There's no one-size-fits-all formula for student support systems, but the relationships between the various stakeholders--everyone from classroom teachers and school librarians to families and community members--directly impact on success. So although recognizing "who" plays a part in these systems is important, we also need to focus on…

Within the context of schooling, conceptions of literacy are increasingly being associated with the capacity for learners to engage in disciplinary meaning making through face-to-face deliberation and dialogue. In this commentary, the author explores how a conversational infrastructure--meaning routines for talk, norms, scaffolds, and a repertoire…

As indicated in the introductory article, this special issue has attempted to represent and illustrate developments in theoretical, methodological, and empirical work related to the role of primary classroom dialogue in supporting children's self-regulation. The articles included report studies carried out in the United Kingdom and Chile (two…

Kim and Roth (this issue) purport to draw on the social-psychological theory of L. S. Vygotsky in order to investigate social relations in children's argumentation in science topics. The authors argue that the argumentation framework offered by Stephen Toulmin is limited in addressing social relations. The authors thus criticize Toulmin's Argument…