Exploring Cognitive Development

Alison F. Garton is Professor of Psychology and Associate Dean at Edith Cowan University in Western Australia. She is the author of Learning to be Literate (Blackwell Publishing, Second Edition, 1998) and Social Interaction and the Development of Language and Cognition (1992), and the editor of Systems of Representation in Children (1993).

Preface vii

1: Introduction 1

Problem Solving 3

Social Explanations for Cognitive Change 6

Change in the Context of Interactive/Collaborative Problem Solving 9

Domain Specific Knowledge 10

Children’s Potential to Change 11

Theories of Mind 13

The Way Forward 14

2: Theoretical Overview 15

Piaget and Vygotsky: Is There Any Common Ground? 17

Peer Interaction: Various Perspectives 23

Implications for Piagetian and Vygotskian Theories 33

Research on Collaboration: Beyond Social Interaction 34

Sociocultural Theory 36

Dynamic Systems 41

Nature of the Problem to be Solved 42

How Else Can Problem Solving be Described and Explained? 43

3: Strategy Use and Learning in Problem Solving 44

Domains 45

Domains as Constraints on Cognitive Development 48

Innateness and Domain-specificity 49

Domains and the Social Environment 52

Strategy Choice 53

Learning New Strategies 66

4: Social Problem Solving 69

Peer Interaction and Problem Solving: A Theoretical Conundrum 70

Peer Interaction in the Classroom 77

Peer Interaction and Adult–Child Interaction 79

Theory of Mind and Problem Solving 80

Self-regulation in Problem Solving 84

Help Seeking in Problem Solving 87

The Role of Talk in Collaborative Problem Solving 89

Conclusion 94

5: What the Child Brings to the Task 96

Readiness to Benefit from Interaction 97

Cognitive Flexibility 97

Friendship and Sociability 106

Motivation to Collaborate 117

6: Summary, Review and implications 120

What and How Revisited 121

Difficulties Yet to Be Surmounted 124

Implications 126

References 129

Author Index 136

Subject Index 138