My argument for an empirical and normative model of children's development applicable to reasoning in mathematics is in three parts. Part I is a review of the evidence from a recent study of the development of young children's (aged 5-7 years) reasoning by mathematical induction. Part II outlines an interpretation in terms of an inclusive unit of…

As part of the IEA study of civic education, US ninth graders were assessed for their civic knowledge, concepts, attitudes, and experiences. The study yielded information about the development of democratic attitudes and dispositions toward social action. US ninth graders rated free expression and free elections as most important for democracy.…

This paper describes the application of theories underlying research-in-progress intended to enhance substantially the cognitive development of children in the first two years of Primary school. The intervention is delivered partly in the context of mathematics, and partly through an existing Y1 intervention focused on Piaget's concrete…

This study examines the sociocultural trajectories of children's conceptual thinking in a technology-enriched early years science classroom (N=22). Of specific analytic interest is the intertextuality of children's science-related explanations constructed during adult-child dialogic interviews and peer-centred inquiry around a multimedia…

This article investigates the multimodal discourses taking place in a primary school computer supported collaborative literacy environment, in which face-to-face talk in pairs is combined with computer-mediated communication. Following a socially mediated model of education, we have taken into account the collaborative process of the participants…

Initiation, response and follow-up (IRF) exchanges produced by a student and his tutor in an internet-based tutorial interaction have been analysed in terms of the multifunctional characteristics of each utterance. Different functions, related to different purposes, were observed in the IRF moves performed by the student. The control over the…

This article presents an exploratory study of e-mail use for reflective narration. Narration is viewed from three perspectives: the narrating act, the narrative statement, and the story. These perspectives are used to characterize the 69 e-mails that were exchanged between 13 groups of children from three primary schools. The findings show that…

This paper approaches the theme of this special issue, the distinctive contribution of new technologies to collaborative thinking and learning, through an analysis of postings to an EdD bulletin board. Bourdieu's concept of habitus as socialised subjectivity is manifestly appropriate to the focus on professionality, the key theme of the course. A…

Across all UK secondary school subject areas the proliferation of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has changed the nature of learning. Music education now includes the use of digital tools, such as programmable keyboards and computers, as key learning and music making instruments. Despite such usage there is relatively little…

In this article, we explore how students' agency relates to both highly structured and open-ended learning environments. This is done by analysing how students' understanding of tasks evolves through their activities in relation to the representations inscribed in two technology-rich learning environments. Based on the sociocultural approach to…

In this research note we explore how children construct their identity in the context of a literacy practice: developing written and audio-visual texts in small-group situation to be published on the Internet. Through their dialogue, a shared identity is growing on the context, and every children create an identity as member of a community in…

The aim of this paper is to compare the effects of different communication media on the quality of arguments and the development of argumentative reasoning. The study involved 73 undergraduate students. It consisted of a pre-test, an intervention session consisting of either an asynchronous online discussion or a face-to-face discussion, and a…

This paper focuses on three distinctive ways in which educational software can support learning dialogues in primary classrooms. After a re-capitulation of published research on Initiation, "Discussion," Response, Feedback (IDRF) exchanges, where the computer is used to stimulate discussion and then direct it through using feedback, we ask if…

Makes the case that the concept of creativity is too loosely defined and proposes a definition that clearly distinguishes creativity from intelligence. Makes a further distinction between proactive and reactive creativity and points out some shortcomings of existing tests of creativity. (SLD)

Outlines investigations revealing that the typical classroom is filled with teaching practices that kill intrinsic motivation and creativity. Reviews research designed to immunize students against the negative effects of these damaging classroom elements. (SLD)