underlying cognitive science and because it tackles difficult theoretical questions without avoiding their complexity. . . Wells has demonstrated. . . that the sociocultural perspective has a great deal to offer our understanding of thinking, knowing, language and learning." Contemporary Psychology

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521637252
• ISBN 13: 9780521637251
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 392