Description
Book SynopsisVygotsky'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.
Trade 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
Table of ContentsConventions 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.
