Publisher 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 who would prefer a return to a more structured, teacher-directed curriculum, which emphasizes basic knowledge and skills. Vygotsky's social constructivist theory offers an alternative solution, placing stress on co-construction of knowledge by more and less mature participants engaging in joint activity together, with semiotic mediation as the primary means whereby the less mature participants can seek solutions to everyday problems, using the resources existing in society. 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. This unique volume will be of tremendous benefit to those in the field of education, as well as to sociolinguists, psychologists and researchers.

Author Biography

Gordon Wells has written about forty non-fiction books over a wide variety of subjects.

Table of Contents

Conventions of transcription; Introduction; Part I. Establishing the Theoretical Framework: 1. The complementary contributions of Halliday and Vygotsky to a 'language-based theory of learning'; 2. In search of knowledge; 3. Discourse and knowing in the classroom; Part II. Discourse, Learning, and Teaching: 4. Text, talk, and inquiry: schooling as semiotic apprenticeship; 5. Putting a tool to different uses: a reevalution of the IRF sequence; 6. From guessing to predicting: progressive discourse in the learning and teaching of science; 7. Using the tool-kit of discourse in the activity of learning and teaching; 8. Making meaning with text: a genetic approach to the mediating role of writing; Part III. Learning and Teaching in the ZPD: 9. On learning with and from our students; 10. The zone of proximal development and its implications for learning and teaching ; Appendices; References; Indexes.

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

Review Quote

"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

Promotional "Headline"

A view of Vygotsky's unique vision of education.

Description for Bookstore

Vygotsky's unique vision of education, from a social constructivist point of view is presented here, with illustrative examples from classroom studies between teacher and child. This unique volume will be of tremendous benefit to the field of education, as well as sociolinguistics, psychology and researchers.

Description for Library

Vygotsky's unique vision of education, from a social constructivist point of view is presented here, with illustrative examples from classroom studies between teacher and child. This unique volume will be of tremendous benefit to the field of education, as well as sociolinguistics, psychology and researchers.

Details